Kylo Ren is NOT the big bad of Star Wars Ep7-9…but we’ve been clued in to who is…
Bare with me this got lengthy but I think it’s worth a read.
The Last Jedi basically took all the things we thought we knew about Star Wars and set them on fire. While we see many of the same elements and themes from the previous films, we were left questioning a lot including if Kylo Ren is a good guy or bad guy. So much of Star Wars has been built on being able to label the chacarters. Darth Vader is the bad guy, but then he saves his son and is now a good guy, etc.
The Last Jedi however upturned our labels and moved some pieces behind the scenes that many might have missed clueing us in to who the real enemy is. When I sat down and thought about this I was reminded of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire when Haynitch tells Katniss to remember who the real enemy is. Katniss is puzzled because she knows exactly who her enemies are, the dozens of tributes she’s about to face that will stop at nothing to kill her. But then again at the end of the film where the plan she thought they all are following is falling apart, Finnick repeats Haymitch’s line to her, “Remember who the real enemy is”….in that moment Katniss realizes what she’s been missing. These people aren’t her enemies. They are just like her, forced into a war no one ever wins. No, the enemy is behind the scenes. The enemy has been getting by unscathed and blameless while she and others bear the burden of the war this enemy purpetuates. She turns her bow and arrow and shoots into a weak link in the arena and sends the whole thing crashing down. She faces her true enemy.
“Remember who the real enemy is,”
How is this important to Kylo Ren and Star Wars? Because Star Wars has been grooming us to believe that Kylo Ren and the first order are our true enemy. And The Last Jedi began to reveal that we could be wrong about that. Kylo, who can’t kill his mother. Kylo who tells a young girl she is not alone when she feels she is most. Kylo who saves the girls life by betraying the man who has essentially raised him. Kylo who can’t hide the shame and regret of killing his father even if he tried. That’s not a true enemy. That’s not a big bad. Kylo says he serves one thing (the dark side) but his actions repeatedly show us differently. Like Rian Johnson said, he’s one half of the protagonist, NOT ANTAGONIST!
Even at the end when he orders they take no prisoners from the rebellion, the film is still grooming us to think he’s the big bad. But trust me. He’s still not. Luke knows this, which is why Luke would not allow his nephew to kill him. He triggers his nephew instead, almost encouraging Kylo to get it all out, scream, strike at me, hate me. Get it out. Because when I leave you, you will face an enemy greater than ever before. Luke leaves his nephew will some nuggets to help Kylo see this. “I will not be the last Jedi”. I truly believe he is talking about Kylo as well as Rey in that moment. He knows now that Rey is in place to bring about the Jedi order the way it was meant to be, and he also knows his nephew shares the same wishes for the galaxy as he does: end the Sith and the Jedi. What Luke did for Kylo in the sequence was almost therapeutic. Kylo lets it all out, all his anger and hurt towards what his uncle did to him without actually harming anyone.
Then at the end when he is alone in the rebel base he signals the first order to leave him alone. He falls to his knees. He is empty. Facing Luke emptied him. His rage is gone, expended, and he is left with nothing. Then he sees Rey and for a moment you can see how just seeing her makes him feel whole again. But the consequences of his actions settle in and she shuts the door on him as tears stream down his face. It’s kylo’s choice where he goes from here and I don’t think it will be towards the dark side. I’m not even sure he’s really dark at all anymore. Just playing a part. And someone close to him can see through it quite well.
So who, or better yet, what is this enemy? The real big bad? Not the first order. Remember above when I pointed out in The Hunger Games that the people Katniss was fighting were not her true enemies, it was the people (person) behind the scenes who perpetuate the war that forces them to fight. It’s the same here, what this saga is trying to show us. Soldiers don’t start Wars, they just show up dressed for battle when told to. And There is someone that tells them to suit up. Hux.
Sure he had some funny one liners but that is a facade meant to trick us. Because he did some other notable things that flew under the radar. First of all, in the beginning when he is talking to Poe and Poe pretends to hear him-Listen to how passionately and assured speaks about wiping the filth of the rebellion from the galaxy and making them all suffer terrible deaths. Have we ever heard Kylo talk like that? General Hux means what he says, and the hatred he expresses is far more detailed then I’ve even heard Snoke express. He believes wholeheartedly what he says and that he is right and that rebellion must suffer. He has no light and he doesn’t want any.
Also we are made aware that Hux has had private planning conversations with Snoke that Kylo wasn’t even aware of. At the beginning of The Last Jedi, Kylo walks in on Snoke saying to Hux “tied on the end of a string indeed,”… it was the tail end of a clearly detailed private conversation about how they are tracking the rebellion. Which we are never confirmed is the way Rose and Finn believe it works. The conversation stops the minute Kylo walks in. Hux walks away and as he passes Kylo he has a smug smirk on his face like he knows something Kylo doesn’t. Snoke then berates Kylo and says he keeps Hux around because he’s weak and it can be a sharp tool. I actually think he was talking about Kylo when he says that line. That Kylo is weak and Snoke knows how to manipulate him to get him to do what he wants. Because right after he berated Kylo and screams at him at how weak he is and how he’s failed, Kylo gets so angry he stand up to strike at Snoke almost, before Snoke strikes him down. Kylo then immediately goes to attack the rebellion in his anger. Snoke manipulated him to do what he wanted by using his weakness, his anger and emotions. Weakness is a sharp tool when Properly manipulated. And I have no doubt Snoke and Hux have had many other private conversations Kylo wasn’t invited to.
Back to Hux and that smirk. Hux clearly can’t stand Kylo Ren. He hates him. I think he hates him because Kylo has force powers but can never do what he has to do for the dark side, and hux doesn’t have force powers but would do anything for the first order and dark side. Hux sees it as unfair and hates Kylo for it. The next part we see Hux’s true nature is after the throne room scene when he comes upon an unconscious Kylo Ren. He stares at Kylo’s lifeless body with a look of disgust. Once again, Kylo has failed the dark side. Once again he couldn’t do what needed to be done. Hux then reaches for the weapon in his hilt. He’s made up his mind. Snoke’s dead. Kylo’s unconscious. This is his chance. Right here he can take the power he so badly wants from a man who doesn’t deserve it. He won’t fail the dark side the way Kylo has.
But suddenly Kylo wakes up and Hux’s moment has passed. Kylo commands Hux to get the army ready to attack. Hux is INFURIATED! “YOU DARE COMMAND MY ARMY” he says. He built that army while Kylo has been playing around with a girl from the rebellion who has bested him twice. How dare Kylo think he can command him. Hux believes HE should be the successor to Snoke. Hux is quickly put in his place when Kylo uses the infamous force cholkhold on him. Those damn force powers. If only Hux had them.
Lastly, at the end when the first order enters the empty rebellion base, Kylo tells Hux and the stormtroopers to stay back while he enters the command room. Hux stares at Kylo, he sees through it all. He knows Kylo is defeated and is not truly committed to the dark side and it pisses him off to no end. He knows Kylo is weak and as he watched him enter that room alone Hux is already considering his options. Kylo is unworthy to rule the first order. It’s up to Hux to restore it to the glory of Snoke and do what Kylo can’t, kill the rebellion.
That moment was no accident, them fixing in on Hux’s face. It’s Hux’s last scene. He’s the real big bad. He is the one that truly believes in the idealology of the dark side and would die for it, he is the one who built this army and should command it. He is the one who can get the job done. Hux and the ideology that he clings to is what is perpetuating this war, and all the wars before them. They are the ones pulling the strings. Hux can’t be saved. His love for power exceeds even Kylo Ren’s. Hux belives he’s the man to get the job done.
Ok so here’s my Ep 9 meta:
Kylo and Rey will take their bow and arrows and burn the whole arena down….
Then they will kill the ideology that built it.
In episode 9, I foresee we will see Kylo at his weakest, and closer to Ben then ever. He’ll be alone, not even enough anger left in him to fuel his hatred. As Kylo is Broken and defeated, Hux will strike while the iron is hot. Hux will overthrow Kylo Ren with the army he built and will be the one to seek out and try and destroy the resistance. Kylo will be in trouble. Rey will have read the Jedi texts that even Luke didn’t read, and as such will have an understanding of what the Jedi were originally meant to be. The prime Jedi. The dark and the light. The balance to the force. She will immediately think of Kylo Ren and his darkness and realize her trying to take his darkness away from him was wrong. That she failed him. He is the other side of the coin they need to end this war.
THEY CAN ONLY WIN BY SAVING WHAT THEY LOVE NOT FIGHTING WHAT THEY HATE. So there will be a lot of “saving” in various forms in ep 9.
And this will go one of two ways:
1. Kylo escapes Hux and the first order barely and takes off to find Rey. He finds them and they take him prisoner, not trusting him. Rey and him talk and realize what they’ve been missing, they have to unite. She convinces the rebellion to trust him and they all go after Hux, where Rey and Kylo are in harmony, United, and at balance to become an unimaginable power to defeat him. Rey and Kylo throw their weapons down and both armies are confused as they stand between them refusing to be a part of anymore violence in this war, and beg for the two opposing sides to end it. Kylo frees the first order army and Poe frees the rebellion army. Rey and Ben brings balance to the force and teach both the light and dark side to anyone who wants to become a force user. The force is available to all.
2. Rey having figured it she needs Kylo and has failed him tries to force bond with him. She discovers he’s in trouble and wants to go save him from Hux but the resistance is hesitant and won’t go with her thinking it’s a trap. Leia will secretly help Rey leave the rebels to go to Kylo where she is there to save him. She finds him but they are caught in their escape and sentenced for execution. Suddenly the rebellion shows up with Finn and Poe and Rose at the head ready to save them. Kylo and Rey get free and join forces, balancing he force and becoming an unimaginable power to defeat Hux and then call for a cease fire. They end the war, explain that the enemy has always been putting the light and dark against eachother but the answer is in reconciling with both. The armies are freed and Rey and Ben join to together to bring balance and make the force available to all.
There are of course other scenarios. My point is that I think we will have a situation where Hux overthrows Kylo and he is essentially helpless and either will go to Rey for help or will accept defeat believing he is the monster everyone says and await his death at the hands or the first order. And Rey will in some way shape or form save him (win by saving what we love) even though he feels he doesn’t deserve it and even though the resistance thinks she’s nuts for it. I can definitely see Rey choosing him over the resistance in that manner and the rule of three being proven right when she accepts his 3rd offer to join him finally in ep 9, because this time his offer will be the right thing to do. Then by her example of loving Ben, an unlovable monster, the resistance will get it too and know how to end this war. Stop fighting it.
Ok. This is long. THANK YOU FOR HANGING IN THERE AND READING! I’m done lol!
This of course ALL speculation and theory and I’ll probs be wrong about most of it 😂 still fun to write it out and talk about it though! We have 2 years to continue building theories, I’m sure we will get some right at least! 😩
