Exactly. I’ve heard Kylo Ren described as weak, but the truth is the opposite. He is incredibly strong and has to put incredible effort into his atrocities overcoming the moral values instilled in him by good and loving parents. He believes so absolutely in his righteousness, his entitlement, that he’s willing to tear himself apart to do what he believes in. That’s absolutely terrifying and not something we’ve really seen in a SW villain.
The woobification in TLJ aside I can’t think of a more chilling villain in Star Wars ever than Kylo Ren, because he’s a straight up fanatic.
Can you think of a more terrifying line than, “I know what I have to do, but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it”? Think about what he’s saying, that he knows he has to kill his father and he specifically have to kill him because he loves him. His pain is that he doesn’t know if he has the strength to disregard his love of Han to go through with killing him.
That is the test that Snoke means when he says, “Even you, master of the Knights of Ren, have ever faced such a test”. The test is if Kylo is convinced enough, dedicated enough, fanatical enough, to kill a person he loves for his own convictions. If he’s willing to destroy not just a person he loves, but himself, for his convictions. And not in a fit of rage as Vader tried to, but with cold premeditation.
And Kylo passes in rather flying colors I’d say. A character progression that continues in TLJ where we see once again that there’s really nothing Kylo isn’t willing to do, no one he isn’t willing to sacrifice, nothing and no one whom he’s not willing to see destroyed or order destroyed, for his convictions. No matter what.
Trashfire though TLJ is it still underlined this. He killed Han, he was willing to see Leia killed and ordered her killed at the end of the movie. And whatever positive emotions he may or may not have harbored for Rey did at the end of the day not matter at all, the moment it became clear that she did not believe at he did he tried his damnedest to destroy her too. Because his ability to feel empathy, compassion even love, does not matter to him, it’s a weakness. A weakness he has overcome.
So if IX decides to treat Kylo as the villain he was set up to be and it looks like it will, then we should be looking at possibly the scariest Star Wars villain to date and someone who is also terrifyingly appropriate for our time.
Tag: meta
Why Kylo Ren is a Christian hero and Finn is not
Along with the more visible reasons, one possible motivation for the insistence that Kylo Ren is the hero of the saga may be a Christian attitude
toward morality and evil. In areas where Christianity is wielded as a tool of cultural dominance, the Christian teaching of redemption and forgiveness has frequently been twisted into cheap grace–the idea that you can be forgiven for anything if you’re sorry enough, and what’s more, you don’t have to be held accountable or change in any meaningful way.
Another factor may be the
contrast between the Christian and Jewish concepts of evil that @jewishcomeradebot talked
about: Evil tends to be an otherworldly, demonic thing in Christianity but is an
all too human phenomenon in Judaism, and Ren’s character in TFA is an example of the latter (link, current link to full post).
Take these together and, for
large portions of a Christian/Christianized audience, someone who
actually feels sorry or conflicted can’t be truly evil because they are too
human and still redeemable. Since Kylo Ren is obviously human and feels conflict about his actions he is just a “sorry” away from a get out of jail free card and the hero slot. It doesn’t hurt that he’s an able-bodied white cis man, either.
In contrast, Finn in TFA is a terrible Christian hero, at least if we look through the lens of cheap grace and Christianity as cultural dominance. He isn’t shown feeling enough conflict for acts
like killing and lying. He isn’t torn up about his fundamentally
shameful and sinful nature like a good Christian redemptive hero
should be. When he does speak to Rey about the shame he unfairly felt from his
abuse it’s in the past tense, though of course the kind of treatment he has suffered will reverberate for a while yet.
As I discussed in a meta arguing Finn stands for the Balance in the Force (link), Finn does not beat himself up even for his more morally complex acts, either. He fights and kills Stormtroopers
in self-defense and the defense of others, but makes no soliloquies about
how he is a monster destined to kill. He makes things right after
lying to Rey by coming clean to her in a confession that obviously cost
him a great deal, and his conscience is clear. He doesn’t even pretend to be sorry
about misleading the Resistance so he can get to Rey, but he makes up for it by handing them a huge victory. He’s an actually
upright if complicated man who acts on his own moral code, and
he doesn’t feel the need for redemption or salvation.
Finn’s uncompromising dignity, his utter rightness with himself, may be
one of the few unforgivable sins in the kind of Christian framework I described.
Mass murder and genocide can be forgiven if you’re sorry enough, but
failing to suffer from your own sinful nature and not needing a lord and
savior? That’s a bridge too far in some people’s eyes. A
man like that is too free and independent, and cannot be controlled by shame or threats. The
antipathy for this kind of independence can interact in toxic ways with
racism and antiblackness as well, because Finn in Earth terms happens to
be from a group that society says are lesser and should be fundamentally ashamed of themselves.
Of course there is a great deal of racism at play in the fact that large sections of fandom see a mass murderer and patricide as the anointed hero of the galaxy, while at the same time dismissing a conscientious and brave hero as either a violent monster or a minor character of no importance. In addition, however, there may be a cultural divide in that Kylo Ren comes in a more familiar mold to many members of the audience–that of the (white) redemptive hero who can get away with literally anything, for whom grace is so cheap as to be free. Finn in TFA, on the other hand, is something altogether different and, in the eyes of many, worse: Someone who is at peace with himself where he has no business being. Perhaps it is no surprise, though no less sad, that the sequel felt the need to violently punish and mock Finn for the “sin” of his pride.
I really like the idea that Finn is a Force void, possibly caused by trauma. It would be interesting because it is mostly seen in Dark Side characters, but not exclusively, and it would underline once again that both Finn and Kylo are who they *choose* to be. Voids are also interesting because while some of them have been Force users, all of them are immune to others using the Force on them. Which would explain why Kylo doesn’t ever try to use the Force on him, not even once.
oooooh that is so interesting. Yeah I looked it up and it stated that Force Voids usually show up in people who have “natural leanings toward the dark side of the Force, who gravitated or were naturally drawn to it.” And you’re absolutely right that if Finn ends up being a Force Void then it really would underline the whole them of Choice and highlight their standings as foils to one another.
If Finn is a Force Void it’d certainly lend credence as to why he wasn’t sought out (at least in canon as we know it) to be in the Knights since he’d just fade into the background when he doesn’t want to be noticed. It’d make me wonder what Kylo sensed though when he stopped and stared at Finn in the beginning of tfa
One thing I absolutely need to be in IX, an explanation for what the hell Kylo sensed when he stopped and stared at Finn. It is such a pivotal moment yet it has never once been addressed.
Because from the pov of the general audience, that is where Kylo’s obsession with Finn seems to begin. He sensed something, something happened in those seconds, and we damn well need to know what that something was.
And yes Finn being a Force void would explain how a strongly Force senstive person could exist in the First Order and neither Snoke nor Kylo ever sense him. They’d have to be really close to him and possibly there would also have to be something in Finn that broke down the barrier, like you know, witnessing a massacre. So Tuanul would be the first time either of them senses Finn.
Finn’s being a Force void would also be a neat outgrowth of his character background, where he constantly feared being noticed and hurt. It would make sense for his Force ability to develop along these lines, as a shield and protection in a hostile environment. Others have pointed out that no one seeing or helping Finn in TLJ when he was walking around in a leaking bacta suit was weird, as was his being able to pull Rose back to the bunker on Crait in one piece. It’s “these are not the droids you are looking for” all over again, except not on just one person he’s directly interacting with but every single onlooker that he might not even be aware of. Imagine how useful that would have been in the dangerous environment he grew up in, where he could blend in and not be seen when, say, Kylo Ren was in a foul mood breaking things up nearby. His being able to avoid Force detection and harm would be on the same continuum of protection.
Bruh religious or not there’s no debating that Dreamworks Prince of Egypt (1998) is a masterpiece and one of the most visually stunning works of animation of all time. The parallels between Yocheved and Miriam singing the River Lullaby as a tear runs down their cheek and the wind blows their hair in front of their face? Incredible. The use of hieroglyphics to show how Moses learned that his father ordered the Hebrew babies slaughtered??Ingenious. The duet between Moses and Ramses where the choir chants in the background while you watch the plagues destroy Egypt and Moses is begging Ramses to let his people go and Ramses refuses and it shows them facing each other and then side by side and then Ramses walking away while Moses stands firmly??? Intense. When Moses parts the sea and the Hebrews are walking between the water and lightning strikes in the background, illuminating the silhouette of a giant shark swimming in the wall of water???? Iconic. The entire movie is just absolutely breathtaking and that’s just tea
After going HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY at the conclusion of Chapter 3, I’m starting a new thread because the first one was getting too long. Damn, the author is not pulling any punches. Everything in the notes can contain spoilers, so be sure to filter ’#broken earth spoilers’ if you haven’t already!
So I’m pretty sure Syenite is Essun from her time in the Fulcrum, roughly 20 years ago. Either that or Sy is a different character who matches Essun’s description almost exactly, both of them tall mixed women disparaged as “midlatter mongrel.” If they are the same character then I wonder at the fact that Essun is described as having only 2 children, since she comes across as pretty fertile and would have been even more so in her 20s. Either she ran before she was forced to have children, meaning she would have been on the run for 20 years (impressive!), or the implication is that Essun had 2 children but had also given birth in her former life as Syenite. I doubt orogenes in the Fulcrum really have an opportunity to bond with their children, to say nothing of the unhappy ways said children were conceived, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Essun counts only Nassun and Uche, whom she had willingly–more or less, she did mention not wanting children and I doubt any choice was perfect in the life she led–and whom she bonded with, as her children even if Syenite had given birth. Essun also thinks of herself as a different person than who she was before, whether that’s Syenite or someone else, making the break even cleaner.
I’m here blogging partly because Syenite’s scene with the ten-ringer is so uncomfortable and I needed a breather. (I wonder if he’s the earth-breaker from the opening? He certainly has the power level and the seething hatred from a lifetime, no GENERATIONS, of abuse.) The lives of Fulcrum orogenes is such a parade of horrors, my god.
“None of them looked like survival fetishists or would-be warlords.” Nice shade on post-apocalyptical clichés there 😂 I like the widespread in-world acknowledgment from a setting well-versed in apocalypse–literally, they have a whole manual–that the rational thing to do in catastrophe is to band together in well-ordered communities.
So if Damaya -> Syenite -> Essun, Schaffa has given some heavy foreshadowing of her life as Essun. Also the methods the Fulcrum use to start breaking the orogenes is all SORTS of skin-crawlingly awful but the worst may be the equation of brutality with love. That pretense may fall away eventually, but to imprint that lesson in the wet clay of a child’s mind, a child whose old ties were ripped apart and is reaching out for love like a young plant yearning for the sun… The dysfunction and trauma are baked right into the Fulcrum’s methods from the start.
I’m pretty sure she based the Fulcrum slightly off of Indian Reservations so yea don’t expect too many happy moments.
Oh I expect things to get much much worse. I thought a lot of chattel slavery, actually, especially the breeding and rape and mutilation, plus the fact that orogenes really are slaves of the state. And I think the author is drawing similar parallels, too, in that there’s actually a slur for orogenes–rogga–and even the term “rogga-lover” for people who treat them as human beings. The major orogene characters whose looks we know are explicitly Black, and in the case of the ten-ringer his very dark skin and kinky hair are cited as examples of his ill breeding. That’s in “stills” or “Muggle” terms though; he makes it clear he is the product of careful breeding between top orogenic lineages, with the implication that the best and purest blooded orogenes were, by genes or chance, dark-skinned Black people by our terms. It’s not a direct one to one parallel, obviously, since Black and Native people don’t have the power to move the earth with a thought (..right?).
Ugh the reality of the node maintainer is… I guessed it, from the time Alabaster mentioned there being a doctor and no Guardian at a node, but the full reveal is still horrifying. It seems to be implied that the child and Alabaster are related, too, which would be rather likely if the child were Fulcrum-born–and most from the Fulcrum are. The kid might even be one of his bio children.
Also it’s ironic that Alabaster will probably go on to do on a bigger scale what the node maintainer tried to do, and which the A-Man himself stopped with all his incredible might. How much worse do things get that he is brought around to the node maintainer’s way of thinking?
I can’t be the only one to think that the way the orogenes are treated in the Fulcrum is very reminiscent of the Mages and Circle of Magi in the Dragon Age series, and the Guardians are a lot like the Templars. Even the moral dilemmas and dangers that became the rationale for abusing and violating the orogenes/mages are similar. In Broken Earth everything is upped so much more, though; the Tranquil of DA are kid friendly stuff compared to the visceral horror the node maintainers’ fate provokes. Between the stretches of second person PoV, the intricacies of orogeny and the social workings of the comms, I’ve been thinking BE reads like/would make a magnificent video game and these similarities just heighten that feeling.
Alabaster also touched on a thought that had been bothering me throughout, and the discussion of the orogenes’ inborn instinct to stop earthshakes just strengthens my suspicion that orogeny is not a curse but an adaptation for humanity’s survival. If not for orogenes the earth would have swallowed all civilizations long ago. They are the reason larger civilizations thrived along the equator, simply because they were brought there and provided their protection in that region in larger concentrations.
You know what should be and maybe once was? Orogenes should be treasured and honored members of every comm, instinctively providing their protection from shakes. Instead what happened? People were taught to fear and hate orogenes, and if not outright killed they were taken away to the center to be enslaved and abused and raped and mutilated and tortured.
And yes, orogenes can be dangerous because they are so powerful, but what exists there is a cultural problem, not a problem inherent in orogeny. Why wasn’t the bullying against Damaya stopped, why did she get in trouble for standing up to her bully and why was she told it’s because he likes her? Why wasn’t her bully taught a better way to relate to his peers?
If orogeny weren’t desperately hidden as a shame and a curse, but rather everyone were taught, gently and humanely from the lower creche, about the power of the earth and both the gift and danger of orogeny, about how to regulate their emotions and how to treat each other kindly so the power would not spring up unawares with frightening and tragic consequences–then the danger would be contained without the “need” for violent control.
That kind of teaching would benefit everyone, since it’s clear from the presence of sessapinae that the difference between orogenes and stills is not one of kind but degree. (I’d say people with very sensitive sess are probably borderline orogenes and could produce orogene children.) Each comm would benefit from orogenes, and society as a whole would be so much more humane.
But of course, such an arrangement would bring down the empire that surged to unnatural and unsustainable heights by hoarding and enslaving orogenes. If each comm learned to shape itself into managing orogenes and turning their powers to the comm’s protection, Yumenes would have come literally crumbling down centuries ago. It would exist and even thrive without the Fulcrum but it could not build so ambitiously and wondrously, and it would have to content itself with being just a big, prosperous, down to earth city.
And we can’t have that, can we? Not when there’s so much value to suck out of communities and so much profit to be had out of the slavery and trauma and misery of others. That’s what this was about the whole time, the concentration of power at the center, more and more and MORE for the have-too-muches. What a gigantic fraud. What a heartbreaking waste. What an unbelievable crime.
I’m with the node maintainer and later on, probably, my man Al on this. Bring it all down. Bring the fuckers’ beautiful vaulting roofs down on their heads. Not a one of them is innocent, not even the babies, any more than there can be a clean person in a mire of bloody mud. If it cannot be changed, break it. Break Father Earth’s bones, because boy did he ever have it coming.
Edit: Oh so they’re treating it as fact that the child was Al’s? That’s nice. Just stab us all in the gut over and over again. I guess that level of power had to come from somewhere.
Dirty Computer is exactly the kind of story I was talking about when I said I wanted more simple and clear stories instead of ones that tried too hard to be clever and shocking and deep. The basic structure of the story is simple, and one could argue that the premise is not particularly new or original. Yet it leaves a lasting impact because it’s all in the characters, how they feel, how they relate to each other, how they change. You don’t get into the narrative because you particularly care about the mechanics of mindwipe technology in a sci-fi dystopia, it’s because you come to care about the characters and their lives. Like think about how stupid it would have been to waste time on the origins and workings of brainwashing technology instead of Jane’s suffering, Zen’s doubts, and what they meant to each other. The depth of the story comes from their emotions and relationships against the backdrop of a world that wants to tear them apart, not out some fiendishly clever narrative or setting element.
It is on this deliberately pared-down framework that the music videos add even more depth to the character and story. Each one of them excellent on its own with numerous references, satirical digs, and musical styles, in the aggregate the videos give us more insight into Jane’s character, the life she once had, her relationships, her feelings and sensuality and yearnings. They tell us what is being stripped from her. By letting us know who Jane is in beautiful and artistic imagery, symbolism, and of course music, it heightens the tragedy of her situation by showing us the nature of the annihilation she is being subjected to.
By using multiple narrative devices that added extra dimensions to the characters and situation, Dirty Computer took what is an old story of oppression versus freedom–which is not a knock in any way, all stories are old and the more honest one is about the old deep roots the better they get–and made it fresh and deeply impactful. It’s new media storytelling that succeeds by keeping to the rock solid fundamentals.
it is honestly keeping me up thinking about how many asian bodies are treated with so much brutality in death so I really do not have time for Baze and Chirrut being stuck next to typical white male narratives.
Just in sci fi alone off the top of my head: Wen triplets in Pac Rim – killed by Kaiju. Toshiko Sato in Torchwood – shot in the gut. Glenn Rhys in TWD – baseball club to the head. Maggie Chen in OB – backstory fodder. Vincent in AOS – I can’t actually remember but burnt to death, I think. Skye’s mother, cut to threads.
And so on and so forth. Their deaths are for shock value and they get mourned but after that there’s not more to it. Not counting: all the cannon fodder and Yellow Peril movies and Oren Ishii and Beverly Katz and Daredevil and Iron FIst and all the others from media that I don’t watch or gave up long ago.
And they could be well-developed characters in otherwise decent media but their death is always so fucking brutal. So of course we build immunity to that pain, of course we’re less sensitive to seeing the same bodies on the news – it grates you down, after a while. It is so so tiring.
And on top of that I’ve never seen two Asian men openly show affection and bicker and tease eachother and make jokes with history behind them except for in LGBT movies (and I guess recently Star Trek). because it’s a cultural taboo to be too emotional or too affectionate or too afflicted in front of non-familiars and that has turned us into Inscrutable Orientals.
So if I have to have a death scene – give me one that is fucking tender, dammit. Give me one that has meaning and emotion behind it, that does justice to the historical emotional baggage between the two characters. Give me the fact that Baze and Chirrut – their relationship, the narrative space they took up, their history – was something that fucking mattered instead of just another body because compared to all others, this death scene was by far least uncomfortable to watch.
Why Rose could still be Jedhan
Yes, I know, she’s from Hays Minor in the Otomak system, but Hays Minor was a poor mining colony, a frozen wasteland only settled for its mineral resources. Even before the First Order took it over and systematically destroyed it Hays Minor was a harsh place, with no indigenous animal species and temperatures so lethal people couldn’t go outside without special protective suits. It’s not the kind of place where people dream of raising their families, but someplace people go because they have to make a living–and, if they have young children, because they have nowhere else to go.
And what was Jedha known for? Force religion, sure, but also for mining kyber crystals. It would have been home not only to believers and clerics, but also to skilled miners experienced at extracting these invaluable resources. And also to violent partisans, of course, a backlash to the Empire’s anti-religious repression and ruthless exploitation of the area’s resources, but for now let’s look at more ordinary citizens just trying to go about their lives.
Imagine you are a miner on Jedha.
You were fortunate enough to survive the blast of the Death Star. Maybe you escaped into space like the Rogue One crew did, or maybe you didn’t live in the Holy City–maybe you were working on a mine elsewhere. Even if you were not in the City or its outskirts, though, you have to get out eventually because the blast is breaking the whole moon apart, kiling your world. You’ve lived on Jedha for generations and have no ties anywhere else. Where do you go?
The galaxy is wide, but the reach of the Empire is long. The stigma of being from Jedha clings to you and comes back in the form of refusals to let you settle, even violence from the authorities or from neighbors. Maybe one of the excuses is that you’re a terrorist, because your origins are associated with the memory of the partisan zealots who held out against the Empire in a mountain fortress until their violent ends.
Maybe you settled on other, more hospitable planets only to be driven out, losing everything you built and barely escaping with your life. Others were not so lucky. Maybe you learned to change your dress and customs so you would not stand out, learned never to talk about Jedha so you would not draw unwanted attention. Even your spouse might not know, if you met them after Jedha. (All things in your life are divided into before and after Jedha.) Maybe your spouse is from Jedha, too. Maybe you met them in the diaspora, which is bittersweet because you never would have met and fallen in love on Jedha. The two of you agree that it is best to stay silent about the home whose name still echoes in your hearts. Survival comes first.
You never talk to your children about Jedha. You don’t tell them what the ceremonies you hold from time to time mean, religious ceremonies from home that you carry on in secret, mourning what can never be again.
Maybe you even fought in the Rebellion yourself, finally free to shout and scream and sob the name of Jedha when you run into battle, a cry for justice. It hurts every time to say it but you do it anyway, letting the name tear your throat and your soul, Jedha, Jedha, Jedha, so you will not forget, so the world will not forget.
Maybe, despite using the name as a rallying cry, the other Rebellion fighters did not always look kindly on you and the other Jedhan fighters. The whispers of “extremist” and “fanatic” still cling to you, and the same people who say “May the Force be with you” to each other may find your ways in the Force strange. There are a thousand glances and words that cut and every time you have to wonder, is this because I’m Jedhan? You try not to be so sensitive. You pick at the meanings behind meanings, trying to disentangle the threads that trip you up. You hope for a better galaxy anyway, and that’s what you’re all here for no matter where you’re from, right?
When the Empire collapses you rejoice and weep, and say a prayer of thanks. There can be justice at last, and better days for the Jedhan refugees. The New Republic promises to do right by you and the Alderaanians, to all the people who lost everything to the Empire.
The promises, fragile and hollow, break under strain. You, like much of the Jedhan disapora, are vocal against the truce with the Empire’s remains, warning they’ll be back. You are called warmongers and extremists. You and your fellows ask for the New Republic‘s assistance with resettlement, demand that the Empire officials’ riches from the lifeblood of your people and peoples elsewhere be returned to the Jedhan diaspora and so many others displaced by the Empire. You are called greedy and a nuisance.
You are still not welcome anywhere, and if anything seem to be an inconvenience to a universe that wishes to move on and forget. You drift, body and soul, without a home, and survival becomes increasingly more pressing as your family grows.
Then you hear about a mining colony far out in space–an inhospitable place, a deadly place actually, but they’re looking for people and they can use your skills. Maybe you even hear of it through the refugee grapevine, and other Jedhans are going so it’ll feel a little like home. Nothing will ever be home, but it’s a living and a community. You could do worse than that.
So you raise your daughters on a frozen planet, in a shelter specially shielded to keep the planet from killing you all. You watch them play in the artificial light, happy and smiling and alive, and you are content. You are luckier than many, so many that you will carry to your grave.
You don’t talk to your children about Jedha, the old fears locking your lips, not wanting them to go through what you had to as a Jedhan. When you and your spouse make them matching medallions you tell them they represent the twin planets of Hays Major and Hays Minor. In your heart of hearts you think of them as being Jedha and NaJedha, orbiting each other even in ruin. You hope your daughters’ lives will be better, not touched and tainted by destruction as yours was. Maybe that’s another reason you don’t want to tell them about Jedha, because you don’t want that shadow over their lives.
And Hays Minor has been good for your family, after all. Your daughters can do worse than think of a community of courageous, hard-working, honest people as home. This is enough. Not perfect (not Jedha, never Jedha) but enough, and maybe you’ll save up to move to a kinder planet where life isn’t quite so harsh, a place where your eldest can see and touch the animals she’s always talking about, where she and her sister can stand in the sun and breathe unfiltered air.
Your dreams and your heart shatter when a Star Destroyer blots out the sky over your home a second time. They will be back, you and your people warned the galaxy. You just didn’t think, never let yourself imagine, that they would come for your home and your family first. Not again.
So I’m far from done with this, but I’ve compiled a page of links to my meta-analytical posts (link). It’s accessible from the top menu in the desktop theme. I also put the page link in the description, but I don’t think it works on mobile. I did a word count and I’ve written over 25,000 words of Finn-centric meta alone, wow. I could write a book about him lmao.
Rey Nobody is terrible
I’m not saying everyone who believes Rey Nobody is terrible, or that it comes from a terrible theme, but in truth Rey Nobody isn’t just confusing and unoriginal, it’s also used to erase Finn’s role in the movies, among other characters from the other trilogies.
The most common argument for Rey Nobody isn’t even about what makes sense, it’s about a theme. The theme that a hero, Rey, can come from nowhere and be the Jedi protagonist. People say it’s great that to have other Jedi than the Skywalkers in the movies as the protagonist, even better that she’s a woman.
Now here’s where the lie comes in.
The PT had a mess load of other Jedi than Anakin. In fact, Anakin wasn’t even a Jedi till the 2nd movie of the PT, little moptop didn’t even have a lightsaber. The OT had Obi-Wan. In fact most commonly I see people show a picture of the Skywalkers to prove their point, but it’s always misleading since forgetting Han and Padme, weren’t Jedi or Skywalkers, they just married into the family. Leia rejected the name and never became a Jedi in the new canon (Fuck you Disney/Lucasfilm), so that leaves only Luke and Anakin. Also, put into perspective that Rey is pretty much a genderbent Anakin and Luke mashed together, and she even has the same journey as Luke did in the OT, beat for beat. And lets face it, Daisy Ridley also looks just like a young Mark Hamil and
Natalie
Portman. Rey as a nobody, isn’t original or refreshing. It’s just the same thing…but with the last name missing.
We’ve had hero Jedi from nowhere: Luke, Ezra, Ahoksa, Anakin himself. Hell Obi-Wan struggled to even become a Jedi and had to train twice as hard to even become a the Master he became.
The themes of Rey being a nobody who goes on to become a hero always have one recurring similarity, they never see Finn as the other protagonist of the ST and think giving him the force is a bad idea and would “ruin” his story or the movie.
In fact, in the first official trailer for TFA, one of the most racist comments under the video was “Great, they gave the nig** a lightsaber. This movie is ruined”. It was even so hard to believe that there could possibly be a black stormtrooper, that these people actually acknowledged the prequels just to hate on Finn.
People wanted Rey to be a Nobody for the story because they didn’t want to or couldn’t even think that the force wielding hero from nowhere could be Finn, so they latched onto it.
And not only was Rey Nobody used for the racists, it was also used by the sexists who thought that Rey didn’t deserve or earn right to be a Skywalker and so Kylo Ren had to be the Skywalker of the ST. Yeah, there were other people who wanted Rey not to be a Skywalker cause they thought Rey and Kylo should hook up, but those people aren’t valid to begin with.
I understand that Rey Nobody to some people means just that anyone can be special, regardless of where they come from, but that isn’t Rey. TLJ tells us that Rey is a nobody who is special and doesn’t need any training or to earn anything because where there is darkness, there has to be light, so the light made Rey stronger than anyone and she downloaded Kylo’s powers like a torrent. No struggle, no strife, and even after her mentor dies, her comrades are reduced to less than a dozen people, learned that her parents are nobodies, Rey still shows no signs of character growth and is the same as was in her introduction.
People say they want Rey to be a nobody because it makes her relatable…It doesn’t and it didn’t. It just made her an OP character that has no flaws and doesn’t struggle, and gave every sexist and racist argument against Finn and Rey, a louder voice.
A theme shouldn’t trump a well written, with compelling characters and a cohesive plot. Giving Finn the force, wouldn’t have ruined anything, connecting Rey to the Skywalkers, wouldn’t have been bad writing. But ya know what would ruin the story? What would be bad writing that screams a forced agenda? Rey being nobody.
So, no I don’t think Rey Nobody is a good idea, and I will never think it’s a good idea. Regardless of why some people like Rey Nobody, the majority uses it to erase Finn as the protagonist or give the protagonist slot to Kylo, and IMO, fuck that noise.
I hope Rey is a Skywalker in IX. I hope Finn picks up a lightsaber in IX. Why? Cause I’m tired of seeing Rey and Finn get undercut time and time again. The worst part of TFA is the batch switch with Finn and the mystery arc with Rey. The movie would have been ten folds better if they just revealed Rey as a child who was taken from the Skywalker family and just confirmed Finn had the force. And I’m sticking to that. Hopefully IX fixes that.
I’ve compared Rey to Korra from Avatar: The Legend of Korra in that both characters are not allowed to develop their supernatural powers from hard work, but rather because some dude physically and mentally violated her. I saw a post yesterday that I’m kicking myself for not reblogging because I can’t find it now, that one way to fix Rey’s plot is by her realizing that her powers are tainted from the source and she has to start again the right way. It would also tie into my meta about a new order of Force users (link) and all the main crew training in the Force with Rey (link).
Barring a development like the above that shows the Force actually does belong to everyone and not just specially chosen white people, yeah, fuck Rey Random. So far it has been handled terribly in a way that mangles the lore and makes any possible theme incoherent while erasing Finn. If it’s just going to be a validation of the worst of Star Wars fandom, that only certain superhumans with inborn powers matter, then I don’t want it.
L.J.'s Obsessions 