Hey, Tumblr, that ship you’re so angry about and point to as a sign of what happens when immature and vulnerable teenaged girls romanticize violence in males and mistake abuse for romance? Yeah, that one. May I point out that this ship is also a fairy tale. It’s called “Beauty and the Beast,” and it’s the story of how a courageous young woman transforms a horrible monster into a handsome prince – not by embracing or excusing his violence and cruelty, but by steadfastly remaining true to her own kind and caring nature and showing him a better way. And by the time her duty to her loved ones calls her away from his side, he has grown to value her so much that he’s prepared not only to let her go, but even to lay down his own life rather than keep her against her will.
I don’t actually ship Reylo, for the record (Rey/Finn all the way for me); but I don’t think it’s the sign of the shipping apocalypse, or a dire commentary on how susceptible young women are to false and potentially self-destructive ideas of romance. It’s just another variation of a tale as old as time, and there are a million different ways to approach it. Relax. Breathe. Think happy thoughts. And don’t assume you know other people’s motives or what’s going on in their heads (or lives, for that matter) for liking a different ship than you do.
Such a smart post by my friend R.J. Anderson, noted smartie. I do not personally think Rey and Kylo Ren should be together, because I watched Star Wars for John Boyega and I LOVE FINN and Rey is a smart girl, why would she go for anyone but FINN? She never seemed into anyone but Finn. In conclusion, FINN!
However, I was saddened to see people saying how concerned they were by girls’ reactions (wanting these two to be together), how it reminded them of girls liking this stuff in YA media (you know, the media seen as too female-focused). It makes me uncomfortable how much more people scrutinise girls’ reactions to media, starting from back when it was thought ladies should not read novels because it would overexcite them. I don’t see as many people going ‘Boys are going to all drive their cars way too fast because of the Fast and the Furious movies!’
Lots of relationships in media are fraught, between flawed and often highly dramatic people, in highly dramatic situations. And it’s natural and awesome to discuss those relationships and how they might play out (Jane Eyre, Rochester is gonna sell the kids to pirates!). I like generally when people end up being made happier and healthier by their relationships. But no fictional relationship is going to get the Healthy Award Now You Get To Happen In the Text And Also Be Regarded as the Best Relationship By All prize: there is no such prize. And I’ve loved many such relationships. I love Beauty and the Beast. I trust ladies. I trust them to enjoy flawed, highly dramatic media, to wish for any flawed, highly dramatic fictional-character relationship that strikes their fancy, to have their feelings, and to–in the main–drive their feelings cars safe.
SRB is also always so smart and thoughtful.
(I, on another hand, am not.) But if I have anything useful to quickly add, and I don’t know if it is, the idea of redemption or merely change, itself, is not new for Star Wars antagonists. I don’t ship Reylo, but probably inherent in that would have to be those themes. Luke, in the end, refused to fight his father, almost dying (and by extension, forfeiting the wellbeing of the galaxy) just because he believed he saw more in Darth Vader than was apparent. So we should be kind to fans for engaging with stories, for all the reasons above.
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