@cornerbackcastiel replied to your post “So I just saw The Last Jedi. I liked it a lot, personally. I…”
As I just walked out of the theatre as well, I’m excited to see your thoughts! 🙂
Oh man I don’t even know where to start, honestly! I’m still processing most of it (and this is after spending hours last night discussing it with my giant nerdy brother.) Uhmmm, spoilers below the cut I guess.
Ooh, I feel the same way about Kylo! The movie really clicked into place for me when they teamed up and I was SUPER excited. He understands Ray and I love that (but not enough, clearly).
I wonder whether Ray needs to accept and love her darker feelings (anger, betrayal). I have a theory that the vision in the cave meant that she needs to stop looking for other people to fill the hole in her heart (the longing for her parents to have loved her and not abandoned her) and instead to kind of… Be her own parent and love herself. You know? Cause she was looking for her parents down there and she saw herself instead. So I think she’s the answer. But she doesn’t realize that yet. She keeps looking for a parent in Han, and Luke, and she even wanted connection with Kylo to kind of fill that? But once she loves herself she’ll be able to love other people without wanting them to fill that particular hole for her.
That’s my theory!
I don’t know what to think about my love for Ben Solo. I understand his sense of betrayal and his anger and in another movie where I didn’t love his parents so much I’d kinda want her to just burn the world down with him. But he’s a definite example of someone who approaches every problem as a battle and always tries to win and believes his vulnerability is weakness. Which is textbook toxic masculinity. He’s a fascist because his response to his pain is the toxic masculine response. And this movie was very against that, and into surviving instead of winning, which is a very feminist perspective on life. Like even the “good” male characters kept doing things wrong because they had that need to WIN. (Poe and Finn).
Anyway. The angry parts of me loves Ben Solo to bits! And I kind of want Ray to get to have some of that struggle with darkness and decide it’s not something to reject or give in to but rather something to have compassion for?
///rambling I’m in need of people to talk about this with haha
I really like your Rey theory! And I tend to agree! Personally, I think this trilogy is about a couple of things and one of those might be finding inner balance. Like, the whole idea of balancing the force has been external for the majority of the films but I personally think the way to achieve that balance is with each force user accepting their own darkness and light and using each as they need to. I think Rey is the key to achieving that and I’d really like to see her embrace the power of creation and destruction. She needs to accept that she’s whole on her own before she can really change things, and I think that’s possible. But those are just my feelings on it.
As far as Ben goes, while I understand the argument about toxic masculinity I don’t know if I share that interpretation. I personally think there’s a lot more going on in his head than *just* the idea of toxic masculinity. I mean, for this guy, vulnerability is a bit of a weakness. He puts his trust in his Uncle and he thought the man tried to kill him. Snoke goes from “you’re a failure and nothing more than a child” to “you’re wonderful and my greatest pupil now do me proud” pretty quickly. I don’t think it’s 100% off base to say that his experiences color the way he does things. And yeah, the violent outbursts are an issue. I don’t think that’s up for debate at all. Still doesn’t change the fact that I like the character. BUT by the same token, I don’t see it as a bad thing if he were to conquer these destructive tendencies (both self-destructive and destructive towards others). That’s kind of a good thing, right?
But also, you’re right! What’s interesting about this movie is that it took the “win, win, win!” thing and put a new spin on it. Winning is nice and all, but sometimes you need to make smart decisions so you can fight another day. And I think what Rose said was important, too. It’s not about killing what you hate, it’s about saving what you love. I liked that spin on it.
Sorry, my mind is kinda running at full speed right now (woo anxiety!) so I might not be making all the connections I need to to be understood so I’m gonna stop typing while I’m ahead.
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