āThe Rise of Kylo Renā + TROS theory (with TROKR pics)
Iāll probably look like a clown in 16-17 days when āThe Rise of Kylo Renā #2 releases but whatever lolāafter TROS I believe even more that the former leader of the Knights of Ren (Ren) is Ben from another timeline or a future gone (more) wrong
Anyways, my thoughts on this:
1) remember the outrageous āBen sets the temple ablaze and runs awayā from the Visual Guide? Iām sure itās probably just even more retconning (like a ton of stuff from the VD), but what if itās literalāexcept itās just that the Ben who does it isnāt the Ben we know, therefore making it true while retaining āourā Benās innocence. Another option (painful but, I think, absolutely plausible) is that Ben himself accidentally set on fire the temple with his rage and sorrow unleashing a Force storm. However, the way the āprologueā of TROKR #1 ends (Iāll talk about later on in this post) seems kind of like a foreshadowing that Ben (well, āourā Ben) didnāt do itā¦? Kind of interesting, and hopefully we wonāt have to wait until issues #3 and #4 (february and march) to know about that important detail
2) this interview with Charles Soule (the writer) and Will Sliney (the artist) dedicates, curiously, the first 3-4 paragraphs solely to talking about Renāand the article, which is from the official SW webpage (an article called āIntroducing āRenā in Marvelās The Rise of Kylo Renā), starts like this: āthey call him Ren, but that wasnāt always his nameā. Which is also how the comic starts:
ā¦ Tell me this doesnāt sound suspicious as kriff and like foreshadowing
And the interview keeps going like this: āBorn out of the flames,ā as artist Will Sliney puts it, the leader of the Knights of Ren in the opening pages of the new comic Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren #1, arrives battle-scarred and wearing a fearsome, featureless mask ā a blank expression save for a smattering of claw-like gouges. Concealed within is a charismatic leader, the exact type of person who would be able to seduce young Ben Solo away from the path of the Jedi.ā Then they basically proceed to spend the first 4 paragraphs talking a lot about Ren besides talking about Ben (and then, lastly, about Snokeāand, fun fact: they knew about the Snoke twist of TROS beforehand), although I think they talk less about Ben even
3) Ben being compared to Anakin while Ren is compared to Darth Vader, except Charles Soule wanted Ren to readĀ ālike a more charming Darth Vader. āA Vader who is charismatic and who is appealing. Thatās why [Renās] skin is burned and he sort of looks the way that he does. Heās embracing the seductiveness and the damage that the dark side does. Darth Vader, as impressive and imposing and terrifying as he is, is remote and cold and distant because he has the suit surrounding him. Whereas Ren isnāt hiding behind it. Heās someone you could have a beer with, in theory.ā
4) more interesting interview stuff. āDesigned purposefully for the new comic series, with issue #1 out now, Ren feeds the evolution of Kylo Ren. āThe entire seductiveness of the dark side poured into one character engineered for Ben Solo is Ren,ā Soule says. āHeās sort of a charming evil rascal that can be really fun to write and I really like where he goes in the series. But if Kylo Ren is going to take over the Knights of Ren, which we know thatās what happens, there should be some transition.ā
Also: āI think the key to writing Ben Solo is to write him as a lost teenager who is deeply in touch with emotions that teenagers often feel,ā Soule says. āHe feels like no one understands him, no one sees him the way he actually is, heās utterly alone and thereās no one else out there in the universe. So when he sees Ren, heās like, āWait a minute ā maybe there is somebody like me in the universe. Maybe there is a path for a guy like me. Look at the choices heās made. I could make those choices, too, and I could be cool.āā
Soā¦ This is interesting. We have Snoke manipulating Ben to go to him, at first making himself appear friendly, while on some measure Palpatineās pulling the strings from Snoke (I donāt think he would be like a puppet with Palpsā voice, though, given that chapter of the TLJ non-junior novelization that has a lot of stuff from Snokeās perspective, but who knows). But then, Ben Soloās basically obsessed with Vaderā¦ and, apparently, this Renās a walking dark side temptation for Ben. Wellā¦ Weāll see what happens, I guess
Also, crying inside at reading that āwait a minuteāmaybe there is somebody like me in the universe. Maybe there is a path for a guy like me. Look at the choices heās made. I could make those choices, too, and I could be coolā. If Ren really was Ben from another time seeking to change things (probably something related to Rey): the implications that this has, the emotions that this has, the power that this has
Interesting, too, that it hasnāt been said if itās Snoke whoās āthe masterā of the KoR (yes, they do have a master on top of their own leader), but that only gets weirder because the KoR were revealed time ago to be only loyal to their leader and to the āRen philosophyā (which also makes possible ties with Snoke alone impossible)āso, if Snoke and the First Order arenāt, then who is it? Palpatine? Still, again, thereās the philosophy thing of following only their group leaderā¦
Oh and: the Ren philosophy sounds very intriguing and Iām liking it a lot
(For context of the next pics: there are two brothers, being one of them Force-sensitive, and both the KoR and someone called SecSec are trying to recruit themābut the non-Force-sensitive one kills the other, which means the KoR doesnāt accept him, and Ren kills him)
5) just after that panel, in this pic below they talk a bit aboutĀ āthe masterā here, being Ren who says it. Also itās interesting that, after that happens, the KoR part ends with Ren saying āletās go find something to burnā:
After that thereās a page as if this kind of prologue has finished, showing a page with the logo of the comic and all thatā¦ and then, next page itās Ben standing in front of the fire and ruins of the temple all shocked (a note here: on that page it reads ānowā and the name of the location, and the āprologueā happened ālong agoā). Iād say that really looks like foreshadowingā¦
Now the thing isā¦ If the KoR are not affiliated in any way with the First Order nor Snoke, and the KoR is only interested in recruiting Force-sensitives for their ranks, then how come they couldāve arrived in Lukeās Jedi templeā¦ just at that right time to burn it down? I mean, right, there can be coincidences, butā uh, that might be a bit too much of a coincidence, perhaps? Who knowsā¦
6) interview intensifies. āBorn out of the flamesā, is how Sliney describes Renāwell, thought it was worth mentioning this because guess what mythological being is born out of the flames too. Also, funny the parallel between that and the publisherās summary of āThe Rise of Kylo Renā #3 (scheduled for February 12th): āSoon, BEN SOLOāS path will end in a place of fire and blood, and a shadow will rise to take his place. He is with the KNIGHTS OF REN now, and they will welcome him, if he can pay their price.ā Well, given that āourā Ben starts becoming Kylo Ren after what happens at the temple, and that they describe Ren (referring to the former leader of the KoR) like being āborn out of the flamesāā¦ this does nothing to deterr me from believing this theory, to be honest
7) more from the interview. ā The creative team engineered some surprises for this charming dark sider, a foil in many ways to Darth Vader hiding beneath his protective covering. āYou expect the dude hiding his face under a mask like that to be all messed up, particularly with his body looking the way it does,ā Soule says. But in issue #2 weāll see what heās truly concealing, a reveal that speaks to Ben on a whole other levelā ā¦ This whole paragraph, I swear. Sounds like when they talked in the times between TFA and TLJ about Benās face behind his mask, and about his unmasking. Also, the talk about the face revealā¦
What kind of āreveal that speaks to Ben on a whole other levelā could it be? I donāt think theyād be referring to that with something more going on in his face, as in, scars or charred skin. In fact, it wouldnāt make sense for Ren to cover that up given that he shows with pride his scarred body
And faces of men he might know? The probabilities just lower and narrow soooo much here. We have yet to see, however, if Ben gets the reveal as a kid or an adult, which could make a difference. Still, back to āwhat man could this guy beā, I just canāt think of someone that heād recognize and have this impact on himā¦ ā¦ And now itās when itās a Ben clone from another timeline, lol
8) that big panel on āThe Rise of Kylo Renā #2 where the KoR and Ren are facing Luke, Ben and Lor San Tekka, and Ben and Ren seem to mirror poses:
9) this is jut something that came to my mind, butā¦ It still bugs me to this day the phrase āit is youā that Ben says regarding Rey on the TFA novelization (when she calls forth the Legacy lightsaber), because Ben didnāt know back then about them being a dyad, nor have we seen any mentions to him having dreamt of Rey before or anythingāso maybe Benās encounter (encounters? Still not sure about it) with Ren involved Ren telling him something that will happen in the future? Something which could also tackle that random āwhich girl?ā
The sad thing, if Ren was really Ben from the future? Like I said in my previous post about this teory (pre-TROS): ā¦ that Ben wouldāve literally killed himself, and therefore made true what he told Han that his son is dead and that heād killed him (which then is reversed in TROS with that āKylo Ren is dead, my son is aliveā). That would be such a kriffing trauma for Ben that I donāt know if I could stomach it, after seeing Benās death in TROSā¦ I mean, we would literally be seeing another Ben dieā¦ even if somehow his actions meant a worse future would have been avoided
Anyways my brain seems to find fuel in angst (why), because now reading āRenā only makes me think of Benās name but taking on the āRā from Rey if in that future something happened to herā¦Ā (Or that the Knights would be called āof Renā in reference to Ben and Rey)
ā¦ And now itās when weāve been played like a fiddle all along and the novels, with their differences/expanded material as hints (like the āit is youā in the TFA novelizations), are but one of the timelines. Can you imagine? To cite the TLJ non-junior novelization: ātime is a circle. The end is the beginningā. At this point I believe anything could happen, specially after seeing TROS and how wtf itās all that surrounds itā¦
10) to finish the post, the thing that made me start thinking Ren could be Ben: the hair that peeks from below the helmet looks apparently like Benās both in shape and color (an interesting detail is how the color of their hair seems to match in tone: in issue #1 itās brownish for the both of them even though oneās surrounded by fire and the other by ice, and on the preview pages of issue #2 their hair is shown black). And in a universe so diverse as SW, and given that Ren and Ben are characters so connected, thatās a prettyā¦ interesting choice. Here are some more images for comparison between Ben and Ren:
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