My Thoughts on Kylo Ren *spoilers*
What a villain this fella is.
What was it about Kylo Ren that made him such a compelling antagonist? Was it his scary mask and proclivity to dress is in imposing black capes? Was it his scary triple bladed lightsaber? Was it his incredible anger management issues?Or maybe his feverish devotion to his grandfather? For me, it was none of those things. It was his vulnerability.
Weâve seen him murder innocent villagers, choke his own military officers, and destroy computer consoles in countless fits of rage. But people have written about the moment when Ren takes off his mask, the audience loses all sense of fear and intimidation. Iâd argue that the purpose of Ren, unlike Vader, wasnât meant to make you scared or intimidated by him. In fact, in some ways youâre almost meant to sympathize and relate with him. While Vader was famously described as âmore machine than manâ, Ren embodies some of humanityâs greatest weaknesses - insecurity, doubt, impatience, arrogance, recklessness, and anger. Basically, heâs a whiny brat. Â
This is what sets him apart from his villainous contemporaries. When we first meet him, heâs not the fully formed villain Vader was, and itâs for this reason Iâm delighted he didnât get the Darth Maul treatment in this first installment. Itâs incredibly exciting to speculate that throughout these three movies, weâll be seeing Kyloâs journey along with Reyâs. A parallel sort of progression as it were, of two pupils of the Light Side and the Dark Side, under two Light and Dark Side Masters (Luke and Snoke).
Is redemption out of the question for Kylo Ren? I wouldnât think so. In killing his father, he believed he would vanquish within him for good, but for some reason I only think it would weigh against his conscience even more. That image of his lightsaber stabbed through his heart is going to haunt his dreams for as long as he lives.
It really makes you wonder what exactly it was that turned Ben Solo to the Dark Side. Thereâs precious few details, and all we firmly know is that he was once Lukeâs padawan, and went to his burgeoning Academy, before he turned and slaughtered all his fellow students, and sending his uncle into hiding. We know it was Snoke who turned him, and, according to Han Solo, chose him as his apprentice due to his considerable power (his Grandfather was Anakin, after all). Han elaborates that Snoke will later discard of him when he done with him, raising even more questions about what Snokeâs ultimate motivations are (is he some sort of Force Vampire? Is he Darth Plagueis?). But we still donât know why it was he fell to the Dark Side, or why he began idolizing the man who rejected the Dark Side with his dying breath.
It creates an interesting dichotomy between Anakin and Ben - Anakin fell to the Dark Side in order to save the ones he loved, while Ben killed his loved ones in order to fall deeper into the Darkness. And Ben worships Vader, not the good man who was under the mask. In his twisted psyche, he probably believes Darth Vader was betrayed by Anakin Skywalker, when he renounced the Dark Side and embraces the Light. He sees it as his destiny to finish what Vader started, that being the extermination of the Jedi from the Galaxy. It makes you wonder why exactly Anakinâs Force Ghost doesnât appear to his misguided grandson and ask him wtf is wrong with him, but I get the feeling thatâs a story for Episode VIII or IX.
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