Daisy Ridley as Rey in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017). Image is a still via Disney/Lucasfilm on YouTube.
Rey’s vision in The Last Jedi promised that she and Kylo Ren would be “together,” but that might be the worst-case scenario in all of Star Wars history.
Perhaps the hardest thing to stomach coming of Star Wars: The Last Jedi was the possibility that Rey, our beloved independent scavenger from Jakku, would sacrifice a lot of her character growth in order to prop up the emotional immaturity of another character, specifically a male character.
As fascinating a tale as The Last Jedi was, it put all of its male characters in weird predicaments: Finn went from wanting to flee the Resistance to engaging in a full-on suicide run, Poe Dameron could barely take orders from Vice Admiral Holdo, Luke Skywalker felt guilty and therefore behaved rather coldly toward Rey, and Kylo Ren merely Kylo Renned himself into Supreme Leader status.
Despite all these things and people’s insistence that she was motivated by her romantic feelings toward the film’s villain, Rey did grow throughout the film. And, in doing so, boldly shut the door on Kylo Ren both physically, and more importantly, emotionally. In the last moment between them, the Millennium Falcon door that he despised so much closed.
Thanks to the The Last Jedi‘s illustrated novel, our sister site dedicated to all things Star Wars, Dork Side of the Force, posits that details of Rey’s vision reinforces some sort of connection between Rey and Kylo Ren, one that I maintain does not exist beyond their pull to the Force.
Here’s what the novel has to say about Rey’s “feelings”:
"Rey breathed a sigh of relief. Kylo finally had decided to join her just like she anticipated. Together they could return to Luke and rebuild a New Jedi Order. They would never have to be alone again."
The operative phrase here is their intention to “rebuild a new Jedi Order” together. Rey struggles with her identity and believes that ending the war and restoring peace to the galaxy is a crucial part of her journey. We see this demonstrated in the throne room scene where Rey asks Kylo Ren to call off the First Order’s fleet.
Furthermore, romance isn’t the only cure for loneliness. In fact, in romantic situations, it’s the best way to manipulate someone. Unfortunately, that’s what makes the possibility of “Reylo” so nauseating, because it stems from a place of deprivation and uncertainty instead of laying a foundation for a healthy or uplifting partnership.
Other excerpts from the novel include the tidbit, “She trusted that the force would guide her to kylo so she could bring him back to the light side.”
I didn’t realize that “bring him back to the light side” was code for her being in love with him. The motivation behind Luke Skywalker’s journey was to bring his father back to the light side as well; it’s kind of what heroes do.
From that single sentence, some may gather that “Rey risked it all to save the torn soul of the one she loves.” But allow me to remind you that Rey’s intention again was to bring him to the light side, feeling that, if she succeeded, they could end the war. Like Snoke, Rey understood that Kylo Ren played a huge factor in controlling the galaxy.
So, this then boils down to what really happened in The Last Jedi: Rey and Kylo Ren manipulating each other as tools to bring about what they each believed was the fate of the galaxy.
Adam Driver in Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017). Image is a still via Disney/Lucasfilm on YouTube.
Emotional manipulation with either good or bad intentions still qualifies as a toxic relationship. I’m sorry, but that’s never okay.
Every time I watched The Last Jedi, it became more and more abundantly clear that Kylo Ren’s sole purpose in his “visits” with Rey was to manipulate her to get to Luke Skywalker, and by association, end the Resistance.
The first time they meet, the conversation is hostile. He immediately asks her to bring Luke to him. Although he softens later in the film, it’s right after she dove into the cave and questioned the identity of her parents. Kylo Ren sees this as an opportunity to control her. More importantly, we learn in the film that Snoke orchestrated the link between them.
He not only admits it, but the narrative of the film afterward completely supports this. The entire third act is littered with red flags when it comes to psychological manipulation.
For example, one sign of manipulation is the “home court advantage.” If Kylo Ren felt some way about Rey, why didn’t he go to Ahch-To and face Luke himself? He could see where she was, and yet, he let her come to him and Supreme Leader Snoke. He awaits her arrival, brings her before his own manipulator and allows her to be tortured.
The only reason he’d allow that would be because he expected Snoke to break her. And once that happened, Rey would join the dark side with him. When Snoke fails, Kylo Ren takes matters into his own hands.
Another sign of manipulation is “undermining your faith in your grasp of reality.” Kylo Ren deliberately tries to turn Rey against Luke, someone she once believed was the hero she needed. Although Kylo Ren believes that Luke attempted to kill him, he didn’t make any efforts to understand what really happened that night (which is one of my least favorite plotlines overall).
When it comes to learning who her parents were, Kylo Ren tells her they were nobody. To make things more muddled, The Last Jedi offers little confirmation as to whether that’s the truth or not. Sure, it’s what we are led to believe she sees in that cave, but Luke saw himself as Darth Vader on Dagobah, too. Trials like these are meant to test you or reveal your fear. Just because Rey’s afraid of being nobody doesn’t mean that’s her reality. Kylo Ren only uses it as fact to control her.
And this brings us to the worst line in the film, “You’re nobody. But not to me.”
Look, this isn’t about ship wars in the slightest. It’s about Star Wars being one of the most iconic franchises of all time and putting this line out into the world to perpetuate a very awful and damaging notion. With these words, Kylo Ren attempts to make Rey rely on him for her self-worth. Here, he implies that she won’t be somebody unless she’s with him.
An audience member’s perception that this indicates romantic feelings is harrowing to say the least.
So, then, the blame falls to Star Wars and Rian Johnson. They’re responsible for these characters. Kylo Ren is a murderer who doesn’t deserve to be paired with Rey in any way, shape or form.
And on the subject of accountability? Kylo Ren has no idea what that is. He doesn’t acknowledge the darkness within him, and when Snoke dies, he blames Rey. Eventually, this fuels the First Order’s recourse to destroy her.
Next: A shipper’s guide to Star Wars: The Last Jedi
However you word Rey’s vision, it’s not concrete proof of R*ylo (if I say it a third time, it’ll happen). If it were to become so, Star Wars really did a bang-up job of selling that. Every other romantic pairing in Star Wars gets incontestable displays of affection. Pardon me if I’m not won over by the brush of fingertips, obvious manipulation and the most egregiously unnecessary torso shot of all time.