I believe someone has already done a meta on this – I remember reading it and really enjoying it. If someone has a link, please do provide it! I tried a search but came up with nothing.
But you’re right, there are certainly some interesting similarities.
Before reading this, be aware that my speculations/predictions/head canons of the trajectory of TLJ are HERE, and that post greatly informs my discussion below.
The Snow Queen – Synopsis:
Kai –a young boy –is first tempted by the Snow Queen through (I believe) a vision in a mirror or the window (I cannot remember which). He is at first TERRIFIED by his vision of her and does his best to resist in horror (you can already see the parallel with Kylo and Snoke, who preyed on Kylo from his childhood by plaguing his thoughts and likely appearing in visions).
A part of this tale includes some ancient, enchanted mirror created by demons/trolls (or some other kind of sinister monster). This mirror, which shows only the negative and horrible aspects of the world, has shattered in the wind long ago, and the wind blows the shards about. The shards often get lodged into people’s hearts, and – as one would expect – one of these shards somehow gets lodged into Kai’s heart. This creates a negative attitude and perspective on the world for Kai, who now sees the world as ugly and terrifying, and he begins doing terrible things to those he loves. He even betrays his grandmother by destroying her garden, I believe.
This draws him to find that the only beautiful thing left in the world is snow (Starkiller comes to mind, doesn’t it, with the image of snowflakes flying around). He is drawn to the beauty of flakes of snow, and eventually the Snow Queen herself, who kisses him and makes him forget about Gerda – his lifelong, dear friend – and his entire family.
Everyone believes Kai to be dead – a lost cause – but NOT Gerda! Gerda believes she can figure out what happened to her beloved friend. She goes searching in the bitter cold for him. It is important to note that at one point, Gerda loses her memory of Kai by a sorceress who captures and wants to keep Gerda – the sorceress erases her memory of Kai. But Gerda eventually is able to remember Kai on her own, and is able to escape and continue her journey to find her friend.
Gerda eventually comes across a thief and a reindeer, and is able to travel to the Snow Queen’s palace via reindeer. Along the way, Gerda meets a woman (I believe she is described as a Finn woman, I shit you not!) who tells her that her kindness within her heart is what will save Kai. The power already lies within Gerda to save Kai from the Snow Queen’s spell and dislodge the cold mirror’s shards from his heart.
When Gerda arrives at the palace, she finds Kai and kisses him, and he is released from the Snow Queen’s spell. As Gerda weeps for Kai out of love because he has returned, the shards in Kai’s heart, too, melt away. As the two happily reunite, the shards from within Kai’s heart begin to dance around them and spell out the word “eternity.”
This is an obvious coming of age tale. The two return home afterward completely changed, with a realization they’ve “grown up” together.
Discussing the Potential Parallels:
I wouldn’t be surprised if some of this story was inspiration for Kylo and Rey, at all, and it’s been my thinking there’s some definite influence, along with Beauty and the Beast.
Most of note to me is the nature of the evil enchanter in both Snoke and the Snow Queen – this idea of seduction and manipulation, as well as the intentional separation of the boy from family and those he loves.
Interestingly, I think in both the case of Kai and Kylo Ren, we have an outside force influencing the boy’s perception of the world before complete seduction (although it is clear the boy is targeted by his respective enchanter before complete seduction takes place). For Kai, it is the shards of the horrible mirror that pierce his heart; for Kylo it is the Dark Side of the Force.
Though the evil enchanters take advantage of the boys’ weaknesses in both cases, it is not the power of the enchanter itself that starts the change of heart – they are just a predator taking advantage when the time is right. It is the darkness and ugliness of the world that begins to change the boy’s heart, first. Then, the enchanters happen to find the boys in both cases (now cue Snoke saying, “when I found you….”), and from their weakest, most vulnerable state, the evil enchanters seduce the boys into their spell, hardening their hearts and depriving them of love and warmth and light.
Another interesting thought is that Gerda and Kai both knew each other well in their youth, but also lost memory of each other at different points. I don’t know if they’ll make it so literal for Rey and Kylo, to the extent that they’ll have actually known one another.
But it’d be interesting if there is some sort of grand connection between them that was already in place from beginning, but that has also been tampered with or prevented somehow between Snoke and Luke.
Which brings us to Luke. In The Snow Queen, there is a sorceress who wants Gerda to stay with her, and the sorceress wipes Gerda’s memory clean of Kai at one point. Although I don’t see Luke exactly wiping Rey’s memory clean of Kylo Ren, I do see him wanting to stop her from joining Kylo at ALL costs, and trying to manipulate her to trust in him (in what he sees as a noble cause to balance the Force and destroy the Dark Side).
It very well may be that both Luke AND Snoke know the nature of Rey and Kylo’s connection to the Force and each other, but both parties want to conceal that connection from Rey and Kylo/Ben for their own purposes.
Here, in The Snow Queen, we also have a story in which Love Redeems, through romantic love, after family has given up the fight in searching for and saving their boy. The girl, through the kindness and light of her heart – and through sheer determination in KNOWING she can find the boy – is able to release him from his spell, as well as pull from his heart the dark shards that have overtaken it. Through Gerda’s hope and love and determined spirit, she is able to help Kai back to his old self – a self which he had forgotten along the way. He goes back to being kind and caring and full of warmth and light. Both of them are older and wiser by the end of the story.
Another note in this story is Kai’s appearance. He is described as looking (I believe) cold and dead throughout his time trapped with the Snow Queen. It is through Gerda that he comes back to his old self. When Gerda comes back to him and releases him from his spell, he returns with bright face and warm cheeks.
When I think of Kylo Ren/Ben in TLJ, he looks miserable, tired, and sad. When I think of this persona he has adopted – the name Kylo Ren – it reminds me that there is an “old self” he can return to: Ben Solo. Notice that, in the end of the trailer when Kylo/Ben is seemingly reaching out to Rey, he is surrounded by a warm glow and cascading embers… I can’t help but associate Kai’s transformation via Gerda with Kylo’s potential transformation through Rey. It does make me think we’ll be potentially calling him “Ben” again by the end of TLJ.
Continuing on, these are both coming of age tales – that is an obvious connection between the Star Wars saga and The Snow Queen. And, in addition to that, the interesting parallel that we have a young girl coming to rescue the boy from an evil enchanter….? Well, I’ve pointed this out MANY times before, but yes – I believe that’s the kind of story we have on our hands between Rey and Kylo/Ben.
In fact, Beauty and the Beast is very similar in this regard, and it’s why I’ve made those comparisons before, too.
Some of My TLJ Speculations:
A lot of people think that Kylo is going to remain fairly “edgy” and teeter heavily on the edge of Dark and Light – but mostly stay on the side of the Dark. All the while, Rey will stay pretty bitter and wary of him throughout the majority of TLJ – RIGHT up until the VERY end. @reylorabbittrail and I have discussed this (I’ll reply to you in a bit! Sorry!!), so tagging her for commentary if she’d like!
However, my opinion is different than most, and more hopeful perhaps (are we surprised??)
I actually think Rey will begin to turn her feelings sooner than some expect – after their saber fight on Ahch-To. When I look at others’ analyses, it seems that a lot of people look at Kylo and Rey and see Pride and Prejudice – and that’s certainly not a wrong comparison at all, considering the auditions for Kylo Ren (which are essentially confirmed to have used an excerpt from Pride and Prejudice). Many think Rey will despise Kylo right up until the last possible moment, and turn her feelings unexpectedly, despite herself – just as we see in P&P. Many also think she’ll be pursuing Kylo at the end of TLJ because she’ll still believe him to be on the side of evil after being returned somehow to the First Order. Kylo will then either surprise her with a secret plan he had, but that he neglected to tell her (like Darcy), or that he’ll have a last minute change of heart and do the right thing, which will earn Rey’s trust.
While I do think it’s possible Kylo’s arc could carry out in the above way… I actually don’t think it will go exactly like this for Rey. I don’t think she’ll hate him right up until the end. I think she’ll realize halfway that she needs him as a teacher, and that she has misunderstood him – that there is still hope for Kylo. And there’s a particular reason why:
Star Wars is first and foremost a fairy tale.
It’s not a story set in our real world (like Pride and Prejudice).
At its core, SW is a fairy tale and a story of adolescence, and I believe we will be seeing the dynamic of the fairy tale progression for these characters, like that of Kai and Gerda from The Snow Queen, or Belle and the Beast from Beauty and the Beast. The archetypes/narratives of a fairy tale are slightly different than that of a pure romance such as P&P.
The dynamic of a fairy tale implies that the two will slowly come to a mutual understanding, rather than simply be at odds the entire time, and that they will have deep affection for each other. Their affection is what guides and pushes them further on their journey – it is not HATRED and MALICE which pushes them forward, nor being at ODDS with each other. No, this is a fairy tale. It is LOVE and HOPE and COMPASSION which needs to drive our heroes forward.
This dynamic implies that there is only ONE person – in this case the young girl – who has hope left for the lost, enchanted boy… The boy whose perception turned dark and dreary due to his evil enchantment. Only ONE can save him from his dark spell….
Rey will be the last one left with hope for Ben Solo. His uncle, even his mother, may have given up on him by that point. But it is REY who will journey across the galaxy and PLEAD with his mother to still fight for the light left in him. They MUST rescue him, bring him back! For, by that point in the story, Kylo/Ben will have been on Ahch-To with Rey, and she will have seen that last bit of light left in him.
But then, what happens from there? Wouldn’t that mean that TLJ ends the story? Well… no. Because we still have Rey’s journey to complete….
And so, the subversion of this, likely, will be that once the boy (Kylo) is saved, Rey will face the same tests and trials in Episode 9 as Kylo. Snoke will likely turn his attention to REY, and Luke will probably be pursuing them both to stop them working together (seeing them as a threat to all of humanity and the galaxy in their overwhelming, raw powers combined – harbinger of death type stuff [thanks to Knights Of Rant Podcast for that theory!!]). Now that Kylo has gone through this intense journey with Rey’s help, and come back the other side through Rey’s light, the tables will turn and it will be HIS turn to help out Rey.
So, that is a VERY ROUGH outline of how I view these two stories bearing possible similarities, and why I believe it’s important to understand that Star Wars is first and foremost a fairy tale.
I could be wrong, and perhaps they are taking less of the fairy tale approach, and putting in a more tenuous relationship between Rey and Kylo – so that she IS questioning him right up until the end.
But I can only speculate on what patterns I personally see appearing in the literature that I know well… and for me, it seems more consistent with the fairy tale elements and the themes of adolescence to have it progress in this manner. For Rey to be shunned by everyone EXCEPT Kylo/Ben, that is going to make a HUGE impression on her. Whether Kylo is an asshole or not (he is), the very fact that he will not be terrified of her power, that he will admire that about her, is going to affect her deeply.
I don’t think we’re going to see a light and happy-go-lucky Rey by any means. But I do think she’ll be the last one to carry hope for Kylo/Ben, and that is what will prompt her to leave Luke behind and seek out Kylo. Because, through that, she will see that he **IS** in fact supposed to become her teacher in the Force. Because he is the only one who can truly understand what she is going through, she will seek him out for his help.
The more I read about the parallels between The Snow Queen and the sequel trilogy the more I believe the creators borrowed heavily and intentionally from this classic fairy tale.
Monsters and Villains 