ST Masks

Great thing about masks in movies n such is that they allow for practicality and symbolism all at the same time. Like the girl that needs it to keep the sand out of her eyes....well she is also sheltering her life from something as well. Vader needed his to breathe...supposedly...and also it was covering up his true self, till Luke freed him of and from, it. Its a story telling mechanism...not everyone with a mask necessarily has to have a full blown story behind the mask....but it lends the option to the story tellers to one day provide that story.

 

Yeah - of course there are practical reasons for the masks, and sometimes a mask just looks cool. But sometimes there will be deeper meaning.

 

Rey: I am no one.
Finn. I have nothing to fight for.
Kylo: Nothing will stand in our way. I will finish what you started.

Rey: No identity.
Finn: No purpose.
Kylo: No mercy. No sense of self. Blind devotion fills the gap.

All of these characters have their selves buried at the start of the film, it seems (and we know, from the synopsis, that each of these scenes come from pretty early in Act 1).

We also have a sense that Rey and Finn, at least, overcome this self-suppression by the end of the film.

Rey: Becomes someone.
Finn: Finds something to fight for.
Kylo: ... Murders his father.

Which leaves the question: What is Kylo's journey in the film? We know he takes his mask off for a moment near the end. But does he find mercy, find himself, and shed his blind devotion at all? Or does he flirt with those things, and ultimately, choose the path of least resistance (e.g. getting "sentimental," only to be course-corrected by Snoke, finding a connection with Rey, only to be jarred out of it by an insulting comment, or being temporarily moved by his father's plea, only to let the comforting hatred that has sustained him all these years to take control again, and lead to murder)?

If the latter, could Kylo possibly have aspects of the schizophrenic Gollum about him, with glimmers of his true self coming through, and moments of possible redemption, but ultimately, too much psychological damage to dig himself out from under the mask? We know Driver said he's a character that feels he wasn't loved enough. "Nobody likes you!" Gollum tells Smeagol. Perhaps Kylo Ren is Gollum, and Kylo Solo is Smeagol? And the latter persona, the masked persona, has one goal: to kill the Jedi (the Bagginses...), and to acquire the blue lightsaber that is owed to him. His birthright. His precious. But his true identity - the Solo/Smeagol identity - is still there, and he laments his lost relationships. He pines for his family, as he sits in the Falcon's cockpit. But there's no going back...It's been too long, and too much damage has been done. Redemption is out of reach. Unlike Vader, he ultimately sticks with the darkside.

Honestly, both official information, and unofficial information from MSW, seem to be lining things up for this kind of character study for Kylo. Very exciting, to say the least.

 

I see it basically the same he can't turn it's to fresh and his hatred and suffering is still fueling the rage. He feels cheated (i.e. like Anakin/Vader was that he didn't save Padme from death) and may blame one or both parents. Which may also give us a look into his calucated, cold-blooded rage strike on his father.

 

I think it could be un-calculated, hot-blooded rage that leads him to kill his father. Though I could be wrong. He may emotionally connect with him for a moment, then put his mask back on, and murder him coldly and dispassionately. The latter option might make more sense if in a battle between an emotional and calculating Kylo, the latter wins out.

 

I do think he reveals himself to his father, before he silences him. Which undoubtedly will set off Chewbacca, Finn and Rey.

 

Yeah, I honestly think Kylo is going to take off the mask right before he kills Han. He'll just put the hood back up after he's done, I think- provided that the original shot of Kylo in the forest from the trailers isn't just a trailer shot like the Stormtroopers facing towards the audience shot at Starkiller Base seems to be.

 

I like this, particularly the Tolkien stuff. Coincidentally, just this morning, I've been theorising a connection between Snoke, 'The Beyond', and the balance of the Force ( or rather, imbalance ), and Morgoth / Melkor, The Void, and the Secret Fire.

 

I would love for Snoke to either be a Melkor-esque embodiment of the darkside, or to at least hail from somewhere in the "Beyond" that is indeed a wellspring of evil - like Melkor's Utumno or Sauron's Mordor. And if Snoke somehow has access to the Secret Fire/the living force, and is able to (or trying to) corrupt it (as Melkor did during the Music of the Ainur, or he and Ungoliant did by sapping the life from the trees of the Valar), that would be even more uber-cool (from the perspective of a Tolkien fan, of course).

You can keep Kylo in the realm of the human - and for the sake of good film character development, that's wise. But Snoke need not operate on the human plane. I prefer him to be a symbol of evil, or an embodiment of it, as was the Emperor (until he was humanized in the PT).

 

I could see this ala Anakin on Mustafar with his scar; something similar where we see not only the emotional hatred Kylo has towards his father but maybe the physical damage all the pain Kylo feels/is in as well.

 

I was thinking about starting a thread on this very topic if one didn't already exist. You guys beat me to it by several days.

I suspect that the film will introduce each of these three characters to us with their masks on. I'm pretty certain that will be the case with Finn, absolutely certain that will be the case with Kylo Ren, and from what I remember, we first see Rey when she stops to enter the wreckage of the star destroyer.

He does seem to be wearing it virtually all of the time, even when just standing on the bridge of a star destroyer or interrogating a prisoner.

Which also ties in with "Who is Luke Skywalker?"

As an aside... Just got back from a family vacation in the Dominican Republic and Anakin was right. Sand is coarse and irritating, and it does get everywhere. Especially with young kids (ages 5 and 3).

 

Haha!

By the way, now we've heard Maz's lines about seeing the same eyes in different faces etc - that would totally tie in with mask themes and motifs - ie "who are you really?"