poe dameron lovebot

#we love a dad who's a pushover <3

I swear on my name and the names of the Ancestors that I shall walk the way of the Mand'alor and the words of the Creed shall be forever forged in my heart.

ben/kylo has spent his entire life essentially being spoon-fed this idolization of bloodlines: if you were to ask him, he has Vader's power, because he is Vader's grandson (a fact he even highlights in the same conversation with Rey). He's been groomed by Snoke to think the entirety of his value and importance centers around this power he inherently has because he's a Skywalker: it's also a sentiment Luke shares ("that mighty Skywalker blood") and as Ben's primary caretaker for most of his childhood, that is a belief that Ben would've internalized.

I can't see this moment as Kylo diminishing Rey's abilities or importance, moreso trying to get her to grapple with the deeply fucked up, eugenics-twisted mindset he's been forced into and has accepted over the years because he doesn't think there's another alternative.

As for Rey's comment - yeah, on the surface it stings after years of bigots screaming down anyone's throats about how she's terrible and undeserving of anything she gets, but it also checks out to me that the woman with imposter syndrome, would feel like she has to earn it: throughout TLJ, we see that Rey never considers that she, herself, might be the hero the galaxy needs (or if she does, she quickly buries the thought cos she's not ready to accept her destiny). She tries giving Luke the saber, ships herself to the Supremacy with the intent to give it to Ben, thinking if it's not Luke, then surely Ben must be the hero of this tale.

She doesn't believe she has a place in this story, and as we see in TFA, she spent her adolescence being taught that she has to "earn" her place in the world: in order to survive, in order to eat, Rey is not given things, she has to earn them. It's as much her upbringing rearing its head, as it is Rey's (re-opened) wounds from the events of TLJ that has her certain she still isn't the hero: so much of TROS involves the audience and the characters themselves, being certain of Rey, but because Rey's journey is that of self-acceptance, it takes her awhile to find that same conclusion as well.

Casey, I can always count on you for the best tags 🙂‍↕️

That's actually something I have been mulling over for the past couple of weeks, though, and I wonder if so much of the irritation with the culmination of Rey's arc isn't because...so much of it involves rejecting a man's legacy.

You see so many people insisting Palpatine actually won, treating Rey as a vessel for both his legacy and character, as "proof" that the saga had a horrible ending where the bad guy won because *checks notes* his granddaughter is the sole Force user left standing - or just people insisting that it's Rey Palpatine actually.

I don't think people can fathom a story where a woman rejects not one, but two different male legacies and forges her own. I think it makes them very uncomfortable: Palpatine and Anakin and Luke are The Men(TM) of the Skywalker Saga to so many people, and Rey being "chosen" to continue those but rejecting it? And learning she never needed to earn a right to those legacies, she can choose her own? And that decision being tied so much more heavily with her connection to Leia, than one with Luke?