I have my own quibbles with TLJ and the Crait sequence (pacing issues in the movie and too much weight on Luke, not enough on Rey) but something about the narrative POV on Crait is interesting upon rewatch. We know Luke’s purpose of being there, distracting Kylo, but we don’t know his plan: his grand entrance is from the Resistance’s POV, but the battle itself, to preserve the twist that Luke isn’t really there, is de facto told from Kylo’s perspective. So even though Kylo is our villain (…)

emperorren:

(…) Kylo is our default POV to preserve the twist. And there’s also the question of audience empathy, whether we notice it or not. Luke is also indomitable during the fight, an almost god-like figure, self-assured while Kylo struggles, hunches into himself in fear while having his villainous breakdown. While we’re cheering on Luke because we want the Resistance to escape, there’s also a dissonance in the dynamic of the fight scene: usually, the villain is nigh invincible until the end, and the hero is the one that struggles. So even though Luke is the protagonist in this duel and Kylo Ren is the antagonist, there’s a part of the narrative that makes it seem as though he’s the antagonist and Kylo the protagonist, aided in part by our exclusion from Luke’s full POV until the very end. We don’t want Kylo to succeed, because his success would bring destruction, but the narrative is also demanding that we empathize with him through cinematic language and tropes.

he is our eyes for the Crait battle, the default POV through which we perceive the scene. I don’t know if this was intentional by the director, but I think it’s part of why viewing the scene is very uncomfortable for some people. I’m sure that many people who prefer Kylo as a villain or who are big fans of Luke Skywalker could have been cheering for Luke to cut Kylo down or who didn’t see any dissonance, which I’m not saying is a bad way of reading Crait, but I do think there’s something interesting there with perspective and framing that could be analyzed further.

Very astute observations, and yes, Kylo is definitely the main pov in the third act, starting from the moment he wakes up on the Supremacy (in fact, we didn’t see Rey waking up, deciding not to kill him and going straight for a ship to escape, which means she’s no longer our pov).

It’s not the first time the narrative uses “struggling hero” cinematic tropes for Kylo. Remember the Starkiller duel? Remember when Rey connected with the Force and started stalking Kylo? There’s a really interesting shot of her being filmed from behind and approaching Kylo menacingly as he staggers back, and many noted that this is how villains or threats to the hero are framed, which creates an interesting dissonance. Of course Rey isn’t a villain, but even in the Starkiller duel we are asked to feel pity, if not downright compassion, for Kylo who is suddenly gone from hunter to prey, he’s the one bleeding and falling under Rey’s blows. Back to Crait, yes to what you said, Luke is not our pov in the battle, he’s literally just a hologram, the only emotions that transpire from him are for Ben’s benefit, and the whole sequence could be just as convincing if it only happened in Kylo’s head. 

Someone else previously noted that TFA’s main pov switched from Finn’s to Rey in the third act, and that TLJ similarly switched povs from Rey’s to Kylo, and that since Rey was the main pov for two thirds of TLJ, it’s reasonable to expect that Kylo will be the main pov for at least the first half of epIX. Which is something I’m absurdly excited for.

First Line Challenge

Tagged by @doing-talking

RULES: List the first lines of the last ten stories you published. Look to see if there are any patterns that you notice yourself, and see if anyone else notices any! Then tag some friends.

(Thank you !!!!! I actually only have seven stories published to AO3, so I’ll be doing the oldest stories to the newest + three that I haven’t published yet.)

1.The storm had forced them to seek shelter together. Now, whatever cosmic entity pulling the strings began to think that placing the two enemies into such close proximity for survival was even funnier. – The Storm (Kylo/Rey)

2. Ben had lost the luxury of being able to sleep on his back long before Rey  entered his life. – Cicatrix (Kylo/Rey)

3.The crackling of the fire, and the click of her throat as she swallows, is too loud for her liking among the silence and her guest.- Seek It Out (Rey/Kylo)

4. Ripping a phantasmal hole into their plane of existence was ‘expectedly’ simple. Getting into their dorm room was surprisingly difficult. – Julia Child’s Euphemisms For Death (Taako/Kravitz)

5.When she shut the door of the Falcon, she had wanted that to be the end of it all. – Refined Sight (Rey/Kylo)

6. Rey knows Princes are characterized by vanity. – Anathema Creatures (Kylo/Rey)

7. He committed his first theft while away at the academy. – Lingering Effects (Caleb Widogast & Nott The Brave, platonic) 

(unpublished) 8. She remembered the first time she drank booze. Nott was surprised what stuck to her memory and what didn’t. Lingering Effects part 2 (Caleb Widogast & Nott The Brave, platonic)

(unpublished) 9. “It’s quite homely, isn’t it ?” Caleb eyed ‘It’ through the bars of its cage. (Caleb Widogast & Nott The Brave, platonic)

(unpublished) 10. It was buttons at first. (Caleb Widogast & Nott The Brave, platonic)

esp when realism doesn’t work, comic book ‘realism’ always looks uncanny valley to me bc they’re working under such tight deadlines and there are always missed details or mistakes in the process. stylized art is always interesting and has lots of personality.

Do you mean the Poe Dameron comic ? Because another issue I have with hyper realism in comics is that you miss some of the nuance and facial expression that can come from a stylistic cartoon. With dialogue in comics you need exaggerated facial expression to catch the meaning when there is no audio verbal tone. 

The Poe comics visited so many cool places, and just had so much world building in it, but the art at times varied a lot and they dropped a lot of the early more cartoon esque style that hooked me. First fifteen issues of Poe Dameron balanced realism with cartoon so well….and then compare that to the most recent issues released. 

If you’re looking for more stylized stuff in the star wars realm of comics I highly reccomend Doctor Aphra, The Star Wars Adventures, and Forces of Destiny (The Comics). They do a fantastic job. 

(also I will add that despite some of my criticism I do love the comic artists out there. The industry is tough, art is hard, and some of the stuff they do I could never dream of. I also am very happy to be given an abundance of content by these creators.)