I’m kinda getting sick of all the hate I’m seeing towards Reylo…
I mean, I’m not even a fan of the Sequels in Star Wars, and people are entitled to their opinions about any certain ship, right? But it’s like…people go out of their way to attack these shippers, or put in their profile that they don’t want to interact with them???
Yes, people are entitled to their opinions, but I mean, in my opinion, it’s really not that bad. I mean, they’re both adults, and if you look closely at their history in the Sequels, you could kinda see why some people ship it. People have reasons for shipping what they do, even if it’s a bit “problematic”. And I use that word in quotations, because everyone has their own definition of problematic when it comes to fandom shipping.
Noted, this isn’t the most coherent mini-rant, because I’m a little drowsy, but the main takeaway from this is I don’t think Reylo is that bad, and I really don’t understand and don’t like seeing hate directed towards people who ship it.
I’ve been thinking about how Star Wars is very much about parents, and how this story is made for the fatherless—for those of us who are, in some way or another, ‘orphans’.
We start with Anakin, fatherless in every respect, taken away from his mother at an early age and losing her way too soon. We’ve got Luke and Leia, who both lose their real parents and are adopted into families that love them, but don’t really understand them (and as young adults, they lose even those surrogate parents). We’ve got Rey, waiting for parents that will never return, and Finn, taken from his parents when he was just a tiny kid. We’re told the story of Jyn Erso, who watches one of her parents die and one of them be taken. We follow Ezra, a true orphan looking for family.
But in this story we’re also given parents—our universal Dad, Obi-Wan, a surrogate father to both Anakin and to Luke (and now Leia ). We’re given the redemption of Vader becausehe’safather. We see Luke and Leia becoming surrogate parents to Rey, and Kanan becoming a father figure to Ezra. I feel like this whole story is about giving parents to the parent-less—and, in the same way, giving care to those who no one cares for, and giving hope to people who feel hopeless.
I know this is sentimental af, and sometimes I just feel that way, but as someone without a Dad and with a wonderful Mom who is very sick, I find a lot of comfort in all of the parents (and hope) Star Wars has given me
wait if this hairstyle contains an alderaanian mourning braid
does this one too?
:O oh my god,,
I want to say yes, absolutely, because it’s so heartbreaking to think of Leia slowly plaiting her hair into a mourning braid before the ceremony (maybe her fingers move stiffly over the steps, because she’s only had to do this particular braid once or twice before). Here she is, Princess of a place that no longer exists, standing before the Rebellion, a beacon of hope and strength - quietly mourning her home in its own way.
Maybe the less detailed the braid, the more intimate the loss? It looks like the first is a simple braid or maybe even just a twist, but the medal ceremony braid is more intricate, is piled high on her head, and uses almost all of her hair. The more people one has to mourn = the more intricate the braid. And since she’s mourning her entireplanet… Oh, my god I’m so sad now
(!! and this reminded me a little of Victorian mourning jewelry - where mourners would braid locks of the deceased’s hair as a sort of meditative mourning ritual. This is fascinatingto think about, and now I really want a visual directory of different types of braids and their possible meanings!)
Okay, I know I go on…and on….but I still just can’t believe that Disney:
Killed off the last Skywalker
Made the heroine a Palpatine
As more articulate posters than myself have said, they could have ended the Skywalker Saga in a myriad ways….yet they chose…that.
Why? After almost three years of picking apart their decision I still am baffled by their final choice. Stand back as a non SW fan…if you can….and look at it.
We have a villain whose creator described him as Galactic Satan. And a heroic family who are human, who make mistakes, but are still at the end of the day admirable, courageous and loving. And those three qualities saved the galaxy.
What can be more inspiring than that?
Yet Disney, once the most heartwarming family orientated company of all, whose films were fairytales with happy endings, have completely trashed that once so uplifting, ‘feel good’ story ….and completely erased its legacy family….while giving Galactic Satan an heir. An heir who ends up taking everything from said legacy family - including their name - and Disney order us to accept this..antichrist…as our Glorious Heroine.
Along the way she’s turned into the most cold, unfeeling, and arrogant heroine I’ve seen in a long time. And we are expected not to just accept her without question….but applaud her.
I can’t. I’m sorry, but I don’t know this version of Rey. And frankly I think she is a shoddy example of what a woman should aspire to be.
As there doesn’t seem to be any really feasible explanations for Disney’s actions, I’ve had to come to these conclusions.
They did this because for some bizarre, twisted reason, women are not supposed to have boyfriends.
They did this to placate the reylo haters. Because the ‘reylo kiss’….if anything is an insult to our ship. It looks for all the world as if Rey has literally sucked Ben’s life Force out, and her utter disregard for his sacrifice, only cements this. If her grandaddy was Galactic Satan then Rey is a Succubus.
They did this because Terrio had waited years to put his Luke/Leia fanfic on screen.
But most of all….they did this because Kylo Ren turned out to be more popular than their woke heroes. He was the best written, most complex character. He was played by an actor who has twice been nominated for an Oscar. And the Oscar nominated director of The Last Jedi, the best of the three films in the ST, saw his potential and went with it….leading to the most critically acclaimed of all the sequels.
The stupid, moronic idiots at DLF re hired a director known for his inability to ‘finish what he started’ and listened to the likes of the toxic harpies on the JCF: ‘Rey doesn’t need a boyfriend, Kylo is a space Nazi’….yada yada yada ….and the result is the worst SW film ever...even eclipsing The Phantom Menace; because the latter didn’t thoroughly and unequivocally ruin the entire Skywalker Saga like TROS has. TPM didn’t erase the point of the Skwalker Saga, wipe out the entire bloodline, make every character’s sacrifice completely pointless, turn SW into a depressing and dreary farce….and most of all….give the victory to the villain.
Even worse….they told a twisted fairytale where ‘good’ is represented by virginity and the broken, abused ‘villain’ can only be redeemed by dying and is then replaced by his own family by the virgin….his family who ‘celebrate’ his death with huge grins bestowed upon his replacement.
And, as a postcript it’s shown that said abuse victim feels so worthless he’s glad to die to save Lady Virgo Intactica. Star Wars has gone from a space fairytale to a horror story of how being heroic means keeping your knees together, and that suicide is the only option for an abuse victim.
If I had kids the last thing I’d want is for them to see this film….let alone read the frankly disturbing novelisations, both adult and junior, that have been written about it.
And I don’t know how we could be so naive as to believe that this trilogy would have a happy ending.
Come the second instalment, the main couple still didn’t have a love theme. Instead we had heard the ouverture of Romeo and Juliet in the first. These couples never end well. You can believe me, I was born in the city where R & J is set.
The sequels had to introduce new characters, pave the way for all the new SW stories the studios have in mind, and also wrap up the prequels and the classic trilogy. Three movies are not nearly enough to put a definitive “The End” under a story.
Do you honestly believe that we have seen the last of this?
The Disney studios would have to be stupid not to see how popular the characters of Ben and Rey as depicted in The Last Jedi were. Fans would jump at seeing them living adventures together.
The people we have to thank for the Episode IX disaster are not the studios but the TLJ haters, and you of all people know that very well. The film split the fanbase in two, respectively made it all to clear to see (thanks social media) that while many fans like the multilayered, fantastical approach of the saga, others can’t see below the surface of the action movie tropes. For what it’s worth, The Rise of Skywalker has assuaged the fans who stormed at the studios saying that they “destroyed their childhood”. Episode IX is superficial, stupid and fake, but it looks cool, so it did the job. The storm is calming down. I don’t know how anyone could be satisfied with this ending, but it seems the TLJ haters are, at least a lot of them.
The studios will not retcon the sequels. The Rise of Skywalker is part of canon, but so is The Last Jedi. Who doesn’t like one of them doesn’t need to watch them ever again.
But are you telling me that The Last Jedi made no impact?
I myself have never written so many meta’s and fanfiction in my life than after watching it. And I am not even a professional writer.
Have a look at this.
Encantofeatures the character of Bruno, the “black sheep of the family” who is not talked about but is the key figure. Except for the ears, he looks a lot like Ben.
Lokishows a redemption arc with a couple at its heart. The central fighting scene reminds suspiciously of TLJ’s throne room scene.
Moon Knight is the story of a man suffering from dissociative identity disorder, who has two names, two lives, a huge but dangerous power and must learn to reconciliate them. The character is being played by Oscar Isaac, who portrayed Poe Dameron in the sequels.
Then there was the anime Belle(2021), which was a huge success. Are you telling me it was not inspired by the characters of Ben and Rey? Just look at the visuals.
The Mandalorian is very beloved by the fans. There also was a separation between two characters who belong together, but the two found each other again by now.
Rian Johnson is writing his own trilogy. There are enough threads from the sequel trilogy that were not finished. The studios are also developing new Star Warsstories.
I don’t know why you keep harping on TRoS like it was the end of the world, or the end of Star Wars. It wasn’t.
Please, there are so many other things,Star Wars or not,to love. Take a look at those, not at the one bad apple that had to be baked because so many fans are superficial.
Also, please stop saying that Ben committed suicide. He wasn’t tired of being alive. You see that from his expressions. He gave Rey his life force because he didn’t know what it would cost him. It’s meant as a noble sacrifice, not as an act of total despair. A man in despair does not smile like this.
Please, I can see that you’re depressed, but it’s no reason to project your depression on both a story and a film studio that have so much to offer than this one atrocious movie. (Which I, by the way, certainly will never watch again.)
Life is too short to be upset about a movie that’s in the past, and which was never written to hurt you personally anyway. There is so much more to see and to love in the world. Please, stop flagellating yourself. It’s not worth it.
I’ve been looking back at the entire ST….what was its purpose?
This is a question a lot of folk are asking, I honestly thought it was basically the torch being passed to the next generation. But…nope.
It was to quietly get rid of the Skywalkers….and replace them. With Rey.
I’ve harped on about this over and over…but the bee still buzzes in the bonnet. If you remove TLJ, TFA and TROS are The Rey Story. Okay, so she was all along meant to be the main protagonist. But…why then, was it called the SkywalkerSaga if it was about….someone else?
I didn’t bother with any supplementary material post TROS, unless it featured Ben, but I’ve read comments by those who did, and the way they hammered home ‘Rey is our heroine’ was pretty obvious, putting it mildly. Han had apparently ‘found his heir’. Chewie had a ‘special bond’ with her. Leia was forever hugging her. Anakin’s sabre chose her.
Rey had Leia’s leadership skills, Luke’s Force powers, Han’s talent as a pilot, Chewie’s skills as a mechanic.
Rey was the perfect heir.
But…shewasn’t a Skywalker.
Why not?
Why did they make the ONLY real Skywalker….the villain? Why not instead make Rey Leia, Han or Luke’s daughter, a long lost child waiting to be discovered.
Why such contempt for the legacy family?
I honestly can’t understand it. Did they think they could do better? Because if the Trio are the best they could do, obviously not.
I would like meanwhile, to say thank you to Rian Johnson. Who, I am absolutely certain, tried very hard to save Ben Solo.
Thank you for at least trying, Rian. From a disillusioned Skywalker and former SW fan.
There are few things more frustrating than love bombing, both with storytelling and in real life.
I wrote a long entry about The Mandalorian a few months ago where I lamented that the entire show seemed to me like a love bombing that went nowhere. The show lives from its dynamic between both protagonists. Then at the end of Season 2, they were parted. I heard children were crying at the scene.
They’re together now again, so there’s that. But I keep wondering why they had TLJ made in the first place, endearing us to the characters of the sequels and setting up a strong relationship between Ben and Rey, if they meant to take it nowhere.
During the classics, we were rooting for the trio, too. During the prequels we didn’t because we knew that the story would end badly. But Attack of the Clones set the stages for stories like The Clone Wars,The Bad Batch,The Book of Boba Fett.
Why did they make us love this story if there isn’t a follow-up? TRoS was a patch-up for the antis, not a follow-up.
I’m here, waiting for the promises of TLJ to be fulfilled. Rey is still far from being a heroine. Ben is officially dead but Anakin Skywalker, Boba Fett and Darth Maul also had been left for dead.
Okay….now we all know that TLJ received a very mixed reception, despite it being the most critically acclaimed of the sequels….strangely apparently so did ESB, since hailed as the greatest SW film of all, but…..back to the ST.
On the surface, the furore created by RJ’s masterpiece appears to mostly be because old time fans ‘didn’t like’ how Luke was depicted. They saw their ‘god’ so to speak, with feet of clay. But it wasn’t just ‘old fanboys’….a lot of posters on the JCF didn’t like it either, so do a number of youtube commentators…..and these ones in particular were also Kylo haters.
And I am pretty sure that their contempt….was because RJ wanted us to feel for Kylo.
He presented him not as an arrogant, privileged ‘rich boy’, which his haters choose to see him as, but a broken, tormented young man struggling to cope with mental illness and the PTSD caused by years of psychological and physical abuse at the hands of Snoke. He showed the ‘physical abuse’ very cleverly in TLJ. Notice how Kylo reacted when Snoke used Force lightning on him?
It’sagonising. Remember how Luke screamed when the Emperor used it on him in ROTJ? Luke wasn’t a coward, but boy, did he squeal. Yet Kylo….didn’t make a sound. Which can only be because he had experienced it before - and had learned to keep silent.
Notice how when Snoke uses the Force to pull Anakin’s lightsabre to him - he neatly rapped Rey on the head, but although most of us were watching Rey….behind her, Kylo wasn’t even looking at the sabre, he was staring at the floor, but he still ducked, because he was so used to Snoke hurting him. Little touches which nevertheless add up to an interesting concept.
Then, as the posters below so rightly point out….there is the way Kylo’s ‘tantrums’ are presented. In TFA, they are a source of humour. I actually laughed myself….until it struck me that he acts very much like I do in an autistic meltdown.
And, in TLJ….RJ made sure there was NOTHING ‘funny’ about Kylo’s behaviour. He wasn’t making us laugh ….he was showing us that this young man was ill, not a whiny, sulky brat. He allowed Adam to show us just how ‘human’ Kylo was, how much he loathed himself…that sad little ‘yes, I am’ to Rey’s accusation that he was a ‘monster’.
He committed a terrible deed, that of patricide, because he was so tormented and the creature that had influenced him all his life had brainwashed him into thinking killing his father would end that torment. End the misery, end the pain….but it only caused more pain. Because as Luke so rightly pointed out, he would never truly get over the horror of what he’d done. Luke’s actions at the end of TLJ were completely in character. Luke fought with love, not weapons. Love for his father, whom he saved, by throwing away his lightsabre at the end.
Love for the nephew he’d failed, again with a simply human mistake, which drove him to sacrifice himself for said nephew, so he could release his pain and fury on a facsimile, therefore not having the death of another family member on his conscience.
I know a lot of people here disagree with me, especially Rey stans, and I respect their views, but for me, post the throne room scene, I actually disliked Rey. And it was entirely due to Adam’s acting. Yes, what he said to her was cold and cruel…but it was a pathetic attempt by a young man who had no idea of how to handle people (especially women) to get her to stay with him. That heartfelt ‘please’ at the end just about finished me off. I was actually hoping she’d stay - the complete opposite of the end of ESB when Vader attempts to sway Luke to his side. It was TLJ that truly made me a ‘Ben stan’….and it’s down to two things, RJ’s script…and Adam Driver’s phenomenal performance.
I was blown away by them. In the moments where I should have been cheering on the hero…I was cheering on the villain. And that is why Kylo haters dislike TLJ. They disliked Rian, and Adam, for showing them Kylo as a human being - not a ‘Darth Maul’, but the unhappy Ben Solo hiding behind the mask of Kylo Ren.
They wanted a monster. Rian and Adam gave us a human being.
I absolutely agree with you but would like to add a few points.
I find it ironic that Luke stans pretended that TLJ Luke was “out of character” because “he left his friends in the dumps”, while the same fans were out of their minds with joy on seeing Luke again in The Book of Boba Fett.
In TLJ, Luke had messed up and went into exile driven by his shame, and the fear of doing worse if he took action again. In The Book of Boba Fett he is a legendary hero and as of yet, he has done nothing to be ashamed of. Yet he is in exile and it seems he is trying to cut himself off from all attachments. The New Republic is living trying times and he makes frogs float through the air. He is doing exactlywhat TLJ haters accused him of doing in TLJ, but fans don’t see it.
I wrote a long meta about it years ago: the problem with action movies is that most people who watch them expecting their heroes to look cool. It doesn’t matter that much what they do or why, it has to look good. In TBoBF Luke looks cool although he does nothing useful and has no reason to hide. In TLJ he’s an elderly man who drinks green milk and fans are embarrassed.
The problem with the Star Wars saga always was that action movie fans have a certain idea of how a “real man” is supposed to be: cool. They dislike Anakin Skywalker being emotional, Luke throwing away his weapon, Kylo Ren being a victim of abuse.
It hits too closely home. Action fans want to escape reality when they watch a movie, not to be confronted with their own inner and often painful realities. They dislike young Anakin, elderly Luke and TLJ Kylo because they’re not the kind of heroes (or villains) you could put on a pedestal. They’re so much like them that it frightens them to death.
TLJ, Reylo and Ben Solo fans are not that afraid of their inner darkness. Which is why we can appreciate these themes instead of running away screaming when the mirror is placed before our eyes.
The thing that gets me about this whole thing is that there’s actually a really good message about healing from abuse in the fact that Rey fails.
She can’t save Ben/Kylo from the damage that’s been done, in the same way that a loved one can’t heal the scars of abuse just by caring. The victim has to want and be ready to heal and go through that grief process.
And Kylo is categorically not ready. He’s still in the destructive stage of “I was hurt and I want the world to burn”. And so Rey was ABSOLUTELY RIGHT to leave him. It’s saying, in essence, “You are a toxic presence right now because you are processing what happened to you in an unhealthy way. I refuse to be a part of this. Call me when you’re ready to start towards a more constructive path and we can do it together, but until then, you’re on your own.”
The TLJ novelization indicates in the last Force bond scene that Rey looks at Kylo with neither compassion nor hatred, which supports the above idea. She doesn’t hate him. But she’s not feeling sorry for him anymore, either. It’s his turn to decide if he wants to heal or continue his destructive path. She sets a rock-solid boundary and keeps it.
And that’s a good fucking message that I wish we could talk about without turning it into gross victim-blaming and warmed-over anti talking points.
I hate so much how this point gets lost. People will say “I wanted to tell all the little girls on the audience that this isn’t okay, when the literal text of the movie has already done that!
Okay, can I just say now that I thoroughly respect these posters points of view…but I do disagree with them.
Kylo was mentally ill. Yes, he was an abuse victim, but was also coded as mentally ill, and tough love can work for some, but not others. I know, as I’m mentally ill. What might help one person….doesn’t another.
Secondly…Rey never said anything like this to Kylo…apart from a few tears and a whispered ‘don’t go this way Ben’ her reaction was…
To reach for a weapon.
Try and put yourself in Kylo’s place here…please. His uncle had tried to kill him, or at least that is what he believed. Now Rey, whom he loves, whom he killed his master for - reaches for a weapon. All that did was destroy his trust in her. It brought back memories of that awful night at the temple. And when he awoke…it was to find she had abandoned him, on a dying ship, to explain to Hux just exactly HOW someone had killed Snoke and his guards on Kylo’s watch.
She did not once stop to think what the consequences of her actions would be for him.
As for that final look on the Falcon….it was contempt. She looked at him with contempt. Not regret, or sorrow…just contempt. Rather than that showing she was willing to give him another chance if he changed his ways, all she showed was…
Contempt.
This is why I started to dislike Rey at that moment. I didn’t see it as her trying to show Kylo ‘tough love’, just her dismissing him because he didn’t do what she went to him for…end the war.
Luke to Leia in ROTJ when he told her he was going to Vader:
‘I can save him.’
Rey to Luke in TLJ:
‘He can end this war.’
I have often wondered if that was the reason he warned Rey that ‘things would not go as she expected.’
What all Reylo’s and Kylo Ren fans keep forgetting is that if Ben had chosen to “forgive” and go back to the Light Side etc., that would not have made his past undone. He was a war criminal, had been for years, and had killed his own father. Had he gone with Rey he would have been put to trial and probably executed. What was he supposed to do? “Oh hey mom, good to see you, sorry I killed dad?”
This was never meant to end well for Ben. He had chosen to join Snoke and chose to stay at the head of First Order in the first place because he was struggling for his own safety, not because he loved power and was angry and felt let down.
When Ben ran to save Rey in TRoS he knew he wouldn’t get out of there alive. He was determined to give everything to save her, including his own life. He no longer minded whether he would live or die, he was compassionate to the extreme. Luke was, too, when he faced Vader and the Emperor, but he was seen as a war hero. He had the chance to come back home.
The only “home” Ben could come back to was his dead father, and Han told him as much.
I don’t like that Ben had to die, no, but it was all clearly set up from the start. He never had a chance, and that’s his actual tragedy. Anakin had so much potential and still he had no chance to escape his fate, the only difference is that in his case we knew it from the start.
We live in a culture that worships the idea of love and wants to believe that “love will see it through”. There never was a way that Rey could have saved Ben from his fate, whether she loved him or not. “Love” does not mean that you can do anything and get away with it. Does no one think of the moral implications? How would that have looked? A ruthless killer gets his happy ending because he saved one girl? No, please.
The Skywalker saga is, always was, and remained ultimately a tragedy. All their power did not lead any of them to a happy end. It’s not satisfying but it’s fitting.
The only thing we fans can do now is wait for how the studios will develop the SW stories further. Anakin had two lives. There’s no reason why Ben shouldn’t.
“Reylo” and The Problem With the „Beauty and the Beast” Trope
It’s been bothering me lately how many Star Wars and Reylo fans are bitterly disappointed not only with the sequels as a whole, but with the fact that the saga did not end with a grand love story.
There are many stories where the guy needs a woman to show him the way, to push him to become a better person. Some are very popular. But in all honesty, I don’t like them much, and for a reason.
Because when you look at the bottom line, the problem with this trope is: the woman does not need the man. He needs her. They guy, for one reason or another, needs to mature, to be redeemed, to make amends, to change in some way. The female is by his side to help him or not; but in any case, she is coded as the “reward” expecting him if he does undergo the change.
While there’s nothing wrong with this in a romance, it’s not realistic. A relationship or marriage can’t work if there is a massive power imbalance; and the more in a story the girl is coded as Good and the guy as Bad, the more improbable they are to find balance together, because even if he changes, he will have a bad past behind him and she won’t.
In Disney’s Beauty and The Beast, the narrative works rather well because the Beast is not a criminal, a killer or anything like that.
Which is totally different when we come to Reylo. We are dealing with a guy who has committed massive crimes, not least the horrible sin of patricide. Even if he does regret and change in the end, that doesn’t wash the blood from his hands. The fact that he was trapped, influenced mentally and in a bad place from birth is tragic but it does not make anything undone.
Now we could argue that by the end of the story, Rey needs Ben to save her life. He does - but Rey is unconscious. Does she even realize that he is dying because he gave her his life energy? I don’t believe so. There is nothing that suggests she does. The novelization says that she kisses him out of “gratitude”, but she assuredly was grateful because he had come to rescue her from the Knights of Ren and to assist her against Palpatine. And when he dies, she is completely taken aback, so I would assume that she is not aware of what actually cost him his life.
Many Reylo fans have argued and discussed how “Reylo is / must be Reverse Anidala”. The trouble is that the odds were against this narrative from the start because Rey did not need Ben. And all three movies show us again and again that she doesn’t, while he is the one who pursues her. The only time she went to him on her own was to convince him to help her against the First Order in order to let the Resistance win. But Ben / Kylo made it clear that he cared about her, not about the Resistance.
I have argued repeatedly that Anakin wasn’t a bad husband, meaning that if Ben had turned out to be a good partner, that wouldn’t have atoned for Anakin’s sins.
In Anakin’s and Padmé’s case, too, the man needed her, but she did not need him. Anakin needed Padmé to stay in balance within himself, and he knew it. Padmé knew it too, but if she had not married him, or if she never had met him, she wouldn’t have been worse off. Here life merely would have taken another turn.
I agree that for the curse of the Skywalker family to be finally lifted, a healthy union between Rey and Ben could be the key. But for a balanced relationship, she would have to need him the way he needs her; or better, both ought to mature enough so that they can love one another more than they needone another. However, as we leave them in The Rise of Skywalker, both of them are very far away from equality and maturity. Ben changed considerably within the course of the sequels; Rey didn’t go through any major character trials.
So, again, I see that the happy ending never was in the cards for the sequel trilogy. Rey is the one who still needs to face herself; while he must find an aim in life that gives him purpose, because his tragedy was knowing that he was not really needed by anyone.
I don’t know what Disney has in mind with the characters, but I have thought so for years and I still do: Ben’s salvation is not romantic love. To become Anakin’s foil for good, the only road for him is fatherhood.
Bring back Ben Solo!
I don’t agree with the interpretation that Rey doesn’t need Ben. Yes, he’s the one constantly pursuing her, but just because she’s not always pursing him, it doesn’t mean she doesn’t care or doesn’t need him. Ben is certainly the one who is more sure in his feelings that’s true. Rey is a scared young woman, who, unlike Ben, didn’t grow up with parents to show her what romantic love looks like. She knows she feels something, she just can’t explain it. And it scares her and Rey tends to run away from or fight what she fears.
In TROS, Rey admits that no one knows her, not truly. Yes, the movie deleted Ben’s line of “But I do” but it is still in the novelization, so it’s still canon. Rey needs Ben because he’s the only one who really knows her. And TROS also made them a Dyad in the Force. “The two that are one.” They are forever linked to each other. Which is why killing off Ben made no sense. How could Rey ever survive, ever be truly happy without her sole mate?
And if you look at Rey’s face after Ben revives her, that smile when she says his name, it is the happiest we’ve seen her across all three movies. And then they took that way from her! She needed him and now he’s gone. If anyone at DLF has any sense, any future stories with Rey need to show just how much his death is affecting her, just how much she does need him.
Look, I did not suggest that Rey does not need Ben at all.
My take is that many Reylo’s got their relationship wrong believing it would more or less follow the “Beauty and the Beast” trope. There are many stories where the girl is an innocent, good person and the man needs to be saved by her.
My point is that I don’t like that trope. The problem, as I said, is that there is a huge power imbalance since the girl, in those stories, does not need the guy, while he is in need of her. And a power imbalance is not a good foundation for a healthy relationship. It’s maybe nice for a romantic love story, but how would they go on after that?
The sequels showed us over and over that Rey does not need Ben. Yes, he understands her since he knows loneliness the way she does; but he is in desperateneed of help. Rey is accustomed to being alone. She can live on her own - perhaps not happily, but she can.
When we first met Ben in his role as Kylo Ren, he was not just lonely, he was in hell. And after killing Han, he was in the deepest pit of hell. He needed Rey - as he needed his father, his mother and uncle - to bring him back and to feel like a normal human being again. Rey’s situation was never that desperate.
Which is why I still think that there was no way the sequels could have ended happily and with a love story. Ben was too far gone and Rey too independent. They did not match.
I hope for a continuation of their story, one where Ben is redeemed and Rey finally realizes that she doesneed him, to a certain extent, and that they can find balance at last.
But - sigh - who knows if and when DLF will regale us with that. Keeping my hopes up…
“Reylo” and The Problem With the „Beauty and the Beast” Trope
It’s been bothering me lately how many Star Wars and Reylo fans are bitterly disappointed not only with the sequels as a whole, but with the fact that the saga did not end with a grand love story.
There are many stories where the guy needs a woman to show him the way, to push him to become a better person. Some are very popular. But in all honesty, I don’t like them much, and for a reason.
Because when you look at the bottom line, the problem with this trope is: the woman does not need the man. He needs her. They guy, for one reason or another, needs to mature, to be redeemed, to make amends, to change in some way. The female is by his side to help him or not; but in any case, she is coded as the “reward” expecting him if he does undergo the change.
While there’s nothing wrong with this in a romance, it’s not realistic. A relationship or marriage can’t work if there is a massive power imbalance; and the more in a story the girl is coded as Good and the guy as Bad, the more improbable they are to find balance together, because even if he changes, he will have a bad past behind him and she won’t.
In Disney’s Beauty and The Beast, the narrative works rather well because the Beast is not a criminal, a killer or anything like that.
Which is totally different when we come to Reylo. We are dealing with a guy who has committed massive crimes, not least the horrible sin of patricide. Even if he does regret and change in the end, that doesn’t wash the blood from his hands. The fact that he was trapped, influenced mentally and in a bad place from birth is tragic but it does not make anything undone.
Now we could argue that by the end of the story, Rey needs Ben to save her life. He does - but Rey is unconscious. Does she even realize that he is dying because he gave her his life energy? I don’t believe so. There is nothing that suggests she does. The novelization says that she kisses him out of “gratitude”, but she assuredly was grateful because he had come to rescue her from the Knights of Ren and to assist her against Palpatine. And when he dies, she is completely taken aback, so I would assume that she is not aware of what actually cost him his life.
Many Reylo fans have argued and discussed how “Reylo is / must be Reverse Anidala”. The trouble is that the odds were against this narrative from the start because Rey did not need Ben. And all three movies show us again and again that she doesn’t, while he is the one who pursues her. The only time she went to him on her own was to convince him to help her against the First Order in order to let the Resistance win. But Ben / Kylo made it clear that he cared about her, not about the Resistance.
I have argued repeatedly that Anakin wasn’t a bad husband, meaning that if Ben had turned out to be a good partner, that wouldn’t have atoned for Anakin’s sins.
In Anakin’s and Padmé’s case, too, the man needed her, but she did not need him. Anakin needed Padmé to stay in balance within himself, and he knew it. Padmé knew it too, but if she had not married him, or if she never had met him, she wouldn’t have been worse off. Here life merely would have taken another turn.
I agree that for the curse of the Skywalker family to be finally lifted, a healthy union between Rey and Ben could be the key. But for a balanced relationship, she would have to need him the way he needs her; or better, both ought to mature enough so that they can love one another more than they needone another. However, as we leave them in The Rise of Skywalker, both of them are very far away from equality and maturity. Ben changed considerably within the course of the sequels; Rey didn’t go through any major character trials.
So, again, I see that the happy ending never was in the cards for the sequel trilogy. Rey is the one who still needs to face herself; while he must find an aim in life that gives him purpose, because his tragedy was knowing that he was not really needed by anyone.
I don’t know what Disney has in mind with the characters, but I have thought so for years and I still do: Ben’s salvation is not romantic love. To become Anakin’s foil for good, the only road for him is fatherhood.
The cast of the Original Trilogy had cliched, boring character concepts that were executed wonderfully enough for it not to matter.
The cast of the Prequel Trilogy had interesting concepts that were executed poorly enough to make them seem utterly stupid.
The cast of the Sequel Trilogy had amazing, thought-provoking concepts that were executed in the town square and put up on pikes as a warning to others.
This is actually probably the best summary of star wars I’ve ever seen
The cast of the Original Trilogy had cliched, boring character concepts that were executed wonderfully enough for it not to matter.
The cast of the Prequel Trilogy had interesting concepts that were executed poorly enough to make them seem utterly stupid.
The cast of the Sequel Trilogy had amazing, thought-provoking concepts that were executed in the town square and put up on pikes as a warning to others.
This is actually probably the best summary of star wars I’ve ever seen
Fan Fic Friday is upon us, and I have yet another chapter of the Jacen story for y'all! (although next week I may or may not have something different for you). Hope you guys enjoy– fair warning, this one has some angst. You have been forewarned. First lines under the cut!
Rummaging through the crate in front of her, Trill frowned. “Are you sure that there’s bacon in here?”
“Should be,” Jacen called from the stove. “Keep looking— it should be in a sealed, self-regulating package. White and red exterior.”
“I just don’t think it’s in here,” Trill said dubiously.
“Trill, please. Tristan wouldn’t fail us like that.”
Trill sent him a dubious look that he didn’t see. Jacen was standing next to the stove, slicing tomatoes as he supervised the bread toasting. He’d somehow found something to tie back his hair, which he now wore in a ponytail, and had shaved most of the scruffy half-beard he’d had, leaving a fairly well trimmed goatee. He hummed along to the low music in the background as he worked, stopping to tap out the beat with the tip of his knife, swaying slightly in time to the music.
Realizing she was staring, Trill hastily looked back at the box, feeling her cheeks warm. She’d blushed more around Jacen in the past few days than she had in years, which was ridiculous. People couldn’t make her blush, they never could.
And yet, all Jacen had to do was flash her that grin, or start singing a somewhat sappy love song, and Trill felt herself lighting up like a supernova. And sure, he was handsome. Why should his smile and his eyes and even his stupid beard affect her like it did?
