There’s one part of the TFA movie that makes me cringe every time–when Ren throws Rey into a tree in the forest on Starkiller Base. A branch cracks sharply on impact, and every time I imagine it’s her spine. It horrifies me–probably supposed to. We get that weird connection between them, all those sexual tension vibes, then bam, he throws her like a ragdoll as if he doesn’t care if he hurts her as long as he can take her back to Snoke. It doesn’t make sense to me.
It makes even less sense when I read the novel, which depicts Ren being more gentle and sensitive with her than in the movie–yet he still throws her into a tree.
“The three stood staring at one another: Finn and Rey, Kylo Ren some ten meters away. As Ren reached for his lightsaber, Rey pulled her blaster, stepped forward, and took aim.
Before she could fire, Ren raised a hand, halting her. She strained against him, her anger giving her strength. But she couldn’t fire. He was struggling also, against her newly discovered ability, as well as the wound inflicted by Chewbacca’s bowcaster. Gritting his teeth, he flung his arm sideways in a single, powerful gesture—and the blaster went flying out of her hand. Inhaling deeply, he gestured again, and this time it was Rey who went flying, to smash into a tree nearby and slide to the ground, dazed and hurt.”
To the casual viewer, it probably seems pretty straightforward: They’re enemies. He disarms her and disables her, obviously with intention to interact with her in the future–aka recapture her–or he’d have just killed her. (*wave* Crack. *broken neck*) It’s simply a demonstration of his ruthlessness.
My little Reylo heart, though, would prefer to think that he disarmed her, then took that deep breath to make sure he had a solid grip on his strength so that when he sent her flying into the tree, it was only hard enough to stun her–getting her out of the way so he could dispatch with the ex-trooper.
Then, when Finn ignores Ren to fuss over Rey–a really stupid move any way you look at it–maybe Ren hollers at Finn in order to prompt his attack and get it over with. Because that’s another moment that didn’t jibe for me from the very first time I watched TFA–when Ren passionately screams, “Traitor!” Sure, when Ren learned Finn had helped the droid escape, he was annoyed because he’d sensed the trooper’s hesitation on Jakku and did nothing about it, thus hindering his own agenda. But I can’t imagine he gave enough shits to work up that kind of passion over a lowly stormtrooper’s betrayal.
Just some of those aggressively ambiguous moments in both the novel and the movie that I’m always complaining about.
Originally posted by Anita on the Reylo Epiphany page:
About the fight between Finn and Rey, and Ben in the snowy forest (and I am indebted to another very perceptive blogger for these insights) – Ben’s previous and only experience with Rey is that she shoots first and then asks questions (maybe). Ben does not engage when he finds Rey and Finn in the forest. Rey reaches for her blaster, and Ben, trained fighter that he is, knows he has to stop her because she -is- going to shoot first. But Ben does not want to fight because ‘he is not done yet’. What he does is harsh, I agree with that. Then again, so is her slashing up his face. The other thing with Finn – I’d like to point out again that Ben does not engage. Finn does (at first I didn’t believe it, I had to rewatch 🙂 ). Rewinding a bit, through the whole scene where Ben kills Han, there is no anger in his face. Just sorrow and intense pain. The only moment where he is angry is when he looks up after Han has fallen and sees Finn with Rey. I’d like to suggest that he didn’t care about Finn – he cares about seeing him with Rey. Just my two cents. One thing I perpetually wonder about is, why he keeps hitting his own wound?
My reply to Anita’s original comment:
You’re totally right about Ben anticipating Rey’s impulsiveness. I point that out several times in my fics, but it didn’t occur to me when I was thinking about this. Same in regards to her slashing him–it’s just as harsh as throwing her into a tree. I still want to think he pulled his punch there, though. And I also still think Ben rather egged Finn into making the first move. Actually, in the book Ben does engage Finn. He sees the lightsaber and kind of loses it and goes after him. As for Ben looking up, seeing Finn and Rey, and getting angry, that could be because of several different things. lol It’s kind of like Ben had a really bad day, saw those two at the height of it, and decided to more or less take it all out on them, at least imo. I’ve read posts saying he pounds on his bowcaster wound because he’s so close to the light he needs the pain to keep him dark. It could also be that he was using the pain to spike his adrenaline or strengthen his power–there’s a history of dark lords utilizing their pain to feed their power. Honestly, I think in an effort to explain how he eventually lost to an untrained girl, the movie just wanted to remind the audience that he was fighting with a wound that would have killed anybody else. The only mention of the wound during that fight in the book is the bit I quoted in my post. He doesn’t touch it at all. Isn’t it fascinating how the movie and novel differ?