Why does Rey intended to try and bring Kylo back to the Light? She makes it clear to Luke that she’s doing it for the Resistance’s sake when he still refuses to return after offers him the lightsaber for the second time.
But why would the Resistance ever need Kylo? Even without any kind of training Rey kicked his ass. She “borrows” Luke’s books, presumably to use them as a reading course for brushing up on Jedi skills. With that she’d be more than able to kick his ass again.
If the Resistance has her it’ll never need Kylo, Ben or whatever he might choose to call himself.
Except, the Resistance doesn’t have Rey does it?
She had no plan on joining forces with the Resistance after they deliver BB-8 to them, only wanted to go back to Jakku. In TLJ her two constants while she is with Luke is to consistently ask him to return with her and try to get information about or word to Finn. And her last words to Finn in TFA is that she believes they’ll see each other again.
In fact she seems intent on dispensing with her errand as quickly as possible so she can return to the Resistance so she can return fast. Last she had a chance to really talk to Finn he made it clear he had no intention of becoming a part of the Resistance or stick around, for all she knows he’ll be gone the moment he’s up and about.
She has no intention of sticking around with the Resistanc, she just want someone else who can deal with all of this and when Luke refuses to return, Rey turns to Kylo as her second option. If she can turn him back to the Light then she can dump the Resistance and all this Force nonsense in his lap and fly off into the sunset with her new boyfriend – the only living person who cared enough for her to make sure she was safe and free even at great cost to himself – and enough knowledge that she doesn’t create mishaps with her new abilities.
I think a lot of people miss this, tbh. Rey was looking to get back to Finn. You get the impression that Rey felt that the “Luke issue” was not that he was depressed, necessarily, but that he was somewhere no one could find him and that as soon as he was found and told that the First Order was killing people, he’d just come back immediately. She likely thought she’d be on Ahch-To only long enough to find Luke, tell him the deal, help him back his stuff, and then head back to the last reported position of the Resistance fleet.
It’s still bad writing for her to assume that Kylo is the last hope. Why not try to find Maz, who is Force Sensitive, though not a trained Jedi? Maz said in TFA she knows the Force, and I think she probably knew her way around a lightsaber. She’s obviously worried about Finn. He’s out of the woods in TFA (which is another continuity shitball courtesy of Rian Johnson), but not conscious. It’s clear she wants to return to him. I think she also wants to help rid the galaxy of the First Order, but I think she thought her part in it was to scoop Luke up and bring him to where he could help. The whole “There’s something inside me that’s awakened” is Rian Johnsass’s projection bullshit that had no place in this movie.
If you look at Rey as the actual protagonist of her own arc, her story is like a classic Odyssey; like Odysseus the goal is to get back home (Finn has replaced Jakku as her belonging place). She faces a string of mental and physical challenges to reaching that goal, including breaking through to an uncommunicative Luke, finding the lightsaber, learning Force control, facing herself in the cave, and, of course, Kylo Ren, who tries to Siren-song her to the Dark Side, and the physical battles with the Guards and the FO ships at Crait.
Holy shit this adds a whole new meaning to the look Rey gave Finn and
Rose. It’s like Odysseus braving gods, witches, monsters and what have
you to come home to Penelope, only to find her beleaguered by suitors.
Finn has a new commitment to the Resistance and at least one new
friend–perhaps girlfriend?–that he cares about very much. Rey doesn’t
know how hard he tried to keep her safe and meet up with her, and we
don’t know if the deleted scene where he saw BB-8′s recording is canon.
The deleted scene being canon would explain much about his attempt to
leave, but there’s also dramatic irony in the two of them being like
ships passing in the night, each pining for the other while being
unaware the other feels the same. It’s the classic “mutual unrequited
crush” situation, except with magic, lasers, and fascists.
And
now Luke is gone and Kylo has refused yet again to return to the light.
Rey is the only known Force user left to fight for the Resistance, and
Finn, who had asked her to come with him, is staying of his own free
will. In TFA it was Finn who said “Come with me” and Rey who told him,
“Don’t go.” In TLJ it was Rey who was fighting her way to his side, for
the chance to say “Come with me” with a clear conscience, and now both
the needs of the universe and Finn himself are telling her without
words, “Don’t go.”
As Rey watches Finn and Rose, is she
regretting the fact that she didn’t go when he asked? Wondering if she
might be the one he would be tucking in if she had left with him? But
also realizing that this isn’t just about the two of them, they can’t
ignore the threat of the First Order and now they are both enmeshed?
Wondering if they will ever be able to live free of the looming menace
and the moral obligation to fight it, whether they will both make it out
alive to think about a future together, doubting whether the two of
them together is even on the table for him anymore?
Like John said on Twitter (link here), that look said it all.
Yup. Finn isn’t purely a Penelope, since he has his own hero’s journey. But in the context of Rey’s journey, he’s a classic Penelope, complete with a “suitor.”
Exactly. What I love about their intertwined stories in TLJ is that they are each their own Odysseus and the other’s Penelope. (Also I love the idea of a Black man being a cherished and protected love interest that a heroic woman is lifting heaven and earth to come home to.) Rey has her Odyssey but so does Finn, to protect Rey and also to find a new purpose, a new commitment. Rey also has her “suitor,” the Force and being a Jedi, and this is made quite explicit in the novelization when Finn fears, right before their reunion, that she might no longer be the Rey he knew. And then Rey falls into his arms, laughing and sobbing at the same time and my heart send help
This took me a little while, but here’s the follow up to this post about Kes and Poe!
“You know, I’ve been thinking for days and I still can’t figure it out.”
Finn, who was admiring the view of the tall grass in the waning light, gives him a curious glance. Kes cuts the end off the lash tightened around a newly-repaired fencepost before he turns to face Finn.
“What do I say to the man who saved my son’s life?“
The surprise hits Finn’s eyes and he opens his mouth to speak, then just gapes for a moment before he tries to laugh.
“I mean… you don’t have to- I needed a pilot, didn’t he tell you? It was-”
“Everything. You saved everything dear to me, Finn. He is my entire universe, and you got him out of there.”
Finn picks at a blade of grass that comes to his waist while CR-660 bobs around in the air, fussing with the fencepost. The air is still in the late afternoon, the light hot and big across the grassland.
“I thought I’d lost him in the desert, on Jakku.” Finn looks up to meet his eyes. “I thought that was it.”
“That wasn’t the end, though. Even if it were…” Kes feels a lump growing in his throat, and walks on to the next fencepost to distract himself. CR floats along behind him, chirping. “It would have been a better- a better end than that hole.”
Unable to go on, he waves CR onto the damaged post. She hovers around, inspecting the split wood before she flies off to a woodpile nearby for a new one.
“Don’t say that. Please.” In Finn’s tense voice Kes hears the echo of what he suffered in those hours when Poe was presumed dead, hours that Kes himself never knew except in nightmares both sleeping and waking.
“I’m sorry. That’s enough about that. But here’s something else I wanted to ask.” He watches CR zoom back, wooden posts floating at the end of her little tractor beam. “Are you all right?”
“Me?” Finn looks lost, not yet familiar with the question. “I… think so?”
“You don’t need to talk about anything you don’t have to, of course. CR, not so tight. You’ll split the wood again.”
The droid boops back, do it yourself if you can do it better. She does pull the lash less tightly in her rounds around the post, however.
“I want to, but I wouldn’t know where to start.” Finn is looking across the grassland again, as though looking for something. “I look at where I was two weeks ago and where I am now, and I literally can’t believe it. Sometimes I think I’m dreaming.”
“Good dream or bad?”
“Both?” Finn’s laughter is a little too sharp. “Sometimes I close my eyes and I’m back in the armor, afraid, and I think I dreamed of escaping. Then I open my eyes and I’m here. Which is real? Did I create this ranch, Poe, Rey, you, in my mind just to keep sane? Maybe the reconditioning happened and this is how it works, by keeping me in a waking dream.”
Finn catches his breath and looks at Kes with what he realizes is actual terror. “I’m sorry, I know I sound crazy. Please don’t tell- I’m really going to be locked up if I say ‘Captain Phasma,’ won’t I.”
“No one’s locking you up, you’re no danger to anyone but the guys who deserve it. Don’t lay about, CR, go do the next one.”
The droid, floating about as though enjoying the view herself, gives an indignant chirp before she flies away.
“Listen. Finn. You’ve gone through a lot in a very short time, and I won’t pretend to know anything about the life you lived before that.” Before he saved Poe, and in so doing became the second most important person in Kes’s life. “If you’re a little crazy from all that, well, who can blame you? Minds bend and break under strain, I can’t say I’m all that sane myself. Or my boy, for that matter. I’ve been doing some reading, and I heard it called a normal response to an abnormal situation.”
Finn nods slowly. “Normal. I like that.”
“But minds can be mended, too,” Kes puts a hand on the fencepost next to him. “Maybe they won’t be exactly the same as before, but enough to keep the beasties out and everyone to be safe.”
“Yes.” Finn’s smile is soft, bittersweet. “Poe is lucky to have you.”
Kes’s heart aches, as it does so often around Finn. What can he say to a loss like this, a gaping wound that sucks in the air around it and stops time, making life seem impossible sometimes?
“I’d say, and don’t let him forget it.” He adds in a lower voice: “I’m lucky to have him, too.”
His chest fills with the knowledge, that no matter how he might bleed and scream inside for Poe, no matter that he fears every day that he might lose his son to would-be Imperial goons, he had the privilege of raising his son to be a man. He had known chubby arms around his neck, scraped knees, gurgling laughter, the first glass of wine, the first broken heart. That was something Finn would never have in this deeply unfair universe.
“Here’s something else I know, Finn. You’re everything, too, to a family that never gave up on you no matter what.”
“That is, if they’re still…” Finn shrugs, looks out across the grassland in the fading light.
“No ifs. Do you think Shara, my Lady Bey, my fire among the stars, ever stopped loving our boy? Or her irritating man, for that matter?” Kes snorts. “Death would be too scared to get in her way.”
Finn bows his head and Kes goes to stand by his side, to see what the younger man is seeing, the sunset filling the sky over waving grass. “I hope your family is out there, looking for you. But if not, they love you and they always will.” In the stillness between them the wind rustles across the fields. “I also want you to know, though it’s no replacement, my home is your home and is open to you, always.”
Finn says nothing for a long moment, and Kes looks at him only to see a tear tracing its way down the young man’s cheek, glittering red in the evening light.
Kes lifts an arm, giving Finn plenty of time to pull away if he wants, and puts a hand to Finn’s back. When Finn leans toward him Kes puts the arm around his shoulders and pulls tight. They stand and face the wind together, in a world of light and the vast expanse, a crescent Yavin revealing itself as the light fades.
“And believe me, it’s not because you’re dating my son. You can dump him like a sack of sweetroots tomorrow, Force knows you can do better, and if you feel uncomfortable with him here I’ll kick him out.”
Finn chuckles as he wipes his face. “Thank you, Kes.”
“I mean it, try me! I told you before and I will tell you again, you need to play the field. You’re too young to settle.”
“Hey, lazy bums!”
They both turn to see Poe walking through the grass down a hill, spare fenceposts slung across his back, Rey behind him with a bag of tools.
“Told you we were going to beat you, Dad, droid or no droid.”
“Keep working like that, Captain Dameron, and you’ll ruin your back before you’re forty.”
“Commander. That’s Commander Dameron!” Poe puts down the posts he was carrying, which CR whisks away. “I was demoted for one day and you’ve been calling me that for a week.”
“A little humility never hurt anyone.”
“So that means you’re cooking, right, Kes?” Rey lets out a squeal. “I can’t wait!”
“Oh, it will be worth the anticipation, Master Jedi.”
“Rey.”
“Rey. Dinner is derloc caldos and roasted tip-yip, a genuine Ewok recipe, with candied slugfruit for dessert.”
“I don’t know what that is, but I know I’ll love it!” Rey turns to Finn and they scream at each other like six-year-olds.
Poe crosses his arms. “If you ever want real food you can always ask me to cook. Not that I will, as long as Dad keeps losing these bets.”
“Oh, a sore winner?” Finn pulls him by an arm around the waist, and they share a kiss and a grin. “I’m beginning to think Kes has a point about needing to play the field while I’m young.”
“Says the guy who was married at twenty-five?” The look Poe shoots Kes over his shoulder is one of pure betrayal. “You are the worst wingman and more importantly, what in space are you thinking.”
“Yes yes, we both know he is far out of your league, but what can I do?” Kes shrugs. “I have to tell the truth when I see it.”
Finn taps Poe’s chest with the back of a hand. “Come on, flyboy, bet I can beat you to the house.”
“First one in gets dibs on the yip-yip!” Rey runs ahead of them.
“Tip-yip,” Kes sighs. “I got the recipe from this Ewok tribe-”
“Not fair! You started first!” Finn runs after Rey, his feet pounding the ground.
“Um no, no! This is not the Rey you’re looking for?”
“Let’s get her, Finn!”
Kes watches them go in the fading light, the wind a cold whisper on his neck. “Come along, CR.”
The droid floats humming to his side and he starts toward the house, listening to the children shout and laugh–warriors all who have seen too much and walked through fire, yet they need to be children at times. He knows he needs that from them, too.
As he walks in Yavin’s light Kes listens to the night birds, the chirping insects, the wind, the sounds of home as the day cools to evening. His steps are steady and his heart is full.
ok but has anyone considered… stormtrooper memes. stormtroopers with injokes. stormtroopers quietly passing along little nudges and references while they’re standing guard or patrolling endless hallways. hux pausing halfway through a speech, suspiciously— he just heard a very tiny, staticy giggle. like,
(standing in front of blank wall or empty box) nothing to see here, move along
let’s just put that in the back pocket for now mmkay
*eats ration bar* mm mmm tastes like [dead comrade]
you can’t be mean to me on my birthday
*force chokes a problem*
(between heavy darth vader wheezes) i’m not mad, i’m just disappointed.
(when something falls over) rebel scum!
*points at large machine* mom
it’s party time (everyone stands perfectly still for at least a minute)
(when friend come into the room) you’re surplus to requirements
they put a worm in him
*picks up thing that is not a phaser* pew pew
i’m matt the radar technician
millennium falcon as a code for “mother fucker”
Sending troopers new to the unit on an ruffleluff hunt
spreading the rumor that Hoth is secretly the main base because that’s the only place their uniforms make sense as camo
tagging other trooper’s helmets with mysterious substances when they’re not looking
radioing sanitation to ‘come take out this trash’ when dragging another trooper
there’s coffee and doughnuts in the breakroom
*does something dangerous* eat me ass first
healthy habits start at home
well, as we all know, [lie]
*gives someone a pinecone* (very difficult to pull off)
i can’t go out dressed like THIS!
my morale is so [genital adjective] right now.
does anyone need to stormpooper before we go
fun is illegal
*puts foot in small box* i live here now
doubletime sleeping
*points at captain phasma* mom
*humming Vader’s theme tune when someone’s in trouble*
Jedi are a myth
Kylo Ren is a myth
*explaining damage* It got KRed. (Kylo Renned)
KRUBAR Kylo Renned Beyond All Recall/Recognition/Repair
Calling helmets faces (a relic from the clone days)
Backtalking superior officers “begging to be spaced”
Kylo Ren is having a moment as an acceptable excuse for deviating a patrol route
General Hux is in a good mood as an acceptable excuse for deviating a patrol route
And Captain Phasma is smiling at us under that helmet (synonymous with “bullshit”)
Finn accidentally slipping into stormtrooper memes while with the Resistance and getting some odd looks.
Finn trying to explain to them why their Force-using manchild deadly enemy destroying property in a rage is funny and getting some more odd looks.
Finn feeling a little knot in his gut when he realizes he’s never going to be able to tell these jokes again. How’s he even going to connect to these people enough to make them laugh when they’re all scared shitless? How’s he going to carry his entire squad around in his head when he can’t even speak their language anymore?
Meanwhile Rey’s standing there squinting suspiciously at a pinecone.
Okay but Rebels who see Finn being upset and making a concerted effort to figure out meme culture. Rey and Jessika talking it out while Jessika is teaching Rey the cultural miscellany of Resistance and pilot culture.
Rey being the first one to get it, because she synergizes what Jessika’s telling her and what Finn’s explaining and realizes, this is all communication around communication, the key point is shared understanding, and then she starts making her own, with Jessika, and Finn picks it up, and soon the whole base is in on this bastardized mix of stormtrooper meme and purely Resistance meme and a ridiculous combination of the two.
And then they interact with stormtroopers and something goes on in the background on the First Order side and a Resistance soldier asks, “Is Kylo Ren having a moment?” and there’s muffled laughter and an absence of blasterfire from the stormtroopers.
Pretty soon there’s a whole code that stormtroopers and resistance soldiers can use to communicate. “Nothing to see here, move along” means “I’m ignoring you on purpose, don’t shoot me,” and “I’m KR’d” means “I want out, please capture me.”
From the Rebel side, “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi” becomes “throw me a bone here” in either direction to ask for a favor; “That’s no moon” means “you’re walking into a trap here/we’ve got a secret weapon you won’t like.”
Okay, I was expecting someone to pick this up, but damn, this is even better than I hoped.
This is wonderful
And “Rebel Scum” is totally the “Thanks, Obama” of the Star Wars Universe
What I really like about this is that it paints a picture of two sites you really just don’t want to be at war and I just trying to make the best of a bad situation.
This is spun off from @jewishcomeradebot‘s post about the parallels and contrasts of Finn and Kylo Ren in TLJ–how they both kill their abusers but, where Finn walks away and is free, Kylo Ren stays despite the death of his abuser.
Finn and Kylo’s paths diverged from the very beginning of TFA, of course, at Tuanul. It was the start of Finn’s escape and Kylo Ren choosing to enmesh himself all the deeper, and it was the trajectory of these choices that led to them to the events of TLJ.
In understanding Finn’s leaving and Kylo’s staying, not to mention the nature of abuse in general, I don’t think I can emphasize enough that leaving an abusive situation is unbelievably hard.
Isolation is a big part of abuse, and leaving often means
you have little to no support or resources outside that relationship. Leaving itself may be punished by violence, which was very much true in Finn’s case. Finn had to risk his
life and fight through a space fortress just to physically leave. Once
he had escaped he had absolutely nothing and could have died in the
desert but the Force wouldn’t let him, of course. At
the end of TLJ he’s one of about 20 survivors on a space weed van (I will
never not be amused by that expression), marked and
hunted, his future uncertain.
By contrast Kylo stayed, and he
has all the comfort and resources of the First Order at his disposal.
He is powerful and important, heck, he played his cards right and he’s
effing Supreme Leader now. By all external measures Kylo is way ahead in the game.
Then there is the relational
aspect. Finn not only had to brave significant dangers just to leave, he
had to figure out an entire new way of living and relating to people.
You see him doing that even before his escape was assured, when he built
trust with Poe who was a complete stranger to him at the time. Later he became
friends with Rey and BB-8 despite a rocky beginning, even earned Han’s
trust and respect. When Rey asked him not to go on Takodana, he didn’t
tell her she’d be alone without him or she was a bad friend for not
understanding his fear. He bared his soul to her but respected her
decision completely, something no one had modeled for him in the First
Order. He had to start from scratch in so many ways, much like he had to find his way in a trackless desert to survive.
Kylo? He’s clearly
had many models of non-abusive relationships growing up in a loving
home, but he chose to discard them in favor of Snoke’s way of
manipulation and dominance. TLJ’s Kylo and Rey plot was a long exercise
in Kylo roping Rey in with superficial charm and shallow appeals to
sympathy for his own advantage. I believe he was recreating both the way
Snoke manipulated him and the dynamic he had with Snoke, undermining Rey’s self-worth so that she would easier to control, trying to get her to destroy her friends in the ultimate act of isolation like Snoke did with him. This model of relationships was easy for him, intimately familiar through Snoke’s manipulation and abuse. He chose not to explore the possibility of a relationship that did not depend on subjugation and violence, with Rey or anyone else. Despite killing his abuser he chose to continue the same destructive pattern, this time with himself in Snoke’s place.
In a way I can understand Kylo here, because again, leaving often demands a high, seemingly impossible price. I’m pretty sure nothing about Finn’s defection from the First Order inspired Kylo to follow suit, because externally speaking Finn’s life went to absolute shit from leaving and opposing the First Order. Aside from the abovementioned near-death at his former comrades’ hands and wandering in the desert with nothing, Finn was cut off from a once-absolute sense of purpose and became a wanted man. His allegiance went from an absolute power that seems poised to swallow the galaxy to a pack of pitiable losers whose lives could be–and will be, if Kylo has his way–snuffed out at any moment. What could be more foolish? In fact I would not be surprised if Kylo, in his wavering moments, used Finn’s fate as a way to harden his resolve to stay.
Unlike Finn, Kylo also has the additional prospects of prosecution for various war crimes including mass murder, torture, and complicity with genocide to look forward to, not to mention the patricide of one of the galaxy’s beloved heroes. He, like his idol Vader, has earned the kind of hatred and infamy that would outlive him. In addition, were he truly to admit to wrongdoing, the guilt and regret would and should tear his soul apart for the rest of his days. It’s like the line from Macbeth, “I am in blood stepped in so far that should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er.” He could, if he chose, brave the consequences and return to the light. But he chooses to believe he has come too far, and rather than throw away his comforts, his power, his conviction, his purpose, his sense of self-righteousness, and his ability to dominate and control, he chose to continue on his path.
This is why Finn’s and Kylo’s fates still diverge despite killing their respective abusers. For Finn it was a continuation of his journey away from abuse, not only his abusers themselves but the abusive dynamic itself. For Kylo it was a logical culmination of his journey into abuse, to continue the dynamic but with himself as the abuser rather than the victim. Finn chose to break the cycle while Kylo chose to continue it. Rey, who Kylo wanted to take his own place as the victim-apprentice, chose to break out as well and join Finn. She chose to live and fight by his and the Resistance’s side in the uncertainty of freedom, not the glittering cage of absolute power. Snoke may be dead, but as of the end of TLJ he has the last laugh because his legacy lives on through his apprentice, now become the master.
The Supreme Leader is dead. Long live the Supreme Leader.
This is an interesting analysis that I personally agree with.
The funny thing I have noticed though is this is what people usually fail to grasp when watching the last Jedi. There is a large part of the shipping community that seems to think of the last Jedi ends with Hux as the big bad and Kylo reluctantly staying in the First Order, though that isn’t the case. Kylo is now the big bad.
Personally, that wasn’t what I wanted for the character. After the force awakens, I thought it would be revealed that the character actually believed in his mission, his master, and would be a subversion from Vader who was just waiting to kill the emperor, but I still thought it was an interesting take to have a character outrightly reject redemption in favor of pose, while another character, Finn, chose freedom and struggling over power.
“Reluctantly?” Binch he took over that joint what the fuck are they even going on about? He was going to destroy the remaining Resistance and somehow he’s reluctant? That’s some next level reach lmao.
Kylo tried to KILL Finn! Did everyone forget this?!
how about his: if someone you love SO much starts a relationship with a murderer… wouldn’t you try to… stop them??
So first it’s “Finn will sympathize with ‘Ben’ because Finn is an abuse survivor himself”
– The implication: If Finn doesn’t sympathize with “Ben” he didn’t really suffer abuse
Now it’s “Finn loves Rey so much he’ll accept that she loves ‘Ben’“
– The implication: If Finn doesn’t accept Rey’s supposed feelings for a murderer and torturer he doesn’t really love Rey
Can these people make it any clearer that they think Finn’s entire story revolves around Kyle Ron, and they don’t see any worth in Finn unless he props up KR and their ship?
I’ve literally had someone say under my own post that the entire story of the sequel trilogy is about Kylo Ren’s redemption and love life…not anyone or anything else. Just him. Under my own post where I was asking why every speculation post has to be about someone getting redemption who doesn’t want it and the love life he also shows no interest in…and then someone replied making my post about Kylo’s redemption and love life. Ignoring everything else in the entire post, even speculations that had to do with Kylo.
So, no. Some people on this shipping community only solely care about one or two aspects of the entire trilogy.
Wow they’re so… open about it. Also why is “mass murderer” in quotes that’s literally what he is lmao
Kylo tried to KILL Finn! Did everyone forget this?!
how about his: if someone you love SO much starts a relationship with a murderer… wouldn’t you try to… stop them??
So first it’s “Finn will sympathize with ‘Ben’ because Finn is an abuse survivor himself”
– The implication: If Finn doesn’t sympathize with “Ben” he didn’t really suffer abuse
Now it’s “Finn loves Rey so much he’ll accept that she loves ‘Ben’“
– The implication: If Finn doesn’t accept Rey’s supposed feelings for a murderer and torturer he doesn’t really love Rey
Can these people make it any clearer that they think Finn’s entire story revolves around Kyle Ron, and they don’t see any worth in Finn unless he props up KR and their ship?
I just realized that the Finn patch from that other post was made by a punk rock & antifascist politics shop called NoMoreIndustries and the design is called “REFUSE/RESIST.”
So someone gets it.
So here for Finn the antifascist symbol. Their other pieces of SW merchandise include a Leia T-shirt reading “A woman’s place is in the Resistance: Fight back” and a pin with Chirrut’s line, “I am one with the Force and the Force is with me.“
But sure, Star Wars is completely apolitical and has nothing to with real life right?
This is spun off from @jewishcomeradebot‘s post about the parallels and contrasts of Finn and Kylo Ren in TLJ–how they both kill their abusers but, where Finn walks away and is free, Kylo Ren stays despite the death of his abuser.
Finn and Kylo’s paths diverged from the very beginning of TFA, of course, at Tuanul. It was the start of Finn’s escape and Kylo Ren choosing to enmesh himself all the deeper, and it was the trajectory of these choices that led to them to the events of TLJ.
In understanding Finn’s leaving and Kylo’s staying, not to mention the nature of abuse in general, I don’t think I can emphasize enough that leaving an abusive situation is unbelievably hard.
Isolation is a big part of abuse, and leaving often means
you have little to no support or resources outside that relationship. Leaving itself may be punished by violence, which was very much true in Finn’s case. Finn had to risk his
life and fight through a space fortress just to physically leave. Once
he had escaped he had absolutely nothing and could have died in the
desert but the Force wouldn’t let him, of course. At
the end of TLJ he’s one of about 20 survivors on a space weed van (I will
never not be amused by that expression), marked and
hunted, his future uncertain.
By contrast Kylo stayed, and he
has all the comfort and resources of the First Order at his disposal.
He is powerful and important, heck, he played his cards right and he’s
effing Supreme Leader now. By all external measures Kylo is way ahead in the game.
Then there is the relational
aspect. Finn not only had to brave significant dangers just to leave, he
had to figure out an entire new way of living and relating to people.
You see him doing that even before his escape was assured, when he built
trust with Poe who was a complete stranger to him at the time. Later he became
friends with Rey and BB-8 despite a rocky beginning, even earned Han’s
trust and respect. When Rey asked him not to go on Takodana, he didn’t
tell her she’d be alone without him or she was a bad friend for not
understanding his fear. He bared his soul to her but respected her
decision completely, something no one had modeled for him in the First
Order. He had to start from scratch in so many ways, much like he had to find his way in a trackless desert to survive.
Kylo? He’s clearly
had many models of non-abusive relationships growing up in a loving
home, but he chose to discard them in favor of Snoke’s way of
manipulation and dominance. TLJ’s Kylo and Rey plot was a long exercise
in Kylo roping Rey in with superficial charm and shallow appeals to
sympathy for his own advantage. I believe he was recreating both the way
Snoke manipulated him and the dynamic he had with Snoke, undermining Rey’s self-worth so that she would easier to control, trying to get her to destroy her friends in the ultimate act of isolation like Snoke did with him. This model of relationships was easy for him, intimately familiar through Snoke’s manipulation and abuse. He chose not to explore the possibility of a relationship that did not depend on subjugation and violence, with Rey or anyone else. Despite killing his abuser he chose to continue the same destructive pattern, this time with himself in Snoke’s place.
In a way I can understand Kylo here, because again, leaving often demands a high, seemingly impossible price. I’m pretty sure nothing about Finn’s defection from the First Order inspired Kylo to follow suit, because externally speaking Finn’s life went to absolute shit from leaving and opposing the First Order. Aside from the abovementioned near-death at his former comrades’ hands and wandering in the desert with nothing, Finn was cut off from a once-absolute sense of purpose and became a wanted man. His allegiance went from an absolute power that seems poised to swallow the galaxy to a pack of pitiable losers whose lives could be–and will be, if Kylo has his way–snuffed out at any moment. What could be more foolish? In fact I would not be surprised if Kylo, in his wavering moments, used Finn’s fate as a way to harden his resolve to stay.
Unlike Finn, Kylo also has the additional prospects of prosecution for various war crimes including mass murder, torture, and complicity with genocide to look forward to, not to mention the patricide of one of the galaxy’s beloved heroes. He, like his idol Vader, has earned the kind of hatred and infamy that would outlive him. In addition, were he truly to admit to wrongdoing, the guilt and regret would and should tear his soul apart for the rest of his days. It’s like the line from Macbeth, “I am in blood stepped in so far that should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er.” He could, if he chose, brave the consequences and return to the light. But he chooses to believe he has come too far, and rather than throw away his comforts, his power, his conviction, his purpose, his sense of self-righteousness, and his ability to dominate and control, he chose to continue on his path.
This is why Finn’s and Kylo’s fates still diverge despite killing their respective abusers. For Finn it was a continuation of his journey away from abuse, not only his abusers themselves but the abusive dynamic itself. For Kylo it was a logical culmination of his journey into abuse, to continue the dynamic but with himself as the abuser rather than the victim. Finn chose to break the cycle while Kylo chose to continue it. Rey, who Kylo wanted to take his own place as the victim-apprentice, chose to break out as well and join Finn. She chose to live and fight by his and the Resistance’s side in the uncertainty of freedom, not the glittering cage of absolute power. Snoke may be dead, but as of the end of TLJ he has the last laugh because his legacy lives on through his apprentice, now become the master.
The Supreme Leader is dead. Long live the Supreme Leader.
L.J.'s Obsessions 