SPECULATION Did Kylo save Rey?

Maybe Kylo didn't know her name during the battle with the Clan. Maybe the knight he ran through refused to stand down. Since they fashion themselves as knights, i'm assuming they must have some sort of code.

 

Standing ovation.

--- Double Post Merged, Feb 2, 2016, Original Post Date: Feb 2, 2016 ---

They'd better if that's the case.

 

But Rey doesn't know Kylo Ren yet... She gets a really bad first impression in the forceback, and it just goes downhill from there. Her hate in TFA is rooted in her ignorance about Kylo's back story. This will change, I'm sure.

 

I'd like to point out some specific reasons why I personally believe they have met before. Or, at the very least, Kylo has heard about Rey in the past.

I'm gonna skip the "what girl??" debacle, because it's been addressed countless times already. I'd rather go straight to how Kylo behaved after Rey not only resisted him but also managed to read his mind.

"He's just stunned by her powers", some might say. Let's read on...

He's entirely distracted, as if racking his brain trying to figure something out. And then...

He lingers at the Falcon - his father's ship - trying to have a breakthrough, for something to click.

It is my understanding that when the saber flies to Rey's hand he finally realizes who she is. I don't buy for a second that "It is you" meant Kylo was acknowledging that she was the awakening of the Force that he and Snoke felt earlier. Really? You can't have it both ways. He either spends pages walking around aimlessly, stunned and speechless at her strength with the Force, or he only realizes her power when she pulls the saber out of the snow.

So she manages to read his mind and the saber incident is what clues him in that she's Force sensitive? A very specific light saber, for that matter? His granfather's light saber? That's not relevant at all to the scene?

 

i dunno ~ i feel pretty waffly about this. my first read on this was as you described including the "it is you", but since then i have come to believe he may, in fact be referring to the awakening. yes, he's stunned outside the interrogation room; stunned and awed. it's the same sense i get when she catches the lightsaber ~ that look on his face isn't angry or upset, he's amazed and excited.

the other two incidents you cite about him wandering around being distracted, to me, are about Han, not Rey. he stares off into the distance, he's searching the Falcon ~ he knows Han is there and he's trying to (or trying not to) reconnect with his past or reconcile the inevitability of having to face his father.

and he's obviously aware she's FS and very strongly so after she resists the probe (he even says it to Snoke). when she catches the saber he's not just suddenly realizing her power, he's just now fully appreciating the extent of her power (i.e. she is the one).

i just came from watching the movie and while i know the book gives a lot more context to various scenes (some of which you have quoted), i really don't feel like the movie supports a reading that definitively suggests they know each other or ever did. everything he does is explainable in some other fashion.

personally i continue to be on the fence because i still kinda think he had something to do with her ending up on Jakku, but i just don't think it's so cut and dried.

 

Wait, there's more...

From the novel: "A stunned Rey could only track him with her eyes. She had seen this man before, in a daydream. In a nightmare."

The contrast between "daydream" and "nightmare" is very interesting and very telling

 

Where in the book is that from exactly? Kylo?

--- Double Post Merged, Feb 3, 2016, Original Post Date: Feb 3, 2016 ---

It would make sense if a young Rey was present during the rain battle with the "Clan" – I think it would've been more dangerous for Rey if they knew her real identity or that she was force sensitive. To the KOR she probably was just some orphaned girl – and what do you do to orphans… Jakku

 

I'll check when I get home later today

 

It's from when Rey first sees Kylo arrive at Takodana.

What's also interesting is that in the junior novel it indicates Rey has indeed been dreaming of "that voice" for a long time.

 

definitely lends strength to the argument, but could also be chalked up to FS. she knew the island before she ever went there as well.

i agree the daydream/nightmare is an interesting contrast.

 

So he was in full costume, with the mask and all. How could she have seen such a creature in a daydream? Was it her force sensitivity in action? She saw him in her dreams because their pasts are connected somehow, even though he's not a particularly daydream-ish vision?

 

he could have not unleashed his full power for rey because he wanted her to join the dark side.