ST Detailed analysis of the lightsaber fight

Since I’m fresh off having seen The Force Awakens for the sixth time yesterday, I wanted to write an analysis of the climatic fight scene and the dynamics of the action. It’s a really fascinating sequence, and it’s worth considering in detail. I hope you find my thoughts interesting - I'd love to read other people's takes!

It begins when Finn and Rey are confronted by Kylo Ren in the forest. He is dishevelled and wounded - blood leaks from his side, and he beats his fist against his injury to fuel his pain and rage. Finn and Rey are both disgusted and frightened by him, and Rey is impassioned when she calls him a monster - this ties back to the interrogation scene, where Rey referred to Kylo as a “creature in a mask”. While he attempted to undermine that impression then by removing his mask and revealing his human face, the Rey who faces Kylo at the film’s climax - the Rey who witnessed the murder of Han Solo - is wiser and has learned that monsters can have very human faces. And Kylo himself has dispensed with any niceties. He tells Finn and Rey that Han Solo cannot save them, positioning himself as a predator preparing to attack two helpless, orphaned children lost in the woods. It could hardly be more fairy tale-esque if it tried.

I’ve seen various people say that Kylo was attempting to murder Rey by flinging her back into a tree after she attempts to fire at him, and while it’s clearly a cruel and violent gesture I really don’t think that was his intention. I think he planned on stunning her, which is exactly what he achieved. Kylo is painfully aware of Rey’s burgeoning powers (thus the many brief scenes of him stalking around Starkiller Base looking for her and receiving updates from stormies - he is conscious that he needs to stop her, and stop her quickly), and he knows immediately that she needs to be removed from the equation. His only miscalculation is in not knocking her out thoroughly enough - he merely dazes her, leaving her semi-conscious.

Finn seems to inspire a frightening pitch of rage and malice in Kylo, and that this comes through in how he fights him. Particularly striking is the moment when Kylo and Finn have locked lightsabers, with Finn pressed against the tree and the crossguard of Kylo’s lightsaber burning a hole into Finn’s shoulder. Kylo’s face is alive with sadistic pleasure and malice as Finn screams in pain, and that’s the scream that stirs Rey to consciousness. Kylo is utterly indulgent of all his darkest impulses with Finn, and he demonstrates not even the remotest flicker of pity or respect for his victim. By slicing Finn’s spine open, Kylo wants to damage and ruin him - it’s the ultimate payback for Finn’s treachery, in all its manifestations.

The scene where the lightsaber flies past Kylo to Rey is easily one of the most powerful moments in the film, and it’s stupendously played by the actors. They form a tableau against the snow, with Kylo seeming to move his arm in slow motion as he regards Rey with a strange mix of awe, wonder and disbelief. When he looks at her in the film, it’s the same moment where he says “it is you” to himself in the novelisation. He knows who she is, and is electrified by that knowledge.

The main fight between Rey and Kylo can be neatly divided into two stages: before and after the offer. Before, Rey is very much at a disadvantage - while her strength is extraordinary, her fear and inexperience are vividly on display, and she focuses most of her energies on putting distance between herself and Kylo. She’s constantly scrabbling up rock faces and staggering back, aware she needs the distance if she’s to stand a chance. For his part, Kylo fights mostly defensively when Rey attempts to strike him - he takes a few swipes at her feet, presumably to try and disable her, but isn’t truly on the offensive. His approach with Rey could hardly be more different from his approach with Finn - he shows no desire to destroy or humiliate her, only a need to stop her.

When they both reach the precipice, the moment is a filmed in a way that underlines Rey’s massive disadvantage and apparent helpfulness. Her body is bent backwards, close to falling, from the power of Kylo’s blade pressing fiercely against hers. Her face is contorted with fear and despair, alight with terror, and Kylo is clearly on the brink of victory.

And this is when he makes what is perhaps his singlemost ruinous error of judgement. Instead of finishing the fight as logic dictates he should, he offers to become Rey’s teacher. There is no mention of Snoke or even the Dark side - Kylo is intent only on Rey, and the offer he makes is an offer made between the two of them. In short, Kylo is ruined by his self-indulgence - his regard for and fascination with Rey win out over his duty to Snoke. He selfishly wants her to himself, and his vanity and arrogance mean he thinks he has her in a position that will force her to submit.

When Rey closes her eyes she is clearly drawing on the Force for strength. Ridley’s performance is particularly brilliant here, with her face transmuting away from exquisite peace and serenity the moment she adopts an animalistic snarl. While the Light side of the Force enabled her to steady herself and resist Kylo’s temptation, the Dark side of the Force is what empowers her to strike back against Kylo with rage and fury. The Dark side is fuelled by passion, and that’s the word that best describes Rey in the second half of the fight. She is transformed by her rage, becoming unstoppable and relentless. She is slender and small, and her size alone should mean she doesn’t stand a chance - but she’s powered by something greater than herself, something that means she can wrestle with a man far stronger and taller than she is and overpower him.

At the culmination of the fight, Rey’s approach to Kylo is disturbingly reminiscent of Kylo’s approach to Finn. They both appear to derive a kind of satisfaction from causing pain, dealing out unnecessary, brutal blows intended to scar, punish and humiliate their recipient. Rey didn’t need to brand Kylo’s face, but she clearly wanted to, even if only for the moment it took to make the strike - and that, I think, is the biggest hint we have about the direction that’s going to be taken in Episode VIII.

 

I've read many threads that state Rey tapped into the Dark Side of the Force during the final moments of her lightsaber battle with Ben. But I don't know where those assertions come from. She looks angry and determined, sure, but how is it known that she used the Dark Side? She is taking her first steps, as we learned earlier in the movie, so how is it that she knows the difference between the Light Side and the Dark Side already? All we know is that she closed her eyes and let the Force in. Then she beat back Ben and was able to run away.

 

Why would people think Kylo was trying to kill Rey there? He was under orders from his wise master to bring Rey to Snoke for brainwashing.

I buy that Rey tapped into the dark side at the end because the book states it (I believe).

 

I think people say that she uses the Dark side with authority because the novelisation has a voice (presumably Snoke's) pop up in Rey's head telling her to kill Kylo while he's down. As the analysis shows, I also think the Dark edge to Rey during the fight comes through in the performance - those snarls aren't arbitrary.

 

I think her Maul-style stalking was intentional to portray the dark side as well. Of the top of my head, I don't recall a Jedi looking like a hunter in that way before.

 

But isn't that Rey being Rey? That's what I think, given how she took out Unkar's thugs, then Finn, as shown at the beginning of the movie. She's already a skilled fighter.

As for the novel, I too read that, but the voice isn't attributed to anyone particular. I enjoyed the novel, I liked all the extra bits in there, but remember, Owen Lars was Kenobi's brother in the original Star Wars novelization. I take anything in the novels with a grain of salt.

 

I think the idea that Kylo was trying to kill Rey there comes from an extreme segment of the anti-Reylo cohort. Basically, such people are against Rey and Kylo having any kind of relationship (other than as straight-up enemies) to such a degree that they try to argue that he was trying to murder her. It all gets a bit silly.

I'd say there was a different quality to it when she was fighting Kylo. And there was a certain rage and roughness to her fighting style - completely with flourishes of needless cruelty - that point towards the Dark side empowering her. That's just my interpretation and you're free to think differently, but I am pretty sure they wanted it to play like that.

 

One a side note: in the book when Rey has Ren down, she hears a voice in her mind telling her to kill him. In the audiobook, that's Snoke's voice. It also mentioned she pulls away from the voice, away from the dark side.

About the duel; we clearly see both Finn and Rey pushed back easily by Ren. He even fights with one hand, just like Vader did against Luke the first time.
It's only when Finn gets a lucky hit in we see Ren get annoyed and quickly finishes him.

The more I think about this fight and the circumstances, the more I think the people who criticise it can't have been paying attention.

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Rey's face said pure f-ing rage and savagery. It's basically impossible to miss.

 

Exactly! Thank you. While I'm open to alternative interpretations, I'm surprised that some people seem to deny this entirely.

 

Well, I'm a member of that "cohort" but the idea that Kylo was trying to kill her is clearly false. If he'd wanted to kill her, he'd have killed her. I do recall his line about Han Solo not being able to save her now, but I think that line was referring to rescuing her from being taken to Snoke.

 

Oh yes, it's not everyone who's against 'Reylo'. I'm against the fluffy 'aww ain't they cute' Reylo because it completely ignores all of the horrible things Kylo does to Rey, but I am fascinated by their relationship and the dynamic between them. As I said, it's just people who are being really extreme and ignoring what's clearly presented in the film itself - as you say, if he wanted to kill her, he would have killed her.

 

Good question. It hasn't anything to do with ideology-- light vs. dark. Primal emotion.

 

But aren't 'primal emotions' like those that Rey displays precisely what make a person vulnerable to the Dark side?

 

Good analysis. But, as there's no rule of 2, he can be her teacher and serve Snoke.

 

Sure. Of course. And she's vulnerable.

 

I don't think it's about that as much as it's about Kylo pursuing his own agenda, independent of Snoke. He's presumably been beholden to Snoke since turning, but when he tells Rey she needs a teacher Snoke is out of the equation - in that moment, he's clearly focused on her rather than his supposed master's command. That implies wavering loyalties and a loss of focus.

 

I didn't think Kylo was taking Snoke out of the equation when he told Rey she needed a teacher. Is there something in the novel that supports that?

 

No, it's just that what he says is very clearly about him and Rey. He could have said "Join us! My master will show you the ways of the Force!" but he positioned himself as Rey's teacher. That's a very deliberate choice by the scriptwriters - if they'd wanted to stress Kylo's loyalty to Snoke in that scene, they would have done so.

 

I disagree. If they wanted to emphasize Kylo's lack of loyalty to his wise leader, they could have made that clear. In that scene, we know Snoke wants Rey and he commanded Kylo to bring her to him. At best it's ambiguous. It's not obvious that Kylo was cutting Snoke out. Saying "you need a teacher" could just as easily have referred to Snoke, and it fits the narrative. Kylo didn't say, "let me teach you." Unless I'm misremembering, which is possible. I think there might have been other dialogue in the scene that I don't recall.

 

Kylo tells Rey: "You need a teacher! I can show you the ways of the Force!"

So there's more to it than the "you need a teacher" line - Kylo is clearly positioning himself as Rey's teacher. I agree that it's somewhat ambiguous, but I do think it points more towards wavering loyalty/focus than it doesn't.

 

Aw okay, I didn't remember that line. Interesting. I don't see that as indicative of lack of loyalty to Snoke personally, but it does show personal interest in Rey on Kylo's part.

 

I saw it as the equivalent of Vader's personal disloyalty to the Emperor in ESB when he offers Luke the opportunity to rule the galaxy as father and son. It's a selfish pursuit.

 

Vader was literally talking about overthrowing the emperor. Kylo didn't hint at that. Quite the contrary, five minutes before he was waxing poetic about his wise leader before knifing his dad.

 

That was my take on it too. It was a personal appeal and very little to do with Snoke's request.