As you all may be aware, I have a small podcast (Say When: A Geeky Podcast on Soundcloud and i-Tunes) with my very good, no, check that, Best Friend Forever. Yes, I went there. I’m a Gen-Xer and I used BFF.
Let’s move along, shall we?
Back to the point at hand. In our most recent podcast, we invited a friend from ages past to come chat with us about Star Wars as a whole. We spent most of the time chatting about the Sequel Trilogy, but we did touch briefly on the Prequels and the Originals.
It was only after about twelve hours of ruminating on our discussion that I realized something, and it seems really self-evident in retrospect.
When we watched the Original Trilogy (OT,) I think most of us thought it was about Luke. He was the one on the Hero’s Journey, correct? Joseph Campbell and all that. He’s got the pretty blue saber (later the green one) and it’s all about him, right?
Except – it’s not.
But that’s not evident until we bring in the Prequel Trilogy (PT.) Unquestionably, the PT is about Anakin Skywalker and his descent into madness, into Darth Vader. The OT is then about his redemption. Conclusion: the OT Hero was a head fake. The PT and the OT were actually about Anakin.
The same thing is happening with the Sequel Trilogy (ST.) We all thought it was about Rey. She’s got the pretty saber, after all. Well, she’s got the pieces of it now, but that’s neither here nor there. But no, this isn’t really about her. This is about Ben Solo, Kylo Ren, specifically his redemption.
This is not to say that Rey doesn’t matter. She does. She’s the reason Ben is going to see the light and to accept the light within himself. And it’s not that she’s going to save him or change him. No. He’s got to make that decision for himself. And I fully believe he will do just that. But the one thing left that Ben Solo loves is Rey. He will redeem himself and make himself worthy of her.
At least, that’s how I see it.
What say you?
Palmetto's Desk 
The central character in the OTis a bit fuzzy. Before the PT, it was clearly Luke. Once the PT came around, it changed the way we view the OT. As for the idea that the film is about Kylo Ren, that is one of the things that bothers me about him being redeemed. I don’t know how you redeem Kylo Re n without diminishing Rey as a character, ie the Force is using her as bait; she exists for Kylo. Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying the writers shouldn’t try. If anything the potential pitfalls make me want to see them take the risk. (Go big or go home Disney! ) I just hope that they avoid the pitfalls of they go that way.
LikeLike
Ah…but I don’t think she does exist “for” Kylo. I think they are two parts of a whole. I think I’ll write a blog post about this!
LikeLike