Don’t ever be afraid to Reylo.

Why everyone getting all up tight about the “he saw no compassion in her eyes” line. Aside from Ben being the kind of person who’s probably used to assuming the worst of what people think about him, in that moment Rey has no reason to look compassionate. He just lost his shit on Crait and put people she cares about in danger. I’m just saying, I’m sure I don’t look very compassionate when I’m pissed at someone. I look like I’m about to step on someone’s throat. But that doesn’t mean I stop caring altogether. And to know that even after all this, she doesn’t hate him? That alone says enough for me. This can be salvaged. I think we’re making this out to be way worse than it actrually is. XD Lots of people tend to overlook all the good shit we get in favor of giving that one less positive moment more attention and it just blows up.  The ship’s hit a few rocks, but it can be fixed. It ain’t sinking. XD

We’ve dealt with worse than this in the past, guys. We can chill.

Also, it’s not like Daisy Ridley plays -compassion- when she closes the door. 

It would be really awkward if the novelization went:

“And then Rey looked at Kylo Ren with compassion. 

Sure, in her opinion, he had chosen to stay with a regime that had only wrought ruin to the galaxy and made him a miserable fuck for all these years, but he was, after all, only a soft boi who did nothing wrong.” 

Also, doesn’t this just mean that Kylo is going to have to work even harder at winning her over?

I don’t mean to sound snobby about this but I don’t understand why we always talk like Kylo’s supposed to be insulted or angered by being called ‘Ben’??

Only 3 people have called him Ben, to his face, in two movies and he never gave them shit for that specifically.

Han called him Ben, but he still answered to it and didn’t say anything about being called so.

Rey calls him Ben and he obviously has no issue with that.

Luke calls him Ben, but the only thing Kylo reacts to is his apology.

Kylo’s never had an issue with being called Ben, even though he’s trying to convince them that ‘Ben’ is dead.

Snoke’s the one who forbade his birth name from being spoken. He received the Kylo Ren moniker to distance and disconnect him from his past… But there’s nothing as far as I’ve seen that tells us he hates the name or is disgusted by it. Snoke’s the one who’s been teaching Kylo to basically burn everything from his past, cut himself off from everything, including his name. 

But he still responds to it, no problem.

And he never lashes out at anyone specifically for calling him that.

It just became so widespread and I don’t get why. Unless I missed something in the novelizations?? XD

Kylo not being bothered by “Ben” was one thing that surprised me about The Last Jedi. Basically, Kylo resenting being called Ben is a symbol of him rejecting his past and the people who are trying to deny the identity he has chosen for himself.

Bear in mind that two of your examples come from a film that’s been out for only two weeks.  Up until then, all we had to go on was his exchange with Han at the end of The Force Awakens.  Granted, Kylo doesn’t specifically complain about being called ‘Ben’ there, but given that he tells Han that ‘your son is dead’ (and then ends up killing Han) it wasn’t an unreasonable assumption that he’d not exactly welcome it. And I’m not sure him reacting to his father’s call constitutes answering to the name.

In The Last Jedi, Rey doesn’t call 'Ben’ to his face until they are in the lift together.  I assumed it was something he might take from her because at this point they have let each other in very deeply.  Also he’s having to keep himself very controlled at that point because they’re about to face Snoke.

As for the exchange with Luke, Kylo doesn’t object to the name, but he does go off on an unhinged rant about how he’s about to destroy everything Luke has built.  I’m not sure it would have made sense for him to object to the name there, when he’s focused on destroying everyone who would have used it.

So I still don’t think it’s unreasonable for writers to assume he’d not welcome the use of the name (except perhaps from Rey) but that he didn’t explode at its use in the way he has done in a thousand fanfics makes me think that fanon trope might shift over the next couple of years.

But see that’s the point I was making though. It doesn’t matter that he lashed out at Luke for this or that or that he told Han ‘your son is gone’ I was specifically talking about the name. He’s never objected to the name, like you said, which was my point. He’s got some deep issues with both Han and Luke but neither of his anger towards them has anything to do with being called ‘ben’ which is what I’m trying to say. I don’t think he really cares about being called that In TFA when Kylo gives Han his whole spiel about “you’re son is gone, he was weak and foolish like his father..” I didn’t buy it for a minute, I think we all had that “sure jan” reaction to that, because he’s so bad at letting go of the past to begin with. So I never once assumed that he had any actual hate toward being called by his name. Which I guess is maybe why I was a bit confused as to where that idea came from. I just didn’t see it that way. I’m not saying that he particularly LIKES hearing his name, if anything I think it might just hurt him to hear it, not throw him into a fit of rage. Or maybe he just doesn’t care. I only brought this up because I saw a lot of people talking about how incredible it is that Kylo didn’t lash out at Rey for using his name and I’m like “…why would he, tho?” As far as we’ve SEEN, without making assumptions, he’s never reacted negatively to the name itself. I just never really understood that particular trope.

I don’t disagree with you, just trying to explain where it comes from, from my PoV. :)

And it basically comes down to how we interpret that scene in the oscillator.  Personally, I felt his 'Your son is dead' speech was him trying to assert what he wanted to be true, as well as setting up his own internal distance because he knew he was going to kill Han.  As far as I recall, when Han shouts 'Ben', Kylo freezes for a moment before turning around.  I don't think it's unreasonable to interpret that as shock (at hearing the name, at hearing his father's voice?), and given that he is trying to assert his chosen identity throughout the film, it's not a great leap to assume that as Kylo Ren he wants to shed that aspect of his past and wouldn't want to be reminded of it.

And enough people interpreted it that way that it became a fanon trope, and the surprise you're seeing is people having to reset their own internal compasses after reading hundreds of fics in which Kylo resents being called Ben.  I too was surprised, but also rather amused that we had been wrong, much like Rey running off to Kylo after four short conversations, two of which were pretty hostile, rather than after 100k words of angst.  Or the idea that Snoke might have initiated the Force Bond.

That said, I still think there is room to interpret it either way, given that Rey is an exception (and Kylo is preoccupied in their scenes), and one could argue that with Luke he is reverting to the master/student dynamic.  But certainly from the latest movie he doesn't have the knee-jerk reaction that many of us had thought he would have.

I'd have been interested to see what would have happened if Rey had called him Ben in one of their earlier conversations, but I think her using his given name was more intended to symbolise her seeing him as a person rather than a monster.

I don’t mean to sound snobby about this but I don’t understand why we always talk like Kylo’s supposed to be insulted or angered by being called ‘Ben’??

Only 3 people have called him Ben, to his face, in two movies and he never gave them shit for that specifically.

Han called him Ben, but he still answered to it and didn’t say anything about being called so.

Rey calls him Ben and he obviously has no issue with that.

Luke calls him Ben, but the only thing Kylo reacts to is his apology.

Kylo’s never had an issue with being called Ben, even though he’s trying to convince them that ‘Ben’ is dead.

Snoke’s the one who forbade his birth name from being spoken. He received the Kylo Ren moniker to distance and disconnect him from his past… But there’s nothing as far as I’ve seen that tells us he hates the name or is disgusted by it. Snoke’s the one who’s been teaching Kylo to basically burn everything from his past, cut himself off from everything, including his name. 

But he still responds to it, no problem.

And he never lashes out at anyone specifically for calling him that.

It just became so widespread and I don’t get why. Unless I missed something in the novelizations?? XD

Kylo not being bothered by "Ben" was one thing that surprised me about The Last Jedi. Basically, Kylo resenting being called Ben is a symbol of him rejecting his past and the people who are trying to deny the identity he has chosen for himself.

Bear in mind that two of your examples come from a film that's been out for only two weeks.  Up until then, all we had to go on was his exchange with Han at the end of The Force Awakens.  Granted, Kylo doesn't specifically complain about being called 'Ben' there, but given that he tells Han that 'your son is dead' (and then ends up killing Han) it wasn't an unreasonable assumption that he'd not exactly welcome it. And I'm not sure him reacting to his father's call constitutes answering to the name.

In The Last Jedi, Rey doesn't call 'Ben' to his face until they are in the lift together.  I assumed it was something he might take from her because at this point they have let each other in very deeply.  Also he's having to keep himself very controlled at that point because they're about to face Snoke.

As for the exchange with Luke, Kylo doesn't object to the name, but he does go off on an unhinged rant about how he's about to destroy everything Luke has built.  I'm not sure it would have made sense for him to object to the name there, when he's focused on destroying everyone who would have used it.

So I still don't think it's unreasonable for writers to assume he'd not welcome the use of the name (except perhaps from Rey) but that he didn't explode at its use in the way he has done in a thousand fanfics makes me think that fanon trope might shift over the next couple of years.

THIS IS AN IMPORTANT ONE! Don’t ignore this in your writing!

Okay but what parts do you think Rey omitted when she told Leia everything that happened between her and Kylo? 

By the way, could someone write me down a summary of what Rey and Leia say exactly? Because both time I was too overwhelmed and that’s the one part of the movie I didn’t catch very well dialogue-wise.

Rey: Luke is gone.  I felt it.  But it wasn’t sadness or pain, it was peace.  And purpose.

Leia: I felt it too.

Rey: How can we build the rebellion from this?

Leia: We have everything we need.

(Loving Leia’s use of I felt it too here!)

Thank you @chthonya 😙

:) Now what I want to know, is what she told Finn...

Okay but what parts do you think Rey omitted when she told Leia everything that happened between her and Kylo? 

By the way, could someone write me down a summary of what Rey and Leia say exactly? Because both time I was too overwhelmed and that’s the one part of the movie I didn’t catch very well dialogue-wise.

Rey: Luke is gone.  I felt it.  But it wasn't sadness or pain, it was peace.  And purpose.

Leia: I felt it too.

Rey: How can we build the rebellion from this?

Leia: We have everything we need.

(Loving Leia’s use of I felt it too here!)

The best thing coming out of tlj is how wrong we were with our perception on Reys reactions to him. Like we legit had 30chapter slow burns where they spend the first 25 with Rey being mad at him.

Instead, it takes homegirl three(3) facetimes to jump on a box and ship herself to him and become his biggest hope. Like what kind of oneshot fanfic???

 4 facetimes… that we know of. Rey was there for days, who knows how often this happened ;) But yes, I was not.. expecting that from her at all. My goodness. “Rey is very forgiving” No fucking shit. Damn, Carrie. Bless your soul.

That was one thing that I found hard to accept on first viewing.  But it’s not just about Kylo here - she feels Luke has left her no other option to save the Resistance.

I’m not sure I’ve seen a fanfic in which Rey goes to Kylo to prevent the annihilation of the Resistance?  (If there is one, please point me.)

Theory: Rey and Kylo saw the same vision, the vision is the truth, they just interpreted it differently. The vision will come true at the end of IX – Reylo side by side, in the grey.

Agree they saw the same vision, but maybe it was of them fighting together in this film, and each of them assumed it meant that the other would join them.

The first issue of the Reylo Short Story Collection is finally out!

Check out all the stories and incredible art created by your friends and fellows by clicking here!

PS: Look at that gorgeous cover art by @kylorenjyn!

I’m looking forward to working my way through these.  Thanks to @these-are-the-first-steps for putting this together, and to @frozenmusings for the gorgeous artwork on my story.