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a-flickering-soul · 3 years

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WELL @diningwiththeasquiths tripped and fell headfirst into my incredibly vague Kylux parallels trap-post so now I do see fit to inflict some literary analysis on the Kylux Tumblr community, a whole five years late. I’m not joking when I say this is Literary Analysis--it’s about 1000 words of solid conjecture, so buckle up.

I was rereading the The Force Awakens novelization (written by my nemesis Alan Dean Foster, 2015) after skimming through the novelizations of all three sequel trilogy movies (I own and have read the previous trilogies novelizations, sadly) with my Kylux Blinders™ on, as one does when they have brain rot, and stumbled upon an interesting little passage.

[Transcript, with bold for emphasis: “Turning to run in the other direction, she caught herself just in time as a shuttle touched down nearby. Without the slightest hesitation, the cloaked figure of Kylo Ren emerged and strode forward to join the battle. A stunned Rey could only track him with her eyes. She had seen this man before, in a daydream. In a nightmare.”]

Now I, with the aforementioned Kylux Blinders™ still very much in play, was immediately reminded of what else but the infamous ‘beautiful’ scene from the The Rise of Skywalker novelization (written by my best friend Rae Carson, 2020).

[Transcript, with bold for emphasis: “Hux refused to gratify that with a response, because true beauty came from discipline, from order. So it was almost against his will that he found himself mesmerized as Ren met a barbarian’s charge head-on, cloak flowing, mist swirling around him. The glow of his lightsaber occasionally snagged on his cheek scar, making it appear as though a crack of glowing lava slashed his face. It was like something out of a dream, or maybe a nightmare, as the Supreme Leader plunged his fiery crossguard into his attacker’s abdomen, lifted him from the ground, and sent him toppling onto his back. Kylo Ren did not spare his fallen foe a single glance, simply rushed forward into the woods seeking his next kill.”]

Aside from this being the Kylux equivalent of “In vain have I struggled. It will not do” (sorry, Ms. Austen) and just overall being incredibly, shockingly homoerotic, the parallels are clear. The dream/nightmare parallels could be explained away as an author’s quirk, were it not for the fact that the novelizations were written by two different authors. I’m not saying Carson purposefully echoed Foster’s words, but it’s without a doubt a compelling similarity.

Both of these scenes encapsulate and bookend Kylo Ren’s character in an astonishing way, in that both of them view Ren through his two literary foils’ views (granted, I personally think Ren can be foiled by pretty much all of the Resistance Trio, but for the sake of this argument we are, by necessity, focusing on Rey and Hux).

The similarities are there; that is, both quotes are from Ren’s literary foils, both of them refer to him as both a dreamlike and nightmarish figure, and both of them see him in his element on the battlefield wreaking havoc. The differences, however, perfectly display the differences between these two different character dynamics.

In the TFA excerpt from Rey’s point of view, she sees him as something monstrous, not entirely from this reality. She alludes to him mainly in terms of the Force vision she had grasping Luke’s saber, something nightmarish, to be terrified of. She can see the humanity in him, but right now that serves only to make his actions that much more monstrous.

This is the root of their dynamic--the centering around taming the beast, the narrative that one may find redemption at the hand of the other, that that redemption is the responsibility of the other if they truly care enough. Their dynamic is that of a monster becoming human through the work of another, and here Ren’s beauty comes from the act of becoming human rather than a nightmare.

Which is fine! Not yucking anyone’s yums! But I, personally, am tired of redemption arcs and do blame JKR, the rise of purity culture, and the quest for more and more sanitized, palatable media and simply do not think a murdering fascist being redeemed through a girl’s emotional work and love is is very sexy or poggers at all.

Let’s turn to the TROS excerpt from Hux’s point of view.

Like the excerpt from Rey’s point of view, Hux sees Ren in the middle of the battlefield, doing what he is best at and mowing down enemies like a loose cannon. If anything, it’s more terrifying than what Rey catches a glimpse of, i.e. Ren at the beginning of the battle, striding forward to engage. This is a man completely divested of humanity, cutting down people with no regard for who they are or were. And crucially--crucially--this is the one time where Hux, despite himself, in true romance novel fashion, finds him beautiful.

The Kylux dynamic is not one that seeks redemption. It is not one that seeks to make itself palatable to a widespread audience--in fact, the sheer nature of it is abhorrent to most well-adjusted people. The Kylux dynamic is that of two people who do what they can to shed as much of their humanity as possible for utter monstrousness. Hux finds Ren beautiful at his most monstrous, not in spite of it. Kylux is, at its core, a mutual violent tenderness for that which makes the two of them terrible, awful people--it says, “Yes, I have seen the worst parts of you, and they are ugly and terrible and cruel, but I am like that too and yet I love you.” They are foils, opposites, in every single way but their mutual striving to lose all humanity. They are awful in a very similar way and that is what drives their pull towards each other. The ugliest parts of each other are what orchestrate their mutual respect.

How do two monsters love each other? Irredeemably, violently, tenderly, in a mockery of love, but I daresay it is love nonetheless.

This got away from me. I meant to just draw some parallels, but it ended up being a very loose draft of my own personal Kylux manifesto. Either way, to conclude, the clear parallels between the Rey/Kylo-centric excerpt from The Force Awakens and the Hux/Kylo-centric excerpt from The Rise of Skywalker paint an admirably clear image of the two interpretations a viewer could take of Kylo Ren’s character as a whole, as well as explain crucial parts of the dynamics between Kylo Ren and two of his character foils.

The difference between a monster becoming human for love, and two monsters finding their own idea of tenderness, I leave to the reader’s discretion.

#kylux #star wars #huxposting #flickerthoughts #man idek when mr. b taught us abt literary foils using the two homoerotic friend-rivals from david copperfield that was all foreshadowing #im taking the high i got from high school english class and running with it #go nuts gang this is going to get like 3 notes tops but fuck i havent' written analysis in like 2 years feels good feels organic #i wrote this while near-looping 'danse macabre' and ren's theme so uh. yeah.#should i tag this as anti-reylo? idk you guys let me know #i'm not going to explain why rey and ren and hux and ren are foils but also i will do that in a separate post if asked lmao #this is not coping!!! this is not coping #flicker wrote this #flicker's meta

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