The Last Jedi General Discussion

So the real question is then why is she so strong with the Force, and why is she drawn to Kylo like a Porg to Millennium Falcon gear? Hints of the real answer to Rey’s mystery are found in Supreme Leader Snoke’s monlogue. Before his delicious demise, Snoke muses that she is the Force’s answer to Kylo Ren: a being who embodies all the qualities of the light, just as Kylo is meant to be heir apparent of all the qualities of the dark, which were his birthright as the grandson of Anakin Skywalker.

In this vein, Snoke isn’t just whistling "The Imperial March." Rey is gifted (or cursed) with an unusually high amount of Force sensitivity. The lightsaber belonging to Anakin and Luke Skywalker from generations past called out to her hand in The Force Awakens, and then was used with precision to fight Kylo Ren to a standstill within the frosted woods of Starkiller Base. And despite having never stepped foot off Jakku until she was an adult, this desert child dreamed of water. Previously, we thought it was because of the sea that surrounded Luke, however it appears now what she was really drawn to was the island upon which Luke sat. For there were the ancient Jedi texts of the first Jedi Temple. “Page-turners” of the light.

The island epitomizes a land of light and grace in the Star Wars universe, a place of balance. And it is also the closest Rey has come to finding a home. The reason for this is simple: She is what Snoke says, the Force’s answer to Kylo Ren, or at least the legacy he’s inherited.

When Rey is drawn to the heart of the island of Ahch-To, it is not due to a beacon of light from the Jedi Temple—it is from the lure of an inviting darkness. In search of answers, a waterlogged Rey finds herself inside the belly of Ahch-To. It’s a cold and secluded place reserved for the dark side, yet it remains unthreatened by Rey’s presence. She has come looking for her origins, but finds only a mirror.

This is because she is the shiny reflection of the dark, and for there to be balance, light and dark must co-exist without fear. There cannot be one without the other, and Rey could not exist without Kylo Ren or the Skywalker legacy. This difficult to grapple concept is why she finds Luke’s stalling tactics so frustrating, and Ben’s ear so therapeutic. He too knows what it is like to struggle with a heritage he doesn’t fully comprehend. This similarity is what binds them so well… and scares Luke half to death.

When Luke first attempts to teach Rey a lesson about the Force, she is instinctively dragged into the dark side’s pit. “You didn’t even it fight it,” Luke shivers. That is because both she and Kylo are naturally drawn to the other’s allure, and their fates are entwined. This is not to say there is a romantic connection between the two... but the attraction of it exists for both parties.

The strongest portions of The Last Jedi are when Kylo and Rey are connected by the Force. Intriguingly, Rey is stronger than her shadowy counterpart, able to see his surroundings while she is but a face that calls to him. We learn later that Snoke enabled this psychic link. Still, it was only possible because Kylo is naturally tempted by her light, as she is just as easily beckoned to his dark. They are the two halves of the Force and a détente between them is when they are at peace.

Beyond the sympathy Rey has for Ben, and past Kylo showing off a marine’s physique while they are mentally connected, there is a symbiotic need for the communion... but an impossibility to reconcile it. All is right with the Force when Kylo and Rey work together to bring down one of the ugliest consequences of Anakin Skywalker’s actions: Snoke and his meager imitation of the Imperial throne Vader helped build. Unified, they take a major step toward ending Anakin’s legacy and are most at peace in this bloody harmony.

However, it is short lived because neither party can consummate the pull of their attraction to the other. Kylo is lost to the dark side, just as Luke and Leia have accepted. It is against his very nature to become the Ben Solo she sees. But in contrast, it is impossible for his counterbalance of the light to give into his proposal to join him. Part of her might want to, but that is not balance; it is submission. Thus they are at an eternal impasse: the rock and the hard place.

Rey watches Finn and Rose, and for the first time swallows her own bit of envy for Stormtrooper FN-2187. She also meets Poe Dameron and speaks with General Leia Organa, and yet they are all looking to the future for the Resistance and for themselves. Rey is thus isolated, even from the shut out Kylo Ren. For now. She may not be raging with conflict, but she is also devoid of the harmony she felt next to Kylo bringing about an end of the previous generation’s sins with Snoke's death.

Moonlight13 wrote:Apparently, Rian asked John Williams to change the music for the hut scene because he wanted the audience to believe a romance between Rey and Kylo was possible. : https://red-applesith.tumblr.com/post/185256465502/i-wished-for-us-to-believe-in-this-romance

Instinctively, Rey realized that their explosive futures were somehow entwined.

Spoiler: