OMG I JUST HAD AN EPIPHANY
I’m sure there are people who have obsessed over this years longer than me and caught this a million years ago and it’s probably been all over the internet, but I haven’t come across it yet and I just put two and two together in my head.
In the TFA novel (credit to Alan Dean Foster and LucasFilm), during Rey’s Force vision on Takodana:
Then behind her, another voice.
That voice.
“Stay here. I’ll come back for you.”
She whirled, glazed eyes desperately scanning the dark gaps between the slender trees, trying to penetrate the darkness.
“Where are you?” She started running toward the voice.
“I’ll come back, sweetheart. I promise.”
“I’m right here! Right here! Where are you?”
I’ve heard people speculate that this voice is Ben’s, but I didn’t quite believe it. It seemed like a rather bizarre thing for him to say. It didn’t suit how I perceive his character. I thought maybe it was something he’ll say to her in the future, but what on earth will be going on that will prompt these lines? Where is he going that she can’t follow? Where would he go that he doesn’t want her with him? It really bothered me. I feared he would convince her to stay behind while he went and did something heroic and sacrificial, and it was breaking my heart.
BUT NOW I GET IT.
He isn’t–or so I speculate–physically leaving her at all. It’s figurative. Duh. It means exactly what Maz says to her later:
“Listen to me.” … “I know this means something. Something very special…” … Her voice was gentle now, not at all the hard, sardonic tone she had employed up until this moment. “Whatever you’ve been waiting for—whomever—I can see it in your eyes, you’ve known it all along…they’re not coming back. But there’s someone who still could. With your help.” … “That lightsaber was Luke’s. And his father’s before him. It reached out to you. The belonging you seek is not behind you. It is ahead. I am no Jedi, but I know the Force. It moves through and surrounds every living thing. Close your eyes. Feel it. The light. It’s always been there. It will guide you. The saber. Take it.”
How do we know the subject here is Ben? Because the lightsaber didn’t reach out to Rey because she’s a Skywalker (by blood). It didn’t reach out to her because she’s a Kenobi. It didn’t reach out to her simply because she’s Force sensitive, or that she’s destined to be a Jedi. It reached out to her because it belongs with Ben, and they would find each other–within the hour, as it happens–and they would forge a special bond that would change everything.
“I’ll come back for you.”
For you.
What she hears during her vision might be words he’ll never utter in real life (real movie life), which I would be okay with, because I haven’t yet seen a version of Ben that I can hear saying “sweetheart.” I mean, look at the bullshit he spewed when he asked her to join him. He’s got a long way to go to get to calling her sweetheart.
I think it’s the Force giving her signs. It is a Force vision, after all. In Ben’s voice–a voice that’s subconsciously familiar to her, as she’s heard it in her dreams–the Force is telling her to stay there (away from the dark side) (or perhaps literally to stay there on Takodana and not leave until they meet), because for love of her, Ben will leave the dark and join her in a better situation. Not necessarily on the light side, because the Force is trying to find a happy medium.
Stupid ambiguity. As I wrote on my Star Wars Fanfiction page, the TFA novel is the most aggressively ambiguous book I have ever read.
I’m not sure if this revelation suits the translation I wrote. I’ll have to think on it.
…You know what? Upon further contemplation of the lightsaber’s purpose, I think the above epiphany does suit my fanfic.
“That lightsaber was Luke’s. And his father’s before him. It reached out to you. The belonging you seek is not behind you. It is ahead. I am no Jedi, but I know the Force. It moves through and surrounds every living thing. Close your eyes. Feel it. The light. It’s always been there. It will guide you. The saber. Take it.”
AKA the Force is like: oh hey Rey. here, take this very special lightsaber to use as a promise ring until Ben gets his head out of his ass and the two of you can join properly.
Then in Snoke’s throne room after she’s rejected Ben’s proposal, Rey wants the lightsaber back, because she–well, obviously she wants a badass weapon–but she also wants it with her while she and Ben are on opposite sides. She wants that promise of something better than this turmoil they’re going through.
Ben wants it with him, though, because he doesn’t want to fight her anymore. He got it back for her to face the Praetorian Guard, because he knew they would be partners in that fight, have each other’s six. But after that, she refuses to join him, so goddamn it, he’s taking her weapon. He won’t see her use it against him, not after she’d used it to protect him. Or maybe just out of spite.
And as they’re both pulling on it–
the Force: *face palm* It belongs to both of you because you belong together! Now knock it off. *pushes them apart*
They continue to fight over it.
the Force: You know what? Forget the lightsaber. It was only ever a symbol, anyway. *splits the saber in half bc they’re too obtuse to pick up what the Force is laying down* See?! Now it’s two halves of a whole. JUST LIKE YOU. If you’re not gonna get along and share–Rey, go make your own; Ben, go to your room until you don’t want to commit genocide anymore. Then she’ll have her lightsaber, and you’ll have your Rey. And I’ll have my balance. Voila.
the Force, mumbling to itself: I knew I shouldn’t have used the saber. Not after the younglings. Bad karma.
