WARNING: SPOILER ALERT! This post includes extremely important details to the Rise of Skywalker story. Please don’t read it if you haven’t seen the movie yet and plan to see it in the future.
Okay, so if you’re reading this, you should remember the ending of the third of the Star Wars sequels, The Rise of Skywalker. After all, it was… unforgettable. This isn’t a review of the movie in general, so I won’t talk about the quality of the story as a whole. But the scene in which Ben saves Rey’s life is pretty great, in my opinion.
As a recap: Just when all hope is lost for Rey (she’s stuck within Palpatine’s evil grasp, watching her friends die above her, considering giving up and joining the dark side), Ben shows up to the creepy cave thing. Yes, Ben. Kylo Ren has been vanquished by the good inside of him to reveal a scared man who just wants to find inner peace. There’s a cool fight scene. Ben is thrown down some random crevice (oH No, HE’s DeAD!). Emperor Palpatine falls. There’s some Indiana Jones style shriveling involved. It takes all of Rey’s strength to defeat him, so she dies as well. Everyone is dead for a sec. Then, out of the blue (no one expected this), Ben emerges, broken but miraculously alive, from the crevice (Indiana Jones, anyone? Kid is really taking after his father.) and crawls to his true love’s side, whose eyes are glassy and tragically vacant. He cradles her in his arms as he makes one final choice. He uses his life force to restore the light to her eyes. She awakens, delighted to see him. They stare lovingly into each other’s eyes for a moment, and then Rey kisses Ben. He smiles. He is finally happy. Then he dies.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but when that happened I was thinking about one thing: “Thus with a kiss I die” (Shakespeare 5.3 130), Romeo’s last words in the classic play Romeo and Juliet. The parallels are abundant. The Dark and the Light side have been warring for years, stuck in an infinite battle born of ancient grudge. And from the fatal loins of our aged heroes and their (impressively) aged foes, a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life.
So here we see the two families, Montague and Capulet, paralleled by the Light Side and the Dark Side respectively. But keep in mind, Rey takes her life from the fatal loins of the Dark Side, while Ben takes his from those of the Light Side. So in this way, Ben can represent Romeo and Rey Juliet. You can see similarities in the traits of both characters and their parallels.
Both Ben and Romeo are filled with a desire for what they can never have, plagued by the inner conflicts in which they wish to be loyal to their group but have developed feelings for someone who is loyal the opposing side. I think of them both as emotion-driven characters who put their own desires before the desires of those around them as well as logic. Both do kinda stupid stuff to get the girl.
Rey and Juliet are similar in that, while they are both emotional characters who act on their feelings, they also use logic and critical thinking to plot out their actions. This is a positive trait, to be sure, and one that is rarely found in their male counterparts (Yay feminism!). Both have to deal with entitled male relatives who believe they know what is best for their offspring, but in reality are vastly misjudging (Emperor Palpatine and Lord Capulet).
Like Romeo is too late to realize that Juliet actually isn’t dead, Ben crawls from the crevice in which he supposedly died too late to save Rey. Both find their lovers motionless and cold.
“O my love! my wife! // Death, that hath suck’d the honey of thy breath, // Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty: // Thou art not conquer’d; beauty’s ensign yet // Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, //And death’s pale flag is not advanced there.”
(Shakespeare 5.3 100-105).
So yeah, Romeo isn’t the brightest bulb. He’s all like “She’s dead, but she doesn’t look dead. How weird is that?”. Nice, dude. Real nice.
Ben doesn’t face the same problem, the one where his dead love is secretly alive. Who knows how he would handle it if he did? I have a feeling not well. Ignorance is bliss.
“…O, here // Will I set up my everlasting rest, // And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars // From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last! // Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you // The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss // A dateless bargain to engrossing death! // Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide! // Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on // The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark! // Here’s to my love!”
(Shakespeare 5.3 118-129).
Both Romeo and Ben take a rather dramatic moment to appreciate their true love and prepare themselves for death. They both make a difficult choice. The difference is, while Romeo is just being dumb, Ben is making a sacrifice. While Romeo is wallowing is self-pity, Ben is putting Rey before himself. We can’t judge Romeo too much, because he doesn’t possess a magical power that can convert the last of his strength into life for Juliet. Still. Seriously dude?
“O true apothecary! // Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.”
(Shakespeare 5.3 129-130).
The classic line; the heart-wrenching passing of Romeo Montague. The main difference between Ben and Romeo’s situation is that Ben’s “drugs” are not quick. He doesn’t die immediately. He gets a moment to share with Rey before he goes. In contrast to Romeo kissing Juliet’s supposedly dead lips, Rey kisses Ben after she wakes up. This is much less gross. It’s more similar to the 90’s film version of the story called Romeo + Juliet, in which the lovers also have a shared moment at their end. Both Romeo and Ben die after the kiss, but only Ben dies after his lover awakens.
“What’s here? a cup, closed in my true love’s hand? // Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end: // O churl! drunk all, and left no friendly drop // To help me after? I will kiss thy lips; // Haply some poison yet doth hang on them, // To make die with a restorative.”
(Shakespeare 5.3 173-178).
Upon realization of Romeo’s death, Juliet wishes for a death of her own. Upon realization of Ben’s death, Rey is sad. Then she goes off and does what needs to be done.
“Yea, noise? then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger! // This is thy sheath; // there rust, and let me die.”
(Shakespeare 5.3 182-183).
Juliet stabs herself with Romeo’s dagger and dies. Instead of killing herself, Rey leaves. She is sad, but not stricken with grief. This probably has something to do with Ben’s previous evilness.
“The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love, // And the continuance of their parents’ rage, // Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove…”
(Shakespeare 1.1 9-11).
In Romeo and Juliet’s prologue, it is foretold that the deaths of the two lovers will be the only thing that can end the ancient grudge between the two houses.
“…civil blood makes civil hands unclean.”
(Shakespeare 1.1 4).
Th prologue also indicates that the battle between the two families is meaningless and unnecessary. Rey’s realization of the futility of the hate that lies between members of the Dark Side versus the Light Side at the end of The Rise of Skywalker is symbolized by her new yellow lightsaber. The weapon’s color shows that Rey has rejected the bipartisan ideas of the previous generations. She is now loyal only to The Force, not any one aspect of it.
On another note, Han is Mercutio. I’ll just leave it at that.
All in all, The Rise of Skywalker has many similarities with Romeo and Juliet, but it’s a much more hopeful version of the story. Rather than being a tragedy, it is an adventure. The characters make better decisions and their motives are rooted more in logic and love than simply sadness.
Both stories are incredible creations and both are relevant in today’s world. If you’re not familiar with the Romeo and Juliet story, there are some pretty good movies out there that you can watch. My personal favorite is Romeo + Juliet, but for those of you who prefer a more conventional version there’s always the 1968 version called Romeo and Juliet and the 2013 version which is also called Romeo and Juliet. You can check out more details in the links below. Of course, by reading the original play you can better appreciate the loveliness of the language, so that’s a great option too.
Intermediately Versed 