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xaniaz · 6 years

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What Solo: A Star Wars story tells us about Reylo

I just got back from Solo. I LOVED it, and I’m pretty shook about that pairing. Guys, this movie has significant implications for us Reylo shippers. I am dying to share this meta with you because this movie provided a treasure trove of parallels and insights.

**************Spoilers below!!***************

The romantic pairing of Qi’ra and Han Solo has huge implications for Reylo. Why? This relationship- which I’m going to call Qi’rolo - is both an echo and foil to Reylo.

It’s not a perfect inverse, just like Anidala is not a perfect inverse of Reylo. But it has many, many elements that echo Reylo, and other elements that inverse it.

Let’s just go over a few of the similarities.

Similarities between Qi’ra and Ben

1. The girl (boy) who initially fell to darkness due to forces beyond her (his) own control.

Qi’ra was captured by Lady Proxima’s henchmen while she and Han were attempting to escape Corellia. When she reunites with Han years later, she states that she “never got out” of the cycle of trafficking / exploitation by criminal overlords in fact, she now works for an even more brutal crime syndicate. She feels very much resigned to her fate.

Compare this with Ben, who has been manipulated from birth by Snoke, neglected by his parents (who didn’t mean to hurt him, but neglected him nonetheless), and then pushed over the edge by Luke trying to murder him. Two characters with little choice but to turn to the darkness, at least for their initial fall.

2. The girl (boy) under the influence of an evil (disfigured) overlord.

Qi’ra’s relationship with Dryden Vos is strikingly similar to Ben’s relationship with Snoke - the manipulation, demand of unquestioning devotion, etc. Dryden even inappropriately touches Qi’ra, just like Snoke does with Ben. Both of these dynamics are meant to evoke extremely unsettling, predatory undertones.

3. The girl (boy) who felt it was too late.

Think about Qi’ra telling Han that she has done terrible things to survive, and that she doesn’t want him knowing what she’s gone through. She tells Han that they can’t simply run away together after the job is done- that it could “never happen.” The subtext: “it’s too late.”

Similarly, “It’s too late” is exactly what Ben tells Han in TFA. He repeats it again the TLJ novelization when he senses Leia (“It’s too late to be sorry, mother.”). Interestingly, however, Ben never tells Rey it’s too late. He seems to cock his head at her as if to say, “I wish you were right [that it isn’t too late], but it is,” but he never says the words aloud. I think that’s hugely significant, because of course, it isn’t too late for Ben when it comes to Rey. She is the only one that can inspire him to choose a different path.

4. The girl (boy) who killed the evil overlord to save her (his) beloved.

Qi’ra repeatedly expressed concern that Dryden was going to kill Han if they didn’t succeed at the mission. Her concern about the threat to Han’s life was emphasized throughout the film nonverbally as well, thanks to Emilia Clarke’s fantastic expressions.

Qi’ra is no Hux. She wasn’t lurking in the corners with a knife up her sleeve so she could stage a coup and ascend to power. She killed Dryden to save Han.

Similarly, we all know that Snoke got turned into sashimi (to quote the lovely @cosmo-gonika) after he tortured Rey and intended to kill her.

5. The girl (boy) who assumed the place of the evil overlord after killing him, falling further into darkness.

Qi’ra and Ben both kill their respective masters when Han and Rey’s lives are threatened. They then proceed to “double down” on their dark path – Qi’ra by contacting Darth Maul and stating that she has resumed Dryden Vos’ place, and Ben by assuming Snoke’s mantle in the Throne Room (though he desires to co-rule with Rey).

There is a key difference in this parallel, however: Qi’ra continues on her dark path reluctantly. Again, thanks to Emila Clarke’s beautiful acting, we can see that she agonizes about her decision from the instant Han leaves in the elevator. It’s not a choice she makes without regret or sadness.

Ben, on the other hand, chooses to become Supreme Leader willingly. He has a brief moment where he is overwhelmed by the enormity of it all, but then he steels himself and asks Rey to join him. And recall RJ’s quote from the commentary: “I wanted to bring him closer to being the villain that he wanted to be in The Force Awakens, to some point.” This was a choice Ben made with full and free agency.

This distinction is important because Qi’ra is resigned to her fate- a fate that she knows is not a good path. Ben, on the other hand, thinks that he is choosing the right path by ascending to the role of Supreme Leader. He’s in for a rude awakening in Ep. 9, and his revelation that this is not the path he should have chosen, or one he wants to continue on, will be key to his redemption.

Similarities between Han and Rey

1. The boy (girl) who clung to his place of birth.

Han literally says in the film that he’s been away from Corellia too long (when he’s still looking for Qi’ra). Compare to Rey: “I’ve already been away too long.” Both Han and Rey have yet to accept that a simple truth: what they left on their home planet is never coming back. (Qi’ra for Han, and parents for Rey).

2. The boy (girl) who wouldn’t give up on his (her) fallen beloved.

“There’s nothing you could have done that would make me change the way I see you.” (not an exact quote, but it’s the gist of what Han says to Qi’ra when she tells him that she’s done horrible things, and is afraid he’ll look at her differently if he knows). Alden gives such a beautifully impassioned delivery of this line, too. He really wants Qi’ra to accept this truth, but she fails to internalize it in the end.

This line is quite similar to what Rey says to Ben in TLJ: “It isn’t too late.” Also, recall Daisy Ridley’s quote about what she finds so admirable in Rey: “She really sees the glimmer in Kylo, that there’s some good there. And she goes with it, and I think that’s pretty wonderful.” Rey remains hopeful for Ben, and willing to see the good in him, despite all the terrible things he’s done. (He isn’t there yet, but he will internalize this truth in Ep. 9- i.e., that it isn’t too late for him.).

3. The boy (girl) whose plea for his (her) beloved to leave their dark path was rejected.

Han is anxious for Qi’ra to leave Dryden Vos and resume their plan to run away together as soon as they first reunite. Qi’ra resists, Han persists.

In their heartbreaking parting scene, Qi’ra lies to Han- assuring that she will be right behind him, and join him and Chewie to leave it all behind. Instead she communicates with Darth Maul (revealed to be another “higher up” in her crime syndicate) and plans a rendezvous with him, thus leaving the planet- and the potential of a new life with Han- behind.

In TLJ, Rey may be the one who “leaves,” but only after Ben rejects her plea to turn back to the light. Rey comes to Ben on the Finalizer to take him home with her and fulfill the vision she saw– so that they can “start a new Jedi order and never be alone again” [TLJ storybook.] But Ben rejects Rey’s entreaty to abandon his path of darkness and destruction.

Next, the differences- and these are important.

How Qi’rolo differs from Reylo

1. Qi’ra and Han are lovers at the start, and part as sad, reluctant strangers. Reylo are enemies at the start, and will end together as lovers and partners who know each other more intimately than anyone.

Many brilliant Reylos have said this all along: if a couple starts out in love, or falls in love relatively quickly in a Star Wars film / trilogy, we should be worried. Qi’rolo now joins Anidala in that tradition.

It’s honestly a very good thing for us Reylo shippers that Reylo had a rocky start in TFA, and ended apart in TLJ. Transformation and separation are always part of Star Wars romances. It’s clear that Reylo is headed towards union, not divide.

Also: a key theme in both of these canon romances involves the extent to which you really know the other person. Remember when Beckett questions whether Han really knows Qi’ra as well as he thinks he does? The uncomfortable truth about Beckett’s character in Solo is that he’s often right, even at his lowest, dirtiest (morally speaking) moments.

Han no longer knows Qi’ra- she is no longer the same person he grew up with. He seems to accept this at the end: Qi’ra has fundamentally changed from her experiences, whereas he has remained “one of the good guys” at heart.

Compare this with Ben and Rey. In TLJ, their dynamic was propelled forward by Ben challenging Rey’s assertion that she knew everything she needed to know about him, because she, in fact, did not really know him.

But as their Force bond grew stronger throughout TLJ, it became harder from them to “hide” their true selves from one another- they saw each other’s thoughts, emotions, pasts, and futures. When they finally unite in Ep. 9, their partnership will consist of two people who know each other more intimately than any normal lovers ever could.

2. Han grew up with Qi’ra. Rey and Ben first meet as adults.

When I caught this plot point in Solo, I thought of the original script that George Lucas was rumored to have written for the ST - in which Ben and Kira (Rey) trained together at the Jedi temple, and Ben spared her life when he destroyed it. So Kira (Rey) would have seen “through the monster” after Ben fell to the dark side, and always believed that he could return to the man he once was.

I’m so glad that they changed Rey’s backstory, because it’s much harder for someone from your past to “bring you back” when you have gone through enormous hardship and transformation. You can never fully go back to being the person you once were.

Qi’ra is the perfect example. After she and Han finally reunited, Qi’ra wasn’t– and couldn’t be– the same bright-eyed girl who wanted to escape from Corellia in a shiny new ship and run away with him. That was simply a future that she no longer envisioned to be possible for her, even though Han desperately wanted it to be.

Rey has the best chance of accepting Ben for who he can be - for who he chooses to be - precisely because she looks at him with a fresh pair of eyes, completely unbiased by the heavy shackles of his past (i.e., his legacy as a Skywalker - Solo, his former life as Ben Solo, etc.). So Rey will ultimately succeed where Han could not in saving her beloved.

3. Qi’ra is still beholden to another master (Darth Maul). Ben has no more evil overlords to manipulate or terrorize him.

The fact that Qi’ra kills one master (Dryden Vos) to serve another (Darth Maul) reminds us that, like Darth Vader, she is still very much a slave on her dark path. She makes choices, to be sure- but she is still operating with less than full autonomy. She still is doing what she thinks she must do. It’s not about what she wants or freely chooses to do.

In contrast, Disney /LF did something incredibly brilliant by killing off all of Ben’s “masters” (past and present) at the end of TLJ. To quote RJ in his director’s commentary:

“I wanted to bring him closer to being the villain that he wanted to be in The Force Awakens, to some point. With Kylo, I knew I wanted to kind of, by the end of this film—he’s not Vader, but he has come into his own as a sort of villain, but hopefully one that you now have, and that maybe more- as importantly, that Rey now has- a level of understanding of.”

In order to complete the arc into (literary) adulthood- in order to earn redemption- Ben must realize that the path he freely chose was a mistake, and that he no longer wants to pursue it. He can’t be a victim anymore to his parental figures’ abuse (Snoke), neglect (Han and Leia), or critical mistakes (Luke). As he transitions from (metaphorical) adolescence to adulthood, “it’s just him now.” He must determine the kind of man he wants to be without the influence of any masters, past or present.

In sum…

Guys, Solo is a gift to Reylo shippers. The parallels are incredibly strong, and when it comes to the issues and character arcs that killed Qi’rolo, it’s clear the Reylo dynamic is headed in the precise opposite direction.

Not only is Reylo going to heal two broken hearts, end the destructive conflict that has plagued the galaxy for thousands of years, bring balance to the Force, and make Anidala right– it’s also going to fix the problems of Qi’rolo, too.

What a ship, you guys.

*****IMPORTANT!! If you reblog this, please use one or more of the following hashtags: #solo spoilers #sw spoilers #star wars spoilers #spoilers

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xaniaz · 6 years

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The Other Beauty and the Beast- part 1/2

I see a lot of posts comparing the ST with Disney 1991 Beauty and the Beast. So many bloggers do the most amazing job at pointing out at similarities and parallels, and of course, the movies being produced by Disney, it seems only natural to think about the 1991 B&B as a reference they drew upon.

Yet, blame it on my being French, to me there is something more than the Disney rendition to this current retelling or fantasy of Beauty and the Beast. I think it actually is closer to the original version of the tale, written by Jeanne LePrince de Beaumont, a French writer from the XVIIIth century. The trope of the maiden and her animal lover/husband is of course universal and has many variations in different cultures. For instance, the tale of Eros and Psyche in Greek mythology is yet another version of it, and if you think about it, the mere fact that the God of Love was somehow a key character in this tale gives you an idea why this tale has such an enduring quality. It tells something about love and the relationship between a young girl and the way she perceives sexuality and men, that is to say as “beasts”. To put it plainly: male desire and gaze are perceived as scary for young girls with budding sexuality. Think about all the horror stories of young women who were kept ignorant of sexual intercourse and the male anatomy and their utter shock at what was what during their wedding night.

What to me is closer to the French version of Beauty and the Beast, the one that has established the canon of this version of the tale, as well as the title for this story, is the fact that

the Beast is NOT in his interactions with Beauty violent, angry, or aggressive

the Beast has to ask every day a question to Beauty: “Will you marry me?”

The Disney version, though very close to the original tale, shows the Beast very differently, since he gets mad at Belle as soon as he meets her (he attacks her and yells on her), and throws tantrums in her presence -which prompts her to try and fly away, something the Beauty in the original version never does. And the main divergence is above all the fact that the Beast, even though the audience is made very much aware he has to love and be loved, never asks Beauty to marry him or love him. There are no questions until the ballroom scene (and even then he does not talk about love or marriage). I personally always regretted this divergent narrative choice. What changes when the question is repeated again and again is not so much the Beast itself or his attraction to Beauty, it is Beauty’s perception and acceptance of the Beast. She does not change him, she is the one that changes, and by changing her point of view, she sees through animality and sees the man. And those two elements are very much present in the ST when it comes to Rey and Kylo’s relationship. Even though he exhibits the anger and tantrum of Disney’s character, it is not when he is alone with Rey. It is actually very striking how calm, contained, and even gentle he allows himself to be. As for questions, starting with the interrogation scene, this is also a key element, and as I highlighted for instance in my post about Naming, every movie has ended so far with a question he asks Rey, and that is, in effect, an offer to be a part of his life:””you need a teacher” (meaning, can I be your teacher?/will you be my apprentice aka, will you be mine?) and “join me… please” (meaning, will you share my life, my fate, aka again will you be mine?, aka marriage proposal).

In 1946, Jean Cocteau, a French poet, playwright, graphic artist, painter, and film director, combined all his talents to direct an adaptation of Leprince de Beaumont’s tale.This adaptation, though very close to the original spirit of the tale, made some bold artistic choices that are actually reflected in the Disney version: living furniture with arms and eyes and a masculine and attractive suitor to Belle who was later turned into Gaston (incidentally, the irony is that Jean Marais who portrays both this character and the Beast was Cocteau’s lover and lifetime partner). If you have never watched this movie, you should. It is a masterpiece in cinematography, a poetic experience that has had tremendous influence on countless cinematographers over the decades. Which brings us to our current ST. Yes, there is Disney… but there is Cocteau. And in some scenes there is actually more Cocteau than there is Disney. Let me break it down for you.

Let’s start with Rey and Kylo’s meeting. Something important happens right before the meeting: it is Rey’s Force vision. This experience is obviously presented as downright trippy scary, affecting her bodily especially when the ground suddenly flips and everything around her turns upside down. This trippy moment is never to be seen in Disney where Belle sure does wander the castle but does not seem to be stepping out through a dream (or a nightmare). In Cocteau’s version, on the contrary, Beauty’s arrival in the castle is very much like a dream. She runs in slow motion through the eery castle, doors opening on their own, with haunting music and choirs, and is drawn to her room floating through a weird corridor. When she arrives at her door, a strange voice whispers: “Beauty, I am the door to your room”. Let’s go back to Rey’s vision. First remember that she is in a castle, just like Beauty. She goes down to the basement, drawn to a strange voice. A door opens automatically and she goes to the box where she finds the lightsaber. As soon as she touches it, the first thing that we see is a weird corridor that flips around her. I will pass on the other moments of the vision, except that she is seen running around, but, in the end of the sequence there is a voice (Obi Wan’s) whispering to her: “Rey, these are your first steps”. So, to me, these sequences parallel each other more than the Disney version of Belle walking into the castle. There are the magical opening of doors, the whispers, and the eery corridor, and a scary bodily experience with loss of control or sense of orientation. What happens right before meeting the “beast”, “the monster”, is a weird bodily and psychological experience that the heroines do not understand. There is also a voice literally ushering them into this new “adventure” they are about to live.

What happens next? The two heroines run into a forest for Rey and a forest-like environment for Beauty. And this is where they meet the monster. Not in the Disney’s version, where Belle meets the Beast in the prison of the castle, lurking in the shadow. Again, TFA is closer to Cocteau’s. We even get the steps ot the staircase outside the castle!

And this is where they meet the Beast, in full view, and not hiding, like in Disney, in the shadows. Again, more or less the same reactions: paralysis, fear, and eventually passing out (with some extra help from Kylo). This does not happen either in Disney: no passing out.

Both monsters end up gently bridal carrying the girl back to their castle/ship/base (not in Disney). But even more interesting to me is the fact that these two actions are visually portrayed on the screen as seen from an external POV. In Cocteau’s, the gaze is from behind a window, where we see the Beast picking up Beauty and then taking her to the castle. In TFA, Finn and Han are the external gaze that watch Kylo carrying Rey back to his ship. So it is the same choice of point of view. This choice of POV signifies that we, the audience, like the explicit or implicit characters, are to bear witness to this abduction but also that we become voyeur to this abduction. And it thus stresses out the romantic and sexual charge of this first encounter.

What comes next in Cocteau’s is the Beast gently laying Beauty on a bed and looking at her while she is still asleep. When she opens her eyes, he jumps back, hides away, begging her not to look him into the eyes. This is echoed in TFA during the interrogation where Rey, is first the inanimate object of Kylo’s gaze, before he starts prying into her mind. But just like the Beast in Cocteau, the tables are turned when Rey looks back ang gets into HIS mind. Just like Beauty, her gaze is a source of pain for Kylo/the Beast.

In Cocteau’s, this is followed by their first dinner together, with Beauty sitting the whole time in her chair, almost as a prisoner, ready to defend herself with a knife if need be. Besides the dialogue that comes straight out from the book about the Beast’s ugliness and stupidity, one particular line is of major interest for us, a line that is uttered with the Beast’s hand held out, just like Kylo’s:

Again, as much as Disney’s version has been commented upon, the parallelism with Cocteau seems to me much more relevant in the body language of the characters, choice of POV, and even elements of dialogue. I will follow up this post with a second part with other key elements present in the two movies and that are absent from the Disney version.

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xaniaz · 6 years

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The other Beauty and the Beast- part 2/2

Other elements that seem to be borrowed from Cocteau more than from Disney (keeping in mind that Disney already borrowed from Cocteau and the original French tale) are the horse that takes Beauty to the Beast, the repulsion Beauty originally feels towards the Beast’s baser instincts, and maybe, most striking and intriguing of all, the gloves.

Let’s look at the horse first. In Disney version, Belle rides to the castle in order to rescue her father on the family horse, Philippe. It is thus symbolically HER father that leads her to the Beast. The father is also present in the castle to signal and identify the Beast to his daughter. She is also the one offering herself in exchange for her father’s freedom. In Cocteau’s, the horse that takes Beauty to the Beast is actually the Beast’s very own enchanted horse, a sparkling white horse called “Le Magnifique”. By whispering into his ear, Beauty finds herself carried away to the Beast’s castle. Her father is no longer held against his will in the castle, but, as in the original tale, is sent back home in order to get one of his daughters to exchange her life with his own. Beauty chooses her own fate by offering herself to the Beast in order to save her father, but she does not come up with the idea of the bargain, she makes her decision after the bargain has been presented to her. When she meets the Beast, she is alone, without any father figure. In TFA, Rey’s path towards Kylo is more akin to Cocteau’s Beauty. She flies herself off onto Kylo’s path by using a means of transportation that very much belongs to him, the MF, HIS father’s ship, and not hers. She also gets onto his path because of something he wants and has been looking for: the information inside the BB8 droid. She chooses the path of adventure but in a way it is because of something that he has decided, that is a consequence of his actions. Sparkling and dazzling, the MF is not at first glance (”this is garbage”), but when Rey realizes that this is “the ship that made the Kessel run in (12) parsecs”, her outlook is somewhat different. So, as it turns out, a dazzling white horse does take Rey to meet Kylo on Takodana. She is also alone with Kylo when they meet in the forest, there is no father or father figure present on the scene.

While Beauty is held in the Beast’s castle, she starts spying on the Beast, something Belle does not do either. And she gets to witness some shocking behavior to her. First the fact that he hunts and preys on animals, the fact that he laps water from ponds like an animal, and most of all, the poetic bold choice Cocteau made to have the Beast’s hands smoulder after he kills. The blood that should cover his hands and clothes is replaced with smoke. And his reaction to that is one of shame and disgust at his own animality. He is aware, in these circumstances, that he is a dangerous animal and should remain away from her, as much as he wants to be around her. You can interpret that as the innate violence of men, but it also has strong sexual undertones. He hungers for Beauty and even tries to go to her bedroom, at one point barely wearing a shirt that shows off his very beastly hairy chest (bare torso anyone?). Of course, this repulses Beauty that asks him to clean himself and get away from her (don’t you have a cowl or something?). He is afraid of hurting her even though he never does. He is actually afraid of giving in to his base male instincts and sexuality. At the same time, Beauty also paradoxically starts longing for his presence which occurs at the same time every day: 7 o’clock. She gets bored without him and begins expecting him. She also shows more gentleness towards him, offering once to have him drink out of her hands instead of lapping straight out of the pond. So she does not only get accustomed to his presence but also to his physicality. In Disney’s version, the Beast does not hunt for food: he eats porridge and gives seeds to little birds. Besides his appearance, his animality is merely exemplified in his tantrums and bad table manners. He cleans up pretty well and rather fast. The danger is rather subdued.

Now if we consider Rey and Kylo, think about how he appears to her, pretty much through smoke and fire, first in the midst of the attack on Maz castle (his ship lands), then in the forest (it is slightly hazy and she starts shooting at him adding to the smoke).At the end of TFA he becomes the monster that has blood on his hand, when he kills Han and when he fights Finn. And the impacts of the lightsabers combine the idea of blood and smoke. Of course, if you compare his look after he killed his father with the one that the Beast has, you can tell that he has the same feeling of shock and wonder. It is very important to note that each time, the female gaze is involved.

The scene with Han is the one that establishes Kylo, in Rey’s mind, as a monster. He was first a creature in a mask, but when she sees him kill Han and viciously attack Finn, she sees him as a murderer and a monster. But in TLJ, just as in the tale, the fact that, through the Force bond, they have to meet at recurring moments that she has no control of (just like Beauty has to meet the Beast every day at 7), the regularity starts to turn into a need and change her opinion of him. You can tell that this has become a need, because she is the one holding out her hand to him then reaching out even more by recklessly flying to be with him in an attempt to rescue him. In Cocteau’s movie, Beauty is also the one making the first move, and she is the one who comes to the rescue at the end of the movie. Like Beauty, she is aware of Kylo’s potential danger, when they fight each other in TFA, and when in TLJ she fears for a moment that he will obey Snoke and kill her. Just like the Beast in Cocteau, Kylo can appear threatening and conflicted, but he never physically harms her (apart from that one infamous tree!). Some lines of dialogue are also quite similar. When Beauty touches the head of the Beast:

The Beast: You pet me as you would pet an animal…

Beauty: But you are an animal!

When Rey and Kylo have their second Force session:

Kylo: You’ve got that look in your eye… from the forest… when you called me a monster…

Rey: You are a monster!

The female gaze is defining the male as a monster. It is up to the male to demonstrate that he is not, through his actions and his words, but most of all through altering the perception the female has of him.

The glove is probably the most fascinating element in both movies and is prominently represented on the screen. Gloves both connote power and protection. A protection for the hand, they were worn by knights. Because they were expensive, they were also the attribute of the rich and powerful, signifying cleanliness and purity. The gloved hand oftentimes meant the person wearing them did not have to use his hands for working. But because they also hide the hand, they also came to be associated with secrecy and mystery, and to be the attributes of villains and bandits. In Beauty and the Beast, the glove is a sign of nobility and power. It hides the character’s animality, and, revealingly enough, when the Beast is fresh from the kill, his smoldering hands are ungloved. So the glove is also a mask of gentility. It is also one of the sources of his power and magic, and when he gives Beauty one of his gloves (the right one, which is coded as the honorable, loyal one), he is graciously giving her his power. He is both empowering her (she can travel wherever she pleases, she can wield magic like him), and he gives her power over him (she has power of life or death over him, since he will die if she does not come back). Beauty believes the magic of the glove is so strong that when she finds the Beast on the verge of dying, she thinks putting the glove back on him will be enough to save his life. For whatever reason, gloves are a no show in the Disney version. All the emphasis was put on the rose which was merely an accessory in the original tale and in Cocteau’s version. My idea is that it was a way to erase some of the sensuous implications of the gloved/ungloved hand from a movie that was primarily meant for children. Though, to be fair, I do not think the children would have been aware of that.

In the ST, Kylo is very much defined by his gloved hand. It is as much a part of his persona as his mask and saber, a costume that is supposed to strike awe and terror in his enemies, but, the more we get to know him, also comes from his need to protect himself. The bad guy dress up, complete with its accessories, is very much his armor and safety blanket. It sets him apart from the rest, showing that he is unwilling to touch and be touched. The gloves also highlight his power, since holding out his gloved hand allows him to stop his enemies and their shooting at him, probe their minds, or choke them. So much attention is devoted to his gloved hand you could easily call it glove porn. Which also fits another symbolism of the glove. Gloves were also seen as a very intimate piece of clothing, and an ideal gift between lovers. People would perfume them, and giving them was symbolically giving your hand away, or even something even more intimate. Think about expressions like “fits like a glove”, or Rita’s Hayworth sensuous glove striptease in the movie Gilda… So, for the mighty and über protective Kylo Ren to shed his glove in TLJ is highly significant. He allows himself to be vulnerable. He is relinquishing his power in order to touch her. He is shedding control, protection, and isolation so as to enjoy for a fleeting moment the sensuous contact with Rey’s skin. He is giving in to sensuality, letting himself enjoy the touch of another human being, the girl he has chosen and that he loves. He has let all his guards down, it has to be his most intimate and vulnerable, and probably most truthful moment. Like the Beast, he is in a way giving her power over him. But remember that at this point they do not talk. He is not asking her anything, he is not telling her anything anymore.

The fact that he is not removing his glove in the throne room gives pause for thought. Why do they purposefully show his gloved hand held out to Rey? One thing for sure is the audience had to know his offer would fail. I do not think it meant that he was not vulnerable. He was on the contrary SO vulnerable that he held on to the last remnants of his safety blanket persona: wearing the glove and pretending to be powerful. But it was also because he was asking her something that was most important to him. And the glove was his last protection.The irony is that if he had willingly let go (as he is asking her to do), he would have got what he wanted. But it vanishes between his gloved hands, just like the dice vanish out of his hands at the end of the movie. All the power he tries to conjure up does not prevent him from losing what he really wants. One might add just like Anakin’s hunger for power did not prevent him from losing the woman he loved. In the end, Vader had to remove his helmet to see his son with his real eyes. Kylo will probably give in to the need of touching Rey skin to skin, and not through the Force bond or the gloves. Just like the Beast, he will need to let go of his power in order to get the girl.

To come back to the end of the tale, Beauty has to save the Beast from dying, something we may or not see, who knows? But there is a line at the end of Cocteau’s movie that I have always loved and would fit right into the Kylo/Rey dynamic. When the Beast is turned into a prince, holding Beauty to his heart, he first comments: “the first time I carried you in my arms I was the Beast”. The couple then looks at the gloves, discarded and smoking on the ground (gloves on the ground for Kylo?), marking the end of the curse. They talk about his plans to take her away in his kingdom where she will become a great queen. She asks: “is it far away?”. He nods. Chances are it is far far away (wink wink). “We will fly there” (A MF would be nice?). And here comes the line

The Beast: Will you be afraid?

Beauty: I love being afraid… (smiling and teasing) with you!

Don’t you think this may just cover Rey’s conflicting feelings about Kylo, and most of their interactions, from the thrill of their first saber duel to their awesome partnership in the throne room ? Looking forward to your reactions and thoughts!

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