This is a really incredible post. I think you've nailed the conflicting issues here. And, yeah, you've hit the nail on the head with the way that people with different POVs and different wounds can have conflicting desires about a narrative. (The need to see That Guy shut up vs. the need to see him grapple with his actions and the consequences.) Personally, I think most of Those Guys can change, just most of them choose not too. So Kylo Ren doing the difficult work of changing? Acknowledging his actions and understanding the consequences, while also working to reclaim what was taken from him? I think that could still be part of the subversion.


So show Kylo Ren paying for it, painfully and hesitantly. Not absolution, but atonement. Arguments with Poe where the damage he has done is drilled into his head - Finn silent and judging, "if I left, then so could you," - the knowledge that Rey has every right to not forgive him for what he has done to her, every right to not trust him.

No, seriously, you should watch Avatar: The Last Airbender.