The overwhelming call for the redemption of Kylo Ren on tumblr is very much reflective of a culture of toxic white male privilege that I would venture to say most users would probably claim they reject. Ben is a wealthy white boy, the son of war heroes, the son of a princess/senator/general. He came from a loving privileged background. He had the best opportunities. He had an uncle who trained him to be one of the only Jedi in the universe. That wasn’t enough for Ben, so Ben becomes Kylo Ren.
In America, we see it one week after the next. A white suburban guy in his early 20s decides to take his resentment out in the form of murder. “He was such a nice boy, such a quiet boy.” The smiling childhood picture. His mother cries on camera, rather than the mothers of his victims. He gets a sensitive instagram picture on the cover of newspapers and magazines rather than his mugshot. “Bring our boy home.” How many innocent people has your boy killed?
So the desperate clamoring for this white boy who had it all and chose that he preferred the path of mass murder is a very profound, very deliberate choice of villain in a movie with a very deliberate lead cast – a woman, a black man, a latino man. I think this is a really fascinating subject, but it’s not the conversation that’s happening here on tumblr. Instead we talk about his fabulous hair and his absolutely essential redemption arc and his “temper tantrums” as if they’re not completely real and completely representative of something very sinister in our culture.
It’s not just a movie. Good science fiction never is. We all know that, otherwise we couldn’t care so much.
If he was in any other franchise I’d agree, but his redemption is pretty much the only way for Leia’s life to not continue to suck. :(
“The idea between these two characters was that on the left you have Kylo Ren, who was the Force power and aspect of the First Order, and on the right you have the sort of teacher’s pet, General Hux, this very young general who, clearly, is a warmonger and a strategist. And they’re sort of at odds because one is more of a spiritual power and one is a more intellectual power.” – J.J. Abrams
Oh man. Padme interactions with her grandson… this is why fanfic exists. To give us all the quality feels that we deserve (and will kill us).
Oh but can you imagine how pissed Padmé would be at Kylo?
Like she watched her husband destroy the democracy she loved, loved more than him though he was the love of her life. (You cannot convince me that Padme wouldn’t have fought Vader and the Empire if she had lived. No matter how much she loved Anakin and thought he might be brought back, she would have fought tooth and nail against Vader.)
And now her own bloody grandson is doing the exact same shit? Padmé would be so damn livid I don’t have words.
That call to the Light that Kylo senses, that’s not Anakin. It’s Padmé trying to knock some god damn sense into his thick skull.
