franchisewars:

(Once more, this opinion piece is held only by Hopper, and not the TLJ-loving Condor, both of the Franchise Wars podcast. As a Hopper piece, it’s going to be critical of The Last Jedi. If you want to hear more positive things about TLJ, listen to our podcasts on iTunes: first our review of TLJ –https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/franchisewars/id1286433288?mt=2&i=397716636, then our debate between The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi – https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/franchisewars/id1286433288?mt=2&i=408109126.  Provided you can accept some more negative opinions still coming from the Hopper, you should find them entertaining!)

Recently, one of the Star Wars message boards I frequent got into a brief debate about the believability of the duet character arc between Kylo Ren and Rey. The argument was made that Rey’s sympathy and faith towards Kylo was exactly equateable to Luke’s sympathy and hope for his father Darth Vader.

That’s not a good comparison.

Vader *did* give Luke reason to believe that Luke had a shot at reaching out to him: Vader’s entire “Join me, and together we can rule the Galaxy as father and son!” spiel showed an emotional vulnerability towards his progeny, as well as a willingness to admit to the horrors of his actions. Kirshener’s direction of their telepathic communication before the end of the film also shows this vulnerability, and shows that effected Luke as well, but in a tragic and believable way.

Luke also has two whole films of previous hero-worship of his father before he learned the truth, which Obi-Wan explains isn’t entirely without merit for Anakin Skywalker, if not Vader. Kasdan’s writing for Luke surrendering to Vader also has a great deal more subtlety and intelligence to it; Luke is going to Vader to cover for his team and friends, since he knows Vader can track him, and their dialogue is filled with a wary and reserved approach to each other. Luke has hope for his father, but isn’t totally relying on faith in the man, even accepting the quite realistic possibility that Vader and the Emperor will kill him as the most likely outcome. And Kasdan’s writing gives Vader some lines and reactions that show what gives Luke some hope for breaking through to Anakin: “It’s too late for me, my son,” is a line that admits the speaker’s mistakes and regrets with a sincerity that feels genuine and open.

Luke in ROTJ:
– Hopes his father turns to the light-side based his demonstrable conflict in regards to Luke himself, but Luke doesn’t have unshakable faith in that outcome.
– Has multiple films to build up a positive view of his father before he became Vader, and a past history that shows Vader will make exceptions to his ruthlessness in regard to Luke.
– Recieves yet more signs of Anakin lingering under Vader’s mask when they meet again, and the audience witnesses the conflict that Luke identifies in Vader’s dialogue and body language.
– Most importantly, the surrender to Anakin is based off the sheer pragmatic principle that Luke knows he will compromise the missions as long as Vader looks for him, and Luke is ready and expecting to accept his death as an end to that threat to the team.

Johnson’s writing for Rey’s approach to Kylo Ren has no such foundation, and perhaps worst, never attempts to address the totality of Kylo Ren’s very fresh actions against Rey, thus downplaying the events of TFA and her connections to Finn and Han, all while also downplaying what pragmatic reasoning Rey *does* have to ally with Kylo in favor of an underdeveloped emotional bond. Part of the reason you’ll find some TFA fans who despise TLJ is because TFA really, really sold the connection between Finn and Rey and Han and Rey, and then TLJ side-steps that connection after one *single* scene because Kylo agrees he’s a monster. And saying that Rey would be open to Kylo because she’s lonely feels like a crock when we consider that only two or three days ago, Finn just proved himself her worthiest friend… And Kylo’s the one who tortured and maimed him while trying to kill him for protecting her. The freshness of the assaults upon herself and her friends on Starkiller Base also kills any believability in her being open to his BS.

In TLJ, Rey:
– Expresses emotionally illogical faith in “Ben Solo” being inside Kylo Ren, especially since Kylo *never* shows her any real conflict about his Allignment, and even states his killing of Han was cold-blooded murder, not an act of passion.
– Only *once* addresses the crimes against her friends and herself committed by Kylo Ren, which ignores the emotional core of The Force Awakens, and how her anger at this should be still be an open wound; honestly, the more emotionally logical flaw for her in the film would be darkside wrath and anger at Kylo for what he did.
– Seems to skip over the important fact that while Kylo and Luke disagree over the circumstances in the hut, they *do not* disagree over what Ben did next; slaughter every student who wouldn’t join him. Either Rey still hasn’t learned anything about the “Ben Solo” she hopes to rescue, or she’s been told point blank that Ben Solo was also something of a monster.
– Only barely establishes any real pragmatic reason for teaming with Kylo (that he can help them fight the First Order), and the film then downplays that reason as much as possibles and tries to define her alliance on an emotional level; Rey still has no reason to act so certain that Ben will spare the Resisatnce fleet, and yet we’re supposed to think she has an honest emotional reason to feel that way.
– Has numerous scenes that seem explicitly designed to hint at a romantic tension between the two of them… When, again, the last film began its climax by having Kylo Ren strap Rey down to a chair, leer at her while saying “You know I can take what I want,” then violate her mind in a way the film has established as torture earlier on, in spite of her pleas to not do so and her tears when he ignores her. You *can* remove the possible sexual subtext of that scene of you want, but it’s still a violation. So you need to recontextualize him in some way to make him more sympathetic, and the film doesn’t really do that (again, see how Luke and Kylo agree that Ben was the equivalent of a burgeoning school shooter)

TLJ’s portrayal of Rey and Kylo has Rey be all give and Kylo all take, without ever adequately addressing why Rey should be giving in the first place, and never addresses the undercurrent of assault upon her person from TFA, all while ignoring the emotional consequences of TFA whenever it would inconveniently require more character development and subtle writing.