Years Later, I Figured Out It Wasn’t Reylo I Hated, It Was The Whole Canon Of The Third Star Wars Installment,

years later, I figured out it wasn’t Reylo I hated, it was the whole canon of the third star wars installment, lol. Or I should say the characterization, because what was really promising in TFA turned into gibberish by the time TLJ came around. Maybe people had actually good headcanons for Reylo, I don’t know because I’m not invested in that ship, but if you go off the actual characterizations and make it somewhat canon compliant: yeah it’s abusive, unrealistic and just plain weird, there’s no way around it.

I loved The Force Awakens, but mostly for it’s ‘fresh’ feeling (new characters, new take on the originals, interesting parallels, gorgeous cinematography) and the potential of it. I loved Rey & her independence, I loved Finn who went against his conditioning as a stormtrooper after he saw his friend die; I was intrigued by the idea that he could be a Jedi. I liked Poe’s and Finn’s friendship (fuck disney for not letting them be the space gays they deserved to be). There’s so much more though. 

I actually liked a lot of the ideology & spirituality themes in TLJ (bringing a bit more grey area into the jedi/sith dichotomy, marxist ideology even lmao. Also salty, broken Luke Skywalker was a genius progression imo) but it opened up too many new chapters that couldn’t possibly be resolved in the third part. Also it felt like a weirdly sexualized movie, just felt really uncomfortable to me (but that’s a bone I have to pick with all of Ryan Johnson’s movies I’ve seen so far, too traditionally heteronormative for me). That’s where the Reylo picked up in canon, and how it was portrayed in the movie was problematic and personally, I hated it. Whatever people did on ao3 with it, idc, but it was neither a good setup for a romance in a kid/teen movie nor for a possible redemption (sorry but my measure for a good redemption arc will always be Zuko, and kylo ren did not cut it). It was rushed and poorly made, people defending the writing pissed me off. The third installation of the trilogy was just a scramble to save what’s left, but they failed to the point that I couldn’t even remember the plot or characterization (what characterization??) without reading wiki articles about it. So whatever Disney could conceal with an intriguing opening of the trilogy was destroyed when they showed their true colors with the following two movies. No consistency and a backwards approach to characterization. 

Oh and the other thing that was a completely wasted opportunity: a rebellion from within, stormtroopers being freed from their conditioning and therefore dismantling the first order. Wasn’t that the whole point, unshackling an army of abducted children? They hung a gun in TFA but didn’t fire it. I am so fucking mad about that.