I recently rewatched my all time favourite movie as a child, Ronja Rövardotter (for the english speakers: Ronia, the Robber’s Daughter), and noticed some parallels that can be drawn to Reylo.
For those who haven’t watched the film or read the book by (awesome!) Astrid Lindgren:
Ronja is the daughter of Mattis, chief of a robbers clan, and his wife Lovis. She grows up in her parents’ castle in the woods with the robbers as her only company, until a rival robber group (led by their chief Borka) moves into the other half of the castle, exacerbating the longstanding rivalry between the two bands. When she meets Birk Borkason, the only son of Borka, the two start out as enemies, but once they get to know each other they become very close friends – but know that they cannot tell their families. When Birk is captured by Ronja’s father, she gives herself to the Borkas so she must be exchanged, but as a result her father disowns her and refuses to acknowledge her as his daughter. Birk and Ronja run away to the woods, where they live in a cave and experience several adventures. Ultimately their families repent of their feuding, and everyone is reunited, but the story concludes with both Ronia and Birk deciding that the robber’s life is not for them.
Character parallels
Both Ronja and Birk grow up quite lonely, as the only children among adults and find themselves on opposing sides of rivalling forces, namely their opposing clans of robbers.
After being abandoned by her parents, Rey grows up alone on Jakku amongst other scavengers. While Ben is surrounded by other children, he is singled out and different from a very young age, due to both his bloodline as well as his unique powers, and also ultimately alone. They also find themselves on opposing sides of a war, in their case the Resistance and the First Order respectively.
Ronja & Rey
There are obvious parallels between scavenger Rey and Ronja: She, as well as Rey, is self-reliant, spirited, kind, but a fighter who stands her ground and is not afraid to speak her mind and question authority. She cusses and insults Birk a lot. She also is very impulsive and often lashes out before thinking, she even bites him in the cheek at one point by mistake (but refuses to apologise).
Birk & Kylo Ren
Birk is born into (robbers’) royalty and very aware of that. When he is first introduced he comes off as a little arrogant and smug. He insults Ronja and mocks both her origin and her abilities. (To be fair, she does as well)
The First meeting
The first time Ronja and Birk meet is at the rift that separates both halves of the castle (fittingly called “the gorge of hell”). They immediately start to throw insults at each other. Birk jumps over the rift after Ronja tells him to “come over if you dare, I will punch you in the face so hard your nose falls off!”. To keep face she starts jumping as well. Birk is quite impressed. They then both start competitively leaping back and forth across the abyss. Finally, Birk slips and almost falls to his death, but is ultimately saved by Ronja, who pulls him back over the edge. When Birk tries to thank her and suggest that maybe now they belong together, she slaps him and tells him to go to hell.
Now, where might we have seen two antagonists insulting each other, then fighting on the edge of a cliff before… followed by an impressed boy offering a union and the girl rejecting him…
(I realise this post might be interesting only to a niche readership – assuming that most of your aren’t Swedish or German, where I know this book/movie is most popular – and this is pretty long already, so I’m putting the rest under a cut.)
I loved this movie as a kid (still do). It’s dark, creepy and magical. It’s definitely not the typical cutesy stuff Hollywood pumps out.
You are not the only one who saw parallels with reylo. Some time ago I also made a (very short) post about that movie. Of course this meta is something else. Thank you for taking the time to do this awasome in-depth analysis.
This movie features a lot of orcs. Big orcs, small orcs, girl orcs, boy orcs, baby orcs, honorable orcs, bad orcs, magical orcs, sexy orcs, family raising orcs, interspecies romance orcs, …..many orcs. I’m just posting this in case any orc lovers out there weren’t aware this movie existed. 😉
The heroine is certainly not as attractive as her beautiful best
friend who gets her own interesting plot line.
The
Darkangel (the Darkangel Trilogy, #1) – Meredith Ann Pierce
The protagonist starts out as unattractive, later she undergoes a transformation of
her appearance which represents a turning point in her character development.
This book has lots of female characters of all shapes and sizes.
The main heroine is plain and a bit overweight. Another important
famale character is dead and looks the part. Both have very
attractive love interests.
This heroine is actually very attractive by human standards.
Unfortunately the male protagonist isn’t human and he finds her
appalling and he’s just as ugly to her. The like each other from the
start.
Stolen
Songbird (The Malediction Trilogy, #1) – Danielle L. Jensen
The heroine spends her time around
(mostly) human looking and extremely attractive trolls. She’s not
quite up to their standards.
The heroine is almost a cyborg. Her extremities were replaced by
completely overpowered prosthetics after a horrific assault while
working as a government agent. She’s traumatized, in pain, doesn’t
have full control of her new body and hasn’t come to terms with her
new menacing look. The rock star demon elf protagonist is very much
into her. Yes, really. This book uses and often subverts every trope
known to fantasy and science fiction.
Herb-Witch (Lord
Alchemist Duology, #1) – Elizabeth McCoy
Within the world described in this book the heroine’s look is not only considered
ugly but also shameful as it reveals her barbarian heritage.
The protagonist starts out as rather plain, later she undergoes a transformation of
her appearance which represents a turning point in her character development.
The heroine is fat. She does lose weight while trying to survive
on a hostile alien planet though. The lizard man protagonist is
interested in her either way. All kinds of trigger warnings for this
book: violence, rape, gore, death. It’s also over 900 pages long.
Crazy.
This one stands out as it’s the only book written by a man. It’s
also one of my earliest conscious encounters with an unattractive
female protagonist. For me that was a formative experience. Rather on
the hard side of science fiction the narrative follows the good
looking male protagonist who is a kind of emissary from a culture that values
aesthetics to the extreme coming to a planet where people live by a
more practical approach to life. The female protagonist assigned to him as his assistant is so ugly to him that he can’t
stop staring. After some culture clashing they get married.
I’m always looking for more of my beloved ugly heroines. They are quite difficult to find. So if you know of a book or a movie, please let me know! Reblog this with your suggestions, chat me up, ask or submit. All suggestions are welcome.
TAG: On my blog I use the “unconventional looking / conventionally unattractive heroine” tag.
suggested for Brienne and Jaime (I haven’t read ASOIAF, so I don’t know how they are described in the book but Brienne and Aria from the TV series are certainly great unconventional looking female characters.)
The heroine is certainly not as attractive as her beautiful best
friend who gets her own interesting plot line.
The
Darkangel (the Darkangel Trilogy, #1) – Meredith Ann Pierce
The protagonist starts out as unattractive, later she undergoes a transformation of
her appearance which represents a turning point in her character development.
This book has lots of female characters of all shapes and sizes.
The main heroine is plain and a bit overweight. Another important
famale character is dead and looks the part. Both have very
attractive love interests.
This heroine is actually very attractive by human standards.
Unfortunately the male protagonist isn’t human and he finds her
appalling and he’s just as ugly to her. The like each other from the
start.
Stolen
Songbird (The Malediction Trilogy, #1) – Danielle L. Jensen
The heroine spends her time around
(mostly) human looking and extremely attractive trolls. She’s not
quite up to their standards.
The heroine is almost a cyborg. Her extremities were replaced by
completely overpowered prosthetics after a horrific assault while
working as a government agent. She’s traumatized, in pain, doesn’t
have full control of her new body and hasn’t come to terms with her
new menacing look. The rock star demon elf protagonist is very much
into her. Yes, really. This book uses and often subverts every trope
known to fantasy and science fiction.
Herb-Witch (Lord
Alchemist Duology, #1) – Elizabeth McCoy
Within the world described in this book the heroine’s look is not only considered
ugly but also shameful as it reveals her barbarian heritage.
The protagonist starts out as rather plain, later she undergoes a transformation of
her appearance which represents a turning point in her character development.
The heroine is fat. She does lose weight while trying to survive
on a hostile alien planet though. The lizard man protagonist is
interested in her either way. All kinds of trigger warnings for this
book: violence, rape, gore, death. It’s also over 900 pages long.
Crazy.
This one stands out as it’s the only book written by a man. It’s
also one of my earliest conscious encounters with an unattractive
female protagonist. For me that was a formative experience. Rather on
the hard side of science fiction the narrative follows the good
looking male protagonist who is a kind of emissary from a culture that values
aesthetics to the extreme coming to a planet where people live by a
more practical approach to life. The female protagonist assigned to him as his assistant is so ugly to him that he can’t
stop staring. After some culture clashing they get married.
I’m always looking for more of my beloved ugly heroines. They are quite difficult to find. So if you know of a book or a movie, please let me know! Reblog this with your suggestions, chat me up, ask or submit. All suggestions are welcome.
TAG: On my blog I use the “unconventional looking / conventionally unattractive heroine” tag.
What? It’s not realistic to have an attractive male protagonist fall in love with an unattractive/flawed heroine???? No way!!!???!
Ok, first of all you can fuck off with your realism in my escapism. And secondly what about all the boring, average and often even annoying male self insert characters? Nobody bats an eye at some Gary Stu getting the gorgeous girl in the end. That was actually pretty much the standard plot line for a long time in mainstream media. And I’m sick and tired of it.
I’m also sick and tired of over-abundance of stunningly beautiful girls and women in genre fiction. As if being unattractive or even only average looking makes you undeserving of being the heroine and falling in love. Oh wait, I’m being unfair. The romance genre actually offers a wealth of books with flawed heroines. Just google it! There are book lists on amazon and goodreads for every bodily imperfection (including disabilities) imaginable.
The romance genre in general is great in catering to the female
gaze. There is just one problem. I’m not into it. This is my
personal preference. In no way do I think that one genre is superior
to another. I love romance in my fantasy and science fiction but I
don’t want it to be the main focus of the story. I’m picky like
that.
On a personal level the reason for the wish to read about
unattractive, flawed or just average looking heroines is certainly
the identification factor. Do I think I’m ugly? No, but I’m also
not devastatingly beautiful and I’m totally ok with that. But there
was a time in my life when I wasn’t so confident, when I felt
unattractive. Some part of me will always feel like an awkward,
insecure teenager. That part of me needs to be stroked from time to
time. But I guess I’ve always been this way even before the crippling
effects of puberty. Even when I was I little girl I imagined stories
with normal (=like me) looking girls who were smart and capable and
often had to help some beautiful but useless princess. Guess who the
prince fell in love with at the end.
Apart from using an unattractive heroine as my self insert I just
think a hot guy falling in love with a girl or woman for her
character rather than her physical appearance is THE MOST ROMANTIC
THING EVER!!! It’s not that deep. Or is it? Beauty is worshipped in
our society. The pressure to be beautiful and therefore lovable is
much higher for girls and women than for men. As if a woman is only worthwhile if she is also considered physically attractive. The fact that there are
so few conventionally unattractive heroines in fiction actually
proves the point.
I’m talking strictly as a reader here but I guess having someone
fall for an unconventional looking woman is certainly more difficult
to write convincingly. Explaining and describing why someone would
fall for an average looking or conventionally unattractive woman
demands that the focus is on love rather than lust (I don’t mean
that it can’t or shouldn’t be sexy). The pay-off is also so much
sweeter. A declaration of love where the male protagonist says
something original instead of just stammering about the heroine’s
beauty is also much more satisfying. Making the woman beautiful
often feels like a shortcut to me. Actually I’m now at point where I
need exceptional characterization to make me still care about a
beautiful heroine. That sounds petty and maybe it is but look at the
above list. It’s quite short compared to the tons of media
featuring physically flawless girls and women.
Oh, and as I’m already bitter let me talk about two tropes that I
hate with a passion: “The Makeover”. It’s most often found in movies
and goes as following. Unattractive coded (think glasses and
comfortable clothes) girl or woman played by a beautiful actress
learns how to use make-up and dons a skimpy dress and suddenly the
male love interest deems her worthy of his affection. Boom, true
love. NO, THANKS.
Yes, I’m aware that sometimes heroines undergo a physical
transformation that mark a turning point in their spiritual journey.
If that’s the case I’m usually okay with the beautifying effects of
character development.
The other trope is having a heroine that is described as unattractive within her world but is actually conforming to beauty standards of our world. For example the poor girl is ostracized because she’s a little bit too tall and rather thin. Tragic. She’d be a supermodel in our world. Or the heroine’s breasts are too round and her hips are too pronounced. So ugly. What a terrible fate to look like Nicky Minaj.
I want my heroines to be real woman. I love it when they are fat, extremely short/tall, have plain faces, have saggy breasts and huge thighs, when they are truly imperfect, when they are like me. Those fictional girls and women helped me learn to love myself.
First, kudos and shout out to the first bloggers who brought forth this amazing connection between the ST and this hauntingly beautiful 1982 movie whose main message was: evil and good must unite because out of their division comes death and decay. Sounds familiar? Maybe there is a lesson learned there. Because Frank Oz, one of the chief engineers of that beautiful movie that entirely puzzled me as a child, also worked on the original trilogy. So it would come full circle, in a poetic way, if the ST reflects some of his work. @karlaaaay for instance points out, very cleverly that the code name for episode ix, Black Diamond, might be just that: a clever reference to Dark Crystal. The idea has definitely some merit, even though we can also keep in mind what the gem also stands for (I did one of my first posts on that). But let’s give Dark Crystal a try.
Ok, so what about the similarities, what elements have we seen, and what could we infer from there? So we have a kingdom divided between the Good pottery and music loving Mystics on one side and the evil, power driven Skeksis on the other. The Skeksis live in a castle built around a purple crystal that was shattered long ago. They commit genocides, exploit and enslave creatures that they use to steal their essences in order to stay alive. Both Mystics and Skeksis are a dying race whose fates are intertwined: each time one of them dies, death comes to one of the other side. A prophecy states that a gelfling (a race that has been almost exterminated by the Skeksis) will destroy the Skeksis and repair the Crystal. As it turns out, the fate of this world lies in the hand of a couple of gelflings, Jen and Kira, who both thought they were the last of their kind. They finally restore the missing shard of the crystal and Skeksis and Mystic are fused together into creatures of light, bringing back peace, harmony, and life.
As @karlaaaay pointed out, the names Jen and Kira have some resonance for the new trilogy. Jen is reminiscent of Ben and Kira was the name originally used for the character of Rey. But it is highly debatable if Jen is Ben and Kira is Rey as I will stress out later. It is hard not to miss all the similarities though. You have the Skeksis with a dying emperor, their feuds of succession and power, their armies of armored creatures and flying spies, so pretty much the First Order. And you have the Mystic, peace loving creatures, living like hermits in nature, who adopt and teach a young one that may be the chosen one to bring back balance to the world, so pretty much Obi Wan, Luke and Yoda. When the emperor of the Skeksis dies, his body is shattered and crumbles to pieces, like Snoke in the throne room. When the leader of the Mystic dies, his body vanishes into thin air like Obi Wan, Yoda, and Luke. The emperor clings desperately to life (I am still the Emperor) like Snoke affirms being unbeaten and unbetrayed at the very moment he is. The Mystic accept their death with peace and serenity like all the characters afore mentioned.
Another character that seems to have been transplanted straight from Dark Crystal is Maz Kanata. In the Dark Crystal, Jen has to go see Augrah in order to find the missing shard that he is supposed to return to the Crystal. Augrah is a thousand years old, has terrible sight since she only has one eye that she can remove and put back as she pleases, and besides owning a significant piece of the puzzle, has more questions to offer than answers: “you want to know what it is all about?”, “too many questions “, “there is much to learn and you have no time”. Sounds familiar yet? Maz is the same age, is pretty much defined by her huge glasses, holds Anakin’s lightsaber for some mysterious reason, and also delivers lines like “a good question for another time”. Besides, Augrah’s mysterious cave is attacked by the Skeksis army just after Jen’s arrival, like Maz’s castle is attacked right after Rey’s arrival. And Jen happens to run in a forest to cross the path of two significant characters right after fleeing Augrah ‘s cave: the banished Chamberlain who is following him from a distance, and Kira, the other gelfling and future love interest. When Rey flees into the forest, who does she meet but Kylo Ren? So if we follow the parallels between the two stories, Jen’s journey is more reminiscent of Rey’s journey than that of Ren. At the same time, Rey, likes Kira, is followed by a little companion, since in TFA she is followed by BB8 until she meets Kylo. And like Kira, Rey is able to understand and communicate with many different creatures. So you could say that Rey is a mix of both Jen and Kira.
Yet, how does Kylo Ren fit in?
When Kira and Jen meet for the first time and touch hands, they exchange immediately all their memories, something called dream fasting. In TLJ, something rather similar happens to Kylo and Rey as the Force brings them together and they start having flash forwards when their hands meet for the first time. But Jen and Kira are a unit from the get go, they are the last of their species. Kylo and Rey could be similar because they are also the last of their species in a way, they are the last Jedi (even though it turns out others are Force sensitive), they feel constantly alone, which makes them akin to each other. And when they are able to function together, in the throne room, they form a great partnership. But, remember that in the forest, also lurked the banished Skeksis. So when Rey meets Ben, she meets her other half but she also meets her opponent. Kylo is the gelfling but also the rogue Skeksis, the one that does not belong, has been brutally victimized, and strives for power and revenge. One line from the Chamberlain is also a give away. When he tries to lure the gelfling back to the castle, seeing he is failing, he keeps on pleading: Please? please? So, to me, Kylo is both the gefling and the Skeksis.
Another important element would be the shattered crystal. I think it could be 2 different things here. It is hard not to see a wink between the shattered crystal and Kylo’s shattered kyber crystal in his lightsaber. And because the saber is so much a part of his identity, it is also hard not to see this shattered unstable saber as a metaphor for his shattered unstable identity. So Kylo is the Dark Crystal of sorts. He is the pure power that has turned to the Dark side because something is shattered in him, because something misses to make him whole again. What is missing? Something Rey, like Jen and Kira, could bring him: the healing power of Love. And Rey, as his other half, has the power of making him whole, just like he has the power of making her feeling whole again. Together they are no longer alone. Just like Jen reacts to Kira: “I thought I was the only one”.
You are not alone
Neither are you
But the Dark Crystal could also stand for the Force itself, that has been shattered between the Dark side and the Light side, something that after thousands of years, is finally not satisfactory. What is the solution? They have fought each other, Sith and Jedi almost extinct. Kylo’s solution would be to let thme die, to kill the past. But there is another solution that has not been attempted yet, and it is to fuse the two together, like at the end of Dark Crystal. Maybe Rey will realize that, or maybe that will just come from them coming together as they are.
The final element that the movies have in common is the prophecy of the chosen one. In Dark Crystal, a gefling is supposed to restore the shard and save the world. In the PT, Anakin is proposed as the chosen one, the one that will restore balance to the Force. Failure. Luke is a likely candidate. Failure. If the chosen has to be a Skywalker, Kylo is the last in line. Maybe he is the chosen one, maybe Rey is the chosen one by helping him figuring out who he really is, maybe they both are and their coming together will restore the balance.
The end of the Dark Crystal shows that restoring balance between the conflicting natures of good and evil demands a sacrifice. But once the sacrifice is accomplished, and order is restored, peace, light, and life are restored. The lines uttered by the pure being of light at the end of the movie, as Jen is carrying the lifeless body of Kira, would fit right at the end of the saga:
Now the prophecy is fulfilled. We are again one. Many ages ago, in our
arrogance and delusion, we shattered the pure Crystal and our world
split apart.Your courage and sacrifice have made us whole and restored the true power of the crystal. Hold her to you, she is a part of you, as we are all a part of each other.
Kira is brought back to life
Now we leave you a crystal of truth. Make your world in its light.
We have already got the line about delusion and arrogance from Luke when he talks about the Jedi. We know that both sides have erred. Replace crystal with Force and you get the picture. Kylo’s insistance about killing the past may also be prophetic of the fact that one of them has to die in an act of pure selfless sacrifice to save/help the other. Can the Force bring a person back to life? If the PT is inspired by the Dark Crystal, it might just happen. And it would be a beautiful end to the saga to see the Force restored and whole, and these two, part of each other, able to create a new generation of Force users, a new world.
In the Star Wars Legends there is something called Dark Transfer that was able to bring a person back from the dead. If they took the Force Bond from Legends then it’s reasonable to assume they might take other abilities too…
Monsters and Villains 