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A LOOK AT CHARACTERS BEING FAKE KILLED IN FICTION: Because what’s happening right now with Ben has happened so many times before.
I’m down the rabbit hole again...
I’m down the rabbit hole again...
It’s very common for movies, tv shows, and books to fake kill characters, particularly their most popular characters. This creates drama and hype for the character returning, and can also be an important story arc as well.
(Which I’m pretty sure is the case for Ben as I think we will be exploring the WBW in much more depth through him.) This happens all the time in fiction, particularly fantasy stories.
I’m not going to list them all out because I’d be here forever, but here’s a few. Gandalf “died” in Lord of the Rings and then came back stronger than ever.
Game of Thrones “killed” Jon Snow, one of the fan favorite and most important characters in the series, just to bring him back. And Star Wars has already brought back a ton, like Ahsoka.
Right now I actually want to look at both Jon and Ahsoka because it's pretty interesting. What happened with them is exactly to what’s happening right now with Ben.
In Game of Thrones when Jon died people were shocked and upset. He was so important! One of the most popular characters! Even with GOT constantly killing characters people couldn’t believe this one. How could they do this? Here’s a super amusing article from after the episode:
"The episode ended with Jon laying in a pool of his own blood, staring blankly up at the sky. And as much as I hoped that some supernatural force was going to save him from death, Kit Harington has already revealed that he's done on the show.
He won't be back next season. Jon is really and truly dead. And we'll never trust this show again." https://www.eonline.com/news/666554/game-of-thrones-season-5-finale-recap-was-quot-mother-s-mercy-quot-the-most-brutal-episode-yet-oh-yes
Kit then also spent the next year lying: "Quite honestly, I have never been told the future of things in this show, but this is the one time I have. They sat me down and said, “This is how it is”. If anything in the future is not like that, then I don’t know about it –
it’s only in David and Dan and George’s heads. But I’ve been told I’m dead. I’m dead. I’m not coming back next season. So that’s all I can tell you, really." https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a652841/game-of-thrones-star-wont-be-back-for-season-6-im-dead-im-not-coming-back-next-season/
But there were also a lot of clues that he could return. So what did fans spend the entire next year doing? Talking about Jon Snow and whether or not he’s alive. It created so much hype and discussion. And myself and many others knew he’d be back because it was all set up and we
were given the clues…
Just like we have been with Ben. (And guess what there’s a hundred more clues for Ben coming back than there ever were for Jon.
)
Just like we have been with Ben. (And guess what there’s a hundred more clues for Ben coming back than there ever were for Jon.
)
Looking at what happened with Ahsoka is super interesting as well. Here’s a video @OutletFangirl made showing Ahsoka “dying” and being mourned. After this fans had to wait two years to find out that Ezra had saved her.
Some people believed she was really dead and were trying to justify it: “Ahsoka has to die facing Vader because it makes sense. She had a tight relationship with Anakin over the course of the Clone Wars, and he helped make her into the woman that she became.
Logically, there’s nothing left for her character to do except to confront her old master one last time to try to bring him back from the darkness. Sadly, we knew going into the fight how that scene would end.” https://popcultureuncovered.com/2016/04/04/star-wars-rebels-for-the-sake-of-the-story-ahsoka-tano-must-die/
But also because there was that one brief glimpse of Ahsoka in the temple at the end, the speculation and theories started. It got people talking.
When asked if Ahsoka is dead or alive here’s a piece of what Filoni said:
When asked if Ahsoka is dead or alive here’s a piece of what Filoni said:
“I think that right now what’s important is it’s really a moment for you as a fan and for me to see more of what you’re made of. Like how strong is your faith. What do you believe? What did you see there in the final moments? ‘Cause I know what happened for sure. And I think that
it would be just cruel and rob you of your own independence if I said blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” [...] “‘Cause interest is good. ‘Cause it means we keep making the show.” https://www.slashfilm.com/star-wars-rebels-season-2-finale-questions/
Filoni also gave some teases:
“He then continued on to say after the big fan reaction to the season finale and widespread hope to see her again, “It just might be possible." He stressed that he didn't want anyone to assume that meant for sure that Ahsoka had survived her fight
“He then continued on to say after the big fan reaction to the season finale and widespread hope to see her again, “It just might be possible." He stressed that he didn't want anyone to assume that meant for sure that Ahsoka had survived her fight
with Darth Vader though, adding, "It doesn’t necessarily mean what some of us would hope it means. But it might be possible to see her again. She might have something to do.” https://www.ign.com/articles/2016/07/15/star-wars-celebration-2016-ahsoka-will-seemingly-return-to-rebels
He tweeted out this image teasing:
“You can stare at them for hours and try to figure out what does it mean,”
“You can stare at them for hours and try to figure out what does it mean,”
(Thank you @OutletFangirl and @BenSoloalive for sending me these articles so that what was supposed to be a short thread turned into a research paper 
)
)
And Ahsoka came back and now seems more important than ever.
So what’s my point? Where am I going with all of this? It’s happening again. Where there’s smoke there’s fire. There’s a reason why there’s clues and theories everywhere, why 7 months after the movie the rumors about Ben are still flying around. We were given clues in the movie:
No Ben Force ghost, Leia’s vision, her disappearing at the same time as Ben, Maz smiling, etc. And we were given even way more clues in extra material like the Visual Dictionary. Lucasfilm set this up on purpose.
But these characters coming back takes time. When Ahsoka and Jon Snow died, it wasn’t announced right away that they were coming back. For Ahosoka it was two years. For Jon it took one year. But if you had read the book it took FIVE years to get answers for him.
And if it wasn’t for the tv show, we’d still be thinking he’s dead NINE YEARS later.
My point is that this type of thing is normal, and expecting Lucasfilm to have given us an answer about Ben already is unfortunately not realistic. That’s not how these things work. (Also no I’m not saying it’s going to take nine years)
But the nice thing is is that LF employees have thrown extra hints and hope our way. Filoni, Vic Mahoney, and especially Matt have been trying to help us. He doesn’t have to do it. And I certainly don’t think he’d do it if Ben
isn’t coming back. He knows what we want. All of LF does. He’s not going to bait us. He’s not cruel and trust me he and LF would not want the backlash from doing something like that.
He's been trying to help. To give us as much hope as possible without literally saying the words that Ben is coming back (although he’s gotten quite close at this point), because obviously he can’t.
Just because they haven’t announced it yet doesn’t mean they don’t have plans. I get it, I’m impatient too. I want Ben back and this story hurts. It feels like it’s been forever but unfortunately it’s barely been any time at all for film production. These things take time.
Filoni, when talking about Ahsoka had said “How strong is your faith?” This is just like “Hope is like the sun.” People at LF have told us not to give up hope. This is a central theme of Star Wars. It’s an important message not just for the characters, but for us as well. 
