#Brendol is the kind of horrible person who would say those things to his child

[dragonflies-draw-flame]

I just remembered that post where someone said that Kylo tried the “you’re nothing but not to me” line with Rey because it worked on Hux before and DAMN it broke my heart 

but in a non angst note Hux would probably throw his tarine tea into Kylo’s face and refuse to talk to him for a week if Kylo even dared to say the words “you’re nothing” to his face

Kylo: you’re nothing but not to me

Hux, after throwing his tea into Kylo’s face: I am nothing? I had my own group of murderous children following me when I was 7! I am the youngest general in the first order! I fucking destroyed a star! I killed my father and unlike some people I didn’t have a mental breakdown over it

[recklessdarkness]

Please don’t get upset with me, but I’m really curious as to how someone could like both Reylo and Phasma. I see Phasma (at least in supplementary materials) as a unique feminist character, while Reylo is a ship often criticized as sexist. How do you see it?

Hey. Well, first about Reylo: as any fictional couple, much like fictional characters in general, it can be seen in many different ways. For me, this is the magic of fiction.

What drove me into loving Reylo, and connecting a lot with Ben Solo as a character (to the point of calling my cat Ben after him), was how deep and complex their relationship was, and Ben was. As a writer, and reader, and spectator, I personally enjoy complex characters and relationships. That’s one of the main reasons I love Phasma, in fact. I’ll talk about that later on.

Luckily, there’s an old post from a Tumblr user that says pretty much all of what I think about Reylo. I had to look for it for a lot to find it, but eventually I did, and I’ll link it here for you. Basically, this post says - and who writes it seems to have a lot of experience to be writing it - that Ben was a troubled child without an advocate, and that his advocate turned out to be Rey. It’s a long post and a complex analysis, but, as I said before, I enjoy complexity in fiction. It’s what drives me to it. And I encourage everyone who has the same doubt as you regarding Reylo to read this full post. It’s exactly what I think about the ship, and the two characters involved on it. I could write all of that down again, but it would be just a repetition of what that user already wrote.

But well, as I also said before, many people might not agree with that. And that’s totally okay. Seriously, I mean it. That’s also part of the “magic of fiction” that I mentioned. And, again, this is why I like it. Once more, it has to do with complexity.

About Phasma now: I definitely, completely, absolutely, more than anything else in my life as a reader/spectator (and even writer), LOVE HER. And I could talk for days on a row about why this is so true and I wouldn’t finish explaining. But I’ll say it here the simplest way I can find:

She’s goddamn COMPLEX.

She’s complex and deep to the point of many people seeing her as a pure abuser as well. This is how I see her? Not a chance. However, if we only see what she did, not along with why and how she did it, it’s the same as Kylo Ren: killed relatives, sacrificed people in order to rise, was the main figure (not main responsible, let’s emphasize that) in a program that brainwashed children to make them the perfect soldiers.

Now, is that how I see Phasma? Is that how you see Phasma? No. Because she’s not just that. Just like Kylo Ren/Ben Solo. They’re complex characters, and must be interpreted like complex characters.

But how do we interpret complex characters? Well, here’s what I think:

Phasma did all that I said above? Yes, she did. However, what drove her to do it? What was the intention, the reason behind all the horrible things she did? Emphasizing now that I said reason, not justification. Sometimes acts have no justifications at all, but every act has reasons.

Taking a minute to emphasize deeply, to make sure everyone understands this, that I’m talking about FICTIONAL CHARACTERS here. All I’m saying here is regarding FICTION. Let’s not confuse fiction with reality. To debate such topics regarding real life like I’m doing to fiction here, you have to be a mental health professional at least. That’s my opinion.

Now, do you see my point? There are a million reasons why Phasma did everything she did. Like that user did with Ben Solo in their post, I’ll briefly expose some of Phasma’s reasons for being the way she is:

- Rough childhood

- Neglective parents (briefly said on the book, but it was enough)

- Not being allowed, in pretty much any moment of her life, to show weaknesses/flaws/fears

- Anger and feeling of injustice

- Revenge wish for those who caused such injustices to her

- Physical abuse (her parents hit both Keldo and her)

- Mental abuse (Brendol blowing up Parnassos in front of her is more than enough, but there are other moments in the book)

- Sexual abuse

This last one is a theory of mine but I would definitely vouch for it - Brendol did force himself into Phasma, to show power over her, to keep her disciplined, to shape her into what he wanted her to be. I’m working on a dossier to explain to everyone why I think it happened, and I’ll definitely post it here as soon as I’m finished.

I think the right way to analyze anything in fiction is looking through all of it, not just the acts, not just the reasons for the acts. As that post I linked here said, Ben Solo has reasons for being the way he is, for actin the way he acts. Just like Rey has reasons for being the way she is and acting the way she acts, and this includes loving Ben.

And one last thing: that post was from before TRoS, so I have to add: Ben gave his life to save Rey. He indeed redeemed, for her, like that post said he would do. That doesn’t make Rey less than him, neither it makes her less powerful or less of a feminist icon (I usually say feminist icon because feminism as we know it in our society - the one that started with the suffragette and developed with all that came later on - does not exist in Star Wars’s society, so it’s kind of an add of ours to the characters). Rey defeated Palpatine. Rey gave her life to destroy the dark side of the Force. Having her life saved by Ben Solo after that doesn’t lessen anything she did. At least, not for me.

That’s basically what I think about this topic, I can say. The reason why I both ship Reylo and love Phasma is all about the complexity of the characters and/or the relation between them.