‘The Force Awakens’: How Rey Really Won Her Duel with Kylo Ren
The Star Wars franchise is one of the biggest franchises in the world, but ever since the original trilogy ended, things have been a bit rocky, to say the least. However, something that many fans can agree on was that The Force Awakens was easily the best Star Wars movie in a long time.
That said, it’s not a flawless film, and fans have a couple of questions about a few scenes in the movie. One of the more common questions was about how Rey was able to beat Kylo Ren in a lightsaber duel. The answer to that question is actually pretty simple.
The lightsaber duel in ‘The Force Awakens’
At about halfway into The Force Awakens, Rey gets kidnapped by Kylo Ren, and he brings her to Starkiller Base. There, he interrogates her, but Rey, being the powerful force user that she is, manages to escape by tricking her guards. Her friends don’t know that she’s escaped, so they hatch a plan to free her, all the meanwhile, blowing up Starkiller Base.
After Kylo Ren kills his father, Han Solo, the good guys start blowing up the base. Rey needs to escape with her friends, but Kylo Ren is still trying to capture her. Finn tries to stop Kylo Ren, but he fails, leaving the lightsaber for her to use to defend herself against Kylo Ren. After a harrowing fight in the snowy forest, she beats Kylo Ren, rescues Finn, and they then leave Starkiller Base as it explodes.
The practical reasons why Rey beat Kylo Ren
Like fans on Reddit said, there were many reasons why Rey was able to defeat Kylo Ren. Some critics thought that Kylo Ren, who’s been training with lightsabers and the force for a long time, would be able to easily defeat Rey. However, like fans said, Rey was a skilled fighter too, as she grew up fighting with a staff weapon on the mean deserts of Jakku.
On top of that, Kylo Ren was not at 100%. After he killed his father, Chewie shoots Kylo Ren with his bowcaster, and this almost killed him. Earlier in the movie, Chewie’s bowcaster was doing a lot of damage to the First Order troopers, and Kylo Ren ate the shot cleanly on his abs. And, while Kylo Ren was able to easily defeat Finn, Finn did manage to wound Kylo Ren a bit.
Plus, Kylo Ren doesn’t actually want to kill Rey during their fight. In the middle of the fight, he even offered to become her teacher. Rey on the other hand, was fighting for her life, and so she was going hard while Kylo Ren was taking it a bit easy.
The other reason that Rey won
And, like fans on Reddit said, what really pushed Rey over the edge and allowed her to win was her acceptance of the force. The force is magic, and, like the other Star Wars movies have shown, it’s at its strongest when the person accepts the force and believes in it.
That’s exactly what she did at the end of the fight. Rey closed her eyes, believed in the force, and suddenly, she was strong enough to defeat Kylo Ren. There are more layers to it, too. For example, up until that point, Kylo Ren didn’t know how powerful Rey really was when it came to the force. By using the force, she surprised him, and this, when combined with everything else, allowed her to get the upper hand.
This moment in the movie is pretty similar to the ending of A New Hope. Luke believed in the force, and that was what allowed him to fire his torpedoes into the Death Star’s core.
