Laying Down Their Lives
In The Last Jedi, Rey uses the escape pod of the Millennium Falcon to surrender herself to the First Order, so that she can try to turn Kylo Ren back to the light side and restore him to his old self, Ben Solo. During this scene, there is a shot of Rey lying on her back within the escape pod as it lands in the hangar of the First Order’s flagship. Rey is shown in profile, her head resting on the left side of the frame.
This shot is mirrored in The Rise of Skywalker, when Leia senses Rey and her son dueling on another planet. Leia lies down on a bed as she reaches out in the Force to try to break up the fight. She, too, is shown in profile, her head resting on the left side of the frame.
These shots match each other because, in both scenes, a woman quite literally lays down her life to redeem Ben’s. Rey risks being killed by Ben at the command of his master, Snoke, and Leia dies of the effort to speak to Ben’s consciousness.
But these matching shots of women in profile, lying down, also recall the classic image, in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, of Snow White lying in her glass coffin. In The Last Jedi, Rey’s escape pod is coffin-like, its lid has a glass window, and Kylo Ren comes to open it just as the prince comes to open Snow White’s coffin. And in The Rise of Skywalker, Princess Leia’s body is surrounded by mourners just as the dwarves surround Princess Snow White’s. Maz Kanata underlines the parallel by bidding farewell to Leia with the words, “Goodbye, dear Princess.”
But whereas Snow White is awakened when the prince appears and kisses her, breaking the enchantment, in these two scenes it is not the woman laying down her life who needs to be rescued from death, but the prince. In The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren told his father, Han Solo, “Ben Solo is dead.” When Rey lays down her life for Ben, it is to try to bring him back to life, and when Leia lays down her life for him, it breaks the enchantment that turned him into Kylo Ren.
EXPLORE FURTHER…
Characters: Kylo Ren / Leia Organa / Rey
Films: Episode VIII: The Last Jedi / Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker
GO DEEPER INTO THE ARCHIVES…
Influences: Disney Animation / fairy tales
READ MORE ABOUT…
Follow The Jedi Archives on…