💌Hello, it's #shippingday! And since this week we're talking about authorship, let's talk about #Reylo! 1/8
💌#Reylo, it’s a tension between institutional authorship held by #Lucasfilm and #Disney, which has official control over the #StarWars canon, and a more diffuse, collective authorship managed by the fandom through a massive production of fanfiction and fan art. 2/8
💌Because #Reylo is first and foremost a fan interpretation: it's the fans who create the ship, it's the fans who analyze it, it's the fans who fully embrace the space left by the narrative ambiguity of the relationship between Rey and Kylo Ren. 3/8
💌From my point of view, #Reylo is a bit bittersweet: because the last movie of the sequel trilogy validates the fan interpretation with a kiss, but it doesn't last long; institutional authorship quickly takes over and closes off the interpretation by killing Kylo. 4/8
💌I see this move as a desire from the studios to refocus the #authorship: they pretend to accept fan analysis, but immediately set limits. Furthermore, I've always felt the kiss came out of nowhere; it's just #fanservice with no real narrative purpose. 5/8
💌#Reylo, it’s the perfect illustration of the power dynamic between institutions and fandoms, and of who has the right to interpret, to desire, to tell the story, who holds the narrative authority of the canon. Not all authorships are entitled to the same recognition. 6/8
💌Plus, #Reylo is supported primarily by female fans, whose romantic readings are too often dismissed supposedly in the name of a "good" moral or narrative reading experience. In short, we see who still holds the power here. 7/8
💌Finally, a beautiful Reylo #fanart by @boomdafunk, check it out on Instagram!
Let me know what you think, do you agree or not? That was the last #shippingday of the year, see you next year to talk about shipping and copyright! 8/8
https://www.instagram.com/p/DAUCjUmKTjB/