The Silver Shift KnobThere Is Nothing More Significant Between Din & The Child, Than The Silver Shift

The Silver Shift Knob There is nothing more significant between Din & the Child, than the silver shift  knob.

When the child first focuses on the bright shiny object , he sees it as some form of goal. A beacon if you will. 

He goes for it .

 When he’s trying to consume it, eat it, like kids do , and Mando takes it saying “That’s not a toy “ 

 , the child clearly is hurt by it.

And it’s made more heartbreaking as Din picks him up and puts him back in his crib . His ears turned down and the clear tears welling up in his eyes is our first inclination that the child feels so hurt .

But it’s also a clear indication of Din fighting his emerging feelings . He wants to turn around , and almost does. But he tries to maintain his cold persona . The kid is just a bounty 

. He knows if he looks at the pain in his face .. he will break. Jump forward .. it is the same silver knob that triggers the change .

 Sure we saw it when he watched the child float from sight as he collected his payment . 

Sure we knew when he asked what would happen to the child that there were stirrings there. Sure we knew when he told the Stormtrooper “Easy with that”.. when he grabbed the floating crib roughly . But it wasn’t until he was back on the Razorcrest and he reached for that lever that he realized … 

THAT HE MADE A MISTAKE. That he cared . He has fought caring for so long .

 And now .. it was back .. Full Force . He went against the empire .. he is now on the run … for this child .

And the first thing he does after rescuing the child and they are back in his ship.. is give him his silver shift knob… WITHOUT HESITATION.

After helping the prisoner escape and delivering him in episode 6.. the first thing he does is unscrew that silver knob.

.. and gives it to the child.

That silver knob is the symbol of their connection . And now that the child has Din’s Mandolorian necklace  … the child has another “heirloom” of his “Father’s “ shift as a man.

Din is not just caring for this Foundling out of duty , or because the child would be dead or lost . He clearly understands and wants the child to always understand and know , that he loves him .  It’s so sweet . 

I promise I am not sending this in bad faith but it kind of surprises me that so many intelligent and well-read people in the Reylo fandom did not see Ben’s death coming in a mainstream American piece of media aimed family audiences. Unfortunately, a (redeemed) murderous villain settling down with the heroine was never a realistic expectation to have from such a massive franchise. Especially not on screen. But I can see them bringing him back in a book with a niche readership.

Not meaning to be rude, but it 100% was a reasonable expectation to have. Star Wars is (was) very unique among American franchises. It already eschews many models of American storytelling.

The entire Force in the OT is based on your "feelings", a concept ridiculed by modern unsentimental storytelling and culture. Luke is told to "trust his feelings." Luke wins not because he physically overpowers Vader or Palpatine but because he throws away his weapon because violence will only turn him to darkness, declares that he won't fight Vader because he "is a Jedi, like his father before him", and is saved by Anakin coming to his senses and redeeming himself by protecting Luke after Luke shows true love and compassion for his father. The day is not won by punching a guy, as it usually is in American storytelling. The day is won because a son refused to fight and instead merely reminded his father that he loved him.

Star Wars is explicitly based on mythic storytelling as interpreted and given lens by Joseph Campbell. As in, Lucas was friends with Campbell and literally told Campbell so. Lucas intended, very clearly, to make a story in the fashion of old myth. And in the fashion of old myth, old men may die, but youth must live. Lucas even is quoted as saying, "I believe you are redeemed through your children." Ben, being young, being the child in this scenario and not the father, 110% should have lived under SW's original mythic logic.

I have explained why Ben needed to live here in this pre TROS post and I stand by the logic which TROS abandoned and which therefore breaks the integrity of the story. Anakin did not die as Vader because it was punishment. It was framed as a release for an old man who had suffered for twenty years in a broken body. Obi Wan, Luke, and Han dying also do not die to be punished because they are old men who lived their lives fully and now die with purpose. Ben is none of these things and his death is a cynical exception.

It is pandering to the lowest common denominator to act like SW was always this way. Original Star Wars was created explicitly to counter the cynical American storytelling you are talking about.

"Rather than do some angry, socially relevant film…I realized there was another relevance that is even more important — dreams and fantasies, getting children to believe there is more to life than garbage and killing…Once I got into STAR WARS, it struck me that we had lost all that — a whole generation was growing up without fairy tales. You just don’t get them anymore, and that’s the best stuff in the world — adventures in far-off lands. It’s fun.” (x)

"You can’t, and how do you explain a Wookiee to an audience, and how do you get the tone of the film right, so it’s not a silly child’s film, so it’s not playing down to people, but it is still an entertaining movie and doesn’t have a lot of violence and sex and hip new stuff? So it still has a vision to it, a sort of wholesome, honest vision about the way you want the world to be.” (x)

Anyway. I am trying not to be aggressive but I have answered so many asks on this topic in the past. Those of us who insisted that Ben needed to live did not do so with some blind spot in our literary vision. Star Wars, until TROS, was not a Marvel movie, was not an "American story", was very explicitly textually by its creator built on ancient myth and non-cynicism. Ben dying breaks the integrity of this ancient myth logic and it therefore breaks star wars. SW wasn't about, in George's words, "garbage and killing." That it has now betrayed itself isn't my problem or our fault for believing in the shape of George's vision, not sorry.

‘There’s a wonderful little moment right before the electron beam opens. Ewan, he’s sort of anticipating the doors about to open and he’s bouncing up and down a little bit. That wasn’t directed, that was just what Ewan was doing to kind of psych himself up for the take about to start. But George liked it so much that he included that in there.’

-John Knoll, VFX Supervisor. [x]

sw meme ≡ 1/10 characters: kylo ren

“Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to. That’s the only way to become what you are meant to be.”

tbh I'm going through a period of apathy regarding tros and ben solo. i feel like a fool for caring about him in the first place when it seems it was jj's plan to kill him off all along and it makes me mad I believed his "he's not Vader 2.0," and "it's gonna be fun!" so yeah, I can't be mad anymore about what appears to be a fundamental misunderstanding of what made these films so important. it has also shook my faith in sw going forward but yes, apathy is what I feel now.