Kylo Vs. Rey

In the previous review, I discussed the death of Han Solo. Now, it’s time to talk about the next ridiculous event in this film, the fight between Rey and Kylo Ren.

This is another difficult situation because there are two issues at play here. The first issue: Is the fight good? The second issue: Is the fight fair? I articulated the difference between these two concepts in the previous reviews, particularly when going over the infamous “I bypassed the compressor” scene.

First, is it good? To be blunt, no. Mark Hamill pointed out one of the reasons why in an interview where he recounts reading the script and expecting that his character, Luke Skywalker, was going to grab his lightsaber using the Force.

The reasons for this expectation are obvious when one thinks about it. The lightsaber is in the snow, a clear reference to The Empire Strikes Back. Luke has been teased throughout the entire film. The audience has been expecting to see him at some point.

Rey has been thrown into a tree. She is probably injured, even if she is awake, and she has never used a lightsaber before. If she tries to fight Kylo, she’ll probably end up in the same condition as Finn, who we’ll discuss in a moment.

All the story beats are screaming that the heroes need saving, and the lightsaber in the snow is practically acting as Luke’s signature. If Abrams was creating a red herring, well, I suppose he succeeded, but he shouldn’t be surprised that the audience was annoyed. Once again, he teased and teased and teased but gave the audience no vent for their anticipation.

As to the other details regarding the fight, the acting is good. John Boyega and Adam Driver both give excellent performances. But Kylo is injured, and yet, beyond him pounding on his wound a couple times, there’s no indication that his injury is having any effect on his abilities.

The stakes of this fight are hard to track because the skill level of Kylo is still something of an unknown. Then there’s the setup for the fight itself. Kylo pushes Rey into a tree, so why didn’t he push both Finn and Rey into a tree and be done with it?

For these reasons, it’s safe to say the fight isn’t good. Now, is it fair? To answer that question, I need to rewind back to the moment when Han died. Kylo stabs Han, and he falls off the bridge. Then Chewie, in a rage, shoots Kylo.

First of all, that crossbow has been shown to send people flying through the air, so Kylo should’ve been catapulted off that bridge. Instead, he’s hit with a single shot and drops to one knee. But why did Chewie stop shooting at him?

Furthermore, why didn’t Finn and Rey follow Chewie’s lead? Sure, they were farther away, but between the three of them, they could’ve finished off an already wounded Kylo.

Regardless, all three characters flee the chamber after Chewie activates the bombs and blows a hole in the doors. But why didn’t they meet up?  It makes no sense for these characters to be so close to each other, only for them to split up during their escape.

So, Chewie should’ve been there for the final battle. Then there’s the fact that while Rey and Finn are running alone in the woods looking for the Falcon, Kylo, who’s been shot, somehow runs ahead of them and cuts them off in the forest.

That doesn’t make any sense either. He then pounds his wound, which means he’s injured and the wound is having some sort of effect. And I suppose that someone could argue that the wound did weaken his abilities.

He doesn’t seem hindered by it during the fight, but let’s assume that is the case in the name of fairness. He pushes Rey into a tree, knocking her out of the upcoming duel, at least for a while, then he challenges Finn.

I suppose someone could assume that Kylo has taken Finn’s betrayal personally, though I’m not really sure why he would care that one soldier deserted the army; however, let’s assume that’s the case, or we could even assume that Kylo’s one look at Finn in the beginning has alerted him to the fact that Finn is Force-sensitive, and this has given Kylo some sense of animosity, though the movie never says anything like this.

But whatever Kylo’s motives, the fight commences. Finn lands one solid blow—further weakening Kylo—before being sliced in the back and losing the duel. He’s still alive but barely.

Then enters Rey. She pulls the lightsaber out of the snow—shocking all but the most cynical among us—and Kylo continues the duel with her.

First of all, she should have no idea how to do this. She’s seen the lightsaber once, but no one has told her anything about it beyond that it once belonged to Luke. If we go with the dualistic/dyad interpretation of the film, this could be explained by her powers essentially being downloaded into her by necessity because Kylo is so strong, but the amazing thing is that this doesn’t work either.

As the fight goes on, Kylo eventually tells her she needs a teacher and says the word “Force,” which prompts Rey to remember that there is such a thing as the Force, which prompts her to start meditating in the middle of the duel.

Now, if this information was just being given to her, she shouldn’t need to be meditating to summon up some new reserve of strength. She’s been doing everything intuitively anyway, so why does she need to think about it now? Either way you slice it, the scene doesn’t make any sense.

Anyway, she receives her second wind and defeats Kylo, slicing him across the face. She’s won. But then—and I wish I was joking—the literal ground between them splits apart just to keep her from killing the creep.

Let me repeat that, the ground literally splits them apart! Lucky! The odds of this happening at this precise moment, even while the planet is breaking apart, are infinitesimally small.

It’s a good thing Finn was on Rey’s side of this new crevasse, or the ending would’ve been a little different. But either way, that marks the end of the fight.

So, was the fight fair? Absolutely not! Kylo’s wound doesn’t fix the setup, it doesn’t explain the come-and-go nature of Rey’s Force abilities, and it doesn’t fix the random fissure that breaks up the fight. The writers cheated to make a fight scene that can’t even be considered good. A disappointment all around. I’ll cover what happens next in the following review.