You know that Kylo Ren, AKA Ben Solo, AKA Leia and Han Solo's Garbage Son, kills his father as Rey and Finn watch on helplessly.
You know that when it happens, we see Leia suddenly sit down, because she senses what's happened to her stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf-herder.
And you know that when Rey reunites with the Resistance, traumatized by watching Han die and worried about a gravely injured Finn, Leia pulls Rey into a VERY emotional hug.
It's a lot, and obviously people are reading into it a lot re: Who Are Rey's Parents?
But some people were upset that Leia hugged this random girl, who she's maybe never met before, INSTEAD OF CHEWBACCA.
They're buds, remember? From back in the day?
Chewie knew Han before Leia even met him.
Chewie's the one who would really be hurting, right? Who would really understand Leia's loss?
Why wouldn't Leia hug Chewie instead of Rey?
J.J. Abrams, who directed the film and scene, explained to Slashfilm that the moment was "probably one of the mistakes [he] made."
"My thinking at the time was that Chewbacca, despite the pain he was feeling, was focused on trying to save Finn and getting him taken care of. So I tried to have Chewbacca go off with him and focus on Rey, and then have Rey find Leia and Leia find Rey."
"The idea being that both [Leia and Rey] being strong with the Force and never having met, would know about each other — that Leia would have been told about [Rey] beyond what we saw onscreen and Rey of course would have learned about Leia."
"Had Chewbacca not been where he was, you probably wouldn’t have thought of it. But because he was right there, passed by Leia, it felt almost like a slight, which was definitely not the intention."
So there, now we know. Leia and Chewie are still buds.
