Dong Wook. It was so nice working with you.I hope we can work in another drama again. I miss you.
- Mr Goblin, Gong Yoo hyung. We had beautiful days. I wasn’t lonely, thanks to you. If we could work together again. I think we can have more fun.
I’m not a widely read fanfiction reader, I find the ones I like and stick with them, so here is a variety of some of my oft-repeated favorites. And some new ones I’ve discovered lately!
You’re Still Here by @catefrankie
This is an in-progress canon-compliant delena fic set right after Miss Mystic Falls about how Damon and Elena deal with Stefan spiraling back into “bad” vampire mode.
It’s ???!???!?? so, so, so, so, so good!!! If you loved the show, it is absolutely true to the best that tvd can be, and if you didn’t love the show or even know it, it’s STILL so good. The prose is beautiful, the characterization is smart, it’s funny and full of tension, warmth, and understanding. It tackles big questions of morality and romance through the tiny moments that make fanfiction so great.
nor are we forgiven (which brings us back) by @thelonelybrilliance
It would not be a fic rec list written by me if I did not include this absolutely brilliant piece of writing by Emma! This is a completed in-universe reylo AU which explores Dark!Rey and Light!Ben and Ben and Rey as we have them in the actual trilogy in the most incredible way. This is a spoiler, but important I think: this is angst with a happy ending.
I come back to this fic again and again because 1) it is stunningly beautiful and 2) it explores and unites the story canon with a fascinating AU story in a way that is so ambitious but which WORKS, making the original better and deeper in its light and 3) is one of the best meditations I’ve ever read on how Ben and Rey’s canon timelines and choices have shaped them in a way I wouldn’t exchange for the world EVEN WHILE 4) Dark!Rey and Light!Ben is a SHIP LEMME TELL YOU. 5) there are some reylo moments in here that I think about just AS MUCH AS ACTUAL CANON REYLO MOMENTS IT’S THAT GOOD OMG 6) did you want this trilogy to have a happy ending? this is the fic for you. it’s so perfectly done, it transcends fanfiction I think. It IS real to me. Please read.
Janus by @englishable
Speaking of transcending fanfiction. And also of fics I recommend over and over but which I will not stop doing because they ARE SO GOOD, this is a completed modern day reylo AU in which Rey moves into the apartment next to Ben’s and they strike up a friendship and then obviously fall in love at the same time.
I come back to this fic twice a year. I don’t like to do it more than that because I like to save it. It’s so good. Oh my word it’s so good. It’s ?????? it’s publishable. It SHOULD be published. It’s beautiful and it hurts but it also heals. Part of why it’s so effective is just its technical construction– it’s grounded in the most specific details and careful worldbuilding I’ve ever seen, making it such an immersive read. But really it’s that this fic understands Ben and Rey in a deep and deeply true way and makes their story, as it should be, one of love and slow, painful, realistic healing. It’s SO hopeful without ever being fake; the ending is so earned. It makes you cry and then makes you heal and it’s all wrapped up together.
I have to shout this fic out too because I feel like this fic helped me understand and love Rey more than I did before. It’s an AU Rey but she feels so true and so human. And Ben being in love with her is as right as it always is but somehow even especially more right. I’m rambling now and could ramble much longer. But it’s perfect and I love it and I cry. Are you still hurting over the way IX ended? This is also the fic for you.
miles from where you are by mooncactus
This fic is like…….the only kind of fluff I ever want to read. It is SUCH a good time and it is overflowing with such loving, lived-in, warm energy. It’s a completed modern reylo AU as well, an online AU, with an enemies-to-friends-to-lovers thing going on. Rey is a poor college student and Ben is an isolated computer nerd tech guy thing who works from home??? AnYWAY they meet online because they’re arguing about STAR WARS and they’re accidentally connected through the skype function of the beta testing of a new development for this site they both use to chat about star wars in and it’s a glitch and a mistake that they can’t TURN OFF FOR A WHILE. I’m overexplaining but basically it’s a modern and really clever way of reinterpreting the forcebond scenes in TLJ and I love it.
They’re both such stubborn idiots in this fic and Rey, who lives and is best friends with Rose who is dating Finn as it SHOULD be Amen Amen you could really read this fic just for THAT, is especially hilarious and delightful to me. She’s a former foster kid and she has this scrappy, messy, teasing energy that feels so right to me and, as always, is a perfect foil for Ben. I’m most impressed by this fic because it sustains its sweetness and fluff and fun turns and set-ups consistently the whole way through ??? And NAILS the ending which is happy and hilarious and perfect. In conclusion, it is a gift. Please read.
but we keep singin’ even so by @illumynare
This is a reylo fix-it fic of sorts, set post-tros. It is hard to describe without spoiling anything but it is a musing on various endings, a “riff on the musical Hadestown, and the opening of Matthew Stover’s Revenge of the Sith novelization.”
This one HURTS but in a deeply cathartic way. It’s also stunningly beautiful and full of prose and imagery that wound and heal. I also find it incredibly kind and incredibly angry in a way that weaves both together. I am biased because I know and love the author. But man. I love this one. And Yes I have a type. YEs this fic is it.
beyond wrong by @lvatt
Another ben solo/reylo post-tros, AU, fix-it fic. I keep forgetting TO TELL THE AUTHOR HOW MUCH I ENJOYED THIS AHHHHH
(@lvatt I am so sorry; I LOVED reading this.)
It’s second person which I am totally unused to and generally dubious of but I LOVED IT SO MUCH IN HERE. It fits so well. This is beautiful and painful and the characterization, especially Ben and Leia, is wonderful and KILLED ME.
Match by @thelonelybrilliance
This is a cOMPLETED MODERN GENDERSWAPPED AU OF JANE AUSTEN’S EMMA and it is even more amazing than it sounds. She also wrote a modern genderswapped AU of P&P which is based on her and my friendship (Darcy/Bing) and it is SO PERFECT but I don’t think it’s up anymore because she has been querying it as she should.
Anyway Match is PERFECT AND MY WHOLE HEART AND FINISHED AND IMPORTANT. Please read.
Blue Walls by MJosephine10
Finally this is not fanfiction but let me end with a shameless plug for the original romcom Blue Walls that I’m writing right now! If you wanna be part of the small but vocal minority that bullies me into writing and updating this fic please do!!! :)) My #1 goal is to finish it and readers help me do that.
Man I hope whoever rips the blu ray and puts it up to torrent remembers to grab the deleted scenes. And this better be on it, because this one scene shows a heck of a lot more imagination than the rest of TROS put together and sounds like it would be kind of important for Kylo’s development
/\ /\ /\ Just a quick note: this appears to be concept art, so there's no guarantee either of these scenes were ever filmed. "Sith Shelob" and Vader's castle are both things that were described in the supposed Trevorrow script. The existence of the art does not necessarily indicate that script was real (unless it could be demonstrated that the erstwhile script predated this artwork, which would be interesting).
Yeah that top one is an actual scene from the movie. Plus someone came into my inbox about a week or so before the movie was released and said the Oracle pic was leaked onto reddit but deleted.
This scene was 🔥Iconic. And after this those fools who made TROS decided not to have Rey & Ben fight Paps together?!!!! 🙄 They did have a budding romance. They were a force dyad, more powerful than anything seen in thousands of years and they just threw it all away 😡 #reylo # Ben Solo
THEY ARE HEARING US. This right here is why we must stay strong and fight for Ben Solo.
Despite the much-anticipated kiss, the ending of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker angered many Reylo fans. Here's why.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker had raised the hopes of Reylos, fans who longed for Rey and Kylo Ren to end up together in the end, healing the wound inflicted on the galaxy two generations earlier by Emperor Palpatine and Anakin Skywalker. The marketing certainly hinted at such and, at least for less-invested viewers, the film delivered on its promise of romance: Reylo (and Bendemption) did occur, and Rey and the redeemed Ben Solo shared a passionate kiss, which is why it may be so perplexing for the general audience that Reylos hated the ending. Two weeks after the release, they're still mourning on social media, and demanding for Disney to #RealeaseTheJJCut, a reference to an edit that would have delivered the conclusion they wanted, and purportedly what director J.J. Abrams intended. So, what happened, exactly?
While romance is certainly not a new concept to Star Wars, it was never depicted from the perspective of a woman. However, The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi made moves to remedy that: The camera stays with Rey when she interacts with Kylo; the lighting, music and the chemistry between the actors drew in many women. The trope being trapped was "enemies to lovers," a classic of romance literature. In The Force Awakens, Kylo is infatuated with a "lowly scavenger," despite himself and his training. In The Last Jedi, the two characters establish a connection that goes deeper than their pasts, ripe with wedding imagery from around the world, before separating again.
The comparisons with the doomed romance of Anakin and Padmé popped up. If the tragic lovers of the prequel trilogy married in the second movie and died in the third, surely the sequel would turn it around, allowing the last descendant of Anakin Skywalker to fix what he had broken and to triumph where he had failed.
It's easy for a certain segment of the audience to dismiss the power of romance, but it remains most lucrative literary genre in the world. Romance writers master the art of the promise and the delivery, which is a happy ending for the main couple. There are tragic romantic novels in which one or both of the lovers die, but that's not what Disney was promising with Episode IX. From that perspective, The Rise of Skywalker punishes the male lead by killing him the moment he chooses to save the love of his life. Abrams and his co-writer Chris Terrio were going for a parallel with Return of the Jedi, but that movie was never promoted as having romance at its core, and Darth Vader didn't have his entire life in front of him.
The Rise of Skywalker then goes out of its way to show how little Rey really cared for Ben, to the point where, after watching the final scenes, it's difficult to assess what impact he had in the plot. The film also does that to[Finn] and Rose, but in the case of Ben Solo it's particularly egregious because he's the last of the Skywalker bloodline. If they were going for Return of the Jedi parallels, they could have included either a funeral or a Force ghost, but the audience is denied that, which is a strange and cruel narrative choice.
Even worse, the ending broke the promise made in the promotional material. Yes, there was a kiss, but it's swiftly punished: The heroine ends up alone in a barren planet; the Byronic hero is never mentioned again. The other side of fandom might argue that Star Wars should have never catered to romance, but they would be the first to complain if a film advertised like Fast & Furious turned out to be a family comedy; false advertising elicits the same kinds of reactions in everyone.
Ben Solo's death, isolated from the romance, is also problematic because he was coded as a conflicted, groomed, abused, abandoned and brainwashed child soldier fighting to break from his programming. The ancillary material supports this, and in Marvel's The Rise of Kylo Ren, it's shown he never attempted to kill Luke Skywalker, he didn't burn the Jedi temple, and he didn't attack his fellow students. It was a set-up designed to turn his family against him and place him within the First Order. Han, Leia and Rey work for two entire movies to try and bring him back. By killing every single character that even attempts to turn around, the film confirms their worst fear -- that the only way out is death.
There'ss another horrifying message lurking in The Rise of Skywalker, however, if you are coming to the film from this perspective: that your family will disown you and forget you the moment you misbehave, replacing you with a "good child." That's exactly what happens to Kylo Ren; despite his efforts to come back as Ben Solo, neither Luke nor Leia nor Anakin help him. Ben has to imagine a conversation with his father to move forward, and in the end, his mother and his uncle replace him with Rey, who becomes their "found child" and assumes the Skywalker name.
But Kylo was filling a different role too -- the monster boyfriend, whose most famous example is Beauty and the Beast. While the original purpose of tales like Beauty and the Beast was to prepare girls for marriages in which they would be under the authority of their (potentially monstrous) husband, the tale evolved, and the monster became a focus for those that society had misunderstood or repressed. It's the grown-up version of little children, who feel powerless most of the time, preferring the Hulk over any other superhero, only with romance, darkness and danger thrown in; it's a way to explore a problematic aspect of reality through fiction. Unfortunately, instead of allowing fiction to play its role for women, the monster boyfriend trope is incredibly policed ("it's toxic!"), a criticism that doesn't extend to monster girlfriends (see Mara Jade's murderous origins and her eventual marriage to Luke Skywalker in Legends).
Many women in Star Wars fandom identified with Kylo Ren for those reasons, and the more the character was attacked on social media ("he killed his father!" "he's ugly, unworthy of being a hero!"), and the more stories about what really happened to him were published, the more affection he drew.
And while we are talking about ancillary material, The Rise of Skywalker contradicts almost every single narrative thread about Kylo published to date, which were hinting at redemption as far back as 2017. Most Reylos engaged with that material wholeheartedly. Despite the amazing talent involved in its creation, those fans view the ending of Episode IX as a slap in the face, and many women feel like they have wasted their time buying into a franchise that ultimately never cared about fulfilling its own promises about happy endings, telling a complete story, or even offering hope and compassion to the characters that needed it the most.
However, all of that might have been better received had the film been generous with the heroine, the first woman to be the primary protagonist in the Skywalker Saga. For two and a half movies, it even looked to be a story in the fairy-tale tradition, with a poor orphan discovering her inner power, defeating an unspeakable evil, forging friendships and, ultimately, finding the love of her life and becoming the leader of her people.
Instead, The Rise of Skywalker leaves Rey effectively where she started, on desert planet, taking with her someone else's droid and someone else's name. She doesn't grow, and she doesn't even confront or integrate her inner darkness. Rey, who had been wonderfully feral up to that point, becomes a creepy Stepford smiler.
That, in a nutshell, is why Reylos are angry, despite getting their space kiss. For many, The Rise of Skywalker felt like a bad punchline after a long con from Disney, and Star Wars has the bitter taste of a franchise that accidentally tapped into women's interests but had little interest in them as intelligent viewers engaging with the material.
Edith Sánchez @HtidEA made an edit of Luke’s arc at the end of Return of the Jedi, to match Rey’s emotional arc in TROS, it’s pretty jarring, take a look.
Rey didn’t need to be a Palpatine to be strong. She doesn’t need to wear the Skywalker name like a mask. She could have truly been Rey from nowhere, with no last name. Who struggles with her inner darkness not because it’s a clue, but because she’s a human. It would have made her story better. It would have made Star Wars better. Instead, the galaxy far away and the Jedi order is limited, elitist, and destined to fail again.
— How THE RISE OF SKYWALKER Ruins Rey’s Story, Lindsey Romain for Nerdist
