New 'Star Wars' Comic Explains How Rey Has Force Powers...Kinda
Power and who gets access to that power is the root of the conflict in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. And where does that power lie but in the Force, that all-encompassing, vaguely defined power that only the Jedi and the Sith can wield, and no one else. Until Rey.
She may be one of the first "ordinary" people has a natural knack with the Force, but if the events of Last Jedi are anything to go by, she won't be the last. For many Star Wars fans, this has become a point of contention — the moment where director Rian Johnson loses them and blatantly disrespects all Star Wars mythology that has been built up until now. But these new rules of the Force are canon, whether they like it or not. And now a canon Star Wars comic book is re-enforcing those rules.
Spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi below.
The new rules may be slightly infuriating to longtime Star Wars fans, but perhaps the newest Darth Vader comic from Marvel could calm their fury. In Darth Vader #10, written by Charles Soule and drawn by Giuseppe Camuncoli, Darth Vader battles one of the few Jedi to survive the purge in Episode III, Jocasta Nu, a former chief librarian of the Jedi Archives. Though he and Emperor Palpatine are trying to "snuff out" the Light side of the Force, Jocasta says that no such thing can be done (via Inverse):
"The Force is eternal. It cannot be ended, it cannot be stopped, no so long as life exists. It will find its vessels. It always does. It already has — you know this. There are others, waiting out in the galaxy."
Those vessels can be people who are destined for greatness and tragedy, like the Skywalkers, or ordinary "nobodies" like Rey. So it's not impossible for Rey to become one of those vessels of the Force — in fact it's very likely, Soule told Inverse: "Rey, Luke, Leia — all of them!" he said, when asked who he was alluding to.
It makes sense that the Force is strong with everyone — just look to Luke's lessons with Rey on Ach-To
"What do you know about the Force?" Luke challenges Rey. "It's a power that Jedi have that lets them control people and make things float." After brusquely correcting her ("Every word in that sentence is wrong"), Luke gives us the proper definition of the Force:
"It's the energy between all things, a tension, a balance that binds the universe together."
Pretty vague, right? And not all too different from Obi-Wan's first description of the Force in A New Hope, when he said, "The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together." But there's something deeper to be read in Luke's definition, which is compounded when Rey gets in touch with the Force later in their lessons. "The islands, birds. Death and decay," she breathes, describing what she feels in the Force, "...that feeds new life. Warm, cold. Peace, violence."
Essentially, the Force is the flow of life. It penetrates every aspect of life and every living thing — which is what makes it accessible to the most powerful Jedi Master and to the most insignificant broom-sweeping boy.