REYLO is the #1 ranked ship on Tumblr for 2020— it’s a first for the ship and it’s up six spots from last year! It’s also the 16th most popular tag this year overall in Tumblr’s Year in Review 🎉

dark side reylo

Out beyond right,

out beyond wrong,

there is a place,

I’ll meet you there.

BE WITH ME

ALWAYS

four times rey grabs ben’s thigh, and one time ben grabs hers.

😱😱😱😱 OMG 🙏🙏🙏🙏

Oh my god??

…be with me 💙 with animation

I still straight up lose my shit when I think about this scene too much. It makes me so frustrated to think people have interpreted Kylo’s words as manipulative/abusive/etc when his face is so raw and desperate and sincere like it is here - A look that I never expected he’d be capable of before this film. There is NO malice there, he’s not relishing saying this at all; On the contrary he’s sharing the same pain she feels and that he’s felt in her. He’s voicing what she hasn’t been able to bring herself to say - The dark source of her own inner turmoil, her feelings of misdirection, the questioning of her self-worth if even her parents - her less-than-nothing-parents - found her so meaningless.

But even the way Kylo shakes his head when he says ‘you’re nothing’ - It’s like he’s simultaneously negating the statement as he speaks it. The sentiment is so repulsive and unthinkable to him, that anyone could view Rey in such a way. Then he says ‘But not to me,’ and his whole face changes, taking on that determination and fervency, and you can literally see his eyes changing with his desperation to make her see what bullshit that sentiment was. 

“But not to me” is not a statement that pressures or manipulates. It’s completely devoid of politics and to me does not at all equate to ‘come to the dark side.’ It’s spoken like they’re the only two people in the whole world. Nothing outside of them matters, and there’s not a single other thing on his mind other than the all-consuming need that he feels for her. This was probably the most shocking moment of the entire film to me, because I was NOT a Kylo fan going into it and I didn’t think he’d be capable of emotions this pure. I say ‘pure’ because “but not to me” is - if anything - a statement that reveals HIS OWN weakness more than her own. The balance of vulnerability and resolve when he spoke it betrayed that this was not a moment when he felt in control. Sure, he was trying to make her see that if she joined him, she would never find reason to question her self-worth again… but the way he’s practically TREMBLING when he speaks it belies the fact that he’s probably the more vulnerable of the two of them in this moment. 

As we know from how this scene pans out, Rey is not dependent on Kylo’s belief in her worth. Once she comes to terms with her past, she has plenty of strength through her decisions in the present to know her own path. I think it’s incredibly telling that Kylo’s declaration and offer here was not enough to persuade Rey to abandon her convictions; YET, Kylo says all this directly after abandoning his own loyalties and killing Snoke - Most directly because of his need to protect Rey and keep her with him. It meant everything to him that he believed Rey valued him for him, regardless of his past or his power (the aspects of him that seemed to have guided everyone else’s manipulation of him up to this point). Knowing that in one way or another, he mattered to Rey - that she reached her hand out to him of her own volition, and came to his side that day - that alone inspired his most shocking and admirable display of strength to date when he threw off Snoke’s influence. It took her belief in him for him to find that inner resolution he so painfully lacked.

All of this is basically to say I find it ludicrous that people misread the true balance of power in this scene. He says “But not to me,” and he means it so, so honestly - much more than he could ever say in words. She has kindled inner strength in him he didn’t know he possessed. She has changed everything for him. She is literally the most powerful force he has ever known. 

Of course, the tragic part of this is that he believes he can be for her everything she has become for him. But she’s in a very different place than he is. She’s a much stronger person, still full of hope and faith in both herself and the world around her, and his absolutism isn’t right. Kylo sees their union as a total All Or Nothing, and she immediately knows this wasn’t her vision. She may be nothing or no one, but she still exists outside of his validation. But she will have to wait until the day he can, too.

Brilliant. Their acting sells it 100%. The head shake…

I love this part of our fandom so much.

So many ships I can’t see the ocean any more.