How our romanticisation of Rey and Kylo has changed Reylo, Why I Love Kylo Ren, (It’s not what you’re thinking.) And Character Archatypes.
I think we can all agree that when a fandom starts up on Tumblr, we tend to turn characters we love and adore into caricatures of the original. I don’t mean this as an insult. You see this all the time, and it isn’t a bad thing. We tend to turn the fandom represented form of those characters into exaggerated romanticised versions, and forget what the originals are really like until we experience the piece of media again. You may think I’m talking about comics, fan art, and fan fiction, and partly I am, but I’m also talking about the fandom wide consensus of a character’s personality. It took me a while to realise we as a fandom were doing this with Reylo, but I’m fairly certain we are. The thing that tipped me off to this was a realisation about all my OTP’s.
Reylo is the basic form of my every OTP. And that OTP is, a broken and wronged individual, still trying their best, with a strong set of morals. And then the dick bag that falls in love with them. I love the concept of these two broken people finding the support and love they need in each other, and ultimately bettering the person who had lost their way, and each other. I love this dynamic so much because Characters like Rey, (the ones that are still trying to be hopeful) are often lonely, and strangers to unrelenting I’ll sacrifice my life for you love. And characters like Kylo, once they truly look at this other person, often feel compelled to be that person, and look at that person; still pushing to be hopeful and good, like they’re the sun and stars. Okay, enough of that, so let’s talk about how we as a fandom have romanticised Rey, Kylo, and Reylo as a whole.
Rey
We’ve characterised Rey as a “rey" of sunshine, and BAMF. And while she is all of these things, Rey’s characters is much more broken, lonely, and scared than we admit in the fandom. I’m always reminded of this because of my specific requirements for an OTP. Rey is so much more angry than we make her out to be. (I’ll go into her “fall and rise” later in this meta.) Take these scenes into consideration.
At the end of TFA she very nearly kills Kylo. But she stops herself. She’s so much more angry, and close to the dark side than we like to admit. And that’s part of what makes Reylo so compelling.
Rey is someone who has lived alone for a long time, and the way she’s lived has taught her that even though she’s lonely, angry, and sad, she has to keep going. Her character is a fighter. So it was interesting to me when I came out of the cinema and found everyone referring to Rey as smiley and wonderful, when I saw a tough as nails girl, willing to do almost anything to survive. (see her almost selling BB-8) As a fandom we’ve latched onto a feature of her personally that we find the most endearing, and exaggerated it. Rey is very hopeful, and this is what we like most about her, this is what makes us want her to win.
Rey has been living in a cruel reality most of her life, which is what makes her relationship with Finn and Kylo so interesting. In Finn she finds someone who actually cares for her, and in Kylo she finds someone who almost needs her.
I honest to god, do not find it out of character for Rey to be tempted by Kylo’s interest in her. If Kylo’s interest in her grows, to the point where he spends most of episode eight bugging her to let him train her, it seems in character for this, lost girl, to almost revel in his obsession.
My point is, Rey is not the perfect “rey” of light some make her out to be. She’s hopeful, yes, but probabley because she doesn’t know of any other way to live. She’s a girl that lives in reality, but she also lives with hope.
Worth a good read, if you have any doubts or have gotten muddles by fics, and especially if you write fics. In mine, I kept finding Kylo turning into the bored, casual killer and I actually thought it was a *problem* at one point because the fan-skewed versions of them both weren’t matching where the more canon version was going, but when you read this, things make more sense. Rey *also* makes more sense- make your Reys dark and brooding!! She’s got a bite and a mouth on her- she’s often cursing (although the author skips over it with just a mention) in the novel if I recall correctly. Don’t pigeonhole yourselves- run the spectrum!!!
Recently, I have seen the antis whip themselves into a frenzy over a quick comment at the bottom of a gif set that called Rey “predatory”. As is probably to be expected, they immediately considered this victim blaming, yet another attempt by the sinister Reylo cohort to woobify Kylo by painting Rey as a monster for defending herself.
Such hysteria, of course, ignores the nuances at work. This isn’t going to be a post about whether Kylo abused Rey or not, because to be frank that horse has been flogged to the point that I want to get the RSPCA to come and rescue it. Instead, it’s going to be about what makes Rey an interesting character – namely the dualism between light and dark that she personifies.
It’s easy to consider Rey a creature of pure light – the film is endlessly making this connection, dressing her in off-white and frequently bathing her with brilliant, heavenly light. Her name literally draws an analogy with a a sunbeam, making her a metaphorical “ray of light”. And this is borne out by how she behaves and is perceived by others. Rey is almost incandescent – optimistic (”don’t give up hope!”), hopeful (”they’ll be back”) and selfless (”the droid’s not for sale”). And people are helpless but to love her for it. Finn is immediately besotted, Han is fatherly, and Kylo is obsessed. In short, Rey inspires love in all its manifestations.
But the real mystery here is how Rey held onto the light that others are so drawn to. There is almost no reason for her to be good, while there is every reason for her to be bitter. Rey has grown up in a state of profound subjugation – abandoned, exploited and starved. And the saddest thing is that Rey, to an extent, chooses to continue like this. Rey doesn’t want to leave Jakku, and is clearly shown to be trapped by her own desperate hope – to get Campbellian, Rey repeatedly turns down the “call to adventure” in favour of returning to the planet where she’s effectively a slave to continue holding vigil for her family. This is underlined in anguishing detail in Before the Awakening, the prequel novel by Greg Rucka. In the novel, Rey finds a salvageable ship that she spends months making space-worthy. She toils and toils, starving herself by scavenging for her project rather than her stomach. When the ship is finished she pilots it to Niima Outpost, proud and elated by her success – but she has no intention of leaving the planet. Instead, her plan is to sell the ship to Unkar and earn herself thousands of portions. She envisages having food security for years, finally winning herself the time she so desperately needs to improve her home and build a better life for herself. The idea of leaving is unfathomable to her, and it’s what sees her cruelly cheated – the people she tentatively trusted to help her with the ship steal it from her as she approaches Unkar to make the sale, flying off as she watches from the sand, abandoned once again.
So Rey has every reason to be angry – angry at whoever left her, angry at other people, angry at fate. Yet this anger is never even glimpsed until the film’s climax.
For the first half of the duel, Rey is shocked, frightened and floundering. She is amazed when the lightsaber goes to her, her own wonder only eclipsed by Kylo’s. At the beginning of the fight she is at a disadvantage, spared only because Kylo – by his own admission, if we’re to accept the storybook as canon (”I don’t want to kill you!”) – has no desire to see her harmed. The turning point in their battle only comes when Rey draws upon the deep well of her pain – after tapping into the Force, Rey’s serenity slips to reveal a vicious, animalistic snarl. The Rey we glimpse here is the Rey who has been repressed for years, the Rey who was smothered by her own desperate hope for a family that wasn’t coming.
In the latter half of the duel, Rey is unmistakably presented as a predator. She stalks towards Kylo as he staggers back from her, a sizzling wound in his shoulder. Her back is to the camera, with Kylo explicitly framed as her victim – he is stripped of all of his power, and his fate is entirely hers to decide. In this sense it’s the ultimate power fantasy – the young woman who has known little else beside victimisation, subjugation and cruelty is given a sword and tasked with slaying the dragon who intended to suffocate her in his coils.
There is no need for Rey to brand Kylo’s face – it is a wound inflicted purely out of a desire to cause pain, a wound intended to mark Kylo’s defeat and punctuate his failure. In that moment, Rey is spiteful and driven by rage and a desire for revenge – in other words, she triumphs on account of her darkness rather than her light. There is nothing defensive about cutting someone’s face when they’re already beaten, and the closest parallel to that moment is Kylo cruelly slicing open Finn’s spine – both wounds are intensely personal, fuelled by rage, malice and spite.
And this is precisely what makes Rey so interesting. For as much as she might radiate light and attract people to her for her goodness, Rey is marked by her bone-deep suffering as much as her hope. And that suffering – and more specifically the desire to avenge it – is what erupts at the end of The Force Awakens. Because the Force isn’t purely characterised by Light, and Rey embodies it in all its manifestations.
The alcove where Kylo Ren was kneeling and speaking was darker than the rest of the adjoining chambers. He kept it deliberately so, as seemed appropriate for its function. He spoke now in a tone different from the one he usually employed when conversing with others. There were no orders to be issued here, no pathetic underlings to command. The one with whom he was presently communing would understand everything Ren chose to say, in whatever voice he chose to employ. No need here and now for intimidation, for fear. Kylo Ren spoke, and the object of his words listened in silence.
“Forgive me. I feel it again. The pull to the light. The Supreme Leader senses it. Show me again the power of the darkness, and I will let nothing stand in our way.”
Alone in the room, Kylo Ren—saturnine of aspect, lithe of build, tortured of mien, and troubled of eye—gazed at the silent recipient of his confession.
“Show me, Grandfather, and I will finish what you started.
The Force Awakens by Alan Dean Foster
This description of Kylo Ren is the best written part of the novelisation and my favourite.
Yes. Other lines spoken to Rey which could as easily be interpreted as Kylo/Ben talking to/about himself: “You’re so lonely. At night, desperate to sleep…”
Basically every assertion Kylo Ren makes about Rey to Rey is about himself. He’s not doing a great job at seeing that they’re different people.
(this is something to run screaming from IRL, but is some A+ Wuthering Heights shit in fiction)
“Kylo Ren stops, considers her… then reaches up, unlatches, and removes his mask. Rey reacts, stunned. It takes a moment before she regains her own mask of defiance.”
makes sense he’d be obsessed not just with Darth Vader but order Vader was a part of. As for Snoke, he’s Plagueis…so not a thousand years old
Yeah, i’m all for B too, especially since he would have access to uncracked crystals.
Although it could be that crystal has a special value to it. We don’t know how far along his training with Luke went, he might of made his saber with the Jedi, then forced the crystal to turn red, cracking it in the process. And @
nice
and?
I CAN’T WAIT the crystal probably has a special value, but from the databank article on crystals and their colors and word of god on synth crystals i don’t think crystals can change colors. so i’m pretty sure the crystal has always been red (though maybe ren was indeed the one to crack it)
AND?
@and-then-bam-cassiopeia Crystals adopt their color when they find their Force sensitive, right? (”The wand chooses the wizard, Mr. Potter” hint hint).
Cuz if that’s the case, then I’m thinking Kylo actually settled with that cracked crystal instead of picking his own, afraid it would turn green or blue, as the Jedi’s do….
His ‘saber, in the script, is never described as just red though. Even the crystal doesn’t look like how we’ve seen red kyber crystals typically depicted. His blade is described as yellow/red.
Sith used synthetic kyber crystals to make their red blades (or Synth-crystals) And they were a very dark red. Contrary to Kylo’s crystal, which almost makes the blade look orange, because the centre of it is yellow.
“Synthetic crystals were often red due to the forging process. Most individuals who utilized synthetic crystals were Dark siders.[…] The crystal would take on a blood red hue […] …red bladed lightsabers that utilized synth-crystals were nicknamed ‘bloodshine blades’. ”
Personally Kylo’s blade never looked purely red to me. Not like the red ones we’re familiar with anyway. But like I said, maybe it’s just me and i’m choosing to see things…
The new canon says that kyber crystals start off colourless and once it is attuned to a user’s Force signature it changes colour accordingly. Most often blue or green but in rare cases other colours and variants of shades are created.
Kylo was trained as a Jedi Padawan first so he was most likely expected to someday go and find his own crystal. I think he did, on his own. I personally don’t believe he’s using someone else’s or that he’s using a synthetic one.
We’re often told that Kylo’s lightsaber looks unfinished, as if it were made by an inexperienced hand. Knowing that, we can assume he didn’t get any help. He probably didn’t have any prior instruction on how to do it so he did what we could with what he knew. We can assume he was still young then. Perhaps rushed? Impatient? Maybe immediately before the destruction of the temple or any time after.
I’m one to believe that he found his own. He may have been desperate, rushed, under pressure to make a weapon even though, in relation to his jedi training, he may not have been ready. Hence the characteristics of the crystal itself.
Cracked, he may have broken it somehow or he found it that way… I think the odd colouring, yellow centre surrounded by red, is a reflection of Kylo himself, inner turmoil and being torn between two sides… That whole thing about him still having light within him even though he’s surrounded by darkness… and knowing what we know about crystal colours… it works well, no? Maybe if his force signature wasn’t attuned to both light and dark his original colour would have been yellow? After all, kyber crystals are a part of their users. And we know the Order has access to uncracked crystals as well, so why bother using it… unless he was attached to it in some way.
I also think he could have cracked it himself by accident. Since he was likely untrained in making the hilt, what if there were several attempts? Accidents? Man, what if one of the first tries just like blew up because it was crudely put together? That in the end he managed to make one that functions through trial and error alone. Once seeing the cracked crystal did a horrible job of containing the power put through it, he probably had to improvise. It’s said that the hilt is an ancient design, but with modern components. He had to work with what he’s got. Maybe he was totally into past things. Probably heard or read about cross-guarded sabers at some point. total fanboy Probably thought the quillons would be perfect to double as vents to direct the energy that can’t be contained by the crystal alone so that it doesn’t blow up in his face.
I believe he’s got a cross guarded saber for the simple fact that it’s what works best with his messed up crystal, tbh. It’s already bad that the thing sounds like it’s going to blow up every time he activates it. XD (I love his ‘saber so much though holy shit)
It could also be totally possible that I’m reading WAAAAY to much into colours and failed attempts and this could just totally be his aesthetic… But I like looking deep into things. Sometimes too deep, but it’s fun. This got out of hand. it wasn’t supposed to be this long. XD
@frozenmusings I think you are pretty right. His saber IS yellowish than Vader or Maul. Maybe we will see him making his new saber using the crystal of the old one, and maybe we will see the colour or the “blade” change. Because they need to show (don’t tell) us his inner turmoil and conflict between dark and light.
Yep – the saber is described as yellow-red and it crackles like fire. If the crystal weren’t cracked, it might even be orange? 😛
I wonder if it’s something like a lava crystal, though:
Reblogging for the great commentary and also to add-
So no one’s mentioned the design as far as it relates to historical designs. This lightsaber is said to be based on an antiquated design that goes back to the GreatScourge of Malacor. Aforementioned ‘scourge’ has yet to be described in canon thoroughly – I find it very similar to GRRM’s ASOIAF epics where Asshai by the Shadow and the Doom of Valyria are ominous places or cataclysmic events yet to be thoroughly described to the reader through the narrative.
In the Legends ‘verse KOTOR II (@ohtze I AM LOOKING AT YOU), we play as the Jedi Exile who was directly involved in the cataclysmic events that lead to the fall of Malacor V during the Mandalorian Wars. In this continuity Malacor was another name for Malacor V. Anyone that has played this game will know how heavily FUCKED UP that planet became after the Mandalorian Wars came to a close. It was practically a dark side nexus.
Malachor V, or simply Malachor, was an Outer Rim planet located in the Malachor system. Prior to the final battle of the Mandalorian Wars, the planet was fertile and hospitable. After the cataclysm caused by the Mass Shadow Generator, it became a cracked and twisted wasteland covered with jagged cliffs and plagued by constant lightning storms. It was inhabited by monstrous storm beasts. The gravity of the planet was unstable, which made it dangerous for starships to stay there for very long.
And as Kreia or Darth Traya said of the planet:
“And because Malachor, like Korriban, is on the fringes of the ancient Sith Empire, where the Sith wait for us, in the dark.”
In the canon verse, Malacor is known as both a place and used as an expletive – interchangeable to express strong discontent with something. In Star Wars Rebels, it’s mentioned:
I’ve seen a bunch of theories on why Kylo Ren would have a lightsaber dating back a thousand years, and they range from:
A) Kylo is a Hipster and just likes collecting old things
B) Kylo is ideologically very big on the past (I like this theory, and it makes sense, considering his obsession with iconography and his grandfather’s era)
C) The lightsaber was gifted to him (I guess Snoke would fall under this)
D He’s Revan (I LOVE this, but honestly this is personal preference and not really theorizing).
Either way, we won’t really know why Kylo’s sporting an ancient lightsaber design until Episode VIII or IX hits theaters. Same goes for your theory on Snoke (although I must admit I have my doubts about this).
In a vision to Ezra Bridger, Yoda urged him and his Jedi compatriots to seek answers to their questions on Malachor. After being questioned on its significance, Ahsoka Tano and Kanan Jarrus appeared apprehensive.
So the place is definitely bad juju enough to make even Kanan and Ashoka extremely apprehensive, but it holds a particular significance enough to make even Yoda compel Ezra to seek answers about the nebulous event.
The only person I can think of that wielded a cross guard lightsaber even close to 30 ABY is former Jedi General Roblio Darté. He exists in the Legends as a survivor of the Great Jedi Purge before his death at the Conclave on Kessel at the hands of Darth Vader. Even then, its design was very dissimilar from Kylo’s.
So why is this antiquated design so hot a couple of thousand years ago? Why is Kylo Ren bringing it back? Who or what inspired him to carry a blade with a design that significantly represents this Great Scourge of Malacor? What was the Great Scourge of Malacor and what happened there to make it carry on in living memory as such a horrible happening?
@avenrue The design is due to the crystal, so or in ancient times on Malacor there were force users so fucked up that their sabers need desperately the lateral vents, or something very big happened on Malacor and due to this specific very peculiar highly instable crystals were created. Minerals crystalize in all sort of environment, from lava, from water rich of ions, and modifying pre existing minerals using very high pressure and temperatures. In a huge cataclismic event you can bet your ass that temperatures and pressures go high and rocks (a rock is made of a mix of mineral crystals born in every possible way, lava water and so on..) undergo on a process of metamorphosis and/or simply crack. Crystals into that rocks can crack too of course.
I think we can all agree
that Kylo Ren has a bit of a superiority complex in ep VII. (bit, yeah) It’s apparent he thinks he’s
better than people around him. Most importantly – Kylo Ren thinks he is better
than Ben Solo,an upgraded 2.0 version, if you will, hence the clear contrast between these two sides of him.
He thinks he is better than the old man with former ties to his family (Lor San Tekka). He thinks he is
better and more loyal servant to Snoke than Hux, the pragmatic technocrat. He
clearly sees himself above the common white collar workers of Starkiller base
(poor Mitaka). And last but not least – he bears no respect towards his father.
Until Bloodlines comes out,
we can’t speculate about the relationship with Leia, but if I had to guess, I’d
say he feels very differently about her than Han. After all, she has Vader’s
blood and she is Force sensitive.
Kylo places value on two things: the legacy and
the ability to use the Force.
That’s why I completely, utterly, face flat fell in
love with Kylo’s and Rey’s dynamic. She
bested him in everything. And she has
neither – a prominent family bloodline (as far as he is aware in TFA!) nor the training in the Force.
Yet, she managed to turn the
mind probe on him, escape, and in the end, defeat him in a physical duel.That s the source of Kylo’s
fascination with her, “just a scavenger,” as he addresses her during interrogation.
She was nothing to him when they first met, but a minor hindrance on the way to
the map. But boy, was he in it for a surprise…
WHERE HAVE WE SEEN THIS BEFORE…hmm.
That’s why I think classic
redemption arc is more than possible, because they can very easily follow the trope Pride before the fall– and they’ve
already started in TFA.
Kylo strutted from his shuttle on Jakku like a peacock,
like this hot shit, a gift to the galaxy – and for a part of the movie, he
really was. (Catching a blaster bolt mid-air, slaying San Tekka, torturing Poe).
Only then, in the second
part of TFA, his actions failed to demonstrate his superior mindset – since he met Rey, it all went wrong. He
completely misjudged her, underestimated her and lapsed when he left her unattended.
(Come on, two guards, more than enough, no way she’ll use the Force, she
probably doesn’t know she has it. Play it cool, Kylo.)
Kylo’s pride is one of the most important qualities of his well-crafted and multidimensional character. Rey is Elizabeth to his Mr. Darcy. They fashioned them them into these two centuries old, well known, and easily recognized literary archetypes. That’s why it felt so familiar to many of us, because we’ve seen the story of a smug asshole villain and a low born, common heroine. We know where it’s gonna go. We know how it might end.
Secondly, Kylo fits a trope of Inferiority Superiority Complex, where “it turns out a character
who seems to think the world of themselves actually doesn’t; their high-and-mighty attitude hides
crippling insecurity. They’re often eager, even desperate, to prove
themselves, and they won’t take it well if their attempt fails. Commonly
they’ll try to feel more secure by putting others down.” (x)
So, not only is the smug, confident facade a mere projection, but Rey is the only one who sees right through it! “You’re afraid that you’ll never be as strong as Darth Vader.”
I can’t wait for the change in their dynamic in episode VIII. Buddy has it bad. It’s futile to portray his former, confident persona in front of Rey, when she already knows how insecure he really is. How will their next meeting go, then?
Will he still think less of
her, contrary to the ample evidence she provided, that she is actually more
skilled? Will he try and flatter her –
or maybe lure her to his side by telling her how strong she is, but at
the same time dangerous? Will he be openly in awe of her abilities, trying to
deflect, but not attack and make her “see his side” in a completely different manner
we’ve seen so far?
gifs not mine, credit to the creator.
We’ve even got a failed [marriage] proposal. All that’s left is for him to save someone she loves and then ask her again.
^^^ @reylosdragon wow that is SO right. I’m glad you added that; I neglected to mention the “You need a teacher” bit. And even howhe says it – practically undermining her powers, saying that she NEEDS a teacher, when it’s clear she can very well manage on her own and hold her ground in a fight. It is completely fascinating how well Rey and Kylo fit into that classic pair of P&P.
Reylo Source 