Ok that mirror cave scene. Almost one year later and I'm still stumped. Every time I think its Kylo behind the mirror, all my friends just laugh. Like WHAT DOES THE SCENE MEAN??? (Sorry for yelling lol but I just got attacked on YouTube again for saying its kylo)
Hey Nonnie!
Okay, first of all, hugs. You’re a lot braver than I am lol. The comments section on YT scares me. I’m sorry your friends react like that and I’ve been there. It’s a little bit funny how people get when it comes to SW discussions and while some corners of the fandom are really great about at least entertaining new/conflicting ideas, others are not (and I’ve had the same sort of experience offline, so double hugs).
Anyways, big thanks to SW_Heroine_Journey on the Reylo forums for always being a gem and for the rec! This Reylo Meta was the exact meta I was thinking of but just could not find!
@clairen45 has done some amazing work here, as ever, and this meta has lots of great information to consider:
Of course, the first degree of the analysis is very much about the classical “know thyself”, the quest for identity. She first gets an infinity of replicas of herself, before asking the mirror to “show them” to her, fingers barely touching the surface. Then, two dark figures walk towards her, gasp, fuse, re-gasp, somewhat look like someone that could be Kylo, major gasp, and then turn into her own reflection. Disappointment. For everyone and not just Rey. The story is very much about herself. To come back to previous references, she is like Belle roaming the castle: the mirror is cracked, reflecting many possible identities and lives for her.
And hell breaks loose because the whole story is a flashback she tells Kylo, who becomes her mirror image in the flesh, sitting on the same terracotta stools, holding out the hand, fingers barely touching the surface, her tear mirroring the scar on his face. As itself, the first degree is revealing enough. What she has come to find in the mirror is Kylo himself, whether we see him or not reflected there. Here he is, minutes later, and the scene speaks for itself. We also get another added power associated with the mirror, when they both get visions through the encounter, apparently of the past for him, and of the future for her.
This final paragraph, in particular, just hammers things home in a really succinct way:
Because she failed to find the appropriate reflection in the mirror, she goes and seeks the one that she needs.We DON’T NEED to get Ben/Kylo in the scene. We shouldn’t get Kylo in the scene because it is much better that she goes identifying him as the true object of her need and desire on her own, outside of the mirror.
This is a great subversion of the mirror trope in the heroine’s journey. It is not in the mirror that she really learns to know herself, what she needs, what she wants or who she is meant to be with. It is not in a mirror that she gets visions of her fate, her future, or any access to power. She gets ALL THAT when she touches fingers with Kylo: that’s her real mirror scene. And it’s one that she chooses, initiates, provokes: she is the one looking for him after the cave scene (from the novelization), she is the one talking and framing the discussion, she is the one initiating the touch, and dragging him inside HER frame, and not the other way around.
Anyway, hugs to you, Nonnie! The whole meta is brilliant and I highly recommend it, also, screw the haters <3
Cheers!
