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THE LAST JEDI Digital Release Confirms Romantic Tension Between Rey and Kylo Ren

by Lindsey Romain
Mar 14 2018 • 7:51 AM

By now, any Star Wars fan has no doubt heard the term “Reylo” thrown around. That is, of course, the couple name for Rey and Kylo Ren, the new trilogy’s opposing Force-users who operate with something of a yin-and-yang relationship. On one side we have Rey, the blue lightsaber-wielding good guy, and on the other we have Kylo, the temperamental grandson of Darth Vader, obsessed with improving on grandpa’s evil vendetta. Even before The Force Awakens came out, fans speculated on the nature of their connection. Were they twins? Siblings? Cousins? Master and padawan at Luke’s Jedi academy? The Last Jedi threw a wrench in those fan theories, but did devote plenty of time to their relationship. And now, thanks to the film’s digital release, it’s all-but-confirmed that their connection will involve a bit of the romance we’ve all hoped to see between the two.

via GIPHY

At a SXSW panel promoting the digital release and its accompanying making-of documentary, The Director and The Jedi, Rian Johnson spoke to the film’s intimate depictions of Rey and Kylo’s Force-fueled mind-melds. One standout moment shows the pair touching hands despite a physical distance. “To me, one of my favorite shots of the movie is those two fingers touching,” Johnson admitted. “It’s the closest thing we’ll get to a sex scene in a Star Wars movie.”

It’s pretty unlikely he’d be saying that if the two were related by blood. (We hope, anyway.) And luckily for Reylo shippers, it’s not the only sign of romantic tension between the two in The Last Jedi behind-the-scenes material. One snippet of The Director and the Jedi shows an alternate line of dialogue between Rey and Luke when she confronts him about his involvement in Kylo’s turn from good to bad.

“Did you do it? Did you create Kylo Ren?” Rey asks.
“You opened yourself to Dark Side for a pair of pretty eyes!” Luke snaps back.

Reylo fans, as you can imagine, collectively lost their minds on Twitter.

Those twin theorists are probably feeling a bit dirty right about now. Unless gushing about “pretty eyes” is some sibling term of endearment in a galaxy far, far away.

Where do fall in all of this? Are you a Reylo shipper, or do you think that sort of romance has no place in Star Wars? As always, sound off in the comments.

Image: Lucasfilm

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