ladygadfly

[ladygadfly]

“Getting the girl” is such a weird concept to me that can be downright ugly if done badly. It’s like so many people forget that Rey isn’t just the love interest who’s a badass in her own right (a more common trope in modern action movies than a straight up damsel, the love interest will be competent and skilled but will still play second fiddle to the main guy) she’s the HERO. And some people still aren’t looking at her arc, they’re looking at who would be “good” for her or who “deserves” her.

I think you’re right that this is a huge part of why so many people don’t see the actual romance that’s happening in front of their eyes. they’re treating Rey like the love interest instead of the person who has a love interest, and they fail to recognize her love interest because the romance is played through the female gaze. 

in TLJ we don’t see Ben pursuing her in a traditional way (it’s the Force itself and Rey initiating most their interactions–and although Ben is always eager to see her and talk to her, because he’s not the one initiating it for some reason people fail to recognize that for romantic interest). Ben’s the one who gets a gratuitous scene that shows off his body for Rey’s benefit. Ben doesn’t back her up against walls or say sexually suggestive things or flirt in any way most people are used to seeing in action movies and thus the heavy, obvious sexual attraction between them flies over so many people’s heads just because it’s played in a different way than we’re used to seeing in blockbuster films.

(and the deserve thing is such complete bullshit–no one ever questions if a male hero ‘deserves better’ when he gets a morally ambiguous female love interest lol)

[ladygadfly]

“family guy and tender lover Ben Solo”

[ladygadfly]

If Reylo was always intended to be “platonic”,

then Lucasfilm never would’ve had:

Kylo give Rey “elevator” eyes upon their first encounter

“What girl?!” –> “it’s the motivator!”

a Bridal Carry

Kylo remove his helmet for the first time for Rey

Rey’s “on no he’s hot” face after he takes off his helmet

Kylo staring at Rey’s mouth while reading her mind

“Don’t be afraid, I feel it too.”

the Force Theme swelling as Kylo is staring at Rey after she snatched the legacy lightsaber (with a grin creeping upon his lips)

Kylo never once attempting to actually kill Rey

Kylo wanting to “show [Rey] the ways of the Force” instead of killing her

Rey not killing Kylo when she had the chance

Kylo and Rey staring at each other across a gaping chasm between them

a Force-bond

“Just you.”

Kylo wiping Rey’s *wetness* off his mouth with his leather glove

Rey getting a glimpse of Kylo’s sweet pecs and getting all pink in the cheeks about it

Rey confiding in Ben instead of Luke after her cave experience

“You’re not alone.” “Neither are you.”

Rey and Ben having hand-sex through the Force

Rey beating Luke’s ass in defense of Ben

Rey getting a makeover and FedEx-ing herself to Ben’s ship

Rey approaching and gazing at Ben like he’s a whole-ass snack in the elevator

“I’ll help you.”

Ben killing (who he thought was) his life-long abuser to save Rey

the Thigh Grab™

Ben being momentarily distracted from the fight with the Praetorian guards when he sees Rey get hurt

the Tension™ after the fight ends

“But not to me.”

Ben basically proposing and offering to leave everything behind for Rey to join him and rule the Galaxy together

Rey crying because she knows he’s still too beholden to the Dark

“Please.”

the scar on Rey’s arm that looks like 2 hands reaching for each other

Ben looking up at Rey with sad puppy eyes as she closes the Falcon door on him

Rey staring longingly at Finn & Rose while holding the two broken halves of the legacy lightsaber

Rey all but admitting she is losing sleep over Ben and asking Leia about him and Leia realizing that “she cares for him” (in Resistance Reborn)

Rey and Kylo confronting each other in Kylo’s bedroom

Rey having a vision of both her and Kylo on the Sith Throne

Ben defying Palpatine’s order to kill Rey and instead AGAIN asking her to join him

a Force DYAD, aka literal soulmates

Ben’s mini-orgasm when Rey says “Give it to me!”

Rey healing Ben and the framing looking like she’s giving him a handy

“I did want to take your hand. Ben’s hand.”

Ben running to Exegol in his PJs armed with nothing but a blaster to help Rey

Rey gazing all glassy-eyed at Ben when she realizes he’s come for her while sweet, fairytale-esque music plays in the background

Ben desperately embracing Rey’s dead body

Ben giving up his whole damn life to bring Rey back

“Ben!”

Tender face-touching

FULL ON-THE-MOUTH KISS

Rey holding Ben’s hand as he dies

But sure, antis, keep smearing that clown makeup on, it suits you.

[ladygadfly]

I offered you my hand once. You wanted to take it.

[ladygadfly]

reasons why reylo isn’t “platonic” / inspired by this

[ladygadfly]

Has anyone else noticed the moment where Rey can feel Ben’s presence before the force bond moment? 

He arrives on Exogul and it immediately cuts to Rey and you can see just by looking at her that she knows he’s there. 

He’s running to her, and as she’s playing along with Palpatine’s ceremonious speech or whatever, she looks to the side, looks for Ben, biding her time until he arrives. But of course he bumps into the KoR (how the hell did they end up there anyway?) and as Rey gets closer to the ‘sacrifice’ part, you can see the fear on her face growing. She doesn’t know what to do. Ben hasn’t come yet and she’s running out of time. 

She’s terrified of what’s about to happen. 

And then she sees him. And he sees her, through their bond, and instantly they both relax, knowing that they’re there for each other; there to save each other, and Rey knows for sure this time that Ben Solo is with her. You can see it in their expressions, and then suddenly Rey’s fear and uncertainty turns into determination.

All because she knows she is not alone anymore.

[ladygadfly]

‘Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker’ (2019)

Rey: “Go fuck yourself!”

Kylo: “Fuck me yourself, you coward.”

#is that? #not what happened? #tros #star wars: the rise of skywalker #reylo #rey #kylo ren #ben solo

[ladygadfly]

I’ll come back for you, sweetheart. I promise.

[ladygadfly]

Wait hold the fuck up is this for real?!

I can’t believe this! This just makes it all so much worse! KK for once knew better but still the mouse thought it knew best. I would gladly have waited those months if that meant Ben would have survived! #BenSoloDeservesBetter #BringBenSoloBack #BenSoloMustLive #BenSoloIsAlive #BenSoloLives #BenSoloIsUs

[ladygadfly]

yeah it’s ok if it’s a joke right?

[ladygadfly]

all I have to say is please, guys, especially reylo fam: focus on what matters.  John is throwing all this anti-reylo junk in our face to make us lose focus of what he said.  He’s doing it so his followers don’t see the source of the problem, only a bunch of shit-posts that they will like/retweet.  

If you’re going to engage with the issue, mention the issue over and over.  Mention what he said, the context in which he said it, about who.  Don’t make it about reylo.  It’s not about a ship.  It’s about how he talks (drunk or sober) about women, female characters, and his coworkers.  It’s about how he baited fans of stormpilot, and constantly lied about finn’s romantic arc.  And now, it’s about how he treats the consumers of his products.  Don’t make this a ship war on twitter.  He’ll have succeeded in his lil’ magic trick.

[ladygadfly]

The way this post is sENDING ME

[ladygadfly]

Daisy Ridley talking about the frustrations of the Rey-parentage debacle in an interview back in December 2017

[ladygadfly]

she saved me first, you know. (x)

[ladygadfly]

I think my favorite thing about the Reylo kiss is how blatantly obvious it is that Rey has no idea what she’s doing and she doesn’t give a FUCK.

She hesitates for a second, isn’t sure what to do with her hands or how to kiss a boy but goddamn it, she’s alive and Ben Solo is here, with her, and she loves him so much that she just can’t wait one more second to kiss him when she’s wanted him so much for so long and she just LAUNCHES herself at him and figures it out as she goes.

And then there’s Ben, his body broken, his life force all but gone, but Rey is alive and in his arms and he would never try to kiss her first because finally, at last, this is for her, everything is for her with no expectations. But then she kisses HIM and he can’t help it, he meets her halfway with one hand clutching the back of her neck, one arm going around her, and he nuzzles and deepens because this may be all they have but it’s THEIRS, and for this one perfect moment, they can just hold each other and know that they’ve loved each other all along, know that no matter what happens afterwards, they’ll never really be apart anymore.

That’s what it was all about. That’s what saved the galaxy.

[ladygadfly]

What is even the point of wasting almost a minute of footage showing your heroine looking longingly at children at the beginning of the movie if you don't intend to show her with children of her own by the end of the film??

WHAT

IS

THE

POINT???

Oh, right. It's so that at the end of the film we totally get the payoff that the family she's always wanted was already the one 100% comprised of the adults she'd already found in the previous movie and acted emotionally disconnected with throughout this whole film.

Makes perfect sense.

[ladygadfly]

“This whole trilogy, VII, VIII, and IX, is really sort of about the generation that follows the great generation and the idea of bringing balance to the Force, which is the whole point of the Chosen One, Anakin, in the original trilogy. “What I loved was the idea that balance brought to the Force doesn’t mean it’s forever.  It’s not immediately everlasting and I think the idea that, if we are not careful, that evil will rise again.  That we have to be proactive and doing what we can to maintain the balance and how does the generation that follows the great generation do that?”  –JJ Abrams, The Rise of Skywalker panel I’VE YELLED A LOT ABOUT THIS, why the sequel trilogy actually has started to really work for me, even though I first felt like it ruined the happy ending of the original trilogy. As I look around our real world and the evil that’s rising again here, as people work to make us forget our history and we repeat it because we think we’re distanced enough from that that we’re immune to it coming back, I think this message is spectacularly salient to our times and something that makes sense to be reflected into a fictional story that’s so much about one generation to the next. While I would have done things differently, I’m not arguing that TROS is a perfectly executed movie, but instead that the foundation of what motivated them in this direction is one that resonates strongly with me.  That Anakin was the Chosen One, he did bring balance, but one of the things about Star Wars is that it’s not just about one or two legendary figures. The Jedi themselves aren’t important because they can move the mountains of the galaxy, but instead because they are teachers, they are inspirational figures, they give others hope, they create a moment where the galaxy can finally swing back in a better direction, but it’s up to every day people to pick up on that. “Jedi have the ability to turn the tide, to make a significant moment, to give hope where there’s none.  That’s their ultimate role to play, to be this example of selflessness.  And that’s what makes them a hero, when no one else can match that heroic thing.  And then our job is to emulate that, to use that example, and further our own lives.”  –Dave Filoni It’s why, all throughout the prequels and the originals and even the sequels, the idea of putting everything on the Jedi is against what’s really going on–that it’s about the galactic public, the everyday citizens who must do the maintaining.  A Jedi can bring balance to the Force, they can defeat the ultimate evil, but it’s up to everyday people to band together and fight off the Empire in the Rebellion, it’s up to everyday people to band together and fight off that legion of Sith Star Destroyers. Rey can destroy Palpatine and choose the light and that’s a tremendous, epic moment.  But without people helping her to maintain the balance in the Force through everyday acts, without the support to maintain the balance after the great generation maintains it, it’ll go out of balance again. That’s what was so fucked up about the Republic–the public didn’t do shit.  They sat back and let the Senate buy a bunch of clones and draft them into the war so that they didn’t have to fight, and it stretched the Jedi so thin that they had no real choices left to them.  They sat back and let the Empire rise, the Senate literally applauding as it happened–”So this is how liberty dies.  With thunderous applause.” is one of the most memorable lines for a reason. It took the galaxy twenty years to really fight back against the Empire and we see in comics like Poe Dameron or in books like Aftermath and Bloodline that people don’t want to think about it anymore, they just want to forget all about it.  They’re tired of hearing about the bad shit the Empire did, they don’t want to deal with another war against something like the First Order again. No fucking wonder the ST happened–because people didn’t help maintain the balance, the light. I am delighted that JJ said it directly in this panel, as well as giving credit to what Anakin did, that the overall ST hasn’t taken away from that.  I have a lot of criticisms about how this trilogy went about these themes (separating the OT cast, the shitshow that is the pacing between TLJ and TROS, the lack of putting this theme more front and center), but I will die on the hill that the theme is there and it’s an important and good one.