Okay so I’ve been seeing a lot of comparisons with kylo Ren/Ben solo and the weeping monk/ Lancelot. And honestly I see where people are coming from but there are major differences between these characters.
So for a star their personalities:
Kylo really can’t control his emotions, it’s always been noted that he throws tantrums and literally trashes everything around him when he loses his shit lmao. Like he doesn’t take failure well at all. And when he isn’t angry I’d say he’s still overall a very emotional character, especially when he’s with Snoke, he genuinely looks upset when talking to him (don’t blame him at all)
The weeping monk however is always calm. Even when father carden threatens to literally burn him alive if he failed he looked like he couldn’t give less of a shit. He obviously did but he controls his emotions very well. Now it’s obvious that’s he’s been disciplined this way (father carden also bring up how he disciplined him).
Back story:
Now kylos story is sad, I’m not denying that but it’s not as extreme. From a young age Palpatine was in his head (I’d say that’s grooming) and trying to manipulate him and turn him, resulting in him obviously having a strong connection to the dark side, something he obviously already has because of his family. His parents didn’t know how to handle this and sent him off to train with Luke (so he must’ve felt abandoned). Luke also sense the darkness in him and because of this literally contemplated killing him, young so far as to actually get his lightsaber out, which ultimately was the last push into turning Ben/kylo to the dark side (but not completely as we all now know) I also think it’s important to note that kylo still having his parents is a an important part of his backstory, as he blames them for his connection to the light (resulting in him killing his father).
Now the weeping monks back story (in my opinion anyway) is a bit more extreme, the reason I think this is because it’s actually mirroring some awful historical events that have actually happened (will mention that later). He is a Fey, something the church wishes to eradicate completely. Father carden and the red Palidans killed his entire family (so unlike kylo he didn’t have people still fighting for him to be redeemed) and literally all his people (the ash folk) resulting in him being the last of his kind, this was all when he was about 5-6 years old. He was taken and brought up believing he was a literal demon. Farther carden saying “you are demon born, an abomination in the eyes of god” and being brought up like that with no one fighting for him led him to believe he needed to redeem himself and save his soul, while also saving the souls of other people; he said to the green knight “we’re saving souls, your soul” so he literally thinks he’s delivering people to heaven (please don’t think this is a good excuse, literally nothing excuses genocide, it’s disgusting). Now that historically event I was talking about, the Ottoman Empire used to take Christian children from the balkans, kill their families, convert them to Islam and turn them against their own. These children, much like the weeping monk actually got higher up in ranks than the Turkish children even though they were born on opposite sides. This is because they gave the harshest training to the converted (once Christian) children because they weren’t actually their people. Having harsher training (although many died) resulted in the survivors being the best of the best... although very abused and definitely “brainwashed” to some extent. Now no one from the balkans calls these children “traitors” they call them victims because that’s exactly what they are.
(Also really like how in these gifs kylo has snow falling around him and the weeping monk has fire embers around him lol)
Intentions:
Now kylo, after being manipulated wanted to be on the dark side... in fact he was literally annoyed that he even felt a pull to the light side. He said “forgive me, I feel it again... the pull to the light”. He was actively seeking out a darker side to himself but he was struggling with that (something I found really interesting about him as a character). He clearly didn’t want to do or be good, he wanted to impress his master snoke, and you can’t really blame him, it was obviously an abusive relationship with him being the victim. That being said he still wasn’t trying to do the right thing, and yet he feels a pull to do so (which thankfully ends up working, resulting in a redemption)
Now the weeping monk is the complete opposite when it comes to this. Like I said previously he (the idiot), thinks he’s saving people souls because that’s what he’s been brought up and brainwashed to believe as well as trying to save his own. You can tell he’s actually afraid that his soul is damned. While kylo is actively seeking out darkness but being pulled to the light, the weeping monk is actively seeking out the light but only getting darkness. He says “I reach out and there is only darkness” when he talks about reaching for “gods grace”. So both him and kylo are reaching out for something and getting the complete opposite. While kylo is trying to be some dark sider in the force, the weeping monk is trying to redeem himself, and by doing so is achieving the exact opposite.
If you read all of that, thank you 😅 if not I can’t say I blame you. Just to be clear I wasn’t hating on either of these characters or excusing anything they did. If you have any thoughts on this please let me know!
