you can’t say that the found family is the one that matters while also placing so much of the stakes on the biological family. the audience doesn’t believe you when you say one matters over the other, because all you’ve been saying to this point is the opposite

it’s disingenuous and contradictory. if the thesis is that we forge bonds of love with people through struggle and devotion, and these are the bonds that carry us through, then the antithesis is that it is only who we are apart from all other people that give us the power

to get through hardship. Both cannot be true. one is a message of individualist thinking, and the other is a message of radical love and community. the idea of a found family is one that has its origins in challenging ideas of legacy and biology.

to be frank, it challenges class divisions, heteronormativity, and biological-centric ideas of love and power. to champion it in fiction is to echo the lived experiences of people who were thrown out of their born families because society marginalized them

I just think it’s strange to invoke a radical and far-reaching idea, but simultaneously strip it of its significance by undermining everything it stands for. tlj told us that the found family matters, but tros cut off its own thesis and said genetics matter more.

I believe so strongly in the transformative power of love. my own family is cobbled together through second chances and choices, not through birth. And I love the idea of seeing this play out on screen in a GFFA. but that isn’t what I understood to be true in tros.

I understood that even if Rey forms these bonds with people, her power doesn’t come from loving them and fighting for them, but rather it comes from blood ties. and I’m told something different. and then something different again.

I just want to know what happened to the idea that the sequel trilogy is about finding new ways to pay the debt of previous generations. I wanted so much for it to be about finding new ways of loving, of atoning, of forgiving.

I know some people will disagree with this interpretation, but I just wanted to share my perspective. I think there’s value in exploring the weights of our legacy, as well as in the power of found families, and I’m disappointed that neither were given their due.