[Charles Soule’s The Rise of Kylo Ren] has also confirmed what many Star Wars fans had suspected all along; Ben Solo never really fell to the dark side at all. Where Anakin Skywalker was seduced by the dark side, Ben Solo was instead trapped by it. […] The Rise of Kylo Ren makes it abundantly clear Palpatine’s dark presence was at Ben’s side that night, when Luke entered his nephew’s room to watch over him. Although it’s not officially stated, the comic strongly implies Palpatine chose to let the mask slip, allowing Luke to sense the infinite evil of the Dark Lord of the Sith himself. Little wonder Luke reacted on instinct, suddenly aware of an infinite darkness and believing it to be Ben himself. It was probably Palpatine himself who stirred Ben Solo at that moment, and the boy defended himself, goaded into action by the Emperor’s words.
With Luke Skywalker supposedly slain, the entire galaxy believes Ben Solo then turned on the Jedi and destroyed the Temple, slaughtering all of Luke’s students. […] In contrast, [to Anakin’s slaughter the Younglings], Ben Solo was no participant in the destruction of a Jedi Temple; The Rise of Kylo Ren reveals Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Temple was destroyed by Palpatine. The Emperor didn’t want to act openly, fearful Luke would be too powerful for him to defeat. But with Luke down, Palpatine unleashed a terrible Force Storm upon the Jedi Temple, killing everyone there. Ben was nothing more than an observer, watching in horror as almost everyone he’d grown up with was slaughtered. He took the blame for what happened when three Jedi who had been offworld arrived, and found him standing there, grief-stricken because he believed he’d just slain his own uncle and was unable to explain the atrocity he’d just witnessed. […]
Ben Solo never truly fell to the dark side of the Force. Instead, he was imprisoned by it, trapped by the Emperor’s schemes. […] In Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, when Kylo Ren told Rey to “surrender” to the dark side — unwittingly hinting at the relationship he himself had with it, one of conquest and defeat rather than conscious choice. Importantly, this reframes the end of Ben Solo’s story, because he isn’t a man of darkness redeemed, like his grandfather. Rather, he is a prisoner who was freed by the faith of his parents and the woman who loved him, and who sacrificed himself to free the galaxy and give Rey the gift of a life of freedom.
— Thomas Bacon in Star Wars Proves Kylo Ren NEVER Fell To The Dark Side for SCREENRANT
