rey: [ok, it’s simple, just tell finn you’re in love with him and want to go out with him]
rey: [actually, maybe just take baby steps and ask him out]
rey: [he probably already knows i’m in love with him, i don’t need to tell him right away]
rey: [yeah, i’ll just ask him to go on a date with me. we’ll go to naboo or something. no, that’s too romantic! endor. we’ll go to endor. yeah. baby steps. ok. there he is. be cool, rey.]
rey: so, finn…
rey: [come on, rey, spit it out]
finn: what’s up?
rey: i was wondering…
rey: [if you knew i want to have your babies]
rey: um…
rey: [you’re wondering if he’d be interested in going on a date sometime! just say it! ask him!]
rey: i was wondering… ah…
finn: yes rey
rey: [he said yes! wait no, he just wants to know what i was going to ask him. shoot this is hard]
rey: i…
rey: [have incredibly poor communication skills, why did i have to grow up alone in the desert]
finn: what is it rey?
rey: i was wondering… about your friend poe.
rey: [what did you just say]
finn: what about him
rey: [what are you doing]
rey: yeah, um… could you like, maybe…
rey: [what is wrong with you you’re avoiding the subject you wanted to talk to him about forget poe don’t finish that sentence are you listening to yourself snap out of it and quit being nervous]
rey: could you set me up with him?
rey: [how are those words escaping your mouthhole? you came to ask out FINN! this is the exact opposite of what you wanted to do]
finn: sure i can set you up
*later*
poe: hey rey finn told me–
rey: HELP ME FINN’S FRIEND I SCREWED UP HELP ME I SCREWED UP I SCREWED UP
If there is going to be jealousy in IX, I don’t want Rose to be jealous of Rey or vice versa.
No, I want Finn to be jealous of Rose.
What if, since their escape from Crait, Rey and Rose get along famously and Rey seems to have hardly a word to say to Finn? It gets to the point where Rose, feeling awkward that her friends aren’t talking and remorseful of how she reacted to Finn’s relationship with Rey, tries to get Rey and Finn to talk to each other. Rey seems angry and agitated at the very suggestion, though, and Rose drops it. She knows someone being badly triggered when she sees one, and suggests Rey talk to an on-base counselor. They were a big help to Rose herself, after all.
There are always excuses not to talk, though. The Resistance has to knit together its shredded operations and scramble for allies. Finn and Rey are needed everywhere, separately and together, to convince potential allies, negotiate terms, to outmaneuver the First Order, to recruit, inspire, and fight. A year, even more could pass this way.
Maybe it’s on one of their missions together that the silence finally snaps. They are on one of their rare missions together, on their way back from repelling First Order forces from a planet and gaining it as a valuable supply station. The atmosphere is relaxed between everyone except Finn and Rey, and while they talk amicably with everyone else, the void of conversation between the Resistance’s two biggest heroes is getting harder to ignore.
At one point Rey hears about something amusing and giggles, “I have to try that with Rose when we get back to base.”
Finn mutters, “Of course. Rose, again. It’s not like I’m right here.”
His words happen to fall into a gap in the conversation and everyone stares while Finn looks around as if for an exit, and Rey stares stonily ahead. The room clears in under half a second as everyone dives for cover or gives them privacy, or both.
Rey turns to Finn. “What is that supposed to mean? My being friends with Rose is a problem? Why, because the two of you dated?”
“No! She’s my friend, too. The problem is…” Finn swallows. “What hurts is, you don’t want to be my friend anymore.”
“What?” Rey looks away with a sound that is both a scoff and a sob. “Did you seriously think I… of all the ridiculous!”
“Ridiculous? You avoid me. When we are in the same room you won’t look at me, and when you have to talk to me outside a mission it’s like you’re on a five-word limit. Is this all in my head?”
Rey presses her lips together and won’t look at him.
“Rey.” He comes to sit down a few seats away from her, getting closer while giving her space. “I’ll understand if you no longer want to be friends. But at least tell me that so I can understand and move on. If we can’t… can’t be friends anymore, at least we have to be able to work together. We’re hurting morale and jeopardizing the Resistance’s mission.”
“That’s all you care about, isn’t it.” Her voice is low and edged. “The Resistance.”
“…Huh?”
She turns on him, the look in her eyes so ferocious he leans away. “You were going to die, Finn. You were going to leave me forever.”
“That’s- is this what this was about? Rey, it’s been a year.” The beginning of a shaky laugh bursts out of him.
“Don’t laugh. Don’t you dare laugh! How could you do that?! How could you even think about… about…” Rey looks away, her shoulders shaking with earnest sobs now.
After a long silence punctuated only by her crying Finn says, staring down at his hands: “You could have told me.”
“I knew I would fall apart. Like I am now.” She wipes tears and snot off her face with a hand, and Finn slides her napkins. “Thank you.”
“It was logical in the moment. Maybe someone would come.” He glances over at her. “You were there, with the Falcon. If I bought enough time, and if there was another way out, you and Chewie could get the survivors out. I was right about that, you know. It was a sound strategic decision.”
“Logical. Strategic.” Rey looks at him, her face red and wet. “Finn, if I had lifted those rocks and not seen you… if I found out you had…” she shakes her head, overcome at the horror.
“Well Rose stopped me, didn’t she?”
“Yes, Rose did. She saved the person dearest to me in the galaxy, and you were going to take him away from me. Who do you think I’d be grateful to? Who do you think I’d be angry at?”
“Wait. Wait, I need a second to process that-”
“Was that how they trained you, to think of yourself as expendable?” She leans toward him. “I just, I need to understand.”
A long moment of silence passes. Finn looks down at his hands tearing a napkin to shreds, and Rey presses him with the intensity of her gaze.
“I didn’t want to die.”
Rey flinches, her eyes filling with fresh tears at the raw pain in his voice.
“I wanted to see tomorrow, where I could be free–with you. But if I couldn’t see that day, maybe you could, maybe Rose and Poe and the others could. I said good-bye to you in my mind.” He lets go of the shredded napkin pieces and stretches out a hand, which she holds tight. “I was thinking of you the whole time.”
She rises from her chair and then falls into him, clutching him in a hug that almost tips his chair over.
“I can’t lose you, Finn. I can’t. You’re the only one who ever came back for me.”
“And you came back for me.” His arms tighten around her.
“I wanted us to go away together, once I got Luke to join the Resistance, and when he wouldn’t–Kylo Ren.” She laughs to herself. “That didn’t go the way I thought it would.”
He lifts an eyebrow. “My nearly-severed spine could have told you that. Or Han, if he were here.”
She winces, looking away. “I was so desperate, I didn’t even know how long you would stay with the Resistance and I thought you might already be gone to the Outer Rim.”
“And when you saw me again… you realized I wasn’t leaving.”
“And I couldn’t leave, either.” She draws back to look into his face, her hands on his shoulders and a knee on the chair between his legs. “I wish there were some place for us away from this fight.”
He gives her a slow sad smile. “Are you going to ask me, ‘Come with me?’”
She snuggles against him. “You’d tell me, ‘Don’t go.’”
“Rey, stay and fight with me. Please.” His breath moves her hair. “I wanted us to go away, too, but there is no ‘away.’ The only way we can be at peace is through this fight, not running from it.”
A tear spills down her cheek. “I know, and it’s not fair.”
“It never is.”
Neither of them initiates it, or they both do. One moment their cheeks brush as they move their heads silent agreement, the next their lips meet in a long kiss. She slides down to lean against his chest and he bows his head over hers, holding her to him. Both their eyes are full of tears but they melt into each other in complete relaxation, no longer holding back from each other.
“I- I think we’re holding up the kitchen area.” Rey stands, wiping tears from her cheeks and laughing.
“Yeah.” Finn raises his voice. “I sure hope there’ll be no one listening in the corridor when we go out, that would be awkward.”
They hear hurried footfalls outside and chuckle to each other. He holds out a hand, she takes it, and they walk out smiling at each other. The Resistance no longer have reason to fear being in the same room with them, unless it is the fear of catching them in compromising positions.
Now that the Galactic Union has turned the Republic and Mandalorians against each other, it’s going to try and stage a comeback using the distraction. They have a powerful Force user on their side now–Ben Solo, now called Kylo Ren–and they also have the Crusaders, the Mandalorian-born troops stolen as children. It’s going to be up to Finn, Rey, and Poe to try and foil them and keep gathering information to let the Republic and Mandalorians know they’ve been tricked into this war. Leia, despite being a fugitive, is talking secretly to her trusted contacts in the Senate trying to end the war. Lando fends off a Mandalorian attack himself and actually strikes a rapport with their commander, Idrian Fett, the Chief Commander of the invasion and a clansman of the Mandalore Boba Fett himself. Idrian (played by Idris Elba) is a good and honorable man but hates the Republic because his son was stolen by what he believes to be Republic commandos AND YES THE SON IS EXACTLY WHO YOU THINK IT IS.
Meanwhile Rey’s search for her family comes to a tragic conclusion when, in the course of the mission, she finds out that the site where she was left behind by her family and later found by space scavengers was also the place where a Mandalore-Republic skirmish took place. She is devastated to learn that her parents most likely left her behind to keep her safe while acting as a distraction to draw the Mandalorians away from her. The leader of the mission on the Mandalorian side, and the man who likely killed her parents, was Idrian Fett. Finn holds her and cries with her; the pair affirm they may have no family but do have each other. Rey vows to take her revenge on Fett and make him know her pain.
The trio together with Han undertake a daring mission to steal crucial information from the Union headquarters. They find out that the Union is now headed for Coruscant itself, and will be mobilizing its moles in the Republic security forces itself (the chief of them being Phasma) to take it over. They face down Kylo Ren while leaving with this information, with Rey’s Force sensitivity showing itself in the fight. This is also when Kylo Ren accidentally kills his father, who had joined the mission on the hope of bringing back his son and was acting as a distraction. The trio just barely make their escape while Ren is completely destroyed with grief, rocking his father’s dying body in his arms.
Despite the Falcon jumping into hyperspace, the Union ships keep catching up to them and the trio cannot get away. They make a sweep of the ship, frantic to find the tracker, but nothing shows up. Then Finn has a terrible suspicion and turns the sweep on himself; the tracker was implanted in him, likely years ago without his knowledge. With Union ships gaining on them, fuel running low and no time to find and remove the tracker, he makes his way to an airlock. Rey follows and begs him not to eject–they’ll find some other way.
Finn appears to relent and comes to envelope her in an embrace. Rey tells him she can’t do this without him, and Finn tells her she means more to him than anything in the galaxy. They share a tender kiss, and Finn uses the distraction to push her clear of the airlock and locks himself in. He ejects, his eyes locked with Rey’s in longing, while Poe runs onto the scene. Rey screams for Finn and, in a burst of Force ability, almost pulls him back in. Finn breaks her pull, showing his own Force ability for the first time. Poe physically pulls Rey back from the airlock, himself fighting tears, and orders BB to take them into hyperspace. The Falcon makes the jump, no longer trackable, and Finn is picked up by one of the pursuing Union ships just as he is running out of air.
“Kylo is bad because he had to share his parents with the resistance.”
“Kylo is bad because he was brainwashed and forced to join an evil organization.”
“Kylo is bad because he was neglected and had a bad childhood.”
glowy brain: “Kylo isn’t bad”
quasar group brain: switching meme formats in the middle
Which meme image is: Kylo is bad because a creepy old dude had been psychicly grooming him since he was a kid and every adult in his life either abandoned him or actively turned on him for it?
his dad tried to get him to come home and he stabbed him you fucking moron asfgssggfdubvfy
Calm down son, its a joke not a dick, no need to jump on it so hard.
Nice of you to admit that blaming other character for Kylo’s shitty choices is a joke
pls don’t tell me he chucked it over his shoulder for a cheap laugh
Discussions of sex and sexual activity below
Okay but remember that awful reylow meta about how the mini-Death Star cannon splitting open the cave door on Crait was about Kyle and Rey having sex and breaking her symbolic “hymen?” (FYI the hymen is fake, a fact even the meta author had the decency to acknowledge.) Remember also, even leaving aside the disturbingly violent sexual imagery, how it doesn’t work at all because Rey never even set foot in the cave? What is Finn in this scenario, a safe-sex activist and rape prevention warrior? As if he weren’t already awesome enough…😍
However, and I’ve been thinking about this for WAY TOO LONG and I have to share, if the cave symbolizes any kind of sex it has to be about Rey pegging Finn??
I mean the Resistance run to the “back door” of the cave, as does Rey, and what do they find?
Tons and tons of rock blocking the entrance, making it, shall we say, impenetrable.
And then what does Rey do in her climactic display of Jedi powers?
She gets the rocks out of the back door, freeing it up.
Then, of course, she and Finn come together in a joyous reunion hug.
In short, the cave escape scene was about Rey lovingly giving Finn an enema and then pegging that ass all night long thank you for coming to my TED talk
This is a line Maz says in one of the TFA trailers and it has got me thinking.
Obviously there was lines recorded for the trailers that was not in the movies and never was intended to be there, but this line is odd. We have nothing in that trailer, any trailer, that indicates that hope should in any way be lost.
But one thing that has bothered me about TFA is that we’re never allowed to see Leia have much in the way of a reaction to Han being murdered and none at all to the fact her son has just embraced the Dark Side with a certain finality. While JJ is far from perfect as a storyteller it felt incredibly sloppy given that Han’s murder and Kylo’s confirmation of his turn was a pretty major plot point.
So why nothing?
Maybe because Rian claimed he was going to deal with it and JJ cut it out. (He didn’t at all for Han’s death and only in a minor way about Leia accepting Kylo’s turn, but that’s neither here nor there for this.)
But what if Leia did have such a scene? What if she had a conversation with someone about what had happened and that her hope now seemed in vain with Han dead – and only because she asked him to bring Ben back home – and her son firmly ensconced in the Dark Side?
What if that person was Maz?
We know that Leia and Maz had at least one scene together as we see it in the trailer, where Maz hands over Anakin’s old lightsaber to Leia, but it never appeared in the movie.
In such a scene, with that context, Maz’s line suddenly makes a shit ton of sense if she tells it to Leia. That hope has not been lost just because Leia’s son has decided he wants power more than he wants love. No, it is found.
In our heroes.
In the young man who defied all odds to escape the First Order and then defied them again to save the young woman he had come to care for. In that same young woman who found the courage to take a stand because she’d finally found someone who cared for her after a life time worth of loneliness.
It would cement that Leia’s hope no longer lies with her biological son, but with Finn and Rey. That the two of them, along with Poe, is where she will put her hope.
That makes sense to me, since I think the only thing that’s really dire enough in TFA for anyone to consider hope to be lost is Kylo Ren killing Han Solo. This would simply have been confirmation for what’s been going on the whole movie, with Han’s death striking the final blow: the descendant of the Skywalkers has turned against everything Luke, Leia, and Han stood for, while these two kids who came from nowhere are continuing their legacy. JJ did say it’s very intentional that neither Finn nor Rey has a last name, maybe this was what he meant.
Here’s the relevant part of the novelization, from Chapter 21:
I can see why reylows want to say this is Rey being overwhelmed with attraction at Kylo because of course they would, but it can just as easily be interpreted as discomfort. Taken together with the way Daisy acted Rey’s reaction on screen and the totality of the story, to me it reads clearly as her being thrown off balance and discomfited.
Rey’s discomfort is the point here. Kylo refusing to cover himself despite her request is his way of setting the tone of the conversation, purposefully disregarding her and taking control of the interaction. Even if we say for the sake of argument that she felt attracted at the sight of him, she still requested that he put something on in a situation where she can’t avoid interacting with him and he simply ignored her.
It’s like Lyndon B. Johnson taking a dump with the bathroom door open while members of his staff were outside; a deliberate show of power by violating personal boundaries, intended to humiliate and dominate. I mean I guess we should be happy the Force Bond didn’t catch Kylo on the can, but to me it would have been about as sexual.
This domination move is immediately followed by an even more significant one where he changes the conversation from Rey’s questions about his father to turning it back against her, deliberately upsetting her by invoking her greatest and most central trauma. This threw her off balance and made her easier to manipulate.
So that is how I read the shirtless scene. It’s not presented as sexual or romantic. It’s part and parcel of Kylo Ren’s continuing efforts to control Rey, and it was ugly on every level–intentionally so, I believe.
L.J.'s Obsessions 