Kylo’s age bracket is perfectly calculated to appeal to a wide audience: it’s what I call the ’Mr Darcy age’, young enough to appeal to a younger woman audience, and old enough to appeal to older women without making them feel icky about it. He has a manly, imposing physique, contrasted with a much younger-looking face (I suspect some CGI wizardry there, btw) but without any ’cutesy’ features that would make him look too boyish. He looks every inch the Hades archetype. His costume, movement, and carefully coiffed Byronic hairstyle are all designed to maximize his dark-themed physical appeal. This is in no way intended to be a repulsive villain. They knew he would come across as sexy to a significant portion of the audience.
Summary: Kylo is HOT & we’re supposed to love him. YOU’RE DOING IT RIGHT.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
And I think this is what aggravates some fanboys. He’s a villain appealing to the female audience, not the male audience.
Sorry boys. It’s our turn.
SORRY BOYS. IT’S OUR TURN!!!!!!!
You know it.
That’s actually my favorite thing about this. That they chose Adam – who is unconventionally attractive. He doesn’t have the classic James Dean look like Han or the boyish charm of Anakin in the prequels. He’s handsome in such a unique way. When I first saw Adam in anything I was like “oh fuck.” because he looks like he could just be an ordinary dude, but there’s something about him that draws your attention. Maybe it’s the eyes. Or how interesting his bone structure is, narrow but not in a straight up Adrian Brody narrow. And he’s tall with broad shoulders and isn’t the skinny lean muscle build you see in most movies where someone is the romantic lead. He’s got strength in his limbs and torso but not to a point where it’s overdone like a marvel movie (sorry Evans, really I still love you.)
Stephen Colbert NAILED it when he called Adam a millennial sex symbol. Because he is.
And coding Kylo/Ben that way through the female gaze is something so revolutionary in film. Usually we get men coded through the male gaze with super thick rippling muscles and boyish charm (The Rock, the Chrises, etc.).
And here we get this, flowing haired, dark prince who has a tortured and pained air to how he speaks and acts without it feeling trite like some media has portrayed the tortured Byronic hero (Sorry Edward Cullen, but true all the same).
I love that the fanboys are butthurt over it. While though I do know several guys who were shocked when they heard me gush about my love for Adam Driver. Because they are used to me gushing over Evans or Pine because that’s what media has shoved down my throat as classically attractive for so long. Finding Adam’s beauty in his uniqueness is so fucking refreshing.
Like he takes the best of the well-muscled male heroes that Evans, Hemsworth, Pine, and co embody and adds a depth to it in complexity and resonance. My favorite things about TLJ are the scenes where we get to really focus in on Adam’s face. I know right? He’s so hyper expressive and there’s such beauty in the way he emotes.
We joke about fanfic and how eyes always tell emotions so blatantly in fic. But Adam’s eyes can do that very thing we have all written about and read trillions of times. And it’s unsettling and mesmerizing to see it.
Even JJ talks about him in that scene as a Prince to Rey’s Princess if they are talking about SW as a fairytale. And they make him so believably regal in that scene that it makes you honestly buy it that he’s the last Prince of the Royal House of Organa, heir to the ashes of Alderaan.
Yes!!! All of this!!^^^
👆👆
And this is why when antis [and other women] make fun of us for finding this “unattractive man” attractive, it’s not so much a dig at ADAM but a dig at OTHER WOMEN. It has been, and always will be, an attempt to suppress women and their sexuality.
TechieHux 