Ben Solo

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Ben Solo

File:Kylo Ren TFA.png
Kylo Ren with his crossguard lightsaber.
Portrayed by	Adam Driver
First appearance	Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens
Last appearance	Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Affiliation	First Order, Knights of Ren, Sith
Signature Artifacts	Kylo Ren's Crossguard Lightsaber, Kylo Ren's Helmet, Reconstructed Helmet, TIE Silencer, Command Shuttle, Darth Vader's Melted Helmet, Sith Wayfinder, Ben Solo's Lightsaber, Han's Dice, Redeemed Lightsaber
External Links
Wikipedia	Link
IMDb	Link

Kylo Ren, born Ben Solo, is the main antagonist of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. The master of the Knights of Ren and later the Supreme Leader of the First Order, he is a powerful warrior torn between the light and dark sides of the Force. His character is defined by his volatile temper, his obsession with his grandfather, Darth Vader, and the iconic, unstable artifacts he wields.

Character Overview

The son of Leia Organa and Han Solo, Ben Solo was trained as a Jedi by his uncle, Luke Skywalker. However, he was seduced to the dark side by the mysterious Supreme Leader Snoke (secretly a proxy for Emperor Palpatine). After destroying Luke's new Jedi temple, he took the name Kylo Ren and became a commander in the First Order. His journey is one of internal conflict, as he struggles to extinguish the "pull to the light" while committing heinous acts in his quest for power.

Film & Television Appearances

Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)

Kylo Ren leads the search for the map to Luke Skywalker. He captures the Resistance pilot Poe Dameron and later the scavenger Rey, forming a strange and powerful Force bond with her. He is obsessed with finishing what Darth Vader started. In a pivotal moment, he kills his own father, Han Solo, in an attempt to destroy his connection to the light side. He is later defeated and scarred in a lightsaber duel with Rey.

Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017)

Struggling with his failure, Kylo's connection with Rey deepens. He brings her before Supreme Leader Snoke, but in a shocking twist, he betrays and kills his master, seizing power for himself. He asks Rey to join him to rule the galaxy, but she refuses. As the new Supreme Leader, he leads the assault on the last remnants of the Resistance on Crait, where he is fooled by a Force projection of Luke Skywalker.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Supreme Leader Ren seeks out the resurrected Emperor Palpatine, who offers him command of a massive Sith fleet. His hunt for Rey leads them across the galaxy, culminating in a duel on the wreckage of the second Death Star. After being healed by Rey and feeling the death of his mother, he is visited by a memory of his father. This encounter finally turns him back to the light, and as Ben Solo once more, he travels to Exegol to help Rey defeat the Emperor, sacrificing his own life to resurrect her.

Signature Artifacts

Kylo Ren's Crossguard Lightsaber

• Description: An ancient lightsaber design featuring a primary blade and two smaller, vent-like crossguard blades. The prop was designed to look crude and homemade. Its crimson blade is unstable and crackles with raw power due to a cracked kyber crystal.
• Relevance to Character: This weapon is a perfect physical manifestation of Kylo Ren's personality: it is raw, unstable, and explosive. The crossguard design is both aggressive and defensive, reflecting his internal conflict. It is a dangerous and unpredictable weapon, just like its wielder.
• Relevance to Plot: The lightsaber's unique design is a major talking point and a symbol of the new trilogy. Its unstable nature is a constant visual cue of the raw, untamed power of the dark side.

Kylo Ren's Helmet

• Description: A menacing helmet with a chrome-plated faceplate, inspired by the battle helmets of the Knights of Ren. Unlike Vader's, this helmet is not part of a life-support system but is worn to intimidate and mask his identity.
• Relevance to Character: The helmet is a mask Kylo uses to hide his true self, Ben Solo. It is an imitation of his grandfather's, showing his obsession with the Vader persona. His destruction of the helmet in a fit of rage in The Last Jedi symbolizes his frustration and his attempt to forge his own identity.
• Relevance to Plot: The helmet conceals his identity from the audience for the first part of The Force Awakens. Its removal is a key reveal, showing the surprisingly young and vulnerable face of the film's villain.

Reconstructed Helmet

• Description: Kylo Ren's original helmet, reforged with red, crystalline solder that glows, accentuating the cracks from its previous destruction.
• Relevance to Character: The reforged helmet symbolizes Kylo's recommitment to the dark side and his new role as Supreme Leader. He is no longer just hiding behind a mask but is embracing his broken, fractured identity. The glowing red cracks visually represent the dark side power holding his shattered persona together.
• Relevance to Plot: The helmet's reconstruction in The Rise of Skywalker signals a regression for the character, showing he has fallen deeper into his dark side persona after the events of the previous film.

TIE Silencer

• Description: Kylo Ren's personal starfighter, a TIE/vn space superiority fighter. It is a unique, angular design with dagger-like wings and powerful laser cannons and missile launchers.
• Relevance to Character: The TIE Silencer reflects Kylo's status as an elite warrior and a direct descendant of Anakin Skywalker, another ace pilot. It is a weapon of precision and lethality, much like Kylo himself.
• Relevance to Plot: Kylo pilots this ship during the attack on the Resistance fleet in The Last Jedi. In a crucial moment, he hesitates to fire on the bridge of his mother's ship, showing that the light side still has a hold on him.

Command Shuttle

• Description: A Upsilon-class command shuttle, featuring large, folding wings that give it a menacing, bat-like appearance when landing.
• Relevance to Character: This ship is a symbol of Kylo's authority and his role as a commander in the First Order. Its dramatic landing sequence, with the wings unfolding, is designed to be an intimidating show of power.
• Relevance to Plot: The shuttle is Kylo's primary transport in The Force Awakens, used to travel to Jakku and Starkiller Base.

Darth Vader's Melted Helmet

• Description: The charred, distorted helmet of Darth Vader, recovered from his funeral pyre on Endor.
• Relevance to Character: This is Kylo Ren's most treasured relic. He speaks to it, seeking guidance from his grandfather. It is a physical symbol of his obsession and his twisted veneration of Vader's legacy, representing his desire to finish what Vader started.
• Relevance to Plot: The helmet serves as a dark side altar for Kylo. His conversations with it reveal his inner conflict and his motivations to the audience.

Sith Wayfinder

• Description: A pyramidal holocron that reveals the location of the hidden Sith world of Exegol. Kylo retrieves his from the ruins of Vader's castle on Mustafar.
• Relevance to Character: The Wayfinder represents Kylo's quest for ultimate power and knowledge. His search for it shows his ambition to surpass his master, Snoke, and uncover the deepest secrets of the Sith.
• Relevance to Plot: The Wayfinder is the MacGuffin that leads Kylo to the resurrected Emperor Palpatine, kicking off the central conflict of The Rise of Skywalker.

Ben Solo's Lightsaber

• Description: The blue-bladed lightsaber he used as a Jedi apprentice under Luke Skywalker.
• Relevance to Character: This weapon symbolizes his past life and his lost potential as a Jedi. It is the artifact that represents the person he could have been.
• Relevance to Plot: The lightsaber is seen in flashbacks during The Last Jedi. In The Rise of Skywalker, after turning back to the light, Rey passes him the Skywalker lightsaber through their Force bond, which he uses in the final battle, signifying his return to the light side.

Han's Dice

• Description: The golden dice that once hung in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon.
• Relevance to Character: The dice are a symbol of his father, Han Solo. When Luke's Force projection of the dice appears in his hand on Crait, it is a reminder of the family he rejected and the love he lost.
• Relevance to Plot: After his duel with Rey and his vision of his father, the memory of these dice helps solidify his turn back to Ben Solo. He looks at his empty hand where they once were, a final acknowledgment of his father before he races to help Rey.

Redeemed Lightsaber

• Description: After being healed by Rey, the Skywalker lightsaber she passes to him is still blue, not red.
• Relevance to Character: Wielding a blue lightsaber again is the ultimate visual confirmation of Ben Solo's redemption. He is no longer fighting with a weapon of rage, but with the weapon of a Jedi, symbolizing his return to the light.
• Relevance to Plot: As Ben Solo, he uses this lightsaber to fight alongside Rey against the Knights of Ren and the Emperor's guards on Exegol, fully embracing his role as a hero in the film's climax.

Behind the Scenes

Adam Driver was cast as Kylo Ren, bringing a powerful and intense physicality to the role. The character was conceived as a more conflicted and emotionally volatile villain than Darth Vader, a "Vader-in-the-making." The costume, designed by Michael Kaplan, was intended to be reminiscent of Vader's but with a more modern, textured look.

Trivia

• Kylo Ren's fighting style is much more aggressive and wild than a traditional Sith's, reflecting his internal rage and incomplete training.

See Also

• Rey
• Han Solo
• Luke Skywalker
• Adam Driver