Kylo Ren and the Holy War
HANG ON. I think I’m onto something. Firstly, this bit in the Visual Dictionary clarifies that the resemblance (which, as a Mediaevalist, I’d wondered about) of Kylo’s lightsaber to a Mediaeval crossguard sword was in fact deliberate:
“Kylo Ren’s unusual lightsaber is an ancient design, dating back thousands of years to the Great Scourge of Malachor. The crossguard blades, or quillons, are tributaries of the primary central blade, all spawning from a cracked kyber crystal that is the cause of their ragged, unstable appearance. An array of focusing crystal activators split the plasma stream into perpendicular blade energy channels creating the quillons. The emitter shrouds on the crossguard protect the bearer’s hand from the smaller blades.”
As you can see, this group of people (who, I think, have been confirmed as being Knights of Ren) have a rather strange assortment of old-fashioned-seeming weapons, which I wondered about before:
From this and some other screencaps you can see at least some kind of a battle-axe, some kind of a spear, and some mace-like blunt weapons. At first sight, their armour is also vaguely reminiscent of the Middle Ages.
Then it occurred to me exactly what Kylo’s costume has been reminding me of all along. It was a bit of a ’d’oh’ moment because it should have occurred to me sooner: I have actually studied them! The Hospitaller Knights, also known as the Knights of St John. An order of crusader fighting monks that was founded after the fall of the Templars. As the name implies, the Hospitallers originally also founded and took care of hospitals, though that business kind of fell by the wayside when they got more and more into the Holy War business.
Look them up on Google because there are many examples of the kind of costumes worn in different centuries and by different ranks: according to pictorial evidence, the black tabbards worn over armour came in different lengths, sometimes calf length surcoats, sometimes almost floor length, sometimes like a shorter tunic; sometimes layered; belted at the waist; and outside of the battlefield, they’d have worn a long, narrowish black monk’s habit with a black hooded cloak. Sound familiar?
Here’s an example of a longer surcoat from a shop that sells re-enactment gear:
The Hospitaller uniform was black with a white cross, though some of the lower-ranking soldiers had red uniforms, too. Templars and Teutonic Knights (other crusading orders) wore white uniforms with a red and black cross respectively, but otherwise similar in shape. The long, flowing tabbards worn over armour are definitely associated with the various orders of crusader knights, and the crossguard shape of the lightsaber brings the association home.
Here, Kylo seems to be wearing a combination of a longer surcoat and a shorter tabbard, both of them very Mediaeval in design:
Also, Kylo’s helmet is rather reminiscent of various 15th-century sallets in shape, though the front visor is more 13th century.
Basically, the Knights of Ren is starting to sound like a Mediaeval cosplay project gone horribly wrong.
Except that there’s more. Some Googling led me to connect Malachor to the Mandalorian Wars, which in turn connected to - surprise, surprise - crusaders in the Star Wars universe:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mandalorian_Neo-Crusaders
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mandalorian_Crusaders
The Mandalorians seem to have been heavily indoctrinated and had their own sacred laws: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Resol%27nare
(Note that one of the sacred laws is the wearing of armour, which might mean that Kylo isn’t wearing his helmet only as a homage to Vader, but as a religious duty…)
Perhaps the Telegraph review’s description of Kylo as a ’radicalised Dark Side jihadi’ is surprisingly accurate. This heavy crusader symbolism here is starting to seem uncomfortably as though teenaged Ben got brainwashed into a religious cult that idealizes a Mediaeval-style concept of Holy War.
Oh dear. That’s all I’ve got right now: oh. dear.
Goooood costume design. Goooooooooooooooood costume design.
Great post. Another thing to point out about Malachor is its connection to the Jedi-turned-Sith Revan. The planet was essentially destroyed by a superweapon in the war, and marked Revan’s total defeat of the Mandalorians. Revan also went so far as to wear a Mandalorian Neo-Crusader mask during the campaign, its image being probably the most popular Star Wars villain look outside the movies. Despite being the enemy of the Mandalorians, Revan ended up being revered by them, especially after he killed their leader in single combat. As these things often happen, Revan ended up resembling the evil he worked so hard to defeat.
Kylo Ren’s obsession with Vader is clear, but thematically his crusade reminds me more of Revan’s fall to the Dark Side. Vader was more like a Nazi SS officer- a fascist enforcer. But Revan was a crusader, and a charismatic one at that. The Knights of Ren seem much closer to the “Revanchists” of the Mandalorian Wars, falling to the Dark Side because of their obsession with a crusade.
The design for Force Awakens is amazing in general, and I’m planning a pretty extensive post covering it in the near future!
It was pretty thrilling to see even a casual reference to the KotoR tossed into the movies. I had worried for a long time that Disney would completely write off that (arguably best) extended universe lineage. Knowing that the people designing Ren were obviously VERY aware of the games, and took a lot of cues from them with his legacy weapon / look, made me incredibly hopeful for the upcoming movies. Fingers crossed for more Mandalorians ;)
