Why Rey And Kylo Couldn't Just Make Out In Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Writer and director Rian Johnson expanded upon the powers of the Force a little bit in "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," creating a new kind of Force connection that allowed for communication across long distances. Sure, Force users had previously been able to sense one another, like Darth Vader sensing that Luke was on a particular nearby ship or Obi-Wan feeling the cataclysmic loss of the destruction of Alderaan, but in "The Last Jedi" some of them are able to "see" and talk with each other across the vastness of space. Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) have this kind of interspace telephone linked between their minds that we later learn is courtesy of Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis), and it allows them to have some rather charged moments together even though they're so far apart.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Johnson explained his reasoning for creating the unusual Force connection between Kylo and Rey. He also defended his reasoning for not just letting them make out, because the Reylo shippers need to know, okay?
A storytelling necessity
When asked about the Force connections, Johnson explained that it was necessitated by the story itself because the characters couldn't really just sit down and have a conversation, but he needed them to communicate. He wanted to have them talk to one another but felt that if he "put them face to face they're going to either fight, or one of them has to be tied up ...", which posed a bit of a problem for getting them on even footing. When the interviewer suggested that instead of fighting or being tied up, the pair could also make out, Johnson replied:
"Even if they make out, then they can't be talking. So I knew I wanted them to talk, and to talk enough to where we could go from 'I hate you,' to her being forced to actually engage with him. That's where the idea of these 'Force connections' came from, which is kind of a new thing. It's a little bit of a riff on what happens with Vader and Luke at the end of 'The Empire Strikes Back,' but it's entirely new in some regards."
While he absolutely has a point that making out would inhibit their ability to talk, maybe they could have used psychic speech through the Force while making out? Anything is possible, right? The closest fans got to seeing Kylo and Rey make out in "The Last Jedi" was their killer fight against the Imperial Guard, moving together like experienced dance partners.
An idea that launched a thousand ships
"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" is notoriously controversial among fans of the franchise, as it took everything J.J. Abrams set up in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and turned it on its head. Instead of the very binary light and dark sides of the Force shown in both the original trilogy and the prequel films, "The Last Jedi" operates in shades of gray and reminds audiences that people are far more complicated than simple heroes or villains, and the connection between Rey and Kylo helps cement some of its new ideas in this regard.
After all, if someone tied so deeply to the dark side and someone seemingly destined to be a hero for justice can have such an earnest connection, then maybe they're not as different as we originally thought.