Ben Solo, the son of Leia and Han, struggled under the weight of the Skywalker legacy. Trained by Luke but manipulated by Snoke, he became Kylo Ren—a powerful but tormented enforcer of the First Order. Haunted by the light, driven by Vader’s shadow, and torn between loyalty and identity, Kylo's story is one of betrayal, legacy, and ultimate redemption through Rey and the memory of his family.
Ben Solo – later known as Kylo Ren – was born in 5 ABY, a few years after the Galactic Civil War, into a family of unprecedented legacy.
He is the only son of famed Rebel heroes General Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa, making him a direct descendant of the Skywalker bloodline. Through Leia, Ben is the grandson of Anakin Skywalker, the Jedi Knight who became the Sith Lord Darth Vader.
This heritage was a double-edged sword: on one hand, Ben inherited exceptional Force potential from the Skywalker line; on the other, he carried the weight of Darth Vader’s dark legacy. From an early age, the burden of his bloodline loomed over Ben’s life.
Growing up, Ben Solo’s lineage was kept low-key to protect him – especially the fact that his grandfather was Darth Vader.
When this truth eventually emerged, it was a source of turmoil for Ben. The revelation that he was Vader’s grandson shook his faith in his family.
He felt deceived by his parents for hiding his lineage, and the galaxy’s fear of Vader’s legacy cast a shadow over Ben’s identity. He bore immense pressure to live up to the Skywalker name and to atone for or overcome the darkness associated with it.
This internal conflict – the pull between the light of his upbringing and the dark temptation of his grandfather’s power – would define Ben Solo’s fate. The Skywalker legacy was both his greatest gift and his heaviest burden, setting the stage for the struggle that shaped Kylo Ren.
Ben’s childhood was marked by loving yet demanding circumstances.
His parents were often preoccupied with rebuilding the New Republic (in Leia’s case) or unable to fully relate to his burgeoning Force abilities (in Han’s case). Sensing their son’s powerful connection to the Force – and wary that “there was too much Vader in him,” as Han put it – Leia decided to entrust Ben to his uncle, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker.
Luke had begun training a new generation of Jedi, and at about ten years old Ben Solo became one of Luke’s apprentices. This was both an opportunity and a challenge for the young Ben. He revered his uncle and eagerly learned the ways of the Force and the lightsaber, but he also struggled with feelings of abandonment for being sent away by his parents.
Under Luke Skywalker’s tutelage, Ben Solo proved to be an extraordinarily gifted student. He constructed his first lightsaber as a Padawan, a blue-bladed weapon, and quickly mastered Jedi combat forms. In training exercises and lessons at Luke’s new Jedi Temple (established on Ossus), Ben often surpassed his fellow students.
Luke saw in his nephew the potential to be the leader of the restored Jedi Order one day. However, Luke also sensed restlessness and turmoil in Ben. Unbeknownst to the Jedi Master, this disquiet was exacerbated by an outside influence preying on Ben’s mind.
Even as Ben excelled in lightsaber technique and Force control, a darkness was slowly growing within him, feeding on his doubts about living up to the Skywalker legacy and on a deep-seated fear of failing his family. Ben’s training years were thus a mix of achievement and anxiety – a promising Jedi in the making, haunted by an undefined shadow that would soon come into focus.
Unknown to Luke and the wider Skywalker family, Ben Solo was being actively targeted by a malevolent force during his formative years.
A mysterious dark side adept known as Snoke had taken a special interest in the Skywalker heir. From afar, Snoke began to whisper into Ben’s thoughts, using the Force to communicate with the young apprentice.
Posing as a wise and sympathetic mentor, Snoke preyed on Ben’s insecurities – suggesting that Luke was holding him back and that his parents had lied to him or abandoned him. He nurtured Ben’s sense of isolation and fed his resentment. Over time, Snoke’s insidious voice became a constant presence in Ben’s mind, alternately terrifying and comforting him. Ben told no one of these visions and counsel, but the influence was profound.
Snoke skillfully exploited Ben Solo’s heritage to sway him.
When Ben learned that his grandfather Darth Vader had been the dreaded Sith Lord, the revelation left him angry and betrayed. Sensing this vulnerability, Snoke promised Ben that the truth of his lineage was not a curse but a sign of his destiny.
The turning point in Ben Solo’s life came in a tragic incident at Luke Skywalker’s Jedi temple around 28 ABY. Troubled by alarming premonitions regarding his nephew, Luke entered Ben’s quarters one night to probe his thoughts.
In that moment, Luke glimpsed a horrifying vision of darkness: he foresaw Ben bringing destruction and death to everything Luke loved.
Instinctively, Luke ignited his lightsaber for a fleeting second, overwhelmed by the urge to prevent the nightmare he saw. A heartbeat later, shame consumed Luke and he lowered his weapon – but it was too late. Ben Solo awoke to the sight of his mentor and uncle standing over him with an ignited lightsaber.
To Ben, this was the ultimate betrayal. In that instant, all of Snoke’s warnings and Ben’s paranoia seemed to be confirmed: Luke intended to kill him out of fear. Reacting in terror and anger, Ben used the Force to blast Luke backward, collapsing the hut on him.
Believing he had just survived an assassination attempt by his own uncle, Ben was furious and heartbroken.
What followed was an eruption of the dark side from Ben. Fed by years of simmering resentment and Snoke’s influence, Ben Solo gave in to his rage.
He unleashed a powerful wave of Force energy that ignited a devastating fire in the Jedi temple. A thunderous storm – conjured by Ben’s anguish – rained lightning down upon the temple’s structures. In the chaos, much of Luke’s fledgling Jedi academy was reduced to flames and rubble. Several of Ben’s fellow students were killed in the blaze.
Emerging amid the destruction, Ben was horrified by what he had done. He had never intended to slay his peers; panic and anger had driven him to a catastrophic mistake.
In that moment of shock, a familiar dark voice slithered into his mind: Snoke (or perhaps the distant influence of Palpatine) assured Ben that none of this was his fault – that it was Luke’s betrayal and the Jedi’s lies that caused this tragedy. Reeling from confusion and grief, Ben chose to believe that narrative.
Feeling he had no home to return to and that the Jedi had failed him, Ben Solo abandoned the ruins of the temple, effectively renouncing Luke’s Jedi Order then and there.
Having fled his uncle’s fallen temple, Ben Solo embraced the only guidance left to him: Snoke’s. The once-promising Jedi apprentice cast aside his identity and set out on the path of the dark side.
Snoke welcomed Ben with open arms, encouraging him to become who he was always meant to be. As a symbol of this rebirth, Snoke advised Ben to take on a new name – one that would forever separate him from his past.
Thus Ben Solo ceased to exist, and Kylo Ren was born. The name “Ren” he adopted from a faction of dark warriors called the Knights of Ren, whom Ben had learned about and idolized. Determined to prove himself worthy, the newly christened Kylo Ren sought out the Knights. In a rite of initiation, Kylo fought their leader (a brutal warrior simply named Ren) in single combat.
He killed Ren, demonstrating his strength and earning the allegiance of the Knights of Ren, who bowed to him as their new master. This act also served as Kylo’s final severance from his old life; he even struck down one of Luke’s surviving students during this confrontation, cementing his commitment to the darkness.
Kylo Ren fully embraced his role as a disciple of Snoke and warlord of a rising dark power – the First Order.
He began wearing a forbidding black mask modeled after the Knights of Ren’s battle helmets (and evocative of his grandfather Vader’s iconic visage). The helmet allowed Kylo to hide the conflicted young man that remained inside and project an intimidating persona of a cold, inhuman enforcer.
He also modified his Jedi lightsaber into a lethal new form to reflect his transformation. Kylo bled the blue kyber crystal of his old saber, turning it a seething red and cracking the crystal in the process, then rebuilt the weapon as a distinctive crossguard lightsaber.
Armed with this fiery crimson blade and backed by the Knights of Ren, Kylo emerged as a feared figure in the galaxy.
Within a few years, stories spread through the galaxy of the “Jedi Killer” – the last Skywalker heir who had destroyed Luke’s academy and crushed any hope of the Jedi rising again.
The boy named Ben Solo had vanished; in his place stood Kylo Ren, champion of the First Order and heir apparent to the legacy of Darth Vader.
Although Kylo Ren had immersed himself in the dark side, the light side of the Force continued to call to him from within.
The result was an inner conflict that made Kylo Ren a volatile and emotionally torn figure. Despite all his efforts to bury Ben Solo, traces of Ben’s conscience and compassion persisted.
Kylo himself acknowledged this struggle in private moments. At his most vulnerable, he confessed, “I feel it again… the pull to the light.” To overcome these feelings, Kylo sought to prove his devotion to darkness through acts he believed would snuff out the light within him.
Yet paradoxically, each cruel deed only intensified his turmoil.
One of Kylo Ren’s most defining acts – the murder of his own father – was driven by this very conflict.
Confronted by Han Solo during the battle on Starkiller Base, Kylo felt the light side surging in him, tempting him to abandon his dark quest and return home with his father. In tears, he pleaded that he was being “torn apart” and didn’t know if he had the strength to do what he must.
Ultimately, Kylo ignited his lightsaber and impaled Han Solo, hoping that eliminating his paternal bond would extinguish his remaining light.
From the moment he fell to darkness, Kylo Ren fixated on the legacy of his grandfather, Darth Vader. To Kylo, Vader was not a cautionary tale but rather the ultimate symbol of strength, commitment, and destiny. Kylo’s quarters aboard First Order vessels contained a macabre relic: Darth Vader’s scorched helmet, recovered from the funeral pyre on Endor.
Kylo kept the deformed mask as a revered artifact, a shrine to the man he believed embodied his own path. He would often stand before Vader’s helmet in meditation, speaking to it as if communing with his grandfather’s spirit.
In these monologues, Kylo expressed both reverence and desperation. He promised Vader, “I will finish what you started,” referring to Vader’s goal of eradicating the Jedi and mastering the dark side of the Force.
Kylo believed that Anakin Skywalker’s final return to the light – when he saved Luke and destroyed Emperor Palpatine – was a momentary lapse, a mistake that he would not repeat. He convinced himself that Darth Vader was Vader’s true persona, and that Anakin’s redemption was a failure to stay the course.
This skewed viewpoint was encouraged by Snoke, who agreed that Vader’s legacy had been one of power and that compassion had been his downfall.
Kylo Ren’s relationships with his family and with Rey were central to his story, each fraught with emotional complexity.
Kylo’s relationship with his father was tragic and painful. As Ben Solo, he loved Han but also felt let down by him.
Han was often away on piloting jobs or racing ventures during Ben’s youth, and Ben sensed that his father never truly understood the Force or the struggles it caused him. This created a distance between them that Snoke later exploited.
When Ben turned to the dark side, he came to view “Han Solo” as a weakness he had to purge from himself.
The ultimate test came on Starkiller Base when Han confronted his son face-to-face. In that fateful encounter, Kylo Ren spoke to Han not with hatred, but with agony. He admitted he was in torment and asked for his father’s help – but tragically, the help he sought was permission to do evil.
By killing Han, Kylo attempted to sever the paternal bond and prove his allegiance to darkness. The murder of his father became a defining guilt that haunted Kylo thereafter. In The Last Jedi, Supreme Leader Snoke taunted Kylo, saying that killing his father had fractured his spirit rather than freed him.
Indeed, the memory of Han remained like an open wound. In the end, it was Han’s memory that helped save Ben Solo. At a critical moment on Kef Bir, after Kylo was defeated by Rey, a vision or memory of Han appeared to him (possibly summoned by Leia’s dying effort). In this poignant vision, Han spoke to Kylo with unconditional love, calling him “Ben” once more.
Kylo’s bond with his mother was profound, even if strained by ideology. Leia Organa was not only Ben’s mother but also a prominent Resistance leader and a trained Force-sensitive herself.
Unlike Han, Leia understood her son’s power and the temptations he faced; she had sensed the darkness in him from a young age and tried to protect him from it.
When Ben fell and became Kylo Ren, it broke Leia’s heart – yet she never gave up hope for his redemption. On multiple occasions, their deep connection surfaced. In The Last Jedi, as the First Order ambushed the Resistance fleet, Kylo found himself about to fire on the bridge of his mother’s ship.
He felt Leia’s presence through the Force and could not bring himself to shoot. Though other TIE fighters struck the ship, critically injuring Leia, Kylo’s hesitation revealed the love and light still within him. Leia, for her part, always believed there was “still light in him,” echoing her conviction about her father Vader years before.
In The Rise of Skywalker, General Leia makes the ultimate sacrifice to reach her son. Sensing the duel between Kylo Ren and Rey on the ruins of the Death Star, Leia uses all her remaining strength in the Force to call out to Kylo’s mind at the crucial moment. Hearing Leia speak his true name “Ben,” Kylo is startled and loses his fight, which leads to his mortal injury.
Leia’s intervention costs her own life – she collapses and dies after extending herself to contact him. However, that act of motherly love is the catalyst that saves Ben. Leia’s voice and sacrifice cut through Kylo’s fury and bring Ben’s consciousness back to the forefront.
After Ben returns to the light, Leia’s body finally vanishes, signifying she stayed alive in the Force just long enough to see her son restored.
Kylo Ren’s relationship with Rey is one of the most significant and nuanced aspects of his character.
Rey, a young woman strong in the Force, began as Kylo’s adversary but became something far more complicated: an intertwined destiny and, ultimately, a source of his salvation.
Their first meeting was hostile – Kylo captured Rey on Takodana when he realized she had seen the star-map to Luke’s location. He sensed a strange connection to “the scavenger” during her interrogation, intrigued by her raw power and resilience.
Rey, for her part, loathed Kylo for his cruelty and for killing Han Solo, but she also sensed the conflict within him.
In The Last Jedi, their bond took an unexpected turn. Orchestrated secretly by Snoke, Rey and Kylo found themselves linked by Force visions across great distances. These intimate “Force Skype” encounters allowed them to converse, see each other, and even touch hands briefly in a moment of vulnerability.
Through these interactions, Rey came to believe that Kylo Ren could be turned back to Ben Solo. She saw loneliness and doubt in him, and he, in turn, found someone who seemed to truly understand his inner pain. They developed a reluctant empathy for one another, despite fighting on opposite sides.
This connection was later revealed to be something legendary: a dyad in the Force, essentially two individuals who are spiritually one in the Force. Such a bond hadn’t been seen in generations and granted them unique abilities (like feeling each other’s emotions, sharing visions, and even physically passing objects through the Force).
Rey risked everything on the hope of Ben Solo’s return – she flew to Kylo’s flagship to confront him and Snoke, convinced that there was good in him. In Snoke’s throne room, events proved both her hopes and fears.
In that moment they were allies, and Rey believed Kylo had chosen the light. But as soon as the fight ended, Kylo revealed he had no intention of surrendering the dark side; instead, he urged Rey to join him, abandon both Jedi and Sith legacies, and “let the past die” so they could rule together.
Rey was heartbroken that Kylo would not return to the light, and the two found themselves at an impasse, each refusing to side with the other. Their Force connection persisted though – even after Snoke’s death, the dyad bond linked them across the galaxy.
By the time of The Rise of Skywalker, Kylo (as Supreme Leader) was fixated on eliminating Rey if she wouldn’t turn, while Rey was determined to bring Ben Solo to the surface.
They clashed multiple times: in a desert duel on Pasaana, in a Force-bond skirmish between locations (where Kylo discovered Rey’s whereabouts by snatching the necklace from her through their bond), and finally in a climactic lightsaber duel on the ocean-swept wreckage of the second Death Star.
That last duel was emotionally charged and exhausting, with Kylo gaining the upper hand. Yet it ended in an unexpected way – at the apex of the fight, Leia’s distant call reached Kylo, distracting him at a crucial second.
Rey seized the moment to stab Kylo through the abdomen with his own lightsaber. As Kylo lay dying, Rey felt the echo of Leia’s death and realized what had transpired. In a surge of compassion, Rey chose to heal Kylo’s mortal wound using the Force, transferring a portion of her life energy to him.
Kylo Ren was stunned by this mercy. Rey confessed to him that she had wanted to take his hand – “Ben’s hand”, not Kylo’s. Overwhelmed by conflicting emotions, Kylo could only watch as Rey left, leaving him alive and physically healed, but spiritually in turmoil.
That act of kindness was the final catalyst in Kylo’s transformation.
Shortly afterward came Han’s memory and Ben’s re-emergence, as described earlier. Having returned to the light, Ben Solo raced to Exegol to aid Rey against the Emperor. In the final battle, Ben and Rey truly fought as allies, two halves of the dyad united.
Back-to-back, they faced Emperor Palpatine’s wrath – though Palpatine grievously injured Ben and nearly killed Rey. After Palpatine’s defeat, a dying Rey was saved when Ben sacrificed himself to revive her, giving her his life essence.
In their last moments, Rey and Ben shared a deep, tender connection – Rey looked in wonder as she realized Ben had returned, and they kissed each other softly, a gesture of joy, gratitude, and affection.
Ben Solo then collapsed and passed away in Rey’s arms, his body vanishing as he became one with the Force. Rey mourned him, feeling the bittersweet pain of having finally discovered Ben Solo’s true self only to lose him moments later.
With Snoke eliminated, Kylo Ren unexpectedly ascended to absolute power over the First Order.
In the wake of the throne room confrontation (during which Snoke was cut in half), Kylo asserted control, declaring himself the new Supreme Leader. General Hux and the First Order leadership, though startled by Snoke’s sudden demise, could do little but accept Kylo Ren’s authority – especially after Kylo demonstrated formidable Force-choke persuasion on Hux.
Thus began Kylo Ren’s reign as Supreme Leader, a rule defined by his mercurial temperament and aggressive military pursuit of the Resistance.
Kylo’s first acts as leader were driven by personal rage. He immediately focused on wiping out the remnants of the Resistance that had escaped his grasp. During the Battle of Crait shortly after Snoke’s death, Kylo led an assault with overwhelming forces to kill the last Resistance fighters (including his mother Leia).
His judgment, however, was clouded by ego and emotion. When Luke Skywalker appeared on Crait, Kylo became obsessed with destroying his former master, to the point of ignoring more strategic targets.
He dueled Luke in front of the assembled First Order walkers – only to discover Luke was merely a projected illusion buying time for the Resistance to flee. Luke’s trick not only allowed the heroes to escape, but it further infuriated and humiliated Kylo Ren.
Over the next year, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren consolidated his rule. He sought to stamp out any dissent within the First Order ranks and demanded unwavering obedience.
On Exegol, Kylo Ren encountered the resurrected Palpatine in the flesh. The Emperor revealed that he had been manipulating events from the shadows – he had “been every voice” inside Kylo’s head (implying his influence as Snoke and perhaps even imitating Vader’s voice to guide Kylo).
Palpatine unveiled a massive armada of planet-destroying Star Destroyers (the Final Order fleet) and offered it to Kylo Ren, effectively tempting him with an even greater empire to rule. The catch: Palpatine demanded Kylo kill Rey, the last Jedi, who was revealed to be Palpatine’s own granddaughter.
Kylo outwardly agreed, seeing an opportunity to both remove his greatest adversary and claim the fleet’s power. However, Kylo had no intention of being subservient to Palpatine in the long run – he schemed to use Rey, or possibly turn her to his side, so they could overthrow Palpatine together and rule in their own right.
This meeting with the Dark Lord set Kylo on a collision course with Rey once more, and put the Supreme Leader’s loyalty to the First Order’s cause to the test. From this point, Kylo’s reign was marked not only by the war with the Resistance, but by his own private agenda regarding Rey and the Emperor.
Ben Solo’s redemption was the culmination of his tumultuous journey and stands as one of the most poignant turnabouts in galactic history. The process unfolded in stages, set into motion by the accumulated love of those he had pushed away.
The critical turning point was on Kef Bir, where three key factors converged: his mother’s last call to him, Rey’s mercy, and the haunting presence of his father’s memory.
Mortally wounded in combat and then miraculously healed, Kylo Ren was left at a crossroads. In that vulnerable moment, he was visited by a memory of Han Solo.
This was not a Force ghost (Han had no such abilities), but rather Ben’s own conscience conjuring the image of his father – possibly assisted by Leia through the Force as she became one with it. In their brief exchange, Ben voiced the words he never got to say: “Dad…” – his tone filled with sorrow and longing.
Han’s memory gently replied, “I know,” echoing his famous line and conveying total forgiveness and love. Ben tearfully affirmed that he knew what he had to do, but lacked the strength. With encouragement, Ben found that strength: he cast away his red crossguard lightsaber, symbolically killing Kylo Ren.
In that instant, the dark side’s hold on him shattered. Ben Solo – the man that Leia and Luke had hoped he would be – was reborn.
Kylo Ren’s lightsaber is infamous across the galaxy for its menacing appearance and crackling blade.
This weapon actually began its life as Ben Solo’s Jedi lightsaber. As a Padawan under Luke, Ben constructed a traditional single-bladed lightsaber with a blue plasma blade. Like all Jedi sabers, it was powered by a kyber crystal attuned to him.
The hilt was a straightforward design during his Jedi years.
However, upon Ben’s fall to the dark side, he extensively modified this lightsaber to match his new identity as Kylo Ren.
The resulting weapon is a crossguard lightsaber, characterized by its three blades: one main blade and two smaller lateral blades (quillons) that jut out from the sides like a medieval sword’s crossguard.
The idea of a crossguard saber was not Kylo’s own invention; it was inspired by ancient designs.
In fact, similar crossguard lightsabers dated back thousands of years to conflicts like the Great Scourge of Malachor. By adopting this design, Kylo paid homage to Sith antiquity (for example, a Sith Lord named Darth Atrius was known to wield crossguard blades long ago).
The most striking feature of Kylo Ren’s lightsaber is the unstable nature of its crimson blade. Unlike the smooth, focused glow of a typical lightsaber, Kylo’s blade burns in a chaotic, fiery manner, with jagged edges and a shower of sparks.
This instability is not a flaw in construction but rather stems from the weapon’s kyber crystal. When Ben Solo turned to the dark side, he performed the Sith ritual of “bleeding” his kyber crystal.
This process involves pouring negative emotions – pain, anger, hatred – into the crystal through the Force, corrupting it and turning its color to red.
Kylo did this to the blue crystal from his Jedi saber in order to create a Sith-like weapon for himself. However, in the process of bleeding the crystal, it cracked. The fracture in the kyber crystal made it inherently unstable as an energy source.
When Kylo first tried to use the fractured crystal in his lightsaber, he found the energy output chaotic and dangerous. To make the weapon viable, he reconfigured the hilt to include the two side vent emitters. These vents release the excess heat and turbulent energy generated by the cracked crystal, preventing the lightsaber from overloading or exploding in Kylo’s hand.
Kylo Ren’s lightsaber is more than just a tool; it’s an extension of his identity and a symbol of his inner state. The instability of the blade mirrors Kylo’s emotional volatility and rage. Just as the crystal inside is fractured, Kylo Ren was a fractured individual – torn between dark and light.
The saber’s raw, unfocused power represents the untamed anger that Kylo channels in combat. Interestingly, despite having the knowledge to repair or refine his lightsaber, Kylo chose not to stabilize the crystal.
He embraced the saber’s unstable nature, perhaps because it gave his strikes a visceral, intimidating quality, and perhaps because it outwardly manifested the chaos he felt within.
Observers have noted that the weapon’s violent crackling effectively made Kylo appear more terrifying on the battlefield, an effect he likely appreciated in cultivating his dark persona.
In combat, Kylo Ren wielded his crossguard lightsaber with an aggressive, relentless style. He was not one for elegant flourishes; instead, his fighting technique featured heavy blows and raw strength meant to batter through an opponent’s guard. The crossguard hilt, which adds weight and a new form of leverage, suited this method.
Kylo would often two-hand his lightsaber and hack or cleave toward his targets, more akin to a greatsword wielder than a lithe duelist. He utilized the secondary blades in vicious ways – for instance, during a duel he could twist the hilt to rake a quillon blade across an enemy’s shoulder or arm (as he did against Finn on Starkiller Base, burning Finn with a side blade).
His strikes carried brute force; he could drive an opponent back through pure power. This is not to say Kylo lacked finesse entirely – he was trained by Luke and Snoke, after all, and could be calculative when needed – but his preference was to overwhelm and dominate.
Ben Solo’s death on Exegol in 35 ABY marked the end of the Skywalker bloodline, a lineage that had shaped galactic events for decades.
As the only child of Leia Organa (Anakin Skywalker’s daughter) and Han Solo, Ben was the last living descendant of the Skywalker family. With no offspring of his own, his sacrifice brought the family line to a close.
This is a momentous historical footnote: the Skywalkers – from Shmi and Anakin, through Luke and Leia, to Ben – had been at the heart of the galaxy’s triumphs and tribulations, from the fall of the Republic to the defeat of the Sith.
Ben’s death ended that biological legacy. However, the influence of the Skywalkers did not vanish. In his final moments, Ben ensured that the Jedi legacy and the Skywalker ideals lived on by saving Rey.
In turn, Rey chose to honor that legacy by adopting the surname “Skywalker” despite being born a Palpatine. Symbolically, this means that while the bloodline ended, the spiritual legacy of the Skywalkers continues.
The values of hope, redemption, and courage that Anakin’s descendants embodied are carried forward by Rey and those who knew the Skywalkers. Historians and Jedi alike note that Ben Solo’s last act preserved what the Skywalkers stood for, even if he himself left no heirs.
Few characters in modern galactic history have inspired as much debate and speculation as Kylo Ren. From the moment his identity and parentage were hinted at, there was widespread curiosity about his backstory, motives, and ultimate destiny.
Before it was confirmed that Kylo Ren was Ben Solo, son of Han and Leia, many in the fan community theorized about the masked Knight of Ren’s true identity.
Some correctly guessed his Skywalker lineage early on, noting his pull to Vader’s legacy.
Others spun elaborate theories – for example, that Kylo might have been a secret apprentice of Luke’s who turned rogue (which, essentially, was true) or even that he could be somehow related to Rey (before Rey’s parentage was known, some wondered if she and Ben were cousins or siblings separated at birth – a theory that turned out to be unfounded in canon).
Beyond theories, Kylo Ren’s character benefited from a wealth of expanded lore in official canon sources. For those wanting to understand his fall in greater depth, comics and novels provided crucial details.
The comic series The Rise of Kylo Ren delved into Ben Solo’s final days at Luke’s academy and his recruitment by the Knights of Ren, showing scenes like the destruction of the temple and Ben’s initial reluctance and sorrow, which aren’t fully evident in the films.
It confirms, for instance, that Ben did not originally intend to slaughter his fellow students and that one of his first acts after the temple tragedy was trying to explain or justify himself to some of his Jedi peers (events that ended in conflict and tragedy, further pushing him dark).
This painted a more nuanced picture of Ben’s fall – he was manipulated and cornered rather than simply evil from the start.
The novel Bloodline by Claudia Gray, set about six years before The Force Awakens, provided context to Leia’s political struggles and the moment when the secret of Darth Vader’s parentage became public. While Ben is not present in the novel (he’s away training with Luke), it’s implied that he had not been told of his grandfather’s past until that secret came out, meaning he likely found out in a hurtful, scandalous way.
Fans often point to that as a critical emotional blow to Ben that Snoke could exploit.
Kylo Ren’s story is one of conflict and transformation. He spent years trying to outrun the past, only to find that his legacy was something he could never fully escape.
Despite his efforts to bury Ben Solo, that part of him never disappeared. It showed itself in moments of hesitation, in the connection he shared with Rey, and in the memory of the family he tried to leave behind.
In the end, Kylo Ren chose to let go of the darkness and return to the light—not for power, but for redemption. His final act, giving his life to save Rey, brought closure to a long and painful journey. Though Ben Solo died without fanfare or recognition, his choice ensured that the Skywalker legacy did not end in darkness.
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