I wonder why so many people want there to be a "twist" in this new trilogy? A twist, and a twist that's somehow going to be as powerful as the ESB twist?
Why can't the new trilogy just focus on telling a cool story with these new characters that doesn't have any kind of earth shattering twist? And given that everyone is expecting a twist, thus negating any impact an actual twist might have, I can't see what the point of having one at all would be. As it stands, Rey being a Skywalker isn't a twist. Rey being a random character isn't a twist. At this point, the only shocking thing they can do with episode 8 would be to kill Rey. That would be legitimately unexpected. Her dying in episode 9 wouldn't work, because that could be seen as a heroic sacrifice.
Killing Kylo in 8 or 9 wouldn't be twists either. Shocking parentage has been done already. Anakin was an immaculate conception, Luke and Leia are siblings and the children of Darth Vader. Kylo Ren is the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia, no even that wasn't played up as a major revelation in the film itself. It was stated kind of matter of factly and not dwelt on like the ESB reveal.
I think people expecting some kind of earth shattering reveal are setting themselves up for disappointment. The filmmakers just don't seem particularly interested in doing a surprise reveal. I think Rey's history is relevant, but couldn't be fit into this first film in a satisfactory way given the pacing and the plot of the film itself. Ditto for Finn. He doesn't even know who his family is, or where he'd even start to look for them if he could.
Maybe it's because I'm at a loss as to what a worthwhile, plot relevant, and actually surprising "twist" could be. I don't think the TFA is as much of a retread as A New Hope as the Internet claims, so I don't expect episodes 8 and 9 to be retreads of Empire and Jedi. Even Rey going to the dark side wouldn't be shocking. Well, I guess shocking in that the first female force user that actually gets shit done and is a badass turns evil for...reasons, would be shocking, but I don't think that's the kind of shocking we want or need.
The groundwork set in TFA is already putting it on a different narrative trajectory than the original trilogy, and even the prequel trilogy. I think that's why I'm so excited about the next two films. There is so much more potential there than just the filmmakers doing retreads of empire and Jedi.