ST The Romantic Future of Kylo Ren and Rey

I have reached out to Reylophos, the user who published my first meta to her blog. If she wants to share this one, power to her. If not, I'm sure one of the other frequent posters here would be open to the idea.

I genuinely believe a separate analysis targeting Rey and Kylo Ren in their natural genre would be hugely beneficial to the fandom at this point. Gothic tropes and children's literature tropes were made use of equally in the creation of Kylo Ren, but acknowledging Star Wars for what it truly is—a modern coming-of-age fairytale—is absolutely paramount to predicting Rey and Ren's trajectories. It also completely eradicates much of what makes "Reylo" so problematic for so many people, because at its core, Star Wars is a highly optimistic franchise. It is a children's story, as dubbed by its creator years ago. The legacy of two Trilogies and six films maintaining a one-sided fixation on the heroine of this story betrays Star Wars' genre, its true target-audience and thousands of years of children's storytelling.

That's the way I see it anyway.

 

Darth Imbecillis

saving the galaxy is a very abstract goal. it could mean literally anything. it's like saying, i'm making the world a better place. it's meaningless.

for me anyway, i'd need something more tangible. something that is less abstract. it's like 'bringing balance to the force' - doesn't mean jack really.

Ohtze

i think i liked it better when it was a kinkmeme. it falls apart when it enters a larger territory. but i did think they spent quite a lot of time describing at least.

 

Everything I've heard about tumblr indicates that it's broblematic. At least things are mostly civil here. We may bicker, but it's all in good fun.

Edit: yay 900!!!

 

900 pages woohooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I'm going to have some brotato chips and drink a brotein shake to celebrate!

 

"Shipping" publicly is completely new to me. I've always just supported my fictional couples from a good distance. I don't even know if I would really call my interest in Reylo, or any other couple I've endorsed in the past, "shipping." I just want to see a groundbreaking story come out of all this. If the writers behind this saga are as competent as TFA leads to believe they are, I truly believe the PT could surpass the OT in almost every regard. I've always enjoyed Star Wars, but TFA honestly changed the way I look at the franchise. I want to see LucasFilm succeed. I want to see them produce critically and universally acclaimed films in the vein of the OT. If done well, the brilliant heroine/villain dynamic that TFA gave us could accomplish exactly that.

I have to say, the Reylo fandom is interesting. The amount of hate that it seems to receive is absolutely unprecedented. I lurk on Tumblr occasionally, and from what I've seen the antis don't really even seem to want to understand what interests people about the heroine/villain dynamic presented to us in TFA. I would never just dismiss something without first trying to understand it. The whole situation just feels like a monumental misunderstanding. It's just so unfortunate. Nobody wants the Rey to get together with the version of Kylo Ren from The Force Awakens. Both Rey and Ren are going to develop as characters. The antis should really take their absurd claims elsewhere. Fantasy can't be looked at through a realistic lens. The amount of passion the antis put into tearing down something fictional could be better applied to countering real-life issues.

 

I thought of something that would make people even more outraged....if Luke's daughter is not FS.... In the EU, Satele Shan was a powerful jedi but her son was not FS....but I don't think they would take such a risk.

I think I've mentioned this before but what if Snoke was like Skynet in the last Terminator movie who realised that John Connor (in this case Ben Solo) was the person who could destroy it....so following the policy of keeping enemies close, why not turn Ben Solo dark and change him to prevent the problem from ever happening?

Have we reached 900 yet?

 

Of course we have, because we're brosome!

 

we so have!

 

Ahh!! YASSS 900. Apparently we're on the rate of 100 pages per week, guys!

 

Well, it's an abstract goal because we don't know the particulars yet That doesn't mean the explanation we get won't be tangible. But I had to say "saving the galaxy" or something abstract like that because I don't know what Snoke's plan is or whether there's something even worse than Snoke out there. I doubt we'll get another simple Empire 2.0 vs. Resistance 2.0 conflict this time around. I think there's something more.

 

panki I tend to agree. But again, this has a lot to do with planning: if you don't have that initial plan down once you start writing/filming/etc. you're in trouble. Like the Star Wars Prequels are a perfect example of this.

 

Random thoughts for a Monday morning:

So if the theory about Rey Kenobi is correct, if she's Brobi-Wan's granddaughter, that doesn't necessarily mean that Reylo will happen. However, if it doesn't, I think that would mean that Ben Brolo will have children with someone else, because as people have noted, the episodes are about the Browalker family. And if Rey is a Kenobi, that means Ben is the only Browalker in this next generation. Either way, I think he has to be redeemed so the Browalker family can continue. So, if Reylo doesn't happen, I guess our consolation is getting to see the next generation of Kenobis and Browalkers playing together and becoming Jedi together. Then maybe X-XII we'll get to see the Browalker and Kenobi families joined together. So, we might lose this battle (I don't think we will), but ultimately, Reylo will happen, even if it's just with their kids.

 

900 pages! Wonder how long this thread will reach 1000.

That's a perfect analogy. Maybe Rey is another part of the prophecy, who parallels with Ben Solo and together they will destroy skynet Snoke and the First Order!

 

Darth Imbecillis

i agree there may be something else out there but i would still wager that i would lose connection with the character over risking the death of all these people for a potentially higher goal. i am suspicious of that kind of anyone making that kind of claim.

 

At the rate we're going, it'll brobably happen this coming weekend.

 

Woo-hoo, 900!

well, March 18 will be 3 months anniversary cause the ship was created on Dec 18 when the movie came out and Reylo enchanted fans around the globe. We should do something special to mark the occasion. Anyone up for writing a think piece on Reylo journey from trash ship to full blown mainstream one that gave the best art and writing in TFA shipdom?

 

panki MoonFyre
So I think there is something to this prophecy thing. When Snoke is talking to Kylo Ren for the first time, he says that if the last Jedi (Luke) is found, the new Jedi (I think he means Rey, not that he knows exactly who she is yet) will rise. This sounds very prophecy-ish because he is so certain of what is going to happen. Then he says that they need to change their strategy. I'm not sure if there is necessarily a prophecy in the PT sense, but there is definitely something going on. Also, the novelization says that Kylo Ren didn't show his reaction to Snoke saying "the new Jedi will rise," which could mean that Kylo Ren has a different opinion on the subject. New Jedi could mean one person or a whole order or both. I do think it means specifically Rey, though, I'm not certain. This might be why Kylo Ren is says in the novel "it is you," she is not only the awakening in the force, but specifically the "new Jedi." Hmmmmm

Also I think that the fact that he says Luke is the last Jedi and that he might mean Rey is the new Jedi might mean Rey has never been trained as a Jedi. I'm not so sure she has ever had any training although she is dressed sorta like a padawan in the force vision, this could still make sense even if she did have some training...idk

 

I may be able to help with that, but I don't know much about the origins of the ship. People immediately thought they were cousins, right? xD

 

Im still really bothered by those last two pages in that book Its like a hint for the future with these two characters.

 

The first few pages of this very thread shows the "trash" origins lol. It's pretty crazy where it has ended in 3 months!

 

I can only think I would be okay with him going to the dark side for a higher goal if he was planning on being a double agent of sorts and then something went horribly wrong and he lost sight of the goal and that is how he became ensnared in the dark side. Maybe he thought he could tangle with Snoke and work to sabotage him under his nose and not let the dark side get to him, but he was wrong. Then he thought it was "too late," so he fell to the dark side. I don't really buy this theory totally though.

 

Like I said, I've been on both sides of the anti fandom so I tend to be a little sympathetic to everyone in these "shipping wars." Tumblr is... unfortunate. I think being apart of an anti fandom makes you feel good in a way. You're a part of the enlightened, you see all the problematic things that society has trained us to accept and you're speaking out against them... but Tumblr also seems to miss the point entirely. Instead of speaking out about things you think are problematic and getting people to think critically it's become about shaming people who aren't as enlightened as you are and bullying them for enjoying things you've deemed morally inferior. It sucks. I think it's trashed a lot of very valid arguments and turned them into jokes. It's also ruined the ability to enjoy things just because you enjoy them and not because of any moral high ground.

But I completely agree about the groundbreaking story. I was willing to live without Reylo but after reading all the wonderful theories in this thread I can't help but feel I'll be disappointed if they don't go through with it in some way. But the next movie is two years away so I won't speak too early. And sorry I used the word problematic so many times... I really hate that word.

 

To be honest, I think the risk of losing connection with the character is there, whatever the backstory. At least for me. Currently I identify with Kylo Ren because I can see the many intriguing possibilities in the character's backstory and development. If they handle any of it clumsily, I can just as easily be turned off by the story... which would be such a tragic waste of an amazing character.

 

Right. But here's the twist - the ship kept getting more and more fans and that brought different perspective cause people simply didn't want to resign to "incest" when nothing of sort was stated in the movie. So within three months, the ship went from trash to mainstream with many great theories that Rey isn't a Skywalker and why making her one wouldn't make sense from narrative POV. So, basically, Reylo contributed to Rey Skywalker challenge and great write-ups on that can be found in this thread. It's incredibly resilient ship because it's fans take what's in the movie as the source for their discussions instead of solely relying on wishful thinking and (deceiving) marketing.

rey09

Exactly! This thread is a proof of how far Reylo has gone since its early unsure-of-its-potential steps.