#adam driver is so kylo ren/ben solo coded

[raisedbythetv89]

People thinking adam driver is super serious and intense meanwhile this is adam with a DEATH GRIP on his wife because he was already at and award show, which he hates because he’s such an introvert and hates attention, and a camera was suddenly in his face taking his picture when he’s been doing this now for like 15 years 😹😹😹😹

He is EXUDING terrified kitty energy just:

Him on his way to do press like:

Meanwhile his wife is basically exuding these vibes like don’t worry baby girl I got you lol

I am CACKLING he is such a large and impressive physical presence but he is SO SHY and socially anxious and it is ADORABLE it’s like a giant dog who’s aware of how big he is in a too small space and he’s not sure what to do with himself 😭 one time he was on seth myers show talking about what projects he might want to do next and he realized he was sort of sounding like he didn’t want to work and he literally said to seth HELP ME 😹😹 like I can’t get out of the word corner I painted myself into save meeee

He basically is Kylo Ren/Ben Solo - super intimidating and scary appearance actually a very sweet baby girl who needs his emotional support wife and would do anything for her 😹

[unexpectedreylo]

How Ben Solo Became A Martyr

If anyone were to pull me into a Hollywood studio office or lunch at some see-and-be-seen L.A.-area restaurant (personally, I like The Ivy) and ask me, a lifelong t.v. and movie viewer, what should show runners, directors, writers, and anyone who has a creative say in a production avoid doing, one thing I would say is, “Don’t unintentionally make a character a martyr.”

I don’t mean the sense of being a martyr in-universe but being a martyr to the audience.  

First I should define what I mean by “martyr.”  In a Christian sense, it’s a particular kind of saint who suffers and dies a horrible death for his or her faith.  In a secular sense it can describe anyone who suffers and/or dies horribly for a cause or that suffering/death calls attention to a matter of injustice.  This can also be applied in a more colloquial sense, such as when anyone suffers in some way or tries to use the impression of suffering to elicit sympathy.

If anyone at Lucasfilm is wondering why there’s a tribe of people on social media doing Ben Solo hashtags, making pins, and putting blue butterfly emojis on their handles, I’m here to tell Lucasfilm it’s because you guys made Ben Solo into a martyr to the audience.  

First, they made Kylo Ren/Ben Solo Han and Leia’s son/Anakin and Padmé’s grandson.  This makes him an easy investment for fans who have loved those characters for decades.  The killing Han Solo part might have made a certain segment of longtime fans so angry at Kylo they not only couldn’t forgive him but  they didn’t even want him redeemed but others could see how the death clearly affected him which elicits sympathy and compassion.

Second, they got an extremely talented, charismatic actor to play Kylo/Ben.  Adam Driver refused to play Kylo as a one-dimensional mustache-twirling killing-machine villain.  He added subtlety, nuance, and humanity to the role, all the while captivating the audience.  That he’s also sexy didn’t hurt.  As bad as Kylo could be, we also see the soft underbelly, the hints of the real Ben Solo hiding behind the persona.  He managed to create the kind of hero we’d been hoping to see in the ST within a short amount of time and practically no dialogue.  That’s extraordinary.  Driver took Kylo as seriously as he takes any other role.  He could’ve been making a bunch of other Oscar-nominated movies instead and we all know it.  Getting him was a gift and some fans out there think it was ultimately kind of wasted.

Third, if TFA hinted at Kylo’s humanity, Rian Johnson made it entirely the point of Kylo’s arc in TLJ.  When Kylo destroyed his helmet, Johnson was able to let Driver go nuts with a script that treated its characters like human beings instead of caricatures.  While Kylo was still capable of evil and all-around bad guy-ness, we also saw someone who could be gentle and caring, a tortured young man struggling with deep remorse, a lonely soul who can only find connection with someone who’s supposed to be his enemy, and sometimes, a hero.  Those pleading puppy dog eyes and trembling lips did a lot to elicit sympathy from filmgoers.  That he’s also sexy didn’t hurt.

Fourth, both the films and ancillary material showed Ben was subjected to abuse and suffered greatly for the mistakes of his elders.  Ben was targeted at conception and suffered with voices in his head most of his life.  A kitchen droid tried to take him out.  His parents were too busy doing whatever to really give him the attention he needed, even though Leia was aware some outside force was after her son.  His parents ultimately feared him and his emotional freak outs.  Han and Leia shipped him off to Luke’s poor man’s version of Hogwarts, leading to some deep abandonment issues.  Luke almost killed him in his sleep.  The very popular The Rise of Kylo Ren comics series basically acquitted Ben of everything he supposedly did leading up to his fall.  Then Kylo is verbally and physically abused by Snoke.  This has created a tremendous amount of sympathy for Ben, especially by those who have struggled with any number of real-world problems.  They identified with him.  Hollywood as of late has coded a lot of villainous or antihero characters as having mental illness or being neurodiverse or having addiction problems as well as enduring physical and verbal abuse.  I get that writers want to enrich these characters and make them relevant to a modern audience and that actors like the challenge in playing them but I also think Hollywood is being a little irresponsible about it.  Not only is it potentially stigmatizing it also seldom has a solution to those characters’ arcs other than death.  How is someone living with bipolar disorder or autism finding a kindred spirit of sorts in Kylo/Ben going to feel about the constant message that such a life isn’t worth living?  Ben just suffers and suffers and suffers and gets nothing for it.

Fifth, we’re presented with material depicting Ben’s youth.  Ben, when he’s not getting the stuffing kicked out of him by life, is quite lovable and as a child, adorable.  At least with Anakin Skywalker, we’re supposed to appreciate the tragedy of a good person who was loved falling to the Dark Side.  With Ben it makes us love him 10x more and at the same time make us even more upset they unceremoniously killed off that darling little moppet who played with butterflies, ran around the house naked, and begged his daddy to come home.  

Sixth, it didn’t seem like Ben was sufficiently loved either in the films or by Lucasfilm.  Or, to put it this way, whatever gestures Han, Leia, or Luke tried to throw Ben’s way were cases of too little too late.  I always wondered why, if Leia knew Snoke was manipulating Ben, she didn’t go out to find the mo-fo and kill him?  I would!  Leia tries to reach out to Ben in TROS but in the movie it comes off as her distracting him so Rey could inflict a fatal wound.  In fact, the weird thing about TROS is it feels like Leia was trying to take out Ben all along:  the distraction, ensuring Rey takes up her “Jedi path” which Leia knew full well this would somehow lead to Ben’s death, and finally her disappearing the same time he does.  It’s weird!  Han tries to save Ben but he’s a muggle who’s no match against his unstable son gifted with magic powers and lightsaber abilities.  Luke apologizes in TLJ but never had anything to say to his nephew again.  Adding insult to injury, the Blue Ghostie Exposition Scene From Hell establishes Luke and Leia as resigned to Ben’s fate all along, kicking their flesh and blood to the curb for a surrogate more to their liking.  It’s horrible!  The worst is of course his soulmate barely reacting to his death.  In the end nobody cared.  He’s like the kid who cleans up his act, gets good grades, gets into a decent college, and his family couldn’t care less.  The movie abruptly kills him off and it’s on to cheering and celebrations.  Nobody remembers or speaks of Ben and he’s not seen again in any form.  Four-five months after the film has come out, there’s no official Ben merchandise or collectibles.  It’s like “Ben Solo?  Don’t know him.”  You just know that every time the Star Wars social media team has to mention him or post something with him in it, they’re muttering under their breath, “Oh God, here it comes again.”

So they got a number of fans to empathize with Kylo/Ben and hope for his redemption as well as a chance at happiness after a lifetime of abuse and suffering, only to kill him off in a sudden and graceless manner.  There’s no payoff for Ben or the audience.  He’s just...gone.  To us it doesn’t seem right.  It seems cruel and unjust.  But fans are also a tenacious lot so they’re hoping Lucasfilm will realize it made a mistake and correct it.  In the meantime, Ben lives on in our fan fics, edits, fan art, and fan merchandise.

[redrascal1]

The Jedi Council Forums....once a decent SW forum where fans discussed the films is increasingly becoming the ‘We hate Kylo Ren/Adam Driver’ forum.

Not just Kylo Ren. Adam Driver.

Chief amongst them are three particular individuals I’ve called G, A and J. 

Let’s take a look at some of what they’ve said:

G, on a Rey Skywalker thread discussing Daisy’s performance:

TLJ, in contrast, is a thankless job for an actor, where it required her to marshal most of her skills… but for the benefit of other characters and not her own. Her work on creating a personality and believable POV are not only ignored but often counteracted, and her primary job be aimed to direct the audience into the POV Johnson wants them to have rather than flesh out a real one. That’s part of the reason why even most TLJ fans don’t usually praise her work as an actress - because her acting is being used to sell Kylo Ren more than Adam Driver’s performance is, so your attention is on him, not her.

‘Adam Driver’s performance’....nice.

They have also in the past dissed Adam’s performance as inferior to that of John Boyega.

And meanwhile...here they are with the Kylo hate, and completely choosing to ignore how the character was actually coded as

J, on a possible Rey/Kylo romance...

Frankly I find any scenario that replaces the first black lead for no legitimate narrative reason to be problematic.

Here she goes again.

The choices were never “heroic Ben Solo or Rey fixing Kylo.” That was certainly not JJ’s plan so clearly it wasn’t a binary option. I also find the idea of demoting Finn to make room for good boi Ben to be rather repugnant. Not to mention the setup of two white leads supported by their devoted BIPOC supporting characters…

This particular individual chooses to ignore that John Boyega is rumoured to be one of the influencers on the erasure of the Finn/Rose relationship....and the sidelining of Loan Tran herself. Apparently JB is a saintly victim who can’t be a racist, bigoted, fatheaded a**hole himself.

This is a particular delightful comment;

Pretty sure most “Ben Solo” fans are either in love with Adam or can only identify with white male characters. In contrast with Kylo fans.

What the f*** are you talking about, J? I’ve seen other posters moderated for saying less, but this person is on very good terms with A, who is a mod...and says things like this:

LFL should have also not tried to pretend that he had never really been evil in the first place, that he was “conflicted” through the entire trilogy or that it was “complicated,” because every play on that narrative reduces the impact of his redemption. People who are not really evil and whose evil behavior is all other people’s fault do not need to be redeemed.

And here is G again;

And ultimately, it’s not just that I think that Driver’s performance doesn’t lie at the heart of Kylo’s fanbase - it’s that I think that Kylo’s fanbase exists almost entirely because of the cinematography and “acting assignments” in spite of Driver’s performance. Drive kept on going “crazed and delusional serial killer,” but Daisy Ridley was assigned “bow down and worship Ben Solo as a complex and sympathetic character” while the camera crew made sure to shoot Driver as a sad boi model. Heck, even when Williams catches onto Driver’s performance and scores creepy music, Johnson steps in to order it changed.

Okay...I’m salty today, but what pisses me off about this little unholy trio is that they are exactly the type of people DLF catered to with DROSS.

And I have honestly no idea why.

But..I’ll finish with this, by another poster who genuinely made me smile:

I’m only interested in post ST stories if we see Rey, Finn and Poe killed off in quick succession

My sentiments exactly...

[perrydowning]

OG Reylo Countdown to TFA Anniversary: Why isn’t there a word for anti-racism like feminism?

Rant One

Rant Two

Okay, I know I said I’d talk about how Rey was a BOLD FEMINIST RISK, but I have to start with Finn.

As a San Francisco Ivory Tower Liberal, I was THE target audience for Finn. Give us all a pat on the back for bringing representation into the fold. Except ... wait. 

He’s the comic relief?

I’ll admit I did miss that in TFA. It took TLJ to make me see it. But when I went back and watched TFA, I couldn’t deny that he was never allowed to be his own person. For the first fifth of the film he was his own person, but then his narrative was tossed from Poe to Rey to Solo-Organa-Skywalker Drama.

I cannot possibly express how angry I was that Star Wars, my childhood dream of equity--that the Force made us all beautiful--had reduced Finn to a sidekick. Holy fuck. They did this. They made this whole marketing blitz about Finn, but he was Lando Calrissian, sans the cape (yeah, the 80s were weird).

Then it hit me. They literally couldn’t imagine a way to bring both women and PoC into their vision. They had to choose.

Now, this is where I have to acknowledge that I, a white feminist who is ALWAYS looking through the world through that lens, completely missed intersectionality. All I saw was that was Star Wars was finally trying to acknowledge us women folk. Warrior Rey! I just never realized women have only four boxes: Wife, Mother, Whore, Nun.

Sure, romance has been dismissed by ‘popular culture’ but oh my goodness, you ridiculous numpties, how the hell else can women find power? For thousands of years the only way women could control their world was through denying sex (or the promise thereof) or giving it up. Then--if incredibly lucky--love. A man loves us? We own the fucking world.

So, okay, one of those idiot men managed to find the code. Yeah, that’s it. The smartest of us have ALWAYS known how to control you. But here’s where it gets kind of ... lovely. It turns out that as women have learned, men have, too. I don’t know if they listened to their girlfriends or the non-named women on their staff, or maybe Adam Driver listened to his wife, but someone managed to weave OUR story into all of this (please let us all acknowledge that Marcia Lucas had the true vision).

Because here’s the thing. Women and men NEED each other. Not just for something so base as procreation. Because one person needs another. It has fuckall to do about gender. It’s about finding that person who completes you. That’s it. And yeah, sex and gender do shift towards a certain sorting, but, my god, who the fuck cares? When you meet your person, there they are. 

When Kylo Ben saw Rey, that was it. He’d just twisted himself beyond recognition, so she was a little confused. 

Was it completely fucked up that Kylo Ren knocked her out and carried her off to his lair? Good lord, yes. But she OWNED him in that scene. Did he throw her against a tree? Yup. But why? Because he wanted to murder the man he thought had taken her from him. (Yes, I know, that’s gross, but toxic masculinity is horrific and we gotta work with them or humanity dies--also not such a bad idea). 

Which brings us to how he looked at her when she called the saber to her (I cannot even with the phallic imagery). 

Okay, this is where I get personal. My husband, Mr. Downing, has always listened to me. And the first time I lifted my metaphorical sword, he looked at me like Kylo Ben looked at Rey. THAT is what a man looks like when he will fall to his knees and slit his wrists for you. It’s awe, it’s devotion, and he will also chase you to the edge of a cliff. But he will never push you over, and he’ll throw himself over if you ask it of him.

Hollywood love is insane. If you find it, you understand how mad it truly is. I don’t know if it’s something I would recommend. But I do know that it’s what gives most of us powerless women hope. 

Reylo is the line in the sand. It’s where women see men and think they’re still worth saving.

Let’s save them. 

[kyloren]

Why Reylos Are A Bright Spot In The STAR WARS Fandom

It’s impossible to parse all of this out or to really say who’s “right” or “wrong” or what “right” and “wrong” even mean in fandom spaces. From my vantage point, the Reylo community is one of the more forgiving and accepting out there. It’s comprised of not only women, but plenty of men and non-binary Star Wars fans, from different races and orientations and experiences. And that’s true of any shipping community. In a fandom as large as Star Wars, there should be room for all of us to express joy or grief or surprise or disinterest in our cultivated spaces. It’s how we all choose to cross-pollinate that could use some work.

But Reylos aren’t deserving of the intense condemnation that comes from larger voices in the fandom. The ridicule feels specific and exclusionary, and rooted in gatekeeping sexism. Comparing them to the Fandom Menace is ridiculous. That group created blogs dedicated to roasting journalists, creators, and fans. Meanwhile, the Reylo community (along with Ben Solo fans) poured much of their frustration and sadness over The Rise of Skywalker into an act of good, by raising money for Adam Driver’s charity, Arts in the Armed Forces. How much money? As of this writing, over $76,000, more than double the charity’s fundraising goal for an entire fiscal year.

full article below the cut:

Why is romantic love such a controversial thing in fandom? It’s something I ask myself a lot, as a person who writes about shipping and who desires the kind of love that stories tell me might exist. I’ve spent most of my life in fandom spaces—participating in conversations or observing and examining them—and have witnessed firsthand how objectionable fictional romance can be, especially in fandoms that appeal to and target men. Why is this the case, and why is romance a thing we use to punish women looking for escapism in genre stories?

It’s hard to say, but it remains an endemic and undeniable strain. Shipping, which is fandom code for wanting two characters to be together, is often snickered at or seen as some frivolous element of appreciation. It can lead to shaming that feels personal and accusatory, as if your interest in a fictional relationship is a roadmap to your own intentions and experience. This attitude towards shippers is especially present in the Star Wars fandom, where the relationship between Rey and Kylo Ren is steeped in a seemingly never-ending controversy. There are fervent supporters of the romance between these characters, a plentiful contingent of opposers, and those who don’t really care one way or another but still seem fit to criticize.

Why has the “Reylo” ship created such a stir? Let’s dig into this subset of the Star Wars fandom: where it started, why it’s accumulated so much negativity, and why the Reylos don’t deserve the bad reputation they’ve acquired, especially in the wake of The Rise of Skywalker.

THE ORIGINS OF REYLO

The release of The Last Jedi was a rough time for a lot Star Wars fans. The film—the eighth in the Skywalker saga and the second in the Disney-era sequel trilogy—made a lot of bold storytelling choices, which divided the fandom into camps. Those who loved the meditations on the Force, Luke Skywalker’s troubled hero’s journey, the complicated characterization of Poe Dameron, Finn and Rose’s failed mission, and the strange developing bond between Rey and Kylo felt at odds with anyone who saw otherwise. Many disliked Luke’s arc, or the apparent sidelining of Poe and Finn, or the democratization of the Force. The disagreements spiraled into something bordering collective mania. It’s a debate that still rages today, and that seeped into the conversations we’re currently having about The Rise of Skywalker.

I loved the movie, but found the discourse numbing. Positive Twitter conversations were instantly marred by detractors, and every passionate argument was upended by accusatory nitpicks. I felt discouraged from participating in any of it, and I felt bitter towards the Star Wars community in general. Until I found the Reylos.

After stumbling on podcasts like What The Force?, Skytalkers, and Scavenger’s Hoard—all female-hosted programs—I realized there were plenty of encouraging conversations about The Last Jedi happening in fandom. I also realized most of them were Reylo-oriented. Suddenly, I was exposed to the exact conversations I always wanted to have about Star Wars: deep dives into mythology, redemption arcs, symbolism and dualism, religion, poetry. And all of that was encompassed in Reylo. All of these larger stories, focused through these characters joined by fate and purpose, who represented opposing ideologies of the Force.

There was so much to dig into. Rey and Kylo have a classic enemies-to-lovers storyline, a romantic trope seen in fairytales like Beauty and the Beast, classic literature like Pride and Prejudice, mythological stories like that of Hades and Persephone, even modern genre television like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It’s typically used in women-oriented storytelling, as it affords duality and compassion to both parties; a distribution of power that makes the women as complicated, compromised, and interesting as their male counterparts. Rey’s interest in Kylo adds a layered intrigue to a character otherwise patently “good” and “pure,” words commonly associated with women, forcing them into palatable, antiquated gender roles.

Their relationship feeds a part of the fanbase who craves that kind of female protagonist. One who represents their own burgeoning lust, complicated compassion for the men they chose to care about, and temptation towards things we’re told to fear. Through the Reylo relationship, Rey took on another angle, one that finally made Star Wars feel like a story for me.

THE BACKLASH

I also learned right away what it meant to be a Reylo in the Star Wars fandom. The relationship between the light-sided Rey and dark-sided Kylo was riddled in turmoil. In The Force Awakens, a scene where he straps her down and interrogates her is considered by many to be abusive. The language Kylo uses to seduce Rey to his side in The Last Jedi is also seen as manipulative and problematic. He tells her that no one knows her like he does. In their opinion, he’s attempting to groom her to his standards, to turn her into what he wants against her own will. Those against the relationship will tell you that it’s a dangerous and negative message to send to young girls.

And here’s where I’ll say something potentially controversial amongst my fellow Reylos: I don’t think these people are “wrong.” Because everyone’s experience and perspective is their own thing to interrogate, and it’s not up to me to tell people how to feel about something–even if I disagree entirely. What I do take issue with, however, is the need to interrogate someone else’s preferences or fantasies. There is an infantilizing element to the backlash, as if those opposed think that Reylos haven’t reconciled with the themes presented to them, and are merely choosing to ignore them because they think Adam Driver is hot.

The way I see it, relationships like Reylo—power fantasies oriented on the feminine psyche, with an antagonistic male—fulfill two things I love in storytelling. They are pure escapism; the happy ending those of us drawn to the incurable are never afforded. And they are instructive, as they exemplify the patriarchal schism between men and women: that we are not equal, but that women love men anyway because of the compassion that comes naturally to balance that division. It shows how we can mend those gaps through patience and understanding. It’s archetypical and fantastical, sure, but that’s what Star Wars is: a fairy tale that wrestles with society and humanity in broad strokes.

That said, there are other reasons for dissent. Some fans ship Rey and Finn, and see their romance as a better avenue for a healthy relationship. Some have experienced personal trauma and can’t abide a romance that mimics and negates their pain. Others just don’t see the Reylo thing at all. Absolutely all of that is valid. Shipping should never be a competition or an authoritative moral stance on any side. Rey/Finn shippers are just as valid as Reylos because it speaks to what someone personally craves and desires. The shaming shouldn’t exist on any side—but because it does, the passionate defense comes in.

REYLOS DON’T DESERVE THE HATE

That knee-jerk self defense has drawn a lot of ire to the Reylo community in the aftermath of The Rise of Skywalker, the final film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. On paper, the Reylos were given a lot of what they desire: Kylo Ren is redeemed and turns back into Ben Solo. Rey and Ben fight side by side and even share a kiss. But then Ben dies and Rey ends the movie alone, something that irked the shippers. They saw the ending as a grim conclusion for Ben and a way of punishing Rey for expressing her desires. To many, the ending feels hopeless and feeds into this stereotypical notion that for a woman to be strong, she must be single — as if romantic love weakens us.

There are other ways to read the ending, and many fans found power in it. That’s the beauty of film: that it’s entirely subjective. But in their profession of disappointment, the Reylos once again became a punching bag for the fandom at large. A recent BuzzFeed article compared the way Reylos reacted to The Rise of Skywalker to the way the Fandom Menace—a trolling, abusive, anti-Disney hate group—reacted to The Last Jedi. (Never mind that their “source” for this reaction was a tweet from a prominent member of the Fandom Menace, and that many of the complaints in question were either fabricated or from non-Reylo accounts.)

It’s impossible to parse all of this out or to really say who’s “right” or “wrong” or what “right” and “wrong” even mean in fandom spaces. From my vantage point, the Reylo community is one of the more forgiving and accepting out there. It’s comprised of not only women, but plenty of men and non-binary Star Wars fans, from different races and orientations and experiences. And that’s true of any shipping community. In a fandom as large as Star Wars, there should be room for all of us to express joy or grief or surprise or disinterest in our cultivated spaces. It’s how we all choose to cross-pollinate that could use some work.

But Reylos aren’t deserving of the intense condemnation that comes from larger voices in the fandom. The ridicule feels specific and exclusionary, and rooted in gatekeeping sexism. Comparing them to the Fandom Menace is ridiculous. That group created blogs dedicated to roasting journalists, creators, and fans. Meanwhile, the Reylo community (along with Ben Solo fans) poured much of their frustration and sadness over The Rise of Skywalker into an act of good, by raising money for Adam Driver’s charity, Arts in the Armed Forces. How much money? As of this writing, over $76,000, more than double the charity’s fundraising goal for an entire fiscal year.

I also know that the Reylos helped me find my way back to loving Star Wars, gave me endless professional and creative inspiration for the last two years, and deepened my interest and love of storytelling and mythology. I know I’m not alone, and I know that the Reylo shipping community has made Star Wars finally feel like a fandom they were allowed to love. That’s something I hope fans with different access points to the world of Star Wars might think about before they wag a finger or call Reylos fake fans or mock their interests and experience. Star Wars can and should be for everyone, and how we find our way into the galaxy far, far away is a unique, personal, and beautiful thing. Love is what it’s all about at the end of the day. Even romantic love.

by Lindsey Romain for Nerdist [find article HERE]

[self-proclaimed-chaotic-good]

What We Do In The Star Destroyer | Kylo Ren/Ben Solo x Reader (Oneshot)

Words: 3038

A/N: This came to me when I started to imagine reader as this bubbly person skipping around the Star Destroyer and was dating Kylo Ren. I started writing this months ago, but only now I’ve managed to finish it. I’ve been meaning to write for Adam Driver’s characters for a while anyways.

-

The captain with the chromium armor and a cape sighed as she sat down in front of you. You couldn’t see her face, but from her body language, you could tell  she was impatient and that she wanted to leave. If you were anyone else, she would have. But, you weren’t just anyone. You were Kylo Ren’s partner and anyone would be crazy to mess with you. Plus, she had grown rather fond of you and didn’t want you sulking around if no one went along with whatever it was you were currently doing.

You gave her a bright smile as you finished setting up the recording equipment. “Okay, we’re all set up. State your name and your rank. Describe what you do in the First Order,” you prompted.

The captain sighed again, the sound distorted by the mask. “Why are we doing this again?”

“Well, if we want people on our side, instead of blowing up an entire planet and wasting potential territory, man power, and resources, why don’t we do something that can persuade them to join,” you said optimistically, rubbing your hands together. Also, you wanted to see these mean, stone-faced officers squirm in front of your bright disposition, but they don’t need to know that.

She looked around, then nodded in agreement. “You’re putting together a propaganda project,” she said slowly, “Does Kylo Ren know of this?”

“Yup, yup.” You waited expectantly.

In fact, Kylo was rather amused by this idea and since you were growing bored walking around the Star Destroyer with a constant guard, he knew you needed something to do or else you would start finding ways to distract him while he was working. No one knew how you met each other or how it was possible that Kylo Ren had a partner, especially someone as bright as you, but they kept their curiosities to themselves if they didn't want it to reach him.

She sighed for the third time. “I’m Captain Phasma of the First Order, a senior officer who commands legions of stormtroopers into battle and oversees their military training,” Phasma stated into the recorder.

“And, Captain Phasma, how did you find yourself being one of the senior officers of the First Order?”

She shrugged. “It’s a long story and I have new recruits to train-”

“We have time,” you interrupted with a sweet smile, “and I’m sure Kylo would understand.”

Captain Phasma cleared her throat. She didn’t want to admit this to anyone, but seeing someone so happy all the time was always unsettling for her. If they don’t show an ugly side to themselves, they can’t be trusted. No one has ever seen you genuinely angry. Only sulky, maybe a bit sad, but people just assumed that you had a fight with Kylo Ren or you were just bored. Yet, the two of you were always so gentle towards each other, even with others around and you always managed to find something to occupy your time.

She didn’t want to find out what would happen if you were upset. Once, Kylo Ren got angry at you for ditching one of the guards for a couple of hours while on a mission and Captain Phasma wasn’t so sure - and she was always confident in her keen eyesight - that she saw Kylo Ren flinch as you stopped pouting at him and sucked in a breath. You stood up straighter and tilted your head at him. He stood there for a moment before moving you back into the ship and he stayed in the room with you for the rest of the night.

“Well-” Captain Phasma started, and went on to telling how she stumbled upon Brendol Hux, the general’s father, and had aided him. That opened up opportunities for her to join the First Order and climb up the ranks to captain.

After your interview with Captain Phasma was wrapped up, you excused her and packed up your things. Kylo was still away on another mission, so you figured you could pay the general a visit. You were hesitant at first to include him in, but he was the general and he was the one that gave the speeches to the First Order. It would be good content for the recording and maybe it would give you a chance to get to know him more. It was a frenemies relationship at the moment, but you were sure that could change if you spent some time with the grumpy man.

You nodded to yourself as you resolved to head towards the general’s office. Just before she turned the corner, Captain Phasma paused as she watched you set off to find General Hux with a smile on your face. She wasn’t one to fall into gossip or care about other people’s whereabouts, unless it obstructed the goals of the First Order, of course. And while she was relieved that she was finished with her part in your project, she couldn’t help but wish to be in the room and watch as you interview the general.

General Hux had once made a comment, saying that having you around was making Kylo Ren distracted and weak. All while in front of both of them. He immediately started choking, body twitching as his hands went up to scratch around the invisible force around his neck. Kylo Ren was gripping at his lightsaber as he stared him down, but his hand reached around to grab yours and the force-choke was lifted from him. General Hux wanted to make another comment as they left holding hands, but Captain Phasma advised against it.

“Armi,” you sang, knocking on the general’s office door.

The door slid open, revealing a sneering red-headed General. You smiled at him and held up your recording equipment. He looked over at them and sighed before checking to see if anyone was watching. You waited patiently until he turned around and walked back into his office, holding the door open for you.

“Thanks, Armi,” you said, waltzing over to one of the chairs across from his desk.

He sniffed before taking his seat at his desk, his blue eyes trying to suss you out as you set up the recording equipment on the table. He had heard about your little project and was told, well, threatened to go along with it.  He often wondered if Snoke had ever known about you and what his opinions were on your influence on Kylo Ren. Once it was all set, you scooted the chair closer and pressed record.

“Okay, thanks for agreeing to do this-”

“I hadn’t said anything,” Hux said coldly.

You smiled at that. “You let me in your office,” you said, gesturing to the room, “Besides, you’re the First Order’s general. You need to be a part of this. Who better to have in this recording than the rather enforcing and eloquent General Armitage Hux?”

He hummed, relaxing in his seat. “Okay, where do we start?”

“Let’s just start with the basics, shall we? Name and rank?” You started the recorder and waited patiently for him to start.

Hux cleared his throat. “General Armitage Hux of the First Order-”

-

You were skipping through the corridors of the base, making your way back to your shared quarters with Kylo. You had done rounds around the base, collecting enough interviews for your little project, and were ready to start editing them together. Kylo had been sent out to another mission again, which you made very clear that you were disappointed about, but knew that it was a part of his training that he insisted on doing with Snoke. You never trusted Snoke. Sure, your boyfriend had been trying to walk the path of the darkside for a while now, but there was something about the Supreme Leader that felt… fake.

Just as you reached the door to your quarters, there was a twist in your gut. There was something going on, something wrong. You quickly punched the code in and made a beeline towards your closet, tossing the recording equipment on a nearby table before stooping down to the bottom of the closet for a box you had buried in the back. Once you collected what you needed, you walked back out and set out to find Kylo.

You stormed towards the so-called throne room where a projection of Snoke usually sat. This time, he was physically there, and he was not as impressive as everyone made him out to be. Kylo whipped his head around, standing up from his kneeled position. His eyes widened, before narrowing.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded, almost panicked.

You lifted your chin and raised an eyebrow. “I sneezed. Figured someone was talking about me, so I came to check,” you replied, your eyes landing on Snoke.

“(Y/n)-” Kylo tried to warn.

Snoke chuckled. “Perfect. This makes things easier,” his voice boomed as he lifted a finger, “Come, child.” You felt the force trying to pull you towards him, but you resisted as much as you can, clenching your fists and gritting your teeth. Snoke paused, before letting out another chuckle. “Grab her!”

Kylo hesitated, looking between his master and his partner. “Supreme Leader, is this necessary?”

“General Hux claims that they have been a distraction from your training,” Snoke snarled, “Is this true, or is he lying to me?”

“It is a misunderstanding. It won’t happen again,” Kylo said firmly.

“Then get rid of them so it won’t. That is an order.”

“You know,” you said, standing in front of Kylo, “I’m getting sick and tired of your tricks.”

“How dare you-”

You turned to Kylo, Snoke growling as you ignored him. “What are you doing, (Y/n)? This is dangerous,” Kylo said in a low voice.

“Sweetie, I think it’s time to do things my way. This is getting out of hand and there’s no way that I’m going to let a puppet order you around-”

“What are you doing, (Y/n)?” Kylo hissed, wondering why you were messing around with the Supreme Leader present.

“He’s messing with you,” you said, not afraid that Snoke could hear.

Kylo straightened, looking you dead in the eyes. He knew for a while, but he hadn’t done anything about it.There were times where Kylo frustrated you with his stubbornness. It wasn’t like you were made out of pure light, you knew well enough that there was some darkness within you. This whole fight between the light and darkness was getting quite foolish and suddenly it was no longer about the greater good of the people, just power, authority, and self-righteousness.

Because of the inflexible teachings of the Jedi, any speck of dark taint within anyone’s soul seemed to doom them to be casted out and left to suffer with their inner turmoil about their identity alone, vulnerable. You remembered Ben storming into your room, hands pulling at his hair as he paced around and dumped everything on you. Master Jedi Luke Skywalker, his own uncle, tried to kill him in his sleep because of the voices in his head.

You ran away with him that night.

You worked so hard to protect the both of you, but he had to go and fall in with those Knights of Ren and work with the First Order. All because he felt weak, that he needed more power. He insisted that he had a plan and you knew that there were things that he had to decide on his own. You just wished that he would tell you.

“What are you doing? Grab them or I will!” Snoke snapped.

You continued your unwavering eye contact with your boyfriend as you raised a hand and channelled all of your frustration and rage into crackling energy. Kylo’s eyes darted to your hand and realized what you were about to do. Even before you linked your minds, you knew each other well enough that you could read each other’s nonverbal language. He lowered his gaze and slowly raised his own hand, mirroring you. His brows furrowed as he concentrated on controlling the dark energy.

Snoke may have been his master, but there were many things that he had not taught him and he was well aware of it. As if he was purposely holding him back. You, who learned both the ways of the dark and light side on your own, had taught him a few things. You were always so calm, empathetic, and rational, yet you belonged to neither side of the Force.

“Why try and finish what your grandfather started,” you said, the lightning growing  by the second, “when you can accomplish what he failed to do? Bring balance to the Force, Ben. Get rid of this trivial light and darkness and become both. What do you choose?”

Kylo swallowed, the lightning reflecting from his eyes as they watered. You had your arms spread, giving him an opening to strike you if he wanted. You knew that a confrontation like this would happen. You knew when he killed your fellow trainees from the Jedi temple. You knew when he killed his own father. Each time you had an argument and each time you challenged if he would do the same to you, too, for the sake of unlimited dark power.

You felt the pull before Kylo could respond. With your attention away from Snoke, he Force-pulled you towards his throne, your feet scuffing against the floor as you tried to gain your footing. 

“I knew you were hiding something from me,” Snoke growled, his gnarly fingers raised, lifting you off the floor. “Someone strong with the Force. Join me and I can make you even more powerful.”

You faced Kylo one last time, panic and desperation in his eyes, before your body was twisted around so you were facing Snoke’s pale face. A puppet. And you were determined to find out who was pulling those strings. You narrowed your eyes and he visibly braced himself as you raised your hand in defiance, but no lightning came out, no force-pull. Your other hand reached around and you dropped your lightsaber, a gift that Kylo gave you for your birthday.

Kylo rushed forward, skidding to halt and caught it. He turned his eyes towards his master. Former master. And he ignited it, a purple glow illuminating his face.

“Is this what you choose? How dare-”

“I choose her,” Kylo spat.

In that moment, you channelled lightning from your hands and shot at Snoke. The Force he held you with dropped. You felt gravity taking its course as you plummeted down. You waited for the right moment to flip backwards, landing safely with your hands and knees. Kylo used that opportunity to charge at Snoke. You did all you can to help create an opening for him.

“The floor,” you said into his mind, “I’ll boost you.”

He slashed downwards, blowing chunks of the floor out, giving enough for you to lift off the ground until he was eye level with Snoke.

“You will regret this. You will never be as powerful as Vader. Not without me! You will be weak without me!” Snoke warned.

Kylo huffed. “You underestimate my power!”

With that, you launched him upward. He jumped towards Snoke, twirling your lightsaber, before swinging it down in a wide arch. The purple saber sliced through his pale skin with ease and in a matter of seconds, his head toppled to the floor.

Kylo landed, panting as he stared down at Snoke’s head. You ran towards him, wrapping your arms around his torso and sighed in relief. He deactivated the lightsaber and handed it back to you.

“You know what we have to do,” you mumbled into his shirt.

He nodded solemnly, turning in your arms. “Let’s go. We need to find out who’s behind this.”

“Are you okay about this?”

He sighed. “You were right and I’m sorry that it took me this long to realize it. You should have left, but you didn’t. Thank you for showing me the way.”

You shook your head. “You already knew where to go, you just needed a little push.”

He gently brushed his thumb across your cheek as leaned into him. A smile graced his lips as you stared at him with adoring eyes, even after everything he had done. It wasn’t as if your hands were clean. You’ve killed before during the times where your arguments had grown so bad, that you’d leave and take up mercenary work. He always tried to have people keep an eye on you and he knew that you could choose to come back if you wanted to.

Thundering footsteps echoed into the wide room, General Hux at the forefront. His eyes landed on Snoke’s head and he sneered at Kylo.

Kylo shrugged, almost too casually. “(Y/n) did it,” he pointed at you with a smirk.

Your jaw dropped. “Ben Solo, you nerfherder!” you shouted as he walked passed Hux and the stormtroopers. You growled, stomping after him.

Once the two of you were back in your room, you packed everything along with other provisions before heading towards one of the ships. He told you to wait inside while he went to finish something. When he came back, he wore a smug smirk on his face.

“What did you do?” you asked cautiously.

“Nothing…” You pursed your lips and waited as he started up the engines. “Okay, I wrecked Hux’s office. No big deal.”

“Get them!” you heard Hux scream.

You turned and saw Hux through the window throwing down a recorder and holopad before smashing it with his boot. Your boyfriend was already shifting gears, his smirk turning to a wide grin.

“Ben, what did you do?” you pressed.

“I might have also left our sex tape on his desk’s remains,” he said. The ship jerked forward before you could snap at him. “Relax, (Y/n/n), it’s going to be a long ride.”

“I can’t believe you’ve done that,” you muttered.

“It was your idea when you brought that recording equipment on board in the first place.”

“I hate you.”

“No, you don’t. You wouldn’t stand to lose a handsome guy like me.”

“Just fly, Ben.”

[ariainstars]

What’s Missing in The Rise of Skywalker or What I Think Star Wars Needs in Order to Work…

This may be pure conjecture on my side… But there’s one thought that’s not letting me go these days.

We have shredded Episode IX to pieces by now and we all know its plot holes and massive problems with character development, coherence, morality etc.

But I’m realizing that there is something that Star Wars has always had at its center… and I believe that without it, it simply cannot work.

The Father Figure.

Remember, the central sentence (and one of the most iconic film scenes ever) is the infamous “No - I am your father.”

So let’s face the saga from this point of view.

The Phantom Menace is not a masterpiece of filmmaking, but a decent film, with an interesting story and a lot of intriguing characters. It works well as a solid introduction to the prequel trilogy.

At its heart we find Qui-Gon Jinn. Gentle, cunning, compassionate and rebellious, Qui-Gon is the ideal Jedi if there ever was one. To Anakin, the fatherless child, he is the first father figure he knows, the first person who is an advocate for him and pleads his cause; not that his mother wouldn’t, but she was powerless to do so. Qui-Gon also has the broad-shouldered, tall frame that will later become one of Darth Vader’s trademarks.

Attack of the Clones is one of the weakest, if not the weakest Star Wars film of all. And I can’t overlook the fact that there is no father figure at its center.

We get to know Jango Fett, Boba’s father, who is however not a main character: his presence is important for the course of the plot, but not the impact of his personality itself.

We also have an interesting insight in Anakin’s relationship with Obi-Wan. It takes only a few minutes for us to realize that these two are not on the best of terms: Obi-Wan is too immature and inexperienced for the task he has to shoulder, too strict in his adherence to the Jedi Code (possibly due to the other Jedi’s critical eye on them), and Anakin is more powerful than he is despite his youth. As a result, young Obi-Wan does not have much, if any, influence on the events of the story.  He may be a good Jedi but as a father figure for young Anakin he is not suited at all.

Revenge of the Sith sees Palpatine taking over the rule as Anakin’s master: it is interesting that before this moment, he used to refer to the Anakin as “Son”, another way of subtly manipulating the young man who was in need of a father figure to look up to.

The film is excellently made and, very fittingly, the unraveling of a human tragedy. Palpatine is the most powerful and also most horrifying father figure imaginable, who offers Anakin enormous power to a terrible price: the loss of everything he ever was.

A New Hope is a very good film in many ways and for a lot of good reasons, not least due to the elderly Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi. He is the one who introduces Luke to his powers and explains him - and also us, the audience - the nature of the Force. Without him, we would be dealing with a good but not remarkable science fiction story. The element of magic is introduced by the Jedi who is a mentor to Luke, another young man who longs for a father figure in his life.

To put it mildly, The Empire Strikes Back rocks! I still think of it as the best Star Wars film ever made. It contains everything a film needs to be compelling even on seeing it again and again.

And who is at the core of it all? Darth Vader, the Dark Father, the Evil, Unknown, Malignant Father. Vader is at the height of his power in the film which from his point of view is the hunt for the son he thought dead and now wants to bring at his side at all costs. Vader is terrifyingly powerful throughout the film, he dominates every scene.

Not coincidentally, we see him in his meditation chamber once where he reminds of a king sitting on his throne.

Return of the Jedi is not bad per se but it is commonly (and in my opinion rightly) seen as the weakest of the original trilogy. Yes, I know, the Ewoks are annoying and in Jabba’s palace we already have too many Muppets - it doesn’t work when you want to make your film more child-friendly and at the same time to tell the culmination of a family drama.

But again, what I miss here is a central figure. We see Palpatine holding Vader’s leash, until he is at the last moment defeated by the father desperate to save his son. It is an act that costs him his life and makes Vader and his redemption heart and soul of the story.

But until that moment, we have Palpatine at the center of the plot. Thus, there are two father figures. And I can’t help but noticing that the fact is a little irritating in itself. Similarly to Attack of the Clones, Return of the Jedi seems to waver when it comes to deciding what it is about, what the actual, all-encompassing arc is.

The Force Awakens: Han is thirty years older now and a father figure himself - to a son who felt abandoned by him. Han dominates the key scene: his son is unhinged and conflicted and despite his power, he doesn’t have the events under control.

Han’s decision to give up his life to save his son’s soul is a last, desperate act born from love which parallels Vader’s. Even if at this moment we do not yet realize that he will succeed in the end, we are aware that something momentous has happened on the fatal bridge: an event that was built up for many years and will have enormous repercussions on everyone involved.

Not surprisingly, Han also felt like a father figure for Rey, the other protagonist of the sequels. 

The Last Jedi sees an aged Luke Skywalker in the role of the wise old mentor which once was Obi-Wan’s. Though his attitude is not exactly fatherly, Luke is heart and soul of the story. His wisdom, his courage and also the admittance of his failure push the story onto its tragic but heroic ending.

The Rise of Skywalker is disappointing on many levels, but thinking about it again, there is again that certain something that I miss most.

Yes, the Father Figure.

Palpatine is but a creepy old shadow and is not even acknowledged as kin by Rey.

The central and most moving scene is, again, a meeting between Han and his son, finally reconciling.

 For good measure

Rogue One is the story of Jyn’s father Galen, his plans for the Rebellion and her daughter living only to fulfill them. Though sad, it is a good and convincing story. 

Solo is nice to watch but it does not work as well as Rogue One. My guess is that focuses too much on action and not enough on character development: the film does not make clear enough that Beckett is a father figure for Han, and that it is significant for his personal development to leave him and his mindset behind. 

The Clone Wars has Anakin’s relationship with his padawan Ahsoka at the heart. Though from their age difference he is more like a big brother for her, differently to the other Jedi he is protective, respectful and listening with her. Anakin’s attitude proves over and over what a good father he would have been had he had the chance. 

The Mandalorian works excellently and it has, again - need I say it? - a father-son relationship at its core. Despite his previous cut-throat demeanor, Dindjarin always makes his little protegee feel safe and lets him develop his powers in his own way and time. In return, the child is his way back to humanness.

This is the most heart-warming and perhaps until now most convincing father-child-relationship we have ever had in the entire Star Wars universe. Is the series so good for its action scenes? I’m not denying that. But that’s not what the story is about: it’s about what makes a good father, even if you are everything but a saint.

And that what is most bitter for me about The Rise of Skywalker.

Ben Solo did not get to be the father figure I was certain was his ultimate fate to be: he was Vader’s opposite in so many details, down to his facial figures. Darth Vader was a most impressive villain but a nightmarish father. Kylo Ren never was half as convincing as a villain, which to me made it logical to assume (also since we get to know Ben Solo as an emphatic, caring person) that he was meant to be a good father and his failure came from trying to be something he wasn’t meant to be in the first place.

Anakin had damned himself with the carnage of the Jedi padawans; and in The Last Jedi the Canto Bight children, one of which is Force-sensitive, had been introduced. By becoming the Good Father his grandfather never had the chance to be Ben would have found redemption and purpose. And Rey, having been abandoned herself, would have been an excellent mother figure. (Apart from that, I don’t doubt that Adam Driver could play the role of the affectionate, protective father hands-down.)

It is still a mystery to me why this obvious route was not taken by the filmmakers. Letting the last of the Skywalker blood die without having him fulfill his destiny was the bleakest route the story could take.

I don’t know what’s in the cards with Rian Johnson’s trilogy. But I haven’t given up hope for the saga to finally give us the happy, united family that I am positive always was meant to be at its core.

Tragedies and cautionary tales are well enough. But I believe that after all of the drama, we ought to be in for some joy and fun at last. 😊

[chopper-witch]

Confronting Fear is the Destiny of a Jedi

Pairing: Ben Solo (Kylo Ren) x Reader, Ben Solo (Kylo Ren) x Reader x Rey (platonic)

Warnings/extra tags: toxic & complex relationships, force bonds, making force bonds more complicated (you’re welcome), fear is a recurring theme, typical canon violence, worse violence, there will be smut, force bond smut (not r*ylo, not sorry),

I do add warnings for chapters that are extra bad in my story masterlist for the story with a *.

Timeline: the destruction of Luke’s Jedi temple (28 ABY) to just after the end of the Rise of Skywalker (35 ABY), with some flashbacks sprinkled within.

Author notes: This doesn’t alter movie canon much at all, it just adds to it for the most part (I won’t be able to avoid alterations entirely, though). Kylo Ren didn’t deserve a full redemption arc but fuck those whole two (2) or so seconds. I literally wrote this whole thing to fix those whole two seconds of TROS I really hated (yes, I am serious). Also, I love Adam Driver.

Okay, slight lie. I had this idea for awhile but after seeing TROS I really had to fucking write this because a) it allowed me to see how the characters’ stories played out (I really didn’t want my story to mess up the characters’ too much lmao) and b) fuck that scene.

Yes, the title is that quote from Luke. No, I will not be taking criticism.

Summary: The Jedi long lived by a code that pledged peace, serenity, and knowledge. They adamantly dismissed fear, often claiming fear is what turned people to the Dark Side. Correct in their assumption, the fear of one strong padawan aided in the destruction of the Jedi and the rise of the Empire. But after the Empire falls and the New Jedi Order arises, Luke Skywalker tries to build a group bound by an altered set of rules - rules more centered and balanced. Fear is not something to shy away from, but rather something to face, similar his own when he took down the Empire, is a principle he tries to teach. Much like the previous Jedi Order, his own quickly collapses because of fear, this time his own. Fear really does seem like the path to the Dark Side, but three Jedi eventually prove that fear means a lot more than meets the eye.

[irinapaleolog]

IN RISE OF SKYWALKER, REY AND BEN SOLO ARE MORE IN SYNC AGAINST PALPATINE THAN YOU COULD EVER KNOW

In her 25-year career as a stunt double and now stunt coordinator, Eunice Huthart has helped embody some of the most memorable genre action sequences in cinematic history. Her work is featured in huge films like Children of Men, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Justice League, and she’s been the personal stunt double for Angelina Jolie since Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

An integral member of the global stunt community, Huthart is also a crucial member and voice in the vanguard of women injecting their perspectives into the action oeuvre.

Most recently, Huthart acted as stunt coordinator for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, executing every aspect of director J.J. Abrams' vision, from Rey’s initial training sequence all the way to her final showdown against Palpatine with Ben Solo. With her support team of stunt professionals and fellow coordinators, Huthart used her decades of experience and creativity to craft set pieces that would make their own memorable impact, but also help cap an entire saga.

Audiences always remember an epic ending, so SYFY WIRE asked Huthart to break down Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Ben Solo’s (Adam Driver) momentous confrontation with clone Palpatine in the Sith chamber on Exegol in the last act of Rise of Skywalker.

From the advance prep with the actors to the grace notes that add emotional depth to the physicality, Huthart takes us through it all ...

PLANNING THE FINAL SHOWDOWN

"[From the start], J.J. had mentioned to me that he wanted the end scene to be so memorable, so I was just working on stuff. At the time, it [involved] Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) but we weren't allowed to even say the word. We would get in so much trouble.

He even had a code name, 'Thirteen,' and you were always supposed to use the code name. But I would forget that. [Laughs]

I'd be chatting with J.J. on a set and I'd be like, 'Oh, J.J., I had this great idea for Palpatine where he comes through that...' And then the whole set got quiet and would be staring at me. And I'd be like, 'Oh, bollocks.'

We were conceptually thinking of stuff way, way, way before we even started rehearsals for the movie. In January 2017, we had about a month of conceptual design. J.J. just left me to my own devices and we would design the moves and some kind of different strategies for the characters. One of the things I wanted to deliver is that Rey and Kylo Ren (Driver) progress with their Jedi powers. So we just accentuated that just a little bit more, which J.J. embraced.

What we did with Daisy is we made her lighter on her feet. We wanted her to be grounded, but we wanted her to be a lot lighter on her feet. I made her watch things like middle-distance runners to see how they move and how they just look so light when they run.

With Adam, he’s got a very unique stance. His hips are really tight, actually. I think it's from being tall for a lot of his life, so he must always be hunched looking down or trying to match people's height. We loosened up his hips so that he would look [even] taller, and [we set] his shoulders back. We were working on back exercises with his personal trainer, Simon Waterson. We were working on getting his stance looking different.

Then one of the other things we did is we made the lightsaber lighter in weight than what they were used to. So in their movements, all of a sudden they were moving this lightsaber very quickly, a lot more [quickly] than what they were in the other two movies. It was those subtle differences we wanted to embrace."

BEN SOLO'S BIG MOMENT

"I kept on at Adam saying, 'When you are Ben, how are we going to do it differently?' He's like, 'You got to give me time, you got to give me time.' In the meantime, we went back [to plan]. Because he was Ben, we threw in a few Easter eggs emulating things that Han Solo (Harrison Ford) did in some of the movies.

I think it was a bit of all of them, really. J.J. wanted a version. Adam wanted a version. I just wanted to pay homage. All I wanted is that when Kylo was Ben, that there was something slightly different about him. Just in his costume as well, it helped it a little bit. It was the undershirt so it looked a bit different and it made him look lighter. I think we did something different with his hair as well. So just that nuance to the eye would have made a change, and then Adam just did his own thing.

We did say, 'How about when Harrison does this and when Harrison did that in that movie, should we put [it] in?' Which he did.

I'd say it was predominantly Adam, really. He really researches his character. He comes in very, very well prepared as an actor, which again just makes my life very easy. I'd say that was all Adam, with me and J.J. maybe adding a little bit of salt and pepper, that's all."

THE DYAD IN TANDEM

"We considered [the dyad] all the time with each of [their] choreography. That was J.J.'s vision from day one.

Even in the very, very first draft of the script, that was always his vision, [that their styles] were always going to be intercut. We knew that. We just considered it when we were doing the choreography.

It was quite an easy process because we fully understood the vision that J.J. wanted. And I always knew the editor is just going to enhance it. You know, the impact of it is going to be so well-told on the screen.

We did [the separate fights] with the doubles. At that point, it was hard getting the actors because filming was so intense for both of them. So we did it with the doubles.

It was a well-worked-up sequence and it was planned that way. The plan worked well."

PALPATINE DRAINING THE DYAD

"I mean that was just all the actors, really. At that point, it was easy for Daisy to be exhausted. It was virtually the last day of filming, as well, so it was easy for Daisy to be very exhausted.

Whenever we choreograph a fight and whenever we're going through the beats, we're always very clear on where the character is and how much energy the character is bringing in. And that's where J.J. is great because he has a great manner in which he explains to the actors exactly what he envisions the character to be, and what they're doing. So it was very little from me, if I'm honest. It was a great compilation of J.J. directing the guys.

For example, while we were rehearsing, we would put Daisy and Adam — but on separate occasions — in a harness and we'd have a push-pull kind of thing. We'd have them fighting against that push-pull and saying, “This is the exhaustion you should be feeling at the end when you drop to your knees and you're done. This is how empty you are at that point.”

And they love it because they just embraced anything that we wanted to bring them so that they knew where they were with the characters. So, we did do R&D work with them, but I have to say, they were so good that they always found it, if that makes sense."

[eirenare]

I’ve been kind of freaking out since these pages of “The Rise of Kylo Ren” #2 got revealed last night

[Reasons + some very very crazy theorizing/speculation for TROKR/TROS under the “read more”. Pleasepleaseplease don’t judge me too hard, I just love mindbending shit and I usually overanalyze a lot so yeah, this happened in my brain. ALSO, below there’ll be SPOILERS of: TROS (I talk about a specific described rating), TROKR, TFA novelizations, TLJ non-junior novelization.]

At first my mind didn’t go “crazy thoughts” mode, I was just looking at the way the hair of “Mr. Hottie McHotHot” (aka the previous leader of the Knights of Ren) peeked out of his helmet because that’s something I love to see in helmeted characters—and then it hit me

Of all the choices of hair (or hairless) you can do, specially in Star Wars, of all of them, you go and pick up, for the previous leader of the Knights of Ren... the same kind of hair that Ben has when he’s grown up: curly, short to the same degree, and black (in fact it seems it’s the same color used for Ben’s hair, if you take a good look at younger Ben in these pages)

But that’s not the only thing that leaves my brain uneasy, no... “Mr. Hottie McHotHot” and Ben seem to be mirroring each other’s pose

Like, look at that:

Honestly, it’s either a coincidence, a parallel made on purpose between both leaders, or there’s more to it

So yeah, we have a guy with a mask (remember what Adam Driver said just recently about masks? Something along the lines that masks always have an use? About what one may be hiding behind it?) that has a hair that’s super similar to Ben’s grown-up hair, mirroring his pose—right

It only gets better when you realize there’s something red wrapped around his left wrist. Doesn’t that feel familiar...? Oh, and, the reason why his body looks like that? He’s “burned all over his body” (words from Charles Soule himself on Twitter in response of a fan)...

... and there’s this rating, from the BBFC webpage, that says:

“Fights with fantastical weapons include impalements and brief sight of blood and injury. A character's face is melted by fantastical energy.”

Which, in Star Wars language, means: someone gets zapped by Force lightning—badly. Unless Palpatine regained a younger body or something similar, I can only see either Rey or Ben suffering this—and with all the parallels overall, and seeing the authors of the comic talking about how Anakin and Ben have them going on, yeah, I go with Ben

... What if we’re getting some time-traveling-fuckery?

Remember that, not too long ago, in “Star Wars: Rebels” the World Between Worlds debuted... and Palpatine had apparently been wanting to get a hold on it for some time. Not to mention that the TLJ non-junior novelization has a very interesting chapter where we see some things through Snoke’s perspective, and he not only talks about visions but also mentions timelines... and the TLJ non-junior novelization starts, precisely, with a “what if” scenario of Luke’s life in the form of a dream

So, what if that previous leader of the Knights of Ren is another Ben (going to call him Alterben from now on in this post), and something went awfully wrong in his timeline (Dark Rey perhaps? Palpatine undefeated? ... Rey died?) and he reached to this one to make things as right as they can go... or end younger Ben’s whole career before it even starts

We know that this leader of the KoR is gone later on, that Ben takes on the role, and the KoR are... suspiciously “hidden”, regarding information and media? Still we know some things, though (and some of them suspicious), so let’s do a recap (blessed be the Wookieepedia):

- names: secret (except for Trudgen, now)

- birthplaces: secret

- called “the seven lights” in one of the Star Wars books, with the name standing above their concept art (I don’t remember now which book, but I think it was the TFA artbook one)

- loyal only to Ben Solo (well... Kylo Ren—who knows if they would keep being loyal if he changed name and started doing things different) for some reason

- their designs, all of them, are literally based on rejected Kylo Ren concepts

- “they have some sort of code, which they were flexible in following: living life the way they wanted, taking what the galaxy gave them and consuming what the dark side send them”

- “Force-users like their leader, the Knights of Ren had the power of the dark side but weren’t as powerful as the Jedi or Sith. Their fighting skills and martial prowess are without equal”

- they didn’t put them in the TLJ movie because “there was no room for them”, since the movie was already full, and they mentioned they could have been used in place of Snoke’s Praetorian Guards but that “it would have been a waste because all the guards had to die and Kylo’s connection to the Knights would’ve added unwanted complications to the scene”

- Vanity Fair, back in may 2019, described them as “masked warriors with specialized weaponry who add an element of chaos to the war between the Resistance and the First Order”, and compared how they looked to the characters from Mad Max

- in TFA’s Director commentary, J.J. Abrams noted that they do have a backstory, but that details have not been shared

- “while fleshing out the Knights of Ren for “Star Wars: the Rise of Kylo Ren”, Charles Soule took inspiration from motorcycle gangs, classic Westerns and Samurai tales to dramatize some of the lore behind the Knights”

So, after reading this: it’s clear there’s something more going on with the KoR

What surprises me the most is the loyalty—only to Ben/Kylo. And then, of course, the cryptic “the seven lights” text... But, focusing on loyalty: let’s go for a moment with the idea that their leader in the comic is really Alterben—wouldn’t it make sense, then, that if Ben defeated him leader at some point, they would follow him? Had it been anyone else maybe they would retaliate, but it would be literally their leader except younger and with less shit going on around him

To add this—oh, the irony. Ben wanted to be like Vader... Alterben is literally “burned all over his body” and taking on a mask that pretty much looks necessary, in this case—and if he had lost Rey in that alternate universe, either to the dark side or to death, it would make it all the more tragic and paralleling to Anakin and Padmé

Also, remember the scene where Ben proclaims to Han Solo that he had “killed his son”? ... Well. Another trauma to add if Alterben was a real thing, that is, because Ben would’ve ... literally killed himself...

Maybe Alterben told him of Rey. Something not too clear, perhaps, and that’s why in the novelization Ben’s all like “it is you” when she gets the legacy lightsaber to answer to her? ... Maybe the vision we saw in TFA was not from the future, but from an alternate timeline (although it’s proved and canon that visions fromt he Force can be super tricky, even Snoke remarks that in the TLJ non-junior novelization)

To finish this crazy post, in words of Ben Solo himself: “let the past die. Kill it, if you have to. That’s the only way to become what you were meant to be”—except, in that sense, if this “Alterben theory” wasn’t too crazy and it happened, it would be literally

[sapphicambitions]

Not knowing a lot about Star Wars this week has been a bit of a night mare I have so many questions and want none of them answered because I don’t really care but I’m going to list them anyway

Who the fuck is Ben solo??? I thought Adam drivers character was kylo ren??? Is that just a nickname?? Like Darth Vader?? Did we not know his real name until this movie??? Also I thought this set of movies was supposed to be about the girl?? Rey I think her name is?? But I only ever hear people talking about Adam driver/Ben solo/kylo ren/ whatever the fuck his name is??? Also aren’t they enemies?? Haven’t they spent the last two movies beating the shit out of each other?? And now they’re kissing?? Was that actually a planned build up or was it fan service?? I thought he was the bad guy??? Was Disney just trying to push the hetero agenda???? Also whatever happened to those two dude??? Finn and Poe?? Did they just get completely pushed aside for the sake of the angry white guy antagonist plot line?? Are they okay?? Are they at least coded gay if Disney doesn’t have the balls to make them canon??? Are they all friends now?? Did they win the Star Wars?????????????? Did they?????????????????

[tiefighters]

Interview: The Creators of The Rise of Kylo Ren 

To tell the tale of Ben Solo’s fall to the dark side, the subject of the upcoming Marvel Star Wars comic The Rise of Kylo Ren, writer Charles Soule and artist Will Sliney started from a framework developed by Lucasfilm after a lengthy conversation with none other than J.J. Abrams.  The director of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker had created the Knights of Ren for the first film in the sequel trilogy, and the pair knew their story had to fit between two fixed points in the Star Wars timeline: the destruction of the Jedi temple that sent Luke Skywalker into exile and the arrival of the fearsome dark warrior who appeared on Jakku at the start of The Force Awakens.

“And then it was about creating a story that felt epic and above all emotional for Ben Solo,” Soule explains. “Because this transition, this turn to the dark side has to be as good and stand at the same level as some of the other big turns to the dark side we see,” including the fall of Anakin Skywalker, who was transformed into the infamous Sith Lord Darth Vader.

Soule previously delved into Darth Vader’s past with another Marvel comic, Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith, an epic story that kicked off as the machine-enabled man was lurching off Emperor Palpatine’s operating table at the end of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.

In The Rise of Kylo Ren, Soule has written in emotional beats by folding in quiet moments, omitting dialogue from panels to firmly place the focus on the internal struggle within Ben and allow Sliney’s art to sing. “In this book, we’re leaning towards the mask,” Sliney says. “In one of the very early moments…we kind see the two sides of Ben where you can see him emotionally hurt and then he starts to put up this shield, this outer shield. Within the course of two panels, you want to show in one instance this is a frightened boy and in the second instance he has the potential to be this really, really dark person. It’s something that has to be subtly done.”

“There’s lots of moments where you can see him thinking and waiting before he reacts,” Soule adds. “He’s a very internal person…except when he’s not, right? He’s completely under control and completely compartmentalized until sometimes all those walls break at once and he does things like smashing his helmet or slicing up a computer console with his lightsaber.”

Sliney studied Adam Driver’s portrayal of the character to quantify exactly how the character betrays his emotion in those quieter moments — sometimes with little more than the twitch of his mouth. “I’ve never seen an actor or character that gives away so much with kind of the quiver of a lip, which is something that I’m trying to get across as much as I can in the panels,” Sliney adds, which can be a challenge. “He has this almost childish pout of his bottom lip that gives away emotion, so I’m trying to bring that in there ever so slightly at different times, which is difficult to do when it’s a still image.”

Meet the Knights of Ren

An integral part of Ben Solo’s journey involves the Knights of Ren, a mysterious helmeted posse we’ve only just glimpsed in The Force Awakens, but will meet again in the upcoming film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

But first: “You’ll learn an awful lot about the Knights of Ren very, very fast in this book,” Sliney teases.

“I think when that first page shows up in previews it’s going to land so hard,” adds Soule.

Soule was inspired by motorcycle gangs, classic Westerns, and Samurai tales as he dramatized some of the lore behind the masked marauders. “They can all use the Force, the dark side of the Force, to varying degrees,” he reveals. “They’re not as powerful as a Jedi or a Sith, but they use it when they fight…. They have some sort of a code, like a motorcycle gang, but it’s not elaborate. They’re flexible.” Like all good galactic thugs and scoundrels, they’re in it for themselves. “Mostly they’re just kind of out to live their lives the way they want to live them and take what the galaxy will give them and eat what the dark side sends,” Soule says.

The story also introduces a trio of Ben’s classmates, survivors of the Jedi temple destruction by virtue of being off-world on a mission at the time of its collapse. In the first issue, surveying the aftermath and Ben Solo standing among the wreckage, one of these students asks, “Should we call his mother?”

The answer is no. Soule says as much as he enjoys writing the character of Leia, he used her sparingly in this story. “I would like her to be in the book more than she is because I think Will draws a beautiful Leia Organa,” he says. “But ultimately this story is about Ben Solo…. I think because of what the journey is, he has to go through it by himself. And we’ve seen how attached he is to his mother in the films. If Leia was too much of a presence in it, I think his journey might not have gone the same way. And I think if you look at the larger architecture of the Star Wars galaxy around this time, I think there are a lot of things happening that are being specifically engineered to keep Leia away from Ben. Read into that what you will. Just as there is a long game being played with Anakin, I think there is a long game being played with Ben Solo as well.”

And of course, the story will include Snoke, Kylo Ren’s dark side master, although not like you’ve ever seen him before. “There’s an awesome moment towards the end of issue one where he first meets Snoke and…Snoke is very different in this book,” Soule says. “And the way he acts toward Ben and the way that Ben is with him is very different than he is in Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, which is on purpose.”

A new myth

Soule and Sliney have both been imagining their own versions of this particular tale ever since they saw The Force Awakens, although neither dared to think they might one day be part of the story’s official telling.

“It was a shock,” Soule says of getting the call from Lucasfilm Publishing. “I can’t believe that I’m the guy who gets to write that. Of course I had been thinking about it on a fan level from the minute I saw The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, but the idea that I would be writing it down was never in my mind until this past summer. And then I just dug in as hard as I could to really try to make a really good Star Wars story.” The final tale takes its cues from the saga’s mythological roots while trying to answer the question on everyone’s mind: How did Ben Solo, the son of two heroes of the Rebellion and the nephew of a Jedi Master fall so far to the darkness?

“You want it to feel like the really big mythological moments feel from Star Wars whether it’s the Mustafar battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan or the throne room battle at the end of Jedi,” Soule says. “These are the moments where the fate of the Force, the fate of the galaxy, and the balance of the Force, all these things are on the scales being weighed. And this book, if we do it right, should be building and building and building to a moment where Ben makes a choice and you understand why he does it and you realize he had no choice, even though he thinks he’s making one. That’s what the story’s supposed to be. That’s what happened to Anakin. If we do our job right, it will feel utterly inevitable and also utterly preventable, which is the tragedy of the whole story.”

Preorder the first issue of Marvel’s Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren now. 

[sorrowschengmei]

about the fandom and my love for kylo ren [vent post, not poetry][tw bullying]

sometimes i wonder what am i doing here at tumblr, really. they say to encourage every weirdo ‘someday you will be better than everyone who laughed at you’. we study while they hang out with their friends, we work while they sleep, and we never fucking live the life they want, they end up with the life they wanted and we end up being grateful for just being alive.

but there are things that are pure, really, that aren’t tied to capitalism, to survival, to socially fitting in, they are just beautiful and intense and poetic and brutal, and they do exist. he is one of them, the one i call my own truelove, and most people call ben solo or kylo ren.

today i watched tfa, and i could see why i fell in love with him... tlj kylo is a beautiful man, the most beautiful man, yes, but tfa kylo is more than a man. he looks like a dark angel, something that isn’t human and yet is too corrupted to be divine, he has a mystery that can’t be described with words and no one will ever decipher, he’s a poem on himself, more beauty than human.

i looked back into my early tfa days, how i interacted with the fandom, with kylo himself... i’d spend hours LOOKING FOR FANART, reblogging art, reading fic, reading headcanons, writing poetry and making my own doodles without any intention of publishing them. nowadays... nowadays i blacklisted all the artists of the reylo and kylux fandoms likewise, unfollowed all my art friends, get straight up suicidal if my stuff flops and i only publish stuff that is correctly rendered and at the peak traffic times, i got at least 5 anxiety attacks for looking at people with more followers/notes than i do, all of this why?? 

because i wanted people to like me, to like my art, to send me cute anons saying they love my stuff and asking me for requests. i wanted to know middle school was over, that people would appreciate me and my art in here as theoretically everyone loves kylo ren and i’m not a weirdo in here.

but i am a weirdo in here as well. i recently found out someone was gossiping about my love for kylo ren, saying very hurtful things about it, you have no idea of how much i cried when i found out, i think i spent 2 hours crying nonstop until i got exhausted. i look at kylo ren himself, not art, not fic, just the pictures of adam driver and i ask again: why??

why can’t things be simple like they were before? why can’t i just be myself without worrying about feedback? why did i become so bitter to the point i can’t fucking support my friends??? how did i become one of those millenials that value their self worth by the number of likes they get???? why can’t i just love kylo ren, draw him, see cute pics of him, without being crushed by years of trauma and the ‘socially inept’ stigma?? how did literally everything i hate in my life become attached to the thing i love the most?

being in the fandom hurts me, it hurts me so much. several times i said to myself ‘i curse the day i decided to watch tfa and met kylo ren’, and this is the saddest thing ever i could say, because kylo himself never brought me anything else but joy, support, lust, bliss, inspiration, contemplation, melancholy and the purest love i’ve ever felt.

i am afraid of people, and i have very real reasons for this. i’ve been lied, betrayed, deceived, attacked, pursued, tortured or just ignored by people on several fandoms. i can’t see art or fic or meta anymore, i just see the ego of the people who are doing it, how they only interact with the socially apt, repeat the same themes and styles, manipulate people into giving them stuff, gang up to harrass their enemies... people who draw kylo ren, who write about him.

you see, autistic minds work with patterns and organising logical conclusions around these patterns. in a fandom you have people you hate drawing someone you love, your friends supporting people you hate, people that never did anything but you hate them bc people you hate love them, people that hate you pretending they don’t, people that don’t hate you acting hateful just because???, and the most puzzling thing for me, that is people who hate kylo ren claiming they love him and want to see him having sex, a love life, a husband. it’s a complete mess. it’s a complete chaos. so you end up scared, running away from any kind of confrontation, blocking and blacklisting everyone, not speaking your mind because you don’t know if they are gonna agree with you and then attack you, disagree with you but agree later, attack you and then pretend they didn’t, pretend they disagree with you, ignore you...

i think i should leave the fandom, like i did in 2017. but this time i can’t, i already have a name, even a small name, i have ties with the community, everyone already knows my terrible personality and lack of self awareness, i have a place on this fandom and it is the place that always followed me: the weirdo, the outcast, ‘that guy’... 

when i entered here, all i wanted was to meet people that loved kylo ren too, as intensely as i did. i met some good, good friends, but i worry all the time they will leave me, and there are people that im not sure if they are my friends or they are just following the american social code of calling everyone ‘friend’. i wish things could be simpler, really... and unfortunately i have no place to go to enthuse about my love if i leave tumblr/the fandom =/ 

[if anyone thinks they have a thoughtful answer for my problem they are encouraged to send me a chat message]

[londonfog-chan]

Kylo Ren x Reader: Connect/Disconnect

Part 1 (Here)  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4

A/N: This is it. This is the fic that’s going to get me through 2018. I’m in pain and hurting but god dammit I’m not going down. I’m going to cling to Star Wars and Adam Driver and I’m going to be ok. This is my healing me fic. It will be ok. 2018 will be ok...

He had plans for the four of you. Four became three, and you wanted them far away from the monster he became.

...

You were students. It was wrong. He was seventeen, a year your senior. You came from nothing. There were rules for a reason. He had the unmitigated temerity to break them. You had a tendency to look the other way. Both of you were throwing away the code and risking punishment, a stupid decision considering the way of the Jedi was what the both of you had wanted in the first place.

“First, we will have a girl.” you decided finally.

Ben Solo smiles and his large, skinny hands rubbed the area just below your stomach. It’s a different place and time. He took risks then, albeit poorly calculated ones. It was the middle of the night. The other padawans and Master Luke were all asleep soundly in their huts, Ben having snuck from his abode to yours because this way you both were so far from the others. No once could hear Ben’s whimpers or your grunts of ecstasy as you two touched through the barriers of your clothes, you sitting in his lap clothed from the waist up in your tunic, legs covered in bandages from fresh lightsaber wounds while Ben’s busy hands avoided the tape and touched you intimately on the stomach like a gentleman. In the dark you both become different people. No longer students of the Jedi way, but instead two very desperate lovers who ache and feel in sync with each other. When the two of you unite, the Force within you both seems to knit together an impenetrable wall that hides well your illicit affairs. His calloused fingertips would always catch on the rough fabric of your tunic, but he didn’t mind. Not when he held in his hands a realm of possibilities. A finite bubble that with proper nurturing and care would contain a multitude of potential. If he listened closely, he could hear them calling softly in his ears. Drowning out the seed of doubt in his mind and filling him to the brim until there was no Jedi temple, there was no Ben Solo and his forbidden lover. There was only the two of you. His warm hands over your womb.

This was stupid... This was too sudden.

“I want a boy.” He murmured into your hair after deep consideration, and you relished the whoosh of air in your ear as he breathed in the smell of your locks. Pouting lips captured the shell of your ear with a chaste kiss, while your hands lay on his and busied themselves stroking the soft skin.

“But first a girl Ben.” you insisted, laughing softly when his tongue penetrated your ear canal in play. “I want our son to have a sister who will take care of him, show him how to be gentle. I’ve always wanted a beautiful little girl with your raven hair.”

“And your bright eyes.” he sighed.

“Yes. I will allow that.” you chuckled. “But I hope both grow to look like you.”

Ben held you possessively, and you loved every minute of it. Loved the way his hands cradled your lower abdomen as though it was already swollen with child. There was something about it that filled a void in both of your hearts. It fulfilled some missing element in the relationship even though you had each other. Like ravenous young lovers, you allowed the young padawan��s essence to permeate every pore of your being when he reached out to you, his head resting against yours. You explored each other’s feelings and minds, the Force acting as curious fingers which probed and prodded the very cores of your being more intimately than anything you could have ever known. He knew every secret carried in your heart, every fault and flaw, and at the time you knew his. Once, unpleasantly, you had caught a taste of the doubt and of the dark, only to chase it away with your own strong light. Unfortunately, your own worries penetrated his mind strongly.

“You needn’t be scared of carrying two children.” Ben whispered, sensing your fears at the thought of even carrying one baby. “I’ll be there to look after you and tend you.”

“Mostly I fear the pain.” You replied honestly. “More-so than the punishment of getting caught, and having to take the brunt of the absolute mayhem of not only Leia Organa, but of Master Luke as well.”

“We can handle that.” Ben insisted. “We’ll run away. Maybe if I tell my father, he’ll be able to come back and help. I think he would understand how I feel about you. If there's anyone that would be willing to take the risks we want it's him.”

“I know.” your fingers laced with his as he continued to rest his hands against your stomach. “But that does not solve the issue of the birth pain I’ll have to endure... Women have died because of it you know.”

“I’ll be there for you.” he reassures you with gentle nosing as you shiver. His hands begin to rub your abdomen. Beginning at the bottom where he cradled your womb and ending just below your breast, until the entire process is reversed and repeated.

“I’ll be right there when the time comes.” Ben assured. His voice is so soft and soothing, you could stay like this forever.

“Maybe... Maybe something can be done for the pain. There certainly must be a way that I can take some of it away if we make a connection. I would bear every burden for you if it meant sparing you the agony of bringing our children into the world.”

“You take such good care of me Ben Solo.” you whisper.

In his own way, he begs for his lips to be paid attention to. You give him offerings of your own, your lips chapped and rough from the intense physical effort of neglecting beauty in favor of training to catch up with the others. Ben frowns, his tongue darting from his parted lips to lap at your own, coating them in his saliva and softening the dead skin. You sigh contentedly, pulling yourself up onto his lap where you writhe against him skillfully. He’s wary of your new wounds, avoiding a grip on your hips and instead keeping his hands on your stomach as you grind against his parts. He doesn’t like how Master Luke treats you and the three other girls, even if the Knight is his blood relation. The sexist notion that female jedi must undergo far tougher physical conditioning to catch up to the level of the boys sickens him. There’s one in his year, Pavel, that could barely handle the lightsaber properly. You and another young lady called Heela always lead lightsaber practices under Luke’s eagle eye. But often times it’s just Heela, because your recklessness with a lightsaber often causes more burns than Ben Solo would like to admit. But it’s not that you’re clumsy. Far from it in fact, Ben feels as though you and the blade become lost in one another so thoroughly, you often forget it is a separate entity. Your skills are fairly good, the green blade slices to ribbons anything that Master Luke sets before you and only falls when Ben Solo focuses everything he has into your defeat during training. It becomes an extension of your arm, so natural and fluid with a particular grace that Ben can not get enough of when he watches you. He supposed that’s why you would try and sheathe it while still activated. Tomorrow, Master Luke promised, he would find a solution for your habits.

Yet it might not even be possible for you to get up and walk to the temple tomorrow. The way Ben holds you, whispering in your ear his plans for the children and the home life the four of you will make together on some undisclosed planet made you uncertain. Often times in meditation you would catch these negative thoughts. Instead of connecting with all life in the universe, you found yourself deep in thought regarding if this training was really for you. You wanted to be strong and protect the ones you loved from the darkness, and Ben had expectations riding on his success as a new Jedi Knight. Then there was the life you planned to live together, for life was not worth living if one could not have the other. There were so many things twisting you both apart. He felt the seed of your doubt in his own heart, and reached out with a silent insistence that everything will be fine.

"It won't be easy..." you said.

“They’ll be very angry at first,” he said logically, “In time, they’ll understand how we feel. It will take a great deal of reasoning with them if they find us. For now, we simply have to keep up this facade until I can get hold of my father to smuggle us away.”

“So we can’t be together in the interim?” you ask, voice too soft for him to notice the break in it. But inside his mind he feels your hurt pierce him like a dagger.

“Oh my sun, my moon, my stars.” he gushes your praises like an old poet with each pet name punctuated with a feverish kiss, far too much of an old romantic not to make you laugh. “Of course we can be together. I would never leave your side.”

“Never?”

“Never...”

Your thoughts return to your own mind. Ben jumps a bit from the sudden disconnection, and even though you’re near to each other the separation in consciousness makes him stir crazy. An anxiety takes over his mind whenever he is not completely melded with you, as though he is missing some crucial part of himself. He feels vulnerable, afraid that if you close off from him too long, some unseen force, his own doubts and darkness, might take root in the place you’ve left behind.

“Jaina.”

It sounded like a belch at first. A hitch in your breath. He wondered what you were talking about, until you entwined your fingers with his and returned them to your stomach from Ben’s resting place on your lap.

“Her name will be Jaina Solo, and she will be the spitting image of her father.” you smile.

Ben Solo understood then.

“And he will be Jacen Solo, and he will be every bit as charming and sensitive as his mother.” he agreed. Instantaneously your Force connection was restored, driving away the seeds of doubt and keeping them at bay for a little while at least.

“I think we should try soon.” he whispered into your ear. A warm, jolting shiver descended down your spine as Ben became brave. He told you how and when you both with try, because he’s been waiting for this moment since the two of you became infatuated with school time crushes. He whispers sultry things in his deep voice, having dropped a few octaves since you’ve known him in the earliest days of training. Very much so you still were in the honeymoon stage of the relationship. Yet because Ben was such a smooth, even talker, and because his hands and body were so deliciously lanky and so completely yours, you felt the honeymoon would never end.

[lj-writes]

Question, how old is Kylo Ren supposed to be in TFA? I know AD is like 30'sh. But I just saw where he refers to Kylo as a 'kid' and RJ said that thing about relating to someone struggling with adolescence. So is AD playing a way younger person? Is he supposed to be a teen even though he is over thirty? I'm honestly confused.

You know what’s sad? This isn’t even the first time I’ve seen people confused about Kylo Ren’s age due to Rian’s and Adam’s comments. I’ve seen someone ask a similar question on Reddit, too.

To clear things up, yes, Kylo Ren is close to 30, not much younger than the actor who plays him (Adam Driver is 33). Ren was born Ben Solo in 5 ABY (after the Battle of Yavin), and the events of The Force Awakens took place in 34 ABY, making him around 29 during the movie.

I think the following comments by Adam about his character in an interview for the December, 2017 issue of GQ add a bit of clarification (emphasis added):

"It makes complete sense how juvenile he can be. You can see that with our leadership and politics. You have world leaders who you imagine — or hope or pray — are living by kind of a higher code of ethics. But it really all comes down to them feeling wronged or unloved or wanting validation."

So no, the character isn’t juvenile in physical age, he just acts that way. I hope that clears things up. And no, that’s not because he’s a sweet confused baby or whatever, the actor himself is very clear that it’s about a lack of ethics. In the same interview Adam talks about the absolute conviction of terrorists as another influence on the portrayal of his character.

Kylo Ren, much like the real-life morally bankrupt people Adam refers to, may have real struggles and pain in his life. Who doesn’t? The point is that he chose to deal with those issues, or rather failed to, in an immature and entitled way and that is why he comes across as so adolescent.

[kaiayame]

TLJ INITIAL THOUGHTS

some tlj review quotes that capture my frustrations w/ the movie below the cut.

along with a list of things I liked to balance them out...

followed by a list of things I did NOT like...

“Redeemed in part by a solid final half-hour, The Last Jedi is not (quite) as bad as the prequels, but it’s like hearing 1980s hits as played by a mediocre cover band. So many elements in Episode VIII are recycled that it could have been called ‘Rerun of the Jedi.’

Maybe Luke was right. Maybe the Jedi should have been allowed to just die out.”

- The National Review (side note: YES THE JEDI SHOULD’VE BEEN LEFT TO ACTUALLY END, THAT WOULD’VE BEEN SOME GOOD STORYTELLING SHIT)

“the longest and least essential chapter in the series.“

- Variety

“In ‘The Last Jedi,’ that world has been tamed, tamped down, boxed in, neatly packaged, to a chilling extreme. It fixes its heroes in an abstemious, militarized world of twenty-four-hour-a-day work for mere survival, in which no personal life remains outside the realm of official function, a de-mentalized world that the movie presents, moreover, as appealing.”

- The New Yorker (thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis ^^^)

“it seems like it might never end. It also poaches scenes, ideas and moments from “Harry Potter,” “The Hunger Games” and “Guardians of the Galaxy.”And even though “Star Wars” has never been known for its subtlety, “The Last Jedi” is often heavy-handed.“

- The Kansas City Star

Things I liked, tho:

The beginning scene with Rose’s sister.

Rose’s character overall (even tho she was useless).

That Poe was shaped into a more real character.

The fact that Rey’s parents were literally nobodies (YESSSSSS). 

That Finn wasn’t pushed aside and was in a lot of the movie (his status as a main character alongside Rey needed to be maintained and it wasn’t, tho). 

The visuals / cinematography... honestly, the production team did an amazing job.  

Mark Hamill’s acting :)

Canto Bight was interesting in that it really wasn’t a rebels or imperialists place. It was nice to go somewhere grey in the star wars universe. 

That Snoke is dead now (he was so boring). 

The kylo and rey fight sequence was cool (from a technical standpoint).

R2 using Leia’s old message to sway Luke into helping Rey.

That Leia never died :’)

Admiral Holdo grew on me and I liked her by the end.

The part where Luke and Leia reconnect (he kisses her forehead omg help me). 

Seeing Luke stand on that battle ground confronting the At-At

The reveal that Luke wasn’t actually there during the end battle.

Rey and Finn’s reunion hug :’) 

Things I didn’t like:

How they handled Luke’s character.

reylo vibes. 

Inconsistency of where the fuck Rey was during the last 30 min of the movie.

reylo’s Force skype calls, and how they were filmed (boring). 

lack of commitment to solid themes / expansion on interesting ideas in terms of  storytelling & writing. 

How they handled Luke’s character.

Rey’s journey into the dark hole of the island (seemed pointless).

Rey’s whole plan to just ditch Luke and the island and go off to Snoke’s ship, by herself with no back up, because she randomly “saw” that Ben Solo would turn back to the light side, only to have that obviously NOT happen, so she just peaces out of there too like wtf was that???

Too much exposition, too many battle scenes, too many “we’re in danger!” moments; not enough actual character development or room to breathe to allow us to become more invested in the characters and their relationships and enjoy being on an adventure with them (the Voltron effect). 

Too fast of pacing. Bad / random cuts. Arbitrary editing.

How they handled Luke’s character.

Kylo Ren shirtless scene (sorry, Adam Driver but... no).

Underutilization of Leia. 

Random code breaker guy? Wasn’t interesting or necessary.

More attempts of having a character “explain” the Force. Idc that Rey needed to be “taught”. We’re on episode EIGHT. I don’t need another attempt at explaining the Force.

The shift away from FinnRey, even in a platonic sense, was disappointing. 

the addition of Rose x Finn at the last second? Too forced. 

Luke just randomly poofing away at the end???? They should’ve cut that and used him more in the next film.

The kids telling the “tale of Luke Skywalker” at the end was kind of too cheesy for me, but I get the use of kids in films to represent “the future”..... I guess. 

Lack of consequence for Poe’s character for disobeying orders. 

How. they. handled. Luke’s. character.