I’ll be honest: I skim-read a lot of Jason Fry’s novelization. 

It’s not the worst SW book, not by a long shot. But I wasn’t drawn in by his writing, an unfair critique, perhaps, given that nothing was going to be surprising. It’s very rote, though, and there were times when his prose wandered surprisingly close to boredom, bafflement, or both. Needless to say, what really disappointed me was the lackluster depiction of Rey and Kylo and some of their scenes together. Take, for example, this description of the closing Falcon scene between Rey and Kylo:

He stared at Rey. She stared back at him, her gaze level and unafraid. There was no hatred in her eyes, as there once had been. But there was no compassion, either.

I’m aware that there are some Reylos currently swooning over this even as other Reylos are mortified at what the “no compassion” bit could really portend. But read it again. 

Read it out loud. 

It is the most dispassionate description of how that scene played out onscreen, does not even come close to capturing the emotional weight behind that moment. 

If that doesn’t convince you or you think I’m being too harsh, there’s also this:

Rey fell backward, bumping into Kylo’s back.

You know what scene that is, right? 

Bumping. Into his back. O.M.G.

The misfire in translating Rey and Kylo’s simmering-to-boiling screen chemistry from screen to paper was bound to be inevitable. But I take heart in knowing that this had to be intentional: its absence speaks to the desire to keep their story unknown and suspended. In other words, it’s a way to keep their dynamic relevant for the next two years. It also solidifies the fact that the romance of Reylo will continue to be quite distinct from the sudden war time passion of HanLeia or the childishly baffling obsession of Anidala, just in case that wasn’t already obvious. 

I’ve come to the conclusion that, much like the TFA novelization, this one could be skipped over in lieu of actually watching the movie, which is A) way more exciting and B) way more successful at the nuance, which was one of its strengths. Of course, we should also remember that whatever happens in the film is unquestionably canon, regardless of conflicting details in the expanded content. There’s cute little Easter egg-type details (ships have personalities, for example) and passages not seen in the movie that Reylos created head-canons for anyway (such as why Rey left an unconscious Kylo alive). Overall, this novel is about as good as one could expect from someone other than Rian Johnson himself adapting his own script. But that’s to be expected, and this must have been a great challenge. I do think what this book best has to offer is a reiteration of the theme of perspective ambiguity.

Alright, that’s done. Now, I’m going to revisit an Episode IX speculation post I did (X) in December, because I read quite a few quotes in the novelization that were particularly relevant to what I speculated on for Hux, Kylo, and the foreshadowing of a power play between them. 

Short answer:

Hope, compassion, grace and positivity. Long answer:

enemies to friends to lovers is a real popular trope. Because mending broken fences? Pretty hopeful and positive.

while Billy is abusive, he is also an abuse victim, and unlike the other abuse victims in the show (El, Kali), he is still currently being abused and unlike them has nobody to help him get out of that abusive situation. Since people are compassionate, they’d like to see Billy escape his father’s abuse and receive the same kind of support as other abuse victims.

since Billy’s violent behaviour is very likely to be the result of the abuse he suffers (because abuse can really fuck with you and give you anger and impulse control issues, amongst other things), there’s the tantalizing possibility of him changing for the better and becoming someone true and good once he’s out of the abusive situation. That’s a rather hopeful, positive message.

redemption arcs, where a villain works at making amends and repaying the debt he owes the people he has wronged are another fave, because again, positive and hopeful. Especially considering that all of us fuck up from time to time, and in that case really would like to be able to redeem ourselves too. And because if someone has wronged us, them offering a heartfelt apology and making amends goes a long way to healing our hurt.

Some shows can get away with having a character of evil morals hanging with the main characters all the time without becoming good - depends on the show, the nature of the characters, the specific moral dimensions of the show (what is/are the central moral axes and questions the show asks and presents, et cetera) but many of them... they just can't. The evil person has gotta be less evil, at least in practice, if they're gonna stick around.

There's a lot of reasons redemption arcs happen - from the power fantasy of being able to get evil to come to your side, from showcasing how anyone can come back from evil if they want it, if they show remorse, if they try to make up for their sins, etc.

The Force Awakens

Han’s final act of love and forgiveness shocked and weakened his son to the core. All his anger evaporated, to the point where Kylo was literally punching the wound from Chewie’s bowcaster in order to feed off the physical and mental torture needed to refuel the Darkness within him. In Episode VIII, we get confirmation of the affect Han’s act had over Kylo via Snoke’s comments

“You have too much of your father’s heart in you”/“The deed split your spirit to the bone”

as well as in Kylo’s silent affirmation of those comments. 

He’s been suffering for some time already. After this, however, Kylo is rapidly descending.

The Last Jedi

Luke’s final sacrifice of love and protection signifies more suffering, reflected in the different delivery of Kylo’s protests. 

“No…”

is said softly and with dawning, dare I say horrified, realization: 

He instantly comprehends that Luke–his presumably once-beloved uncle and surrogate father, his former spiritual master and teacher, the one who betrayed him and haunted his fears–will soon be dead. 

Like his father.

Like his mother.

“NOOOO!”

is screamed in rage and humiliation, perhaps even in self-loathing at being played so thoroughly. Could one read anguish there as well? I think so, because as far as Kylo knows, his family, his “past”, is well and truly dead. 

Does he feel empowered by the fulfillment of his mission statement?

Um. No. The answer is no.

Obviously, it’s yet to be confirmed how Luke’s sacrifice will affect Kylo. But I feel that it’s safe to say it, too, will inspire a “broken body/mind” metaphor. There’s been a ton of wonderful discourse about how Luke might have contributed to his nephew’s salvation, and I tend to agree with the theory that this moment could serve as some much-needed catharsis for the trauma, fear, and resentment he’s internalized (and externalized) because of Luke. 

Therefore, I think Luke’s sacrifice will break Kylo’s dark will.

Episode IX

Leia’s moment of love and [whatever it’s meant to be] will also have an impact–perhaps the greatest of them all. 

Because, I believe that Kylo doesn’t know Leia survived the Raddus explosion: you see it on his face after the debris is flying around and, plausibly, in his next scene when he’s getting his band-aid removed; he’s just sitting there with this numbed contemplative look on his face, until Rey distracts him.

Imagine Kylo–broken in spirit and will, still regretting his choices–finding out that his mother survived. 

Imagine that spark of hope for reconciliation blooming in his heart. 

Then, imagine that he discovers the fact of her survival in the moment of her actual death, either upon hearing about it or witnessing it. 

Unlike his father and uncle, he won’t have direct involvement in his mother’s death, but the fact remains: it’ll be too late to make things right with her. Lost or wasted opportunities make the permanent loss of loved ones that much more devastating and, while tragically unfortunate, I would posit that Leia’s loss (which I don’t believe was originally meant to happen) might actually be the final suffering Kylo must endure before he attains enlightenment. 

His heart–Han’s heart–will be completely broken.

One by one, the family Kylo Ren wronged, the same family Ben Solo felt wronged by, is pulling him back.

@stvles-stilinski

You wrote:

on one hand, maybe. on the other hand, billy is HORRIFICALLY racist, and that is not something that you can blame on the abuse that he's facing at home. he doesn't trust Lucas, hates Lucas, literally THREATENS TO BEAT UP LUCAS, WHO IS A CHILD, purely because he's black. some of the other stuff about billy i can maybe see being redeemable, but that? he deserves no forgiveness for that.

We see Billy acting racist, e.g. with his remarks about “don’t interact with those people”.

The reasoning and motif behind these actions is yet somewhat opaque in canon and definitely malleable in fanon.

That said, him being racist is a likely explanation...but considering the circumstances not the only one: It is also a distinct possibility that Billy’s father Neil is the racist one and that Billy knows both him (since he is his sister’s keeper) as well as Max would get badly and painfully punished if Neil learned that his daughter was hanging out with a black kid.

This is supported by the fact that Billy only ever comes at Lucas when Lucas gets close to Max (or she to him).

As for “horrifically”....personally, I’d like to reserve that word for things like genocide, lynchings and murder and burning crosses in front of other people’s houses while wearing white hoods and robes. IF Billy’s motivation is racism, I’d categorize him as quite racist, but no more than that. He mainly wants Max away from Lucas and doesn’t go out of his way to harm Lucas as long as that is the case. Where beating children is concerned:

Thing is....BILLY is getting beat on the regular by someone larger and stronger than him. And that’s probably been going on since Billy was a small kid.

And when being beaten is part and parcel of your own, lived day-to-day reality, and especially if your parent-figure keeps telling you that it’s happening because you deserve it, it can start registering as NORMAL. As “this is how things are done”. To quote an article on the subject of violence against kids and teens: “...youth exposed to high levels of violence, cognitions that normalize violence mitigate affective effects of exposure while increasing risk for violent behavior, thus perpetuating violence in the very process of adapting to it psychologically.” In other words, due to being abused himself, Billy doesn’t have a clue what “normal” looks like and hurting Lucas or Max or Steve wouldn’t seem like such a big deal to him. After all, he’s had much worse.

P.S.: Forgivenness is NOT something anybody “deserves”.

Some of this has been good, bad, and neutral. I'm not happy with Sophie being turned into somewhat of an open book, but I can live with it.

Parker on the other hand, I very much think NEEDS to stay as she is. Her character can be grown and expanded on, fine, no problems, but it needs to be going forward starting from when we've known her.

I don't want it to be revealed whether Parker is her first or last name, or that her real name is something else entirely. I don't want to learn anything more about her or her past. Archie from the original series was enough.

Eliot is the only member of the team who tries to minimize collateral damage on a con. He knows that others could easily pay the price of whatever he's supposed to be doing not getting done.

Everyone else are perfectly willing to throw the little people under the bus if it lets them take down the target. It doesn't matter how many other people get in trouble or might lose their jobs.

Content Warning (in case you missed the tags): This is a Dark Side Positive post.

Language reinforces and codifies power structures, because language is a container for ideas.  By the patterns of language we are, somewhat, contained.

So often has it been repeated that light is the opposite of dark that it has become a given.  Uncontested.  Whereas the same does not apply to the idea that blue is the opposite of yellow, or even orange, which might have some rational foundation (but really not any more rational foundation than any color pairing, as one may discern from reading dissenting color theories.)  Binaries are built by precedent.

Subversion means destroying, disrupting, and reformatting existing language to better represent an insurgent paradigm.  It is an attack on the precedent.

Star Wars already manipulates the language around the Light/Dark binary by imagining Light as normal, healthy, and constant.  No one tells Luke Skywalker to use the Light Side of the Force.  It is just "the Force."  The assertion of the supremacy of the Light is built into the language of Star Wars.  Light is framed as supreme by a natural and invisible position of centeredness, and by a shut-out record of victorious reward by the narrative.

The FIRST step in subverting that supremacy is reclaiming a dark/light binary: acknowledging that it exists, whether we name it or not, and acknowledging that two separate and distinct quantities have been pitted against each other in binary opposition.  

The SECOND step is asking who (both in and out of universe) was the architect of this potentially unnecessary dichotomy, why do they insist upon it, and how can their problems be solved and their fears be allayed without obliterating the Darkness (a quality which they defined, by constructing the binary in the first place, but which now exists oppositionally.)

The THIRD step is to overtly reward a Dark character with a satisfying end to their story - without "turning them Light."

TFA does what the first six Star Wars movies did not do.  By having Kylo Ren announce that he eschews the Light - by having Leia claim there is still "Light" in him - the FIRST step has been accomplished.  There is indeed assertion of a dark/light binary.  I also believe the politics of the story are being landscaped to accomplish the second step: direct attention to a two-sided conflict, question why it exists, and ask how could it be laid to rest.  On optimistic days I suspect the story may be formulating a solution to this quandry other than “complete and utter eradication of the dark side by brute force.”

For this reason I believe there is a sliver of hope that we're headed to a place that subverts the binary.  A place where a Dark character can have a happy ending without turning to the Light.  I understand that, after the failure of the prequels, Disney might be tempted by the pleasure audiences theoretically exude while watching the concept of absolute evil projected onto a human face (and then, while watching that human face destroyed.)  However the evolution in language in TFA gives me causes to suspect some form of subversion is at work.

Ok well it took me like a year to figure out how to write this post but the point is that I wanted to make a S/O to the 13% of you who might be with me (from JCF):