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esmethesciencewitch:
My thoughts on Reylo
First off, I’d like to say that I love many Reylo fanworks that the SW community has produced. Reylo is a fun ship. It has redemption, growing together, awesome battle scenes, and Adam Driver’s titties. Many great writers have written poignent novels about it. However, it’s not one I would have liked to see canon touch with a ten-foot pole. (TROS happened. I am still in denial).
Maybe it’s my possibly aromatic ass not liking major romance arcs as part of a complicated story that could potentially include espionage on sad desert planets, friendships, space battles, politics & intrigue, and a discussion of morality and mental health (those were things I wanted since TFA. I didn’t really get anything but the battles). I like romance arcs that don’t stand apart from the main arc of literally anything else, unless I am reading a romance novel without much extraneous plot to distract me from the feelings and canoodling. A great example of this is Stormpilot. They banter, they bond, and they can do all of this while advancing the main plot. In contrast, Reylo had its own romantic musical theme and hand-touch scene.
The hand-touch scene reminded me of one of my clumsy teenage attempts at romance. We slunk away from church youth group, touched hands, looked deeply into each other’s eyes, and never spoke of it again. I didn’t really like it, but I was too shy to say so at the time. But I digress.
Many of my favorite Reylo fanfics have delved into the inherent issues and darkness in their relationship; Kylo mind-raped her, Rey lashed out and beat him up in revenge. Good enemies to lovers material. I love fics that give Rey the freedom to express her anger, and have Kylo make mistakes, rationalize them, and then with dawning horror realize just how wrong he was. Then, Kylo takes steps to make things right, no matter how much it hurts (he doesn’t make out with her without, ya know, having a substantial, meaningful conversation and then just die).
Rey is not a pure little rey of sunshine. She has abandonment issues, attachment issues, and probably some form of PTSD. Kylo is not an uwu soft boi. He can be mean, destructive, and cruel. He also has PTSD, probably attachment issues, and abandonment issues (he fucked up, everyone has given up on him). Canon did not properly address this. Fanon often does.
Platonic Reylo would have been more interesting in canon, IMO. Perhaps I am projecting my own experiences, but all of the powerful relationships in my life have been platonic. I wished I could have seen Kylo take steps towards redemption with motives besides romance; perhaps he wanted to spare other Force sensitive kids the fate of being groomed by a creepy Snoke thingy and molded into perpetual emos, maybe Rey went full Darkside and scared even Kylo (he doesn’t want her to hurt herself and her loved ones the way he once did, besides the fact that Dark Rey could kick his ass in a bunch of new and unpleasant ways). Basically, I like character motivations that go beyond the prospect of getting in another character’s pants and true love, whatever that is.
Tl;dr I think canon should have left Reylo mostly platonic so the fanfic authors could handle it better than they did, and canon can give us meaningful character development or at least more worldbuilding. I’m a hoe for worldbuilding.
esmethesciencewitch:
My thoughts on Reylo
First off, I’d like to say that I love many Reylo fanworks that the SW community has produced. Reylo is a fun ship. It has redemption, growing together, awesome battle scenes, and Adam Driver’s titties. Many great writers have written poignent novels about it. However, it’s not one I would have liked to see canon touch with a ten-foot pole. (TROS happened. I am still in denial).
Maybe it’s my possibly aromatic ass not liking major romance arcs as part of a complicated story that could potentially include espionage on sad desert planets, friendships, space battles, politics & intrigue, and a discussion of morality and mental health (those were things I wanted since TFA. I didn’t really get anything but the battles). I like romance arcs that don’t stand apart from the main arc of literally anything else, unless I am reading a romance novel without much extraneous plot to distract me from the feelings and canoodling. A great example of this is Stormpilot. They banter, they bond, and they can do all of this while advancing the main plot. In contrast, Reylo had its own romantic musical theme and hand-touch scene.
The hand-touch scene reminded me of one of my clumsy teenage attempts at romance. We slunk away from church youth group, touched hands, looked deeply into each other’s eyes, and never spoke of it again. I didn’t really like it, but I was too shy to say so at the time. But I digress.
Many of my favorite Reylo fanfics have delved into the inherent issues and darkness in their relationship; Kylo mind-raped her, Rey lashed out and beat him up in revenge. Good enemies to lovers material. I love fics that give Rey the freedom to express her anger, and have Kylo make mistakes, rationalize them, and then with dawning horror realize just how wrong he was. Then, Kylo takes steps to make things right, no matter how much it hurts (he doesn’t make out with her without, ya know, having a substantial, meaningful conversation and then just die).
Rey is not a pure little rey of sunshine. She has abandonment issues, attachment issues, and probably some form of PTSD. Kylo is not an uwu soft boi. He can be mean, destructive, and cruel. He also has PTSD, probably attachment issues, and abandonment issues (he fucked up, everyone has given up on him). Canon did not properly address this. Fanon often does.
Platonic Reylo would have been more interesting in canon, IMO. Perhaps I am projecting my own experiences, but all of the powerful relationships in my life have been platonic. I wished I could have seen Kylo take steps towards redemption with motives besides romance; perhaps he wanted to spare other Force sensitive kids the fate of being groomed by a creepy Snoke thingy and molded into perpetual emos, maybe Rey went full Darkside and scared even Kylo (he doesn’t want her to hurt herself and her loved ones the way he once did, besides the fact that Dark Rey could kick his ass in a bunch of new and unpleasant ways). Basically, I like character motivations that go beyond the prospect of getting in another character’s pants and true love, whatever that is.
Tl;dr I think canon should have left Reylo mostly platonic so the fanfic authors could handle it better than they did, and canon can give us meaningful character development or at least more worldbuilding. I’m a hoe for worldbuilding.
