Kylo Ren + Close-up Gloved Hands

The Red String of Fate - Rey’s Force Vision

( So as I promised here’s my Episode IX re-make, part 1 💙) ( TROS does not exist, my epIX re-creation is not related to that garbage movie at all )

Rey goes for a walk in the forest, to find peace…to find answers within herself….Then suddenly she feels something in the Force…a figure of a small boy runs across the path in front of her. He feels somehow familiar…

As she watches the child, the trees begin to thin and transform into tall white pillars…

 A tall figure appears in the distance, the little boy happily runs to him…the man holds out its arms, swinging the laughing child into the air..she could recognize “him” anywhere…Ben. And their child. Her family.

When she opened her teary eyes again…the force vision was gone.

She was alone with her thoughts again…but was she tho?

Short reylo comic to celebrate the new year!

Where its years later, they have their own academy (with little padawans running around~)

a concept

Katniss is like Lucy Gray this, Katniss is like Sejanus that, and yes fine that's all good and true and lovely but Katniss Everdeen is also a direct parallel to Coriolanus Snow and people NEED to start talking about this because it's driving me crazy.

Think about it: they both grew up poor and deeply vulnerable, losing parents at a very young age, with a matriarchal adult (Katniss' mother and Coriolanus' Grandma'am) who fails to provide for them emotionally and physically. They intimately understand the threat of starvation, even developing with stunted growth because of it, and their narrations in the books share a fixation on food. Throughout their childhoods, both experienced constant fear and suffered a fundamental lack of control over their circumstances. Because of this, they're inherently suspicious of the people around them. They resent feeling indebted to others, especially those who have saved their lives. They're motivated almost entirely by family and deeply connected to their communities. Both are used and manipulated by the Capitol, both are forced to perform to survive and despise every inch of it, both are thrown into the Arena and made to kill. Both have a self-sacrificial, genuinely sweet sister figure acting as their conscience. Peeta and Lucy Gray - performers and love interests with a fundamental kindness and sense of hope about them - fulfill markedly similar roles in their narrative. Both contribute to the development of the future Hunger Games, Snow throughout tbosas and Katniss towards the end of Mockingjay.

It's easy to ignore these similarities because, as mirrors of each other, they are exact opposites. Katniss is from District 12, viewed and treated as less than human; Snow is the cream of the Capitol crop, given the privilege of a name with social weight, an ancestral home, and the opportunity of the Academy despite having no more money than a miner from 12. Katniss has no agency over her life, and responds by being kind whenever she's able, while Snow justifies horrendous evils in order to continue his quest for complete control. Katniss does everything she can to protect her family; Snow does everything he can to protect his family's image as an extension of his own ego. Katniss loves her District and connects with its inhabitants on a meaningful level, but Snow is indifferent at best to his peers - the apparent "superior people" - and only engages with his community for personal gain. Katniss emerges from the Arena horrified at herself and the system, but Snow takes his trauma and turns it into an excuse to perpetuate the violence with himself at the top. Katniss cares for Prim until her death and then snaps at the loss of her little sister, while Snow survives on Tigris' blood, sweat, and tears and then torments and abandons her, presumably because she calls him out on his insanity. Snow actively adds to and popularizes the Hunger Games because of his vendetta against the Districts following his childhood wartime trauma - Katniss briefly agrees to a new Hunger Games (which is arguably a facade to trick Coin), but later definitively stops them from happening by killing Coin and choosing a life of peace and privacy. Snow is obsessed with revenge, but Katniss empathizes with the Capitolites and does what she can to keep them from suffering. He exists in a cruel system and selfishly upholds it; she exists in a cruel system and works to dismantle it for the good of her family and community, at great personal cost. And Peeta and Lucy Gray are incredibly similar, but Katniss and Peeta forge a relationship of genuine love and understanding that shines in comparison to Coriolanus' obsessive projection onto Lucy Gray.

So, yeah, Katniss is Lucy Gray haunting Coriolanus. But I bet you anything that eighty-something year old President Snow looks at her, the girl on fire, and thinks that he sees the ghost of his own past: bright and young and brilliant, emerging from a childhood of starvation with a relentless hunger for success, a talented and charming performer helping her win the Games. And that's why he's so afraid of her! Because if he sees himself in her, then he's up against his own cunning, his own talent for manipulation, his own charisma, his own genius. He reads her wrong, obviously, but it means that in his mind he's up against the version of himself that he could have been, with the nightmare army of his childhood at her back and her star-crossed lover at her side, spewing Sejanus' truths in his own voice. This isn't to say that Katniss ever achieved the level of power and agency that Coriolanus did during her time with the rebellion, but it is to say that Snow was taken down by what truly terrified him - his own morality, come to finish the job.

Did you notice that we had a short cut of Dark Rey in TROS teaser, and we had a scene with Cal when he's a sith?

Did you notice that both Ben and Trilla were somehow betrayed by their Masters? By Luke and Cere.

Did you notice that both Rey and Cal discover the truth about Kylo Ren and Second Sister through the touch? Rey touches Ben's hand while Cal touches Trilla's lightsaber. And how then Rey and Cal are showing compassion to their enemies:

"It isn't too late"

and

"It's not too late to let it go".

And do you remember how both Luke and Cere got the chance to confront their former Padawans and say sorry. And how they expressed basically the same idea as Rey and Cal did.

Leia: I know my son is gone.

Luke: No one's ever really gone.

Trilla: It's too late, Cere.

Cere: No. It's not.

I can't believe this. I'm telling you that is some kind of a strange deja vù. And it's freaking amazing. Somehow, I believe that Trilla may be still alive, just heavily wounded by Vader, so eventually she'll come back in a next game. Hope is always with us anyway :)

Tragic romances can work beautifully, so long as the audience gets to see the actual romance before it all goes downhill.

Romeo and Juliet exchanged wedding vows in secret. Anakin and Padme spent time frolicking through the fields of Naboo together. Will and Louisa went to Mauritius for a romantic getaway. Jack and Rose had their iconic "I'm flying!" scene.

But Ben and Rey had none of that. A man who was preyed upon since conception, who wanted nothing more than to be "free of [his] pain," was freed only in death. A woman who spent her entire life longing for a family of her own was finally(!!!) rewarded with one for all of ten seconds, before regressing back to square one, as if her whole journey was a nihilistic game of 'Snakes and Ladders.'

That ending is neither 'hopeful' nor cathartic. And it certainly has no place in a fairytale.

Hey Virgilius. What’re your opinions on the popular SPOP episode Save The Cat and the very cool VLD episode The Black Paladins? Also can I kiss you directly on the mouth??

I’m so glad you asked >:) and yes you may receive a kissy.

SO I have many, many emotions about Save The Cat and The Black Paladins (and catradora/sheith parallels overall) and many, many screenshots to go with it ASDLKJH

Listen, if your best friend who you may or may not be yearning for hasn’t been captured by the leader of a genocidal alien empire leading you to fly across the universe in an ancient-tech alien ship to get them back, and then be forced to fight them while they’re being mind controlled because said leader of genocidal alien empire knows how much you mean to one another is it even really love?

Okok actually infodumping, I’m putting this under a cut because I KNOW it’s gonna get long (spoiler: it did, and I spent hours going over this).

So from that description alone you Probably have an idea of what the fuck is going on for both eps. There’s a lot of similarities, even down to the lines between the characters.

Okok small things, maybe not that big of a deal, right? But they just keep coming.

They both take a route of trying to get the other to give in as to end the pain–

Even the parts where Catra and Shiro break out of the mind control for a bit hurts me.

Shit, man, they even both get electrocuted,,,

And that part when Catra falls to her (presumable) death and Adora jumps after her? Keith chooses to fall with Shiro after realizing he can’t save them both, even if it means dying and risking the safety of the universe.

Both pairs also have their own little things about not giving up on each other (which is also where I have to start bringing up more episodes for this discussion).

Right at the start of season 3 after Shiro’s gone missing and presumed dead, Keith tells the rest of the team that "Shiro is the one person who never gave up on me, I won't give up on him." Later, at the start of season 7, he begs Shiro to stay alive because he can’t bare to lose him again. Meanwhile when Adora is dying, Catra begs her to live and says: "You can't give up. You have never given up on anything in your life. Not even on me." And it’s this love that’s able to give the other the will to survive. As Adora is dying, Catra tells her she loves her, and when Adora survives she tells Catra she loves her too, and they kiss. When Shiro wakes up, he tells Keith that he was dreaming and that he saved him, to which Keith responds telling Shiro “We saved each other.” and he leans in before pulling Shiro into a hug.

It’s also worth noting that before these scenes, Adora is dreaming of a future with Catra while Shiro is dreaming of his past with Keith. It’s during all these flashbacks that we meet Shiro’s ex-boyfriend, Adam, who the producers admitted was meant to parallel Shiro’s relationship with Keith. Where Adam failed to support Shiro and was willing to give up on him, Keith supported him the whole way through.

At some point, Adora did have to give up on Catra – at least in terms of trying to make her change. I don’t think Adora ever doubted that Catra was capable of being good, but I do think she was right to not make it her responsibility to see that through. Either way, the reunion after Catra and Shiro are both revived after their battles are very sweet (and bonus points for Keith and Adora both having the “we’re going home” line during their scenes).

There are other little things too, like how Keith gets Kosmo, a cosmic wolf that can teleport, and Catra gets Melog, a magic cat that responds to her emotions and can turn invisible that I just think are neat.

“All she ever wanted was you.” from the original Save The Cat script and “Your friend desperately wants to see you right now.” in The Blade of Marmora hit me right in the chest every time I think of them. Also the way other characters perceive their relationships and try to use it as a weakness, like how Horde Prime states that Adora means something to Catra, and Haggar points out that Keith’s connection to Shiro is deeper than any of the other paladin’s.

 Anyway, they both mean a fuck-ton to me in terms of representation (even if Voltron’s writing got fucked over in the end). That said, thank you for coming to my TED Talk, I had fun with this KSJDCH I leave you with two of my favorite moments:

Was kylo redeemed with his sacrifice to rey? Do you think that negates all his past actions ? Regardless of the motive or cause ?

“what does he have to be redeemed for?” Adam Driver 

You can tell the frustration  during the interview, that he himself has been thinking about it so much, that he delved into what made him Kylo Ren but also human, that HE knows the backstory. 

A backstory that was almost completely absent from TROS, if you count Palpatine “ I was every voice you ever heard in your head” inferring manipulation and lies.  The story omits completely his childhood, the feelings of betrayal he felt as his own parents feared him, the way they sent him away and the ultimate failure from his own uncle is not once mentioned, it omits that he never massacred his Jedi friends ( comic) that he never destroyed the temple, that he felt so alone,  traumatised and ashamed that he went to the only welcoming place : Snoke / aka Palpatine

He was a victim, with a feeling of helplessness and depression so strong that seeking the dark side by killing his dad was really a form suicide. 

You’re son is dead // My son is alive // ergo kill the father to kill the son at last

Han Solo tried to bring him home in TFA and failed, but once Rey admitted that she loved Ben Solo, he went back to the moment he killed his father, the moment that tormented him with his guilt. He replayed the scene, and this time He really heard and understood what his father was telling him, he welcomed it.

His  father’s love, his mother’s love were unconditional and he could go home at ANY time…. they always loved him. At this moment Kylo literally TURNS around, he turns and THROWS aways his lightsaber, and later off screen the top layers of the Kylo Ren persona,  to reveal only BEN SOLO, damaged and all. He freed himself.

I think, the Han Solo scene shows that Kylo/ Ben had to forgive himself first, before moving on, he was held back by guilt and resentment and thought he had done too awful a thing that it was impossible to come back. 

Finally Ben SOLO came for REY. It was not Kylo anymore.

Ben Solo never had anything to be redeemed for, he was a victim.

But even then, he made the ultimate sacrifice, selfless, without thinking twice about it, he gave Ben Solo’s life to Rey, out of pure LOVE. He is more than redeemed, he’s a hero in that scene. 

The movie does not do him justice, by telling us what’s happening to him. We can only read the subtext, he’s either one with Rey, making her Skywalker, or one with the Force, but they only wanted to have the legacy Force ghost in the end, as new parental figures, or he is somewhere yet unknown. The story is cruel because it does not really bring closure to his fate. 

BUT Ben solo is a hero.