The Rise of Skywalker + Some Spoiler-y Thoughts on Reylo
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NIV)
The Rise of Skywalker is, it goes without saying, a deeply flawed film. I enjoy it while acknowledging said flaws and feeling frustration over how certain aspects and characters were mishandled. But with that said at the outset, I need to talk about Reylo.
I have many, many feelings about Rey and Ben Solo. So many it’s hard to know where to begin.
I’m seeing lots of pain and grief on my social media at the moment, and I honestly attribute a lot of that to how well (generally speaking) The Rise of Skywalker executed the love story of Rey and Ben. People are grief-stricken because they came within touching distance of seeing the characters they loved - characters the film made us fall for all over again - get a happy ending, only for that ending to be denied and replaced by a final scene that I can only describe as deeply melancholy.
For the first half of The Rise of Skywalker, Kylo Ren is depicted as harbouring an intensely obsessive love for Rey. Union with her is his ultimate goal throughout the movie, but his arc sees him progress from desiring a union that mires them both in the darkness of their legacies (I won’t be going into Rey Palpatine in this post - that’s for another time) to one that is unreservedly about them as individuals.
The offers that Kylo makes to Rey in their first few encounters are grasping gestures of desperation - the proposals are childishly petulant and clumsy, predicated on the assumption that Rey is predisposed to the same weaknesses that he is. The form of love he offers is corrupted and malformed, a symptom of the damage he has suffered on account of his own seduction to the dark side.
While Rey is unmoved by invocations of her lineage, she still has to wrestle with her own desires. When she confides in Finn that she has seen a vision of her and Kylo Ren sharing the throne of the Sith, she is revealing why she feels she can never succumb to her own feelings. Later, when she heals Kylo on the wreckage of the Death Star, she admits that she had wanted to take his hand on The Supremacy - but she had wanted to take the hand of Ben Solo, not the hand of Kylo Ren. So when Rey flees to Ahch-To, she isn’t just fleeing her potential for darkness - she’s escaping her own desires, having seen the disaster they risk bringing about.
When Rey heals Kylo’s body, she is also symbolically healing his soul. His mother’s sacrificial gesture in sending him a vision of his father only consolidates what Rey’s confession had already made him realise - that he can only achieve wholeness by embracing who he is at his core, and resuming the mantle of Ben Solo.
I’ve seen criticism of the fact that Ben doesn’t speak once he’s redeemed, but I honestly don’t know what words could add to what we do get from him. It’s obviously a credit to Adam Driver’s talent that he says more with a single gesture than many actors can achieve in a complete performance. His movements are looser and more relaxed. He’s playful in combat, demonstrating the same swagger and confidence of his father. All of this is possible because he has been released from the personal hell of hallowed isolation he had considered himself doomed to by his grand lineage. Now, he is free and motivated purely by selfless love.
Just as Rey put everything on the line to go to Kylo Ren in The Last Jedi, Ben puts everything on the line to go to Rey in The Rise of Skywalker. And unlike in The Last Jedi, when Rey and Ben are reunited on Exogol they see each other as they truly are - there is no confusion or misinterpretation over the other person’s motivation or intent, and they truly see each other face to face for the first time. The looks Rey and Kylo give each other across the Force bond on Exogol are expressions of the purest kind of strength - they find courage and resolve in the knowledge that they are loved, supported and seen. When Rey looks at Ben, she is truly seeing the man she loves for the first time.
I’ll have more thoughts on the dyad concept and whatever the fuck is going on with Palpatine’s motivations in this movie (LOL) another time, but I just want to end this for now by making your heart break all over again about that kiss scene. I’m not sure I’ve ever been as moved by Star Wars as I was when Ben crawled out of the pit, and half-limped, half-staggered, across the room to find his beloved lying dead on the ground, her eyes staring at nothing. By the way he clumsily hauled her into his arms, feeling her dead weight, and knew exactly what he had to do. There was no hesitation, only resolve and complete clarity of purpose as he channelled his energy into healing her as she had healed him.
Ben gets to experience the pure, ecstatic joy of feeling Rey’s hand squeeze his, experiencing her kiss and seeing her smile. He holds on just long enough to take in all the adored details of her face and return her smile, before slipping away in her arms.
He gave himself for her gladly and with joy in his heart, accomplishing what his grandfather could not through the ultimate act of self-sacrifice.
You see, guys? It only hurts so much because it’s so fucking powerful. You just feel devastated that their pure, joyous love was doomed to be so fleeting.
This movie, man. It’s a lot. A whole damn lot.
