Quote Originally Posted by David Walton View Post
TFA ends with Rey having seen Kylo kill her adoptive father figure and critically injuring her best friend/potential love interest. So yeah, there's no indication whatsoever that Rey has any kind of romantic connection with him, and his interest appears to be that of a Sith taking on a powerful apprentice.

It's weird how TLJ, in spite of occurring almost immediately after TFA, completely passes over Rey's intense hatred of Kylo and jumps into sexual tension and 'he can be redeemed.' There's not even the traditional time jump between films to explain her change in attitude.
So I don't want to get in the way of a potentially valid criticism of TLJ (and I say that as one of those weirdos that loves it), but there needs to be an important distinction made between Kylo Ren and Ben Solo. Because Rey treats them as not quite the same. The entire subtext of TLJ is that the more Rey learns about Ben the more connected to him she becomes. Yeah, they lean into the sexual tension and the conclusion of Rise of Skywalker plays on the romantic angle, but it doesn't need to. The more of Ben she comes to understand, the more easily she sees through the Kylo Ren persona at the man underneath. Who can, in fact, be redeemed. She comes to recognize that "Kylo Ren" is a mask Ben wears to hide himself behind, his dark side persona.

In TFA, all she ever sees is the Kylo Ren facade. And she rightfully turns away from it. During TLJ, she becomes visibly uncomfortable every time that side of Ben emerges. And she actively fights Kylo throughout Rise. But she isn't willing to just walk away anymore, because she's begun to see the difference between Ben and Kylo. And she wants to save Ben. From himself. From Kylo.

We can debate the effectiveness of the arc. I thought the Rey and Ben stuff was some of the strongest material in TLJ, and was almost certainly the most well done bit of Rise. The two films have made Ben Solo into my favorite character in the sequel trilogy, despite the fact that I was bored silly with him in TFA. That obviously won't be true for everyone, and that's fair. But I don't agree that it's that far fetched that learning about the trauma that created Kylo would make Rey more sympathetic to him.