María is a bad bitch queen supreme with a simple dream of reclaiming her land Volturi-style after her human life was tragically cut short by a Texan who had invaded Mexico to create his own vampire Golden Corral. RESPECT HER OR PERISH

I don’t know about you but the past few days have been overwhelming.  I think I’m still processing what has gone down at D23 so I am not yet at the point of writing new canonverse fics.

It’s been fun and interesting to read everyone’s reactions.  There have been some thoughtful theories.  There have even been some funny videos and memes.  But with new content also comes the anxious, the stupid, and the ugly.

First off, nobody should be worried that Dark!Rey means that she will share the same fate as Daenerys in GOT.  After Disney/Lucasfilm has spent years building up Rey as a heroine and role model, there’s no way in hell we’re going to see her setting fire to Batuu and chucking rocks at fleeing citizens.  Some are afraid that Ben/Kylo will have to take Dark!Rey out like Jon Snow did.  The only ending that would be a bigger bummer than killing off Ben is killing off Rey.  GOT is GOT, a story that set out to subvert and nuke fantasy conventions while Star Wars leans toward much more traditional storytelling.  It’s common sense.

But I really hope this is not like that final battle fake out in the last Twilight movie.  You remember, there are Volturi and other vampires coming for the Cullens because they broke all of the rules and it looked like in the trailers it was going to be an awesome vampire fight.  Then it turned out to be some vision and the whole thing was resolved with a little talk with the Voturi?  Yeah, that would be a big letdown.  If we’re going to see this part of Rey, make it mean something.

Maybe Dark!Rey is a vision, an illusion, a dream, or a possible future shown to someone.  Many fans seem to think so.  Or, maybe Rey, like Ben, finds out something about herself that makes her say, “Gee, maybe I’ve been on the wrong team all along.”  Beats me, there are a lot of possibilities.

But I have to say this...I do not like the clone theory.  In fact I absolutely HATE it.  It would completely remove Rey’s darkness from herself as some kind of external entity she has no control over and where is there any character development from that?  It’s a variation of the hacky ‘70s evil twin trope used many a time on t.v., plus it reflects Star Wars fandom’s weird obsession with everybody having a clone or being a clone.  I remember the stupid fan theories that Obi-Wan was a clone prior to the PT.  Ugh.

And what is up with the Dark!Rey truthers?  They’re saying that’s not really her, it’s a different person (do they not know who Keri Russell is playing?) or they CGI’d her face onto someone else just to throw us off.  Are people really this dumb or do they think the fun of a movie is trying as much as possible to really trick and deceive audiences before they see it?

Finally, the haters are going bonkers.  They don’t know what to make of it.  Unfortunately there’s a loud, obnoxious, obsessed internet contingent who seem to enjoy being the dark cloud on a sunny day.  The sad part is I’ve seen people who were really enthusiastic fans some years ago who are now just angry and bitter and take every opportunity to let everyone know they’re angry and bitter.  The ant brigade in particular is trying to harass and annoy Reylo fans again, especially on Twitter.