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what do you think of reviewers saying kylo ren was the best character to come out of this trilogy?
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…….
he never did anything worth talking about!!!
seriously, all the canonical stuff we know about him tells us he was under the control of one Sith or another, at any given time. the movies & comics made damn sure that whenever he made a booboo, they retconned it by saying “it was voices in his head making him”. like, that moment in TROS where palpatine reveals he also impersonated VADER in ben’s head??? so??? then?? what is the truth??? ben solo’s descent into darkness was not this troubled young man making bad choices on his own with minor external influence, no no, he was just someone’s puppet from day one and he had no functioning thought in his brain. he was simply a mindless Victim™. even the “luke tried to kill me” bit, while enhancing luke’s character, did little for kylo ren’s, because does he ever actually deal with the aftermath? does the movie address this again? does he understand why his uncle did what he did?? who cares??? not these movies.
the first order stuff, does it count?? not really, because kylo ren keeps saying in TLJ how the ideology of his party doesn’t matter to him. so, is he an imperialist fascist or …does he have any other beliefs? *shrug* the movies don’t care. he doesnt have any kind of belief system, except “let the past go”, and even that is reversed in TROS. oh, he wants to rule with rey as emperor/empress? does Supreme Leader Ren do anything in his new position btw? does he have a vision of “order” for the galaxy as future emperor? we don’t know. the movies don’t care. and at this point, are we sure that’s even his desire? wasn’t Palpy excited at one point about rey being empress? i ask these things because a) Palpy insists he was every voice in his head ever, and b) the absolutely chaotic way they’ve written this dude means nothing means anything for sure. and no, it’s not a sign of “complexity” or “nuance”. they literally just let this character be vaguely “bad” so that they could change the outcome to suit their needs at the end. there was a lot of potential here, squandered with each year.
i think when reviewers come out of these movies calling him the best character what they mean is that they like adam driver’s acting and that he’s one of the few characters placed in a variety of compelling situations. basically, his storyline seems more interesting because they amp it up with a lot of promise and drama but when you start to think about it…it really unravels, bub. all of those interesting story beats? oh, it was just Palpy in his head, it’s okay. oh, he murdered his jedi classmates? actually no… he tried to save them. he lashed out at his parents due to a complicated family situation? haha… no… leia and han just neglected and feared him and sent him away…LOL. he betrayed luke because he was drawn to the dark side? naaah don’t worry, it was luke who “betrayed” him and that will never be touched upon again and besides, it was Palpy doing everything…
that’s exactly why they brought Palpy back btw. because they had no idea how to write kylo ren as a singular entity. i wanted to watch a movie about Supreme Leader Ren, see what he does on his own when he’s not someone else’s stooge. guess we’ll never know.
like, i don’t wanna be misunderstood: i enjoy many aspects of this clusterfuck of a character, and this whole post is me being angry on his behalf, but taken as a whole? as a convincing antihero??? as a flesh-and-blood person inhabiting this fictional universe???? he don’t exist. they were just lucky adam driver managed to give “Schrodinger’s Vader” some additional layers.
…….
he never did anything worth talking about!!!
seriously, all the canonical stuff we know about him tells us he was under the control of one Sith or another, at any given time. the movies & comics made damn sure that whenever he made a booboo, they retconned it by saying “it was voices in his head making him”. like, that moment in TROS where palpatine reveals he also impersonated VADER in ben’s head??? so??? then?? what is the truth??? ben solo’s descent into darkness was not this troubled young man making bad choices on his own with minor external influence, no no, he was just someone’s puppet from day one and he had no functioning thought in his brain. he was simply a mindless Victim™. even the “luke tried to kill me” bit, while enhancing luke’s character, did little for kylo ren’s, because does he ever actually deal with the aftermath? does the movie address this again? does he understand why his uncle did what he did?? who cares??? not these movies.
the first order stuff, does it count?? not really, because kylo ren keeps saying in TLJ how the ideology of his party doesn’t matter to him. so, is he an imperialist fascist or …does he have any other beliefs? *shrug* the movies don’t care. he doesnt have any kind of belief system, except “let the past go”, and even that is reversed in TROS. oh, he wants to rule with rey as emperor/empress? does Supreme Leader Ren do anything in his new position btw? does he have a vision of “order” for the galaxy as future emperor? we don’t know. the movies don’t care. and at this point, are we sure that’s even his desire? wasn’t Palpy excited at one point about rey being empress? i ask these things because a) Palpy insists he was every voice in his head ever, and b) the absolutely chaotic way they’ve written this dude means nothing means anything for sure. and no, it’s not a sign of “complexity” or “nuance”. they literally just let this character be vaguely “bad” so that they could change the outcome to suit their needs at the end. there was a lot of potential here, squandered with each year.
i think when reviewers come out of these movies calling him the best character what they mean is that they like adam driver’s acting and that he’s one of the few characters placed in a variety of compelling situations. basically, his storyline seems more interesting because they amp it up with a lot of promise and drama but when you start to think about it…it really unravels, bub. all of those interesting story beats? oh, it was just Palpy in his head, it’s okay. oh, he murdered his jedi classmates? actually no… he tried to save them. he lashed out at his parents due to a complicated family situation? haha… no… leia and han just neglected and feared him and sent him away…LOL. he betrayed luke because he was drawn to the dark side? naaah don’t worry, it was luke who “betrayed” him and that will never be touched upon again and besides, it was Palpy doing everything…
that’s exactly why they brought Palpy back btw. because they had no idea how to write kylo ren as a singular entity. i wanted to watch a movie about Supreme Leader Ren, see what he does on his own when he’s not someone else’s stooge. guess we’ll never know.
like, i don’t wanna be misunderstood: i enjoy many aspects of this clusterfuck of a character, and this whole post is me being angry on his behalf, but taken as a whole? as a convincing antihero??? as a flesh-and-blood person inhabiting this fictional universe???? he don’t exist. they were just lucky adam driver managed to give “Schrodinger’s Vader” some additional layers.