One thing that stood out to me in Force Awakens is the fact that Rey is not mocked for being a girl, even by the villains.
Usually any time you have a female protagonist there is inevitably a moment when someone (usually the villain, sometimes an ally) remarks how astonishing it is that the protagonist could do the things she does despite the fact that she’s a girl.
But TFA doesn’t do that. When Kylo Ren finally meets Rey on Takodana, he says, “So you’re the girl I’ve heard so much about.” He doesn’t say, “how could a mere girl have caused so much trouble,” or “imagine my surprise when they said a girl had the droid,” or anything else to express surprise at someone of her gender ending up in her position. It’s just “so you’re her.”
Likewise, when Kylo runs to Snoke to report how Rey turned the tables on his interrogation, Snoke’s outburst is at the fact that a mere scavenger resisted Kylo, not that a girl did.
Obviously I’m not pointing this out in defense of Kylo and Snoke, but as kudos to the writers for not going the lazy route and resorting to the kind of gender-based insults we’re far too used to hearing in scenes like those. It’s so profoundly refreshing.
Ok I love all the Kylo Ren jokes (human trashbag, complete monster, Emo Teen) but like
According to the novel Ben was ten years old when he left home to train with Luke, and fifteen when he destroyed Luke’s Jedi temple
So that means Snoke tempting him to the Dark Side would have involved a lot less offering untold cosmic power; and a lot more child-grooming, and subsequently absconding with a preteen boy
Idk about you but that skeeves me out
Oh noooooo
for bonus:
He had trouble believing what he was hearing. “So Snoke was watching our son.”
“Always,” she told him. “From the shadows, in the beginning, even before I realized what was happening, he was manipulating everything, pulling our son toward the dark side.”
We don’t know the details for sure, but if the movies go with this, Snoke was definitely grooming Ben from … infancy, pretty much.
There’s also that scene where Snoke tells Ben that he’s trained other people, but nobody like Ben because he’s special. D: D: D:
On a completely serious note, it actually 100% explains the tantrums. When you’re groomed from a really young age (and are hurt at a young age), your maturity in dealing with stressors can be developmentally delayed, and your ability to deal (in general) becomes extremely… fragile. You don’t develop proper coping mechanisms at a critical stage in your development, and even if you’re removed from the stressor your inability cope with them can affect you all throughout your adulthood. A lot of people lash out in anger, because lashing out in anger is what children do. They never really developed past that (mentally), which is kind of why Kylo/Ben acts like he’s 16 when he’s closer to 30. Honestly its pretty tragic.
imagine finn as the stormtrooper messiah, patron saint of rebellion
like i’ve no doubt that there have been defecting stormtroopers before, but those would have been ppl who went mia or were assumed or simply left for dead
not like finn, who freed a resistance prisoner, stole a tie fighter, survived the ensuing crash, daringly escaped first order pursuit to bring crucial intel to the resistance, then was instrumental in the assault on and resulting destruction of the starkiller base, AND FOUGHT KYLO REN IN A LIGHTSABER DUEL AND SURVIVED
finn must be the single most high profile former stormtrooper in the galaxy, and i mean, no matter how hard the first order will try to keep word of him from reaching the ears of their troopers, they will fail
just imagine all these stormtroopers, people with no names, living lives they’ve been taught don’t belong to them, hearing the stories of finn the traitor, the defector, the rebel, the person
imagine all these people hearing about finn, the things he did, the things he chose, and realizing that they don’t need to be what they’ve been taught, they don’t need to be nameless, they don’t need to be choiceless, they don’t need to be less in any way at all
imagine all these people picking their own names, making their plans, making their choices, rebelling, defecting
(imagine it becoming a trend among some to take the name “finn” as a last name, a family name, because without him they might still be nameless)
some of them will be caught, will be reeducated or killed, but instead of the examples they’re supposed to be, they will be seen as martyrs for the cause, heroes of freedom
and imagine when these people find their way to the resistance, because shouldn’t that be the thing to strive for, to be a fighter against the violence that enslaved and oppressed them?
imagine finn finding out that his actions was the catalyst for the liberation of his people, that he changed the lives of hundreds of people who were trapped and afraid just like him
IMAGINE FINN AND HIS DEFECTOR TROOPER BUDDIES ORGANIZING UNDERGROUND RAILROAD TYPE SYSTEMS FOR FREEING PEOPLE STILL ENSLAVED, DOING RAIDS ON TRAINING CAMPS AND FREEING CHILD TROOPERS AND CRIPPLING THE ORDER’S PERSONNEL PIPELINE
