That scene

SPOILERS

NO REALLY SPOILERS

YOU’VE BEEN WARNED, DAMMIT

NOW GO AWAY OR I SHALL TAUNT YOU A SECOND TIME

SPOILERS BEGIN HERE

OR MAYBE HERE

WHATEVER

SPOILERS!

“Hey, kid.”

I knew whose voice that was the moment I heard it.

I gasped.

No way HE’S in this, right?

Kylo Ben turns around, and there he is, larger than life, his father.

My hero.

Han Solo.

“I’ve missed you, son.”

That line hit me in the chest SO DAMN HARD that I gasped again.  I clutched my chest.

I sobbed.

The entire exchange between them was a catharsis for me, having lost my Dad last year.

It was almost as if my own Dad was talking to me, through Han, with me as Ben.

Especially the last part, echoing the words said between them in The Force Awakens.

For a time now I’ve been questioning myself about, well, everything, and not knowing if I myself am strong enough to do what needs to be done.

And then Han telling Ben that he is strong enough, are words that I needed to hear, though a surrogate on a movie screen.

And then the final nod to The Empire Strikes Back.

“Dad…”

“I know.”

That, in a nutshell, is MY Dad to his children, my siblings.

I miss you too, Dad.  I love you.