WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Journey To Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker -- Allegiance #2, by Ethan Sacks, Luke Ross, Lee Loughridge and VC's Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
Marvel's Allegiance miniseries is an interesting bridge between the events of The Last Jedi and Episode IX. Although most of the characters act as we expect them to, with Leia, Finn, and Poe contributing their different skillsets to rearm and relaunch the hobbled Resistance in a Galaxy sieged by the terror of the First Order, Rey is not acting according to the plan laid out by her friends.
Issue #1 opens with the last Jedi utterly furious, trying to work out her anger by fighting an enraged and sickened Rancor in a literal garbage planet, and her mood doesn't improve. It's a stark contrast with her naive and sunny outlook in The Force Awakens and her intense hope in The Last Jedi, and the fact that her lightsaber is still broken and her hold on the Force is unstable is not helping her calm down.
Leia recruits Rey to accompany her to Mon Cala, partly as her bodyguard and partly because she thinks that a change of air will do her good. However, as the Resistance's mission to convince Mon Cala to join the Resistance stagnates and is put at risk, Rey's emotions get the best of her: she is uneasy, restless, angry and, one could say, almost fearful in a very Dark Side way -- although the one to healthily vocalize her fear for her friends is Rose Tico, who is also part of the diplomatic group.
When the Quarren, the antagonistic residents of Mon Cala, sabotage Leia's efforts and stage an attack on Rey, Chewbacca, Rose, and C-3PO, Rey reacts by using the Force to spin her staff, wrecking an entire group of Quarren warriors. Let's just say that this new technique is so destructive that if she'd had her lightsaber, those Quarren would be seafood risotto. And make no mistake, we want to see that move performed with a lightsaber in Episode IX.
Leia reprimands her, but neither her superior nor the swift imprisonment that follows quells Rey's temper, who doubles down on her wish to find anyone or anything standing in the way of the Resistance. This lands her in hot water when the Quarren push an ancient law that allows Rey to champion the Resistance in a trial by combat... against an RK-9, a massive battledroid from the days of the Empire.
Although Rey is confident and bloodthirsty, RK-9's nigh invulnerability, the fact that he wasn't programmed to avoid collateral damage (hence putting her friends into even more danger than before) and her slippery hold on the Force quickly prove a tougher enemy than she ever thought possible. At one point, she even lies down in the arena, looking up at Arkay-9 and almost convinced that her end is coming.
That is until an unlikely ally steps forward: Rose, wielding a sharp spike, and destroying the battledroid's head core with extreme precision. She even throws back Rey's her earlier words at her. "I wasn't going to allow my friends to suffer while I was going to do something about it."
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So, why should you care about Rey's moods and Rose's actions? Well, combined with her assertion that "nobody understands her" in the final trailer for Episode IX, they hint at a deep dissatisfaction with her situation and increasing alienation from the Resistance. Many of her lines in these three issues of Allegiance could have been attributed to an enraged teenage Anakin, who, as we know, was also growing more and more alienated from his peers and falling into the clutches of the Emperor at this point in the trilogy he starred in.
However, the issue also pinpoints the main difference between Rey and Anakin. The company she keeps is much more reliable, flexible and open-minded than the Jedi ever were, and they have her back as much as she wants to have theirs. That tight collaboration between the mystical and the mundane, between Rey's emotion and Rose's logic, will be what saves the day for her in the end.
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