Kylo Ren, formerly known as Ben Solo, was the son of Princess Leia Organa and General
Han Solo.
As a force-sensitive human, he was trained on the ways of the Jedi by his uncle, Jedi
Master Luke Skywalker.
However, like his grandfather - the fallen Sith Lord Darth Vader - he was seduced by
the dark side of the force by Supreme Leader Snoke of the First Order.
He destroyed his fellow Jedi students and became one of the Knights of Ren.
He dreamed of following in the footsteps of his grandfather and finishing off what Vader
had started: the elimination of the Jedi.
Welcome to Final Frontier as we explore the life of Kylo Ren.
Roughly one year after the Battle of Endor, the Galactic Concordance was signed between
the New Republic and the Galactic Empire; signalling the end of the Galactic Civil War.
This was also the day that Ben Solo was born in Hanna City, Chandrila, to his parents,
Princess Leia Organa and General Han Solo.
Ben was named after the late Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, who went by the name of Ben Kenobi
while in exile on Tatooine after the fall of the Jedi Order.
His troubled future would be foreshadowed while he was still inside his mother's womb.
Feeling him through the Force, Leia likened him to a living band of light that sometimes
dimmed and was sometimes thrust through with a vein of darkness
Growing up, Ben would often feel neglected by his parents, with Leia becoming a respected
senator in the New Republic and Han Solo finding himself torn by his nature and unable to stay
in one place for too long
Taking after his mother’s side of the family, Ben proved to be Force-sensitive and would
eventually begin training on the ways of the Force with his uncle, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker.
It was hoped that this new generation of Jedi would eventually restore the fallen Jedi Order.
However, Ben was unaware that he was the grandson of the Sith Lord, Darth Vader
Sensing similarities between her son and Darth Vader, Leia hoped that Luke’s training would
help Ben.
She planned on telling her son about his heritage eventually and explain that, in the end, Vader
was redeemed and that the light inside of Anakin Skywalker had returned
Unfortunately, Leia would not get the opportunity to be the one to tell the truth to her son.
Instead, the truth of his mother’s parentage would be revealed to Ben publicly in the Galactic
Senate.
With his feelings of abandonment heightened, Ben was targeted by a powerful individual
named Snoke, who recognised the inherent Force potential within him
Snoke was the Supreme Leader of the First Order, which arose from the ashes of the Imperial
remnants that had retreated into the Unknown Regions at the end of the Galactic Civil War.
He saw Ben as a focal point between the light side and the dark side of the Force – an
ideal embodiment of a Force warrior.
Embracing the Dark Side of the Force, Ben would destroy Skywalker’s Jedi Temple and
become Kylo Ren, an apprentice of Supreme Leader Snoke and a member
of the Knights of Ren
He would eventually become the most gifted apprentice of the Supreme Leader, and the
embodiment of a new generation of Dark Side warriors that emerged to fill the void left
by the fall of the Sith.
Ren's betrayal would destroy his family.
His uncle, Luke Skywalker vanished into exile and his parents separated.
Han returned to his previous life of smuggling and Leia returned to a life of war, forming
an army known as the Resistance when the New Republic Senate underestimated the emerging
threat of the First Order.
To help conceal his identity and give him a more intimidating presence, Ren typically
wore a helmet, like his grandfather had done, patterned after the battle gear of the Knights
of Ren
Ren would also be known as ‘Jedi Killer’ amongst the First Order ranks who knew he
had prevented the return of the Jedi Order.
Ren came to idolise Darth Vader and kept his grandfather's destroyed helmet as a shrine
to the Dark Lord of the Sith
He hoped one day to complete Vader’s legacy by killing the last of the Jedi.
Though Vader had ultimately returned to the Light Side, Ren and Snoke believed that Darth
Vader was Anakin's true self.
Ren would eventually build his own custom lightsabre, basing it on an ancient design
dating back thousands of years.
It was built with a cracked kyber crystal, resulting in the lightsaber having a red unstable
fiery appearance and it also required vents on either side to divert excess heat.
As an apprentice to Supreme Leader Snoke, Ren became an influential member of the First
Order's power structure.
Though he had direct access to the Supreme Leader and could command military officers,
he existed outside of the official military command structure, thus mirroring Darth Vader's
position in the Galactic Empire
This led to some tension with the First Order's upper ranks, particularly with General Armitage
Hux, the commander of Starkiller Base, the First Order superweapon capable of destroying
entire star systems.
The First Order learned that Skywalker had gone in search of the first Jedi temple, the
location of which had been lost.
Determined to stop him, Ren launched a search for a missing piece of the galactic map that
would locate the temple.
This led him to Lor San Tekka, an old ally of Leia and Luke Skywalker on the planet Jakku.
He was a member of the Church of the Force who believed that the return of the Jedi was
essential for bringing balance to the Force
The Battlecruiser ‘Finalizer’ was brought to Jakku, where Ren ordered its military forces
to attack the village where Tekka lived
Ren arrived on the battlefield and demanded that Tekka give the map to him.
Tekka – who knew Ren’s true identity – refused and reminded Ren of his heritage, at which
point Ren struck him down with his lightsaber.
Moments later, Commander Poe Dameron, a starfighter pilot working for the Resistance who was also
looking for the map fragment under orders from General Organa, shot a blaster at Kylo
Ren… only to have Ren stop the blaster bolt in midair
Dameron was captured and brought onboard Ren's command shuttle for interrogation.
Ren would then order the rest of the villagers be killed.
One stormtrooper, FN-2187, hesitated and ultimately chose not to fire on the civilians, an act
that Ren noticed as he boarded his shuttle.
First Order interrogators learnt that Dameron was a pilot in the Resistance but were unable
to get him to reveal the location of the map fragment.
Thus, Ren began to use the Force to mentally extract the information from Dameron's mind
and found that the map was still likely to be on Jakku hidden inside his BB unit
The recovery of the droid was then put in the hands of the military
Defecting from the First Order, the stormtrooper FN-2187 tricked Dameron’s guards into handing
him over.
They both then escaped by stealing a TIE fighter, which crash-landed on Jakku.
Hux ordered a squadron to be sent to Jakku to recover BB-8 before Dameron could find
him.
Ren questioned the capability of Hux's soldiers and wondering whether an army of clones, as
used by the early Empire, would be a wiser decision.
Hux responded that they were more than capable, and warned Ren not to let his personal mission
to find Skywalker interfere with the Supreme Leader's orders
Regaining consciousness after crashing, FN-2187 – who was given the name Finn by Dameron
during their escape – decided to continue Dameron’s mission, after mistakenly believing
that his escape partner had died in the crash.
He found BB-8 in the possession of Rey, a scavenger, and the three were immediately
pursued by First Order troops.
In their bid to escape, they stole a ship – the Millennium Falcon, which had been
stolen from Han Solo – and destroyed the pursuing TIE fighters.
Angered by the droid’s escape, Ren destroyed the computer terminal in front of him.
Lieutenant Mitaka would then tell him that a girl had assisted the droid’s escape…
With BB-8 evading capture, the Finalizer made its way to Starkiller Base.
Supreme Leader Snoke remained concerned that Skywalker's return would threaten the First
Order so he agreed to Hux’s proposal that they use the weapon, as intended, to destroy
the New Republic.
Both Snoke and Ren could sense that the Force was awakening from dormancy once again.
The Supreme Leader also warned Ren that he would soon face his greatest test as BB-8
was now in the hands of father, Han Solo.
Ren responded that he would not be seduced, but nonetheless felt conflicted inside.
In his private quarters, he spoke to the melted remnants of Darth Vader’s helmet, desperately
urging it to show him the power of the dark side.
Hux gave a speech to his forces about the need to end a regime he believed would result
in galactic chaos, and then ordered the Starkiller weapon be fired.
Ren watched from the bridge of the Finalizer as the weapon's phantom energy made its way
to the Republic's capital of Hosnian Prime, where it destroyed the entire Hosnian system.
The First Order learned that Han Solo, Rey, Finn and BB-8 had landed on Takodana and were
in the castle of the ancient pirate Maz Kanata, who Han Solo hoped would help deliver the
droid to the Resistance.
Ren led his forces to Takodana and attacked Kanata's castle where Solo, Finn and BB-8
were briefly captured before the Resistance Starfighter Corps arrived to rescue them.
Rey and BB-8 tried to escape through the woods and this is where Ren would find Rey.
He realised that Rey had seen the map and captured her.
He discontinued his pursuit of BB-8, who would ultimately make it back into the hands of
the Resistance.
At Starkiller Base, Ren began to interrogate Rey, even removing his mask to show his face.
With Rey not complying to his requests for information on the map, Ren began forcefully
probing her mind using the Force.
At first, he felt her loneliness and fear and then he sensed how Rey looked towards
Han Solo as a father figure and responded that Solo would have only disappointed her.
Ren then started to find it difficult to extract information as Rey began to use her latent
Force powers to resist him.
She then began to sense the uncertainty in Ren’s mind and realised that he was also
afraid – afraid that he would never be as strong as Darth Vader.
Stunned by her power, Ren left the interrogation chamber and told Snoke that Rey was strong
with the Force, stronger than she even knew.
The Supreme Leader asked about the droid, and General Hux, who had just entered the
chamber, told Snoke that Ren believed he only needed Rey and had allowed the droid to escape.
Concerned that the Resistance might have the full map to Skywalker, Snoke ordered Hux to
unleash the Starkiller weapon against the Resistance base on the planet D'Qar.
Ren strongly believed that he could still find the map in Rey’s mind as long as he
had his master’s guidance, so the Supreme Leader ordered Rey to be brought to him.
However, upon returning to the interrogation chamber, Rey was nowhere to be found.
Enraged, Ren ignited his lightsaber and destroyed the chamber.
Back on D'Qar, the Resistance hatched a plan to destroy Starkiller base by destroying its
thermal oscillator, thereby setting off a chain reaction that would destroy the planet
base.
Before departing on his mission, Han promised his estranged wife, Leia, that he would try
to bring their son home.
Entering the oscillator in his search for Rey, Ren sensed the presence of his father
and would soon be reunited with him.
His father asked him to remove the mask so he could see the face of his son, Ben Solo,
once more.
Removing the mask, Ren told Han that Ben was gone, calling him weak and foolish, like his
father.
But Han said he believed his son was alive and pleaded for him to return home to his
mother and father.
Ren was conflicted by the pull towards the light side and told his father that he wanted
to be free of the pain that he was feeling and that he knew what he had to do to end
the pain but he did not know if he had the strength to do it.
Han agreed to help and Ren took out his lightsaber for his father to hold.
Han then felt Ren tug at the lightsabre before igniting it and impaling his own father.
Han Solo would touch his son's face for the last time, full of compassion, before he fell
Witnessing the loss of his close companion, Chewbacca fired a shot from his bowcaster
and hit Ren in the side, seriously injuring him.
He then ignited charges that he and Han Solo had set throughout the oscillator, causing
explosions that breached the oscillator thereby allowing Resistance pilots, including Poe
Dameron, the opportunity to destroy it
Rey and Finn, who had also been in the oscillator, ran out into the woods to escape on the Millennium
Falcon, but found themselves confronted by Ren, lightsaber drawn.
He used the Force to throw Rey into a tree and knocked her unconscious.
Left alone, Finn ignited the lightsaber that had been given to him for safekeeping by Maz
Kanata – a lightsaber that had once belonged to Luke Skywalker and to Anakin before him.
Seeing the lightsaber, Ren demanded that Finn give it to him but Finn resisted.
In the fight that followed Ren would fuel his anger, and thus his power, by continually
striking his bowcaster injury.
Although Finn would land a single blow on Ren's arm, Ren disarmed the former stormtrooper
and ending the fight with a lightsaber blow across Finn's back, which dropped him to the
ground.
With the duel over, Ren attempted to use the Force to draw his grandfather’s lightsabre
into his hand.
It flew from the ground but, instead of going into his hand, it flew past him and into the
hands of Rey.
Rey and Ren engaged in an intense lightsabre duel with Ren gaining the upper hand and telling
Rey that she needed a teacher and that he could show her the ways of the Force.
However, Rey began to channel the Force and use it to her advantage turning the tide of
the fight.
Ren was disarmed and her blade slashed across his face disfiguring him.
With Ren’s life at her mercy, any decision on whether to end his life was taken away
as a deep chasm formed between them as the surface of the planet began to break apart.
The Resistance was victorious and the destruction of the oscillator had triggered the destruction
of Starkiller base.
As the planet collapsed, Snoke ordered General Hux to find Ren and bring the dark warrior
before the Supreme Leader so Ren's training could be completed.
Soon after the planet's destruction, the Resistance pieced together the full map that Ren had
been desperate to obtain.
Rey, Chewbacca and R2D2 would find the exiled Skywalker on Ahch-To, where she would offer
Luke Skywalker his old lightsaber as a symbol of the only hope the galaxy had left and the
very thing that Ren had hoped to prevent: the return of the Jedi
Please like and share this video.
For more things Star Wars and science fiction, please subscribe.
For some personal stuff from me, find me on Facebook and Twitter
May the Force be with you