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**Spoiler Warning**
I was thinking about the force dyad between Rey and Ben Solo/Kylo Ren – specifically the level of physicality of their bond. It isn’t just an emotional/phycological/force powers bond, although it is also those things; their bond/dyad is holistic. So I have 2 separate but related thoughts.
1 - I’m realizing quite a few similarities between Revan and Bastila, and Kylo Ren/Ben and Rey. Now, I know that The Knights of the Old Republic is one of the most beloved things in Star Wars fandom, and that the new trilogy is one of the most hated, and that me bringing the two into comparison could be seen as committing the vilest sort of blasphemously heretical sacrilege, but just hear me out.(If you haven’t played either of the Knights of the Old Republic games, stop what you’re doing right now, download it on the apple app store or on steam, and then play the entire game). Revan and Kylo Ren have similar looks/aesthetics, but the similarities that I'm thinking of are more significant than that. A force bond plays a central role in both the stories of Revan/Bastila, and Reylo. Both involve one turning the other from the dark side to the light side (twice reciprocally in the Revan/Bastila story if Revan went lightside in the game). Bastila uses a double-bladed lightsaber; Rey starts out with a double-sided staff and in the vision of her being the darkside empress she has a double-bladed red saber. Rey and Bastila are both females, obvi. Bastila’s saber was yellow, which was more common in the old republic I think; Rey’s new lightsaber was yellow, which is extremely uncommon in the modern era (thought it was used by temple guardians, which I think is insignificant). The color yellow is between red and green, red being the lightsaber color of the sith, and green being a lightsaber color of the jedi. In my interpretation (I’m not sure if this is intended by the story writers or not) a yellow lightsaber is a color of transition between lightside and darkside. Bastila was prone to pride and arrogance because of her battle-meditation power, and so was then later seduced by Malak and fell to the darkside. Bastila is then redeemed to the lightside by Revan (again, only if Revan went lightside). Bastila is a character of LS/DS transition, and her yellow saber symbolizes it. Rey creates her own yellow lightsaber at the end of Rise of Skywalker, symbolizing her force dyad partner's transition from the darkside to the lightside, which mirrors Bastila’s transition. This segues into my much longer thought number 2.
2 – Rey and Ben’s bond has so many deep and meaningful implications for the story of the Skywalkers and Palpatines. Kylo Ren is killed when Rey stabs him during their fight in the Endor ocean. Rey heals him and he is brought back to life as Ben Solo (also with the help of his parents). Ben goes to Exegol to help Rey confront Palpatine. This is where, for lack of a better term, shit hits the fan. We have already learned that Rey Junktradernobody is actually Rey Palpatine and that her and Kylo Ren are a dyad. On Exegol, Rey takes advantage of the force bond that her and Ben are both aware of, and HANDS her lightsaber to Ben so he can fight the Knights of Ren, though him and Rey are in separate locations. This is definitely one of the coolest moments ever in Star Wars, in my opinion. He then proceeds to open up a can of whoop-ass on his old knight buddies (who disappointingly don’t even use lightsabers. They remind me more of LOTR Uruk-hais than any kind of anything having to do with the force or Star Wars. That’s not to say that it’s wrong to bring new kinds of material/concepts into the lore of an existing universe). Then Ben and Rey are both before Palpatine where he explains more about them being a force dyad. It’s a force-bond, like the one between Bastila and Revan (or the one between Kreia and your character in KOTOR II, Meetra-Surik). The dyad between Ben and Rey, however, seems to be of a higher caliber than these other force bonds. It’s not that they can just sense each other’s emotions, or feel the pain of the other, or share dreams. They can make actual physical connection when their physical locations are different - as they did in the hut in The Last Jedi, or the lightsaber handoff in this movie. They aren’t two separate people who are linked; they are actually one entity in the force who have the two different physical manifestations of Ben Solo/Kylo Ren and Rey. These two physical manifestations obviously have their own lives and stories, but the fact remains that they are one entity in the force. Then significantly, there’s that bit about all the sith living in Palpatine, then all the jedi living in Rey, but Palpatine wanting Rey to kill him so she could take the sith throne so that he could live in her, but also somehow Rey and Ben live as one. It’s all very complex, but I think it’s fascinating and I really love it. Ok, so papa Palp sucks out their dyad juice, restores himself, at some point Ben gets thrown off a ledge, Rey mirrors Sidious’s force lightning with the two Skywalker lightsabers, Palps actually truly finally dies this time, then she dies herself. Then Ben hops up out the pit, heals Rey, they kiss, and he dies.
So Ben sacrifices himself for Rey, like Vader does for Luke. Ben Solo ultimately does relive the identity of his grandfather as he always wanted to, though not as Kylo Ren and Vader, but as the redeemed Ben Solo and Anakin Skywalker. And it was through using the lightside healing ability that was introduced in this film that a Skywalker actually had "the power to save the one [he] loved". Ben Solo finally fulfilled the Skywalker story.
Then, Rey goes to good ole Tatooine, where it all started with that whiney teenager always looking to the horizon (well actually I guess chronologically it all started with a pod racing slave boy who literally has no father. There’s something deeply ironic and meaningful there with that fatherless boy ending up being the evil lord of the sith who has that forever-cinema-altering and culturally iconic line “No, I am your father”). Rey buries the lightsabers of her two Skywalker mentors in the sand outside Luke’s old home. Then some old lady comes and asks her who she is.
“I’m Rey”
“Rey who”
“Rey Skywalker”
“Noooooooooooooooo!!!!!” is what I said (or thought. I don’t really remember) in the theater when she said this. I was so angry. “She objectively isn’t a Skywalker. She actually has no biological relation to Shmi!” I was so indignant. Now however, after chewying on the movie a little, I’ve changed my mind. Here it is.
Rey was the granddaughter of Sheev Palpatine, Ben Solo the Grandson of Anakin Skywalker. Because of the Dyad, they were one in the force. Kylo Ren died when Rey stabbed him during their fight, and became Ben Solo once more. He was redeemed to the light side. He transitioned from the light (when he was learning under Luke), to the dark, then back to the light, just like Vader, and just like Bastila Shan. He was saved from the dark side by one he (apparently) loved, like Bastila. He became a jedi once more in the last few hours of his life. Remember all the jedi live in Rey. Plus, Ben and Rey were already one entity in the force because of them being a dyad. When the Skywalker force ghosts appear on Tatooine, Ben isn’t among them like Anakin was with the force ghosts of Yoda, and old Ben Kenobi when they appeared to Luke on the forest moon of Endor. What does this all mean?
In my interpretation Ben Solo has not become one with the force like his mother and uncle because he now lives in Rey. Their identities have become one, in some way, after (and maybe because of/during) their kiss. She is a Skywalker because she is Ben Solo, who is a Skywalker. She hasn’t lost her identity; she has integrated Ben Solo's into her own. She forsook her own bloodline, the Palpatine way – the darkside, perpetual evil, dominance, and manipulation. Ben embraced his bloodline, the Skywalker way – triumphant self-sacrificial redemption. And now Ben Solo and Rey are one. The name of this individual is Rey Skywalker. She is both Rey and Ben. And she made a yellow lightsaber. Yellow is the color of transition between the dark and light sides. Rey rejected the darkness of her lineage and embraced the light. The darkness of Kylo Ren died, and the lightside Ben lived again, and now lives as Rey Skywalker.
I’ve just accidentally written a 1500-word review of The Rise of Skywalker. If you’re still reading, bless you. What do y’all think? Am I wrong? Do you think JJ intended all of this?
(Photo credit: Lucasfilm/Disney - Rey and Ben in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker)
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