Shout out toLet The Light In for being an early post TFA fanfiction that is completely canon divergent, but somehow predicted Ben and Rey’s characterization perfectly.
Found at a library in California almost a year after movie
Need to go through security, fill in paperworks, no phones, no photography, no jackets, the wall have ears, the statues have eyes, we will be watching…..
They (Han and Leia) had this kid who was born equal parts good and evil. He is someone who is broken….But it’s more than just having a bad seed as a kid. Snoke had targeted this kid, knew that this kid was gonna be incredibly powerful in the force and wanted him as an ally. So this mother and father had a target for a son. Someone was watching their boy. And these parents aren’t there enough to guide him.~JJ Abrams, The Secrets of The Force Awakens.
This is really, really sad.
They both seem to defend him. Hmm
“Someone was watching their boy” chills, that literally gives me creepy crawly chills
the narrative they wanted was that killing Ben was Righteous and Good because he was Irredeemably Born Evil and Everything Was His Fault. instead we got the far more challenging and emotionally complex and gut-wrenching and deeply faithful to George’s themes narrative of Luke succumbing to darkness in his own way, of him having the tragic flaws of pride and trying to take fate into his own hands (the tragic flaws of his father, the generational curse of the Skywalkers). he held as much responsibility for Ben’s fall as Ben did, and he’s suffered the consequences as well, albeit in a different way.
they wanted the easy story of the Skywalkers being heroes except for this one black sheep–but that is not and never has been the story of the Skywalker saga. they’re all tempted by the dark, one way or another, and we’re supposed to root for them to overcome it, in their own way and in their own time.