@byssiw asked me to choose so of course this is what I did.
002 | reylo:
When I started shipping them: 2 days after The Force Awakens.
My thoughts: They are Iconic and The Best Ship. They are a hundred different tropes and archetypes and stories and fairytales and myths rolled into one couple but they are also wholly themselves. I love them.
What makes me happy about them: I really love that this is an epic love story that is playing out LIVE (it’s also what kills me but still) and I love watching and gauging people’s reactions to them especially the kind of shipping that is begrudging or slow-burn. They have such a powerful, intoxicating, complicated dynamic and I love watching people get SUCKED INTO THE BLACK HOLE OF SHIPPING THEM IN SPITE OF THEMSELVES because, honestly, that’s what happened to me. I didn’t see it right at the very beginning (though admittedly early on). And even then it took me a while to admit or understood how deep the rightness of their dynamic went. like i keep joking about this, but I thought I was just making a sideblog about them so I could shout “KYLO IS IN LOVE WITH REY SHUT UP THEY’RE PROBABLY NOT COUSINS” way back in 2016 just for the hell of it and also to not have people judge me on my main, but they have really taken over my life? And I just keep finding more and more layers to them and more to talk about and wonder over and I’m so continually delighted at how viscerally right they are together and what a rich, rewarding love story this will be if IX plays out how i hope it will. And it’s the contrast of that that I love. It’s such a “started from the bottom now we’re here” ship for me at least. I can’t speak for everyone but truly, at the beginning, I was just like “please don’t hate me because this might be a thing” and “all i want is for them to look at each other without hatred for .2 seconds” and now It’s completely canon AND iconic and it’s looking like it will eclipse not just all the other star wars couples (again for me personally) but also any other couple in pop culture??? i’M JUST SO AMAZED AND DELIGHTED AND I love them so much.
What makes me sad about them: the negative reaction/judgment around them and the fact that their ending is still up in the air ?? i just. *clutches heart* I’m so confident and sure but I’m also upset and afraid. And that won’t change until the credits roll in IX.
Things done in fanfic that annoys me: I dislike a lot of reylo fic because it often devolves into smut. They have electric chemistry and the attraction is canonically there but also- I really don’t want to read it.
Things I look for in fanfic: so yeah. Not that. Also I like fics that keep the (again canonical) softness of their relationship, the fact that their dynamic is very “worshipful, trembling, golden retrievers falling in love”. (caption credit: @benperorsolo)
My wishlist: okay so MARRIAGE is number one. but also i will literally take anything including but not limited to: ben dying in rey’s arms, ben dying for rey without her knowing, ben dying to save the resistance, ben living but going into exile, rey going with him into exile, both of them being separated and heartbroken about it. As long as IX expands on (or even just doesn’t try to undo) their current dynamic and feelings, I’m open to different endings.
Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: YEAH NOPE. I’m open-minded but I’m not that open-minded. (Also if IX wanted to punish me personally and specifically ruin MY life, she’d end up with Poe.)
My happily ever after for them: Specifically, my happy ending is what @illumynare described here. I’d add my own but it’s *flails dramatically* that!
