WhyweloveStarWars

Rey and Kylo Ren’s first confrontation

Star Wars: Episode VII—The Force Awakens

Writers: J.J. Abrams & Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt

Director: J.J. Abrams

You have to love when Star Wars surprises you. Far too often, audiences can be waiting for the big surprise, those mind-shattering revelations that you didn’t see coming, but sometimes the surprise is subtler. Deeper. And you sit up in your seat, relishing in the fact that you’re seeing something different that you know you’ll need to dig into more. One such surprise took place in The Force Awakens and continues to reward us as its implications play out in the continuing saga. It all centers around Kylo Ren’s first defeat. No, not the one on the crumbling surface of Starkiller Base. Rey first defeated him deep inside the infrastructure of that First Order superweapon when Kylo’s interrogation of her backfired, emboldening her and giving us a connection between the hero and villain that we had never experienced before.

Captured and at the mercy of the First Order, Rey was in a bad place when she awoke to the image of Kylo Ren staring back at her while she was strapped to a torture device. Taunting and cocksure, Kylo Ren is what we were expecting at this point in the movie. The dark side-influenced baddie with a black cape and red lightsaber. He’s powerful and he knows it. Kylo Ren is pretty sure he knows who Kylo Ren is. So, he does what he, and we, know bad guys do: he tries to take what isn’t his. In this case, Rey’s mind.

After casually taking off his mask because he thinks he doesn’t need it, Kylo begins mucking about Rey’s mind and we learn a lot about Rey here. She’s fresh off her frightening Force vision at Maz’s Castle, so we already know a bit of her state of mind, but now it’s clear to us and Kylo. She’s lonely, isolated, feeling completely inadequate and out of place. Everything that makes her weak is now on display, but it’s the nature of this discovery that is darker than expected. Like Poe before her, every truth about her was just ripped from her mind. Taken by force. And, unlike Poe, it’s not just information for use in a war, it’s who she is. Her very being. Rey is no longer just a hero facing obstacles, Rey is a young woman losing a part of herself. Every truth about her was just ripped from her mind.

Yet, as the sequel trilogy teaches, darkness rises and light comes out to meet it.

In this most vulnerable state, Rey discovers a resolve she didn’t know she had. Yes, this is Star Wars, but this isn’t just about Force powers, training levels, and her purpose in the grand scheme of it all, that comes later. This moment is about a young woman finding a personal strength she previously couldn’t imagine. And with that strength, she strikes back.

The situation turns on Kylo and he is now exposed. She is now in his mind. And just like that…the course of our new villain is altered. His biggest fear, his biggest inadequacy, is on display. He worships the twisted legacy of Darth Vader. He wants to turn completely away from everything he was raised—and maybe born—to be and continue an empire of evil. But he doesn’t think he can. He doesn’t have the strength to do it. And this isn’t Snoke learning this. That’s his master, his new mentor, and the Supreme Leader already knows that. This knowledge is now in the hands of his new rival. The creature in a mask, once so sure of himself, so convinced of his position of power, is now a fearful pretender. This is most definitely Kylo’s first loss.

This is the kind of surprise to cherish. The story-shattering revelations can come later, but this is a story building revelation. Our hero is growing stronger from a place we didn’t see coming and the path of our villain has changed. We knew he might not be fully formed, but this isn’t an origin story—this is a deconstruction and, because of that, Kylo Ren becomes more dangerous than we previously could have imagined. His confidence is shaken, his footing unsure, and he is going to do anything to convince himself that he is the monster he wants to be.

Though Snoke would soon bind their minds through his dark powers, this is the first connection between them. They have seen each other as no one else has. Forget all those juicy fanfiction daydreams, this connection is far more intimate. Kylo and Rey are not just adversaries, they are, whether they like it or not, confidants. And those are the implications they’ll have to deal with. In this giant, sweeping epic saga, they have no one else that truly understands them except each other. Each walking around knowing the weakness of the other one, an emotional weapon they could use to help each other or destroy each other.

What began as an interrogation scene, the captured and the captor, a tried and true sequence in Star Wars, quickly turned into something we didn’t expect. A hero and villain fought, and each gained the power of raw truth. We were reminded that in Star Wars, thankfully, it doesn’t always go the way you think.