OKAY SO, those of you know I was never big on the whole ‘Ben Solo’ thing – I liked imagining who he WAS, but I didn’t like the idea that once redeemed he’d just be Ben Solo again. I was on the side of ‘he’s Kylo Ren and whomever he evolves into he’ll never go back to being Ben Solo so stop calling him that’ – but my goodness the movie changed that stance thoroughly.
I think…Ben Solo is quiet, but traumatized and emotionally unstable just like Kylo Ren, meaning he still carries that darkness, those outbursts. We see it in TFA when he attacks inanimate objects instead of people – that’s a really important distinction that they made in his ‘tantrums’.
I think he’s troubled, but kind. Honest and blunt, definitely a little awkward around people.
Desperate to fit in – throws himself into the hunt for Jedi relics, writes and muses about the philosophy, all in an attempt to fit what he thinks Luke and his mother/parents want. Because he knows, has always known, that deep down inside he’s not Luke – there’s something inside of him that’s dark, and scary. And it’s not just Snoke, who was trying to get to him even in Leia’s womb, it’s the Force in general – he has such a great power, a prodigy like Rey, but the Force is both Light and Dark and when you have great capacity for one you have it with the other. And so I think he sees Luke as this great, mythical, pure Jedi and wonders – angrily, probably – why he can’t be more like him.
So I think he also has cultivated a superiority complex based on that, his parents, his upbringing (nobility), his ‘rightful’ place in a destiny that the Force has shown him, etc. and this is all stoked and turned into flames by Snoke.
I think he’s always been alone, if not physically then emotionally separated from those who were supposed to care for him.
I think Kylo Ren is…all those things, but suppressed through years of abuse, manipulation, dark side use, emotional trauma, etc. by Snoke & religious (FO) fervor. He found someone – Snoke – who gave him a place, told him a grand story about how he was the next coming of Vader – a LEGEND in the galaxy. And Kylo found a place where his skills were to be applauded rather than feared, where he could ascend to rightfully rule, yadda yadda.
So when we see Kylo Ren ‘turn’ or become Ben Solo, we’re not so much seeing a new person – but we’re seeing the persona lift up. We see it with Rey. Ben’s curiosity, studious nature, he’s very calm with her, his honesty – and we see his compassion for her. He listens to her worries, really listens. To what she needs: to not feel alone in this effort, with this Force power. And he gives it to her freely, no strings. That’s Ben Solo.
I was expecting (and fully prepared to enjoy the shit out of) some delicious blink-and-you-miss-it one-sided villainous pining, because that’s what I was kind of expecting from the big tender ‘little red riding hood’ posters and the trailer, and their dialogue exchanges in the video game Battlefront. I would have watched the movie multiple times if I only had the barest hints that Kylo Ren was in love with Rey, because that’s why I watched TFA multiple times in theaters. Like, I would have been satisfied with practically nothing, and I’m used to working with nothing.
But what I saw was so surprising… I was blown away, and I still can’t believe how much effort went into the writing and portrayal, the parallels between them, their spiritual strength and power, how much they had in common with their struggle with their parents and fighting their masters to become adults, how they really felt the same kind of lonely harsh darkness and had the instinct to comfort and protect each other. How young and tender it felt, and how they were. That Rey Reciprocated. That a bunch of screen time was dedicated to the part I personally found the most compelling. It’s not only like watching fanfic, it really is better than any other post-TFA fanfic I’ve read. It’s really good.
I think I’m still blown away by how symbolically meaningful it is, how you can look at Rey’s journey on multiple levels, and you can see how it could be more than a relationship, that it could have cosmic eternal resonance to it. It’s so interesting and complex, the Dark and the Light becoming balanced through love and compassion… I’m so glad they made the sequel trilogy about this. It’s meaningful to me.
darth-tantrum 