I’m just wondering what your reasons are for not liking Kylo and Reylo. I love your Rumbelle fics and I feel like Kylo has a similar character dynamic as Rumple. They’re both problematic and morally grey and I don’t seek to excuse any bad behavior but there flaws make for a compelling story. If Reylo is handled badly and takes away Rey’s agency and autonomy I will be upset but I think it has potential to be something beautiful if done well.
.I know you ship Finn/Rey and I respect that since ships are highly personal but I know a lot of people don’t like Kylo because they feel he is detracting from Finn’s character development and it’s inherently racist. As a woman of color I don’t think that’s the case and Finn is a protagonist in his own right. Not trying to sway your opinion but just curious what your thoughts are.
First off, thank you for reading my Rumbelle fics! Sooo many of my friends are Reylo shippers, so I’m going to try my best and tread lightly here…bear in mind, this is all opinion-based and a lot of it treads into my own personal preferences. And I despite my salty posts, I absolutely understand why people ship them.
So first off–I actually do like Kylo as a character, from a writing perspective. I think he makes a really complicated character and I really enjoy the nuance he brings to all the characters. I think it was masterful to have the progeny of Han and Leia be our main antagonist.
Now as for personal preference–I don’t like Kylo because he murdered Han.
Han Solo is my favorite Star Wars character.
I know that’s really simplistic reasoning, but I had a serious crush on Han Solo when I was a youngling, and the fact that my true love Harrison Ford (I’d still do him, I don’t care how old he is) returned for “The Force Awakens”, put me in such a state of glee that I could hardly stand it. I literally cosplayed as Han for the premier.
And promptly was sent into fits of sobbing after…you know.
Now for the other things–you can definitely parallel Rumple and Kylo (both seduced by darkness), although I would argue that Rumple did not torture Belle to the same extent Kylo did to Rey. Kylo’s torture of Rey is enough to make me very uncomfortable with the ship. It’s hard for me to understand how Reylo could be handled well after we already had a sequence where Kylo…literally tortured Rey. That scene was all about Kylo taking away Rey’s autonomy and agency. The final lightsaber sequence between them is her reclaiming that.
I don’t necessarily buy that Kylo’s existence or narrative arc is racist towards Finn, though I have seen some…uncomfortable posts from Kylo fans that are kind of nasty towards Finn that do go that route. I think that some people, after finally having a main character in Star Wars who is black, might get a little touchy if Kylo overshadows him, but I recognize that Kylo is General Leia’s son, so that is going to be a major part of the films. However, I’m pretty confident that the main trio (following in the footsteps of Luke, Han, and Leia) is Finn, Rey, and Poe. I also think FinnRey is set up better, I love how both characters bring out the best in each other, (at best, Reylo would still be really toxic) and c’mon guys, I get serious Swanfire vibes from them, did you really not expect me to go fucking hard for FinnRey?
This is all narrative stuff, this doesn’t even get into my issues about the shipping wars that have gone on in the fandom that leave a super bad taste in my mouth…but that’s another post.
