Random TLJ thought, but I find it very interesting and clever that early on when Luke asks Rey, “Where’s Han?”, the next shot immediately cuts to Kylo/Ben.
Then later in that scene with Snoke and Kylo, Snoke demeans Kylo by saying something along the lines of Kylo still having his father’s heart.
Then near the end of the film when Luke confronts Ben, Luke tells him how he would always be with him, just like his father. Then his final words, which are to Ben, are clearly something Han would say, “See ya around, kid.” This clearly shakes Ben.
Soon afterwards, Ben finds Han’s dice, and while they physically disappear, Han’s presence does not. For as hard as Ben tries to eliminate the physical manifestations of his past, the past will always be a part of him; it will never leave him, just like Han.
“Where’s Han?”
With Ben Solo.
…I mean… I suppose I sorta already knew this in my heart… bUT YOU JUST HAD TO TYPE IT OUT TO MAKE IT HURT MORE DIDN’T YOU!?
FUCKING HELL
You know what else kills me is that I’m reminded of that moment in Aftermath, when Han was with baby Ben, and he’s talking to Leia about how he’s worried he’ll be a bad father. About how he can’t connect and never will be able to connect with Ben the same way Leia can, because she and Ben are Force Sensitive… He thinks he’s out of place. And yet, the only way to make Ben stop crying instantly, was for Han to pick him up and hold him against his chest.
We know now for sure that Ben never hated his father. In fact I think they were closer than the general audience believed, or at least wanted to be. Han’s lack of understanding of the Force held him back a lot. But I can’t help but feel that despite all the mess that is this family, there was a lot of love there between father and son. And a real connection. But a lack of communication and understanding keeping them apart.
Look at them now. Han is more connected to Ben than ever. Seems everyone’s bent on making connections and comparisons between him and Han. No matter how Ben/Kylo tries to shake it, it’s there. A constant reminder.
We believed that Han’s death would ultimately be what kickstarts his path to redemption and I think it’s clear we were right. Ben is constantly followed by the ‘ghost’ of his father in this film. Maybe to help him stay on that path…
“I won’t always be the best dad… But I promise I’ll always keep us pointed in the right direction.” “Sometimes doing the right thing, doesn’t mean going in a straight line. Sometimes you gotta just… [makes zig zag motions]”
Kylo/Ben’s storyline puzzles me in one major way. Long before he ever destroys Luke’s new Jedi Order, everyone was worried that there was “darkness in him.” But we never hear exactly why.
In TFA, Han and Leia have a (necessarily) vague conversation about the causes of Ben’s fall. Leia tells Han, “it was Snoke. He seduced our son to the dark side.” So whatever Leia detected in Ben that made her worry, she at least explains it to herself later as the result of Snoke’s influence. Han just says “there was too much Vader in him.” So Han thinks it’s genetics and Leia thinks he got it from the creep down the street, but neither of them talk about any cause within Ben himself.
Luke in TLJ gives us more specifics. Apologies for not remembering the exact quote, but he says something like, “I had sensed the darkness growing within him and seen glimpses of it in moments during his training, but when I looked inside his mind, it was worse than I had ever imagined.“ Still, though, that’s super vague. Like, did Ben do fucked-up things? Or was Luke sensing a darkness that he got a better look at when Ben was asleep? And by the way, what does Luke see when he looks into Ben’s sleeping mind? We hear chaos and screaming – is that what’s going on in there in thepresent moment? Are these Ben’s fantasies of destruction? Or, as Luke’s actual dialogue suggests when he fears that Ben is going to destroy everything he loves, is he just seeing a vision of what Ben is going to do, all the destruction he’s going to cause?
In Aftermath: Empire’s End, Leia senses Ben’s spirit when he’s in her womb: “He is less a human-shaped thing and more a pulsing, living band of light. Light that sometimes dims, that sometimes is thrust through with a vein of darkness.“ Luke tells her that this darkness is normal, that we all have it, but Leia worries anyway. She worries about what will happen to this child she’s bringing into an unstable galaxy.
My point is: whenever Ben’s family worries about the darkness in him, they either express it in metaphorical light/dark terms, or purely as anxiety about the future, a fear of what Ben could or might do. We hear almost nothing about what he’s like as a person at that moment.
In the TFA novelization, Leia says a bit more to Han: that Ben was “born with an equal potential for good or evil.” But isn’t everybody? It’s only critical for Ben because he’s so powerful and his good or bad choices could majorly affect the galaxy. But still, nobody describes his character traits before he falls, they only talk about his futurity.
This must be on purpose, because the sequel trilogy (picking up from the prequels) makes a big deal about the dangers of predicting or even just anticipating the future. Kylo and Rey see each other’s futures and get everything about each other wrong. Luke, after getting a glimpse of Ben’s future, does the exact thing that will make that future happen. The tie-in novels imply that Leia’s worry about Ben’s darkness might actually make it worse. So we’re urged to conclude that everyone’s fears that Ben might turn dark in fact helped turn him dark. If you don’t accept the dark side, you give it more power. And you alienate your kid.
But it’s frustrating, because Ben before his fall is just this black box. It’s like he doesn’t really exist, except as pure potential, until he takes that definitive step and becomes Kylo Ren. We’re told that from the beginning, he was equally “light” and “dark,” but the Force is just a metaphor for a person’s character. In the prequel trilogy, we saw the flaws in Anakin’s character that led him to the dark side. We saw in fact how his good qualities exacerbated his bad ones. We saw the struggle of “light” and “dark” play out in the dynamics of an individual personality. But with Ben, that’s all hidden from us. It’s all buried in a past we’re never shown.
Now, you could say he was just a good kid influenced by an evil external power. But that’s…not very satisfying. So what, if we took Snoke out of the equation, Ben would have turned out just fine? The conflict of light with dark isn’t nearly as interesting if it doesn’t emerge from Ben’s own character. Anakin is critically influenced by Palpatine, but Palpatine needed something to work with that was already there, and the story tells uswhat that was. Snoke is an evil predator, certainly, but because Star Wars is an allegorical fairy tale, he must also represent something internal to Ben. What in Ben himself was dark, and how did it manifest itself? We can speculate, but it’s almost as if the story deliberately hides the sorts of specifics that would let us understand him as a real person.
I guess what I’m asking is: where does the sequel trilogy think evil comes from?
Regarding Ben’s character, the tie-in novels do give us a few hints to work with, something in the nature of a strength that can also be a flaw, as we saw with Anakin:
In Bloodline, Leia remembers him as a child: ”[Another kid’s] expression reminded her a little bit of Ben’s when he was little, running in after an afternoon of roughhousing with his friends, hair mussed, absolutely filthy, and proud of himself.” He’s a normal, happy, rambunctious, confident child. Even more critically, in Aftermath: Life Debt, we hear how Leia sensed Ben’s budding little personality in her womb, and the person he’s going to become: “…she is suddenly aware of her child’s mind and spirit: she senses pluck and wit and steel blood and a keen mind and by the blood of Alderaan is this one going to be a fighter!”
So that’s the tiny bit we get about Ben’s character, as little as we’re shown of what he used to be like: he has an incredibly strong will. He’s a fighter. That is the grain of information that suggests who he was, who he is and who he’ll eventually be. He got into this mess by fighting, and he might get out by fighting as well. It all depends on what he’s fighting for.
(Thanks to @hausofodin for helping me remember that Luke quote.)
I’m right there with you on Kylo’s redemption arc. I feel like people are sometimes quick to forget that he is the Skywalker centrepoint in the ST, as the son of Han and Leia and grandson of Anakin and Padme, and that the narrative will therefore mainly focus on his conflict with the Light and Dark Sides of the Force. TLJ took a very interesting approach to framing that conflict by showing us Kylo by himself, Kylo responding to Leia’s presence, Kylo chafing against Snoke’s bonds of control, Kylo in scenes with Luke, and Kylo in connection with Rey. That’s a whole lot of lenses through which we are able to see him – and in all of them we can see that inner turmoil, that sense of being adrift, that childishness intermarried with emotional vulnerability, and so on.
A lot of what he does in TLJ is on-the-fly impulsive to the point where he loses sight of any goal beyond the here and now. He’s not a leader for ‘the long game’ in which things take their time to move to their respective places – Kylo’s a loose cannon that aims itself at whoever hurts him the most, and he’s willing to burn every single one of his already precarious bridges just to sate his immediate emotional need. He feels so much – too much, one may argue – and his entire state of being is utterly reactive within the narrative. Still, I wouldn’t say Kylo’s utterly hopeless: many of his interactions with Rey show us that this man does have the ability to sit down and listen with care for someone else’s plight, that he recognises and acknowledges the worst of himself willingly, that he cares entirely too much and simply puts his foot in his mouth in the most tactless ways when he gets to that point of emotional overwhelm.
Kylo is smack in the middle of his redemption arc already, if you ask me. His interactions with Snoke show an awareness of what Snoke has done to him from infancy onward, even if he does not fully comprehend the scope of that scum’s influence on his mind and being just yet. His interactions with Luke show a troubled child who felt abandoned at a time in which he needed guidance most, but also show the wayward apprentice facing his one-time master as well as one Skywalker scion versus the other Skywalker child. (I have a lot of thoughts on Luke’s side of things as well, especially about that confrontation they had, but that’s not the primary focus of this post. Might save it for some other time!) There is a degree of resolution in which Kylo faces both of his masters within TLJ and comes out of it ‘a free man’. He is in the interesting position where he is not alone after Snoke, but then shakes himself loose from Rey (through his own stupid but understandable interaction with her) and is left alone by Rey (who absolutely made the right call in abandoning ship on that one at this point in time).
Going into Episode IX, Kylo is utterly alone. For the first time in his life, he is free of Snoke. Hux and the First Order are side-eyeing him so much during (and probably also after) the events on Crait that I would not be surprised to see our Fearless Supreme Leader (lol) ousted by some form of mutiny in the near future. He has messed things up with Rey and he is haunted by the ghosts of Han and Luke. When it comes to that age-old dark night of the soul, in which one goes through hell and back entirely by themselves before arriving at a new dawn, this is pretty much an exemplary narrative through which to illustrate that crisis of identity and crisis of faith. Kylo is becoming more and more Ben by the hour and he is entirely alone in that journey for the very first time. I cannot wait to see where he goes next, but I feel quite assured in saying that we will absolutely see him make a definite decision at a moment of great emotional/personal upheaval.
We will see Kylo decide upon his redemption, and the most beautiful thing about that is that it is something he will do for himself. Nobody else in the universe can decide whether he deserves it or not. That decision is entirely his alone – and so it is fitting that he ends TLJ entirely alone, so that he may come to know himself and move himself forward to whatever end in Episode IX. This is not a narrative that necessarily ends in death, mind you – I think, in this particular case, it will be far more powerful to have him live.
That’s a good question, since it’s pretty obvious I am an unapologetic fan.
I do believe someone can identify stepping stones a character’s path that can evoke a level of empathy that can make that character interesting, while not necessitating that one also accept the actions that are a culmination of that person’s past and choices.
In Hux’s case, I can empathize with the fact that I am not sure whether he would have been the person he became had he not had a different experience as a child. After years in the mental health field, and my studies in anthropology, I am far more inclined to believe in the power of nurture over nature.
Hux, however, actually more closely (according to what we see in our “behind the scenes” information and the very fact of his acts of remorseless destruction) fits the definition of a psychopath, which is generally considered to be innate / a genetic predisposition. Unfortunately, the distinguishing factors between psychopathology and sociopathy are blurred in narratives and often mixed together in clusters of traits that are actually rarely found in both definitions. This being said, I honestly think that Hux would have turned out like he did, to some degree, no matter his environment, but his upbringing absolutely cultivated the worst traits and impulses, and honed them into an art. Do I apologize for his actions? Absolutely not. This character trait is the first thing to go in many fictions, because, I imagine, it’s very difficult to empathize with and recreate. The Hux for many of us in the Kylux fandom, I think, is a construct / amalgamation of traits that we are able to understand and relate to, but when it boils down to it, I don’t think he has a defense (and the “real” Hux wouldn’t see the need for one, in my opinion).
Kylo, on the other hand, is pretty clearly written as a sociopath. This diagnosis implies that his character is impulsive, has a pervasive pattern of disregard for others, is deceitful and manipulative, is prone to aggression, has difficulties forming attachments or may form an attachment to a person or group of persons that they perceive as like-minded. Unlike the psychopathic character, sociopaths are largely considered by the psychology community to be created by their environment. Take the most popular representation of such a person in modern television (Dexter), whose trauma at the age of four dictated his ability to connect with humanity for the rest of his life. He grew up and became a serial killer. Sociopathy is often a response to such childhood trauma or abuse. Some folks don’t think that Ben Solo actually was a victim of trauma, but I don’t agree. Snoke, according to canon, began to manipulate Ben while he was still in the womb. He went on to feel abandoned and rejected by all the adults in his life that he should have reasonably expected to care for him. As a social worker, I see patterns like this in childhood behind almost every personality disorder that I work with.
I suppose in this respect I am much more likely to WANT TO let Kylo Ren “off the hook” if it were up to me, solely because I can empathize with him far more. I relate, personally, to his story. Despite my personal feelings, do I LOGICALLY apologize for him / condone him? No, I don’t.
I make no secret about liking dark, complex characters, and Kylo Ren is no exception to that. I was recently blown away by everything the Last Jedi gave us to pick apart through showing the different journeys the characters went through. One thing that stuck very strongly with me even after my first viewing of Last Jedi was how one of the biggest plotlines of the story is Kylo Ren regaining agency over his own story.
It is clear that by the events of Last Jedi, Kylo Ren has grown to resent being tugged in various directions to suit others’ ideas of what he should be. Growing up, Ben Solo was pushed into training to become a jedi. It is not yet clear if this was what he wanted or not. Luke admits in Last Jedi that it was partially his own hubris, that made him want to train his nephew into a great jedi. Leia clearly encouraged this as well, especially with her worries about the dark presence that had been looming around her son. At the same time, Snoke had been in Ben’s mind since he was a child, most likely targeting Ben’s doubts and manipulating him to believe his parents did not care about him.
It was that pressure both from the light, Luke and Leia, and the dark, Snoke, that ultimately turned Ben Solo into Kylo Ren. In that path of trying to please all of the voices in his head, Kylo Ren nearly destroyed himself in the process. In the beginning of Last Jedi, we see the moment when he finally comes to this realization himself. Kylo Ren literally lived his whole life doing what other people have been telling him what was right to do. And this is where it had led him. The final straw was Snoke telling Kylo to kill his father. And when he did, even that was not enough. Nothing would ever be enough for Snoke. Perhaps Kylo had been slowly realizing the extent of Snoke’s manipulation, or perhaps he truly realized it at that moment. Either way, I believe that is the moment where Kylo decides that he is going to kill Snoke and take charge of his own fate.
Without Snoke’s voice inside his head, Kylo Ren was free, but still in agony. He needs time yet to find his footing. His thoughts finally his own, the time between TLJ and ep 9 will be when Kylo can finally sort through the tangled web of loss and confusion in his heart and mind and decide, finally for himself, the path he wishes to follow.
While Kylo Ren’s connection to Rey in TLJ is important, it is not the thing that will “save” him. If anything, it seemed like Kylo Ren was able to give Rey more guidance and understanding than the other way around. Kylo Ren does not need to be saved by a woman. He was manipulated by a dark force and betrayed by the person who was supposed to protect him, and yet, he is still a capable and clever man. With Snoke out of his mind, the innate wisdom that Kylo always had will finally be the forefront of his thoughts. As much fun as it is to discuss shipping, I think some of the significance of the journey that Kylo’s character went through in Last Jedi is lost if we attribute all of his chances at overcoming his inner turmoil on him being, yet again, swayed by another person. Any romance for Kylo, will be in addition to, rather than central to, Kylo’s future growth as a character. And Rey seems to be only interested in Kylo Ren if he joins her cause/ the Resistance. That may or may not be the best course of action for him, but that is for him to decide.
The person Kylo Ren needs the most is himself, standing on his own two feet and figuring out which path he wants to go without anyone whispering in his ear or trying to sway him anymore. I personally think his character arc will be fulfilling and satisfying even if he does commit himself to being the new leader of the First Order. Kylo is motivated by letting go of the sith/jedi past and carving a new future, and I am very intrigued to see what that future might look like.
TLJ has totally solidified my love for this character. I found Kylo Ren’s journey to be the most moving and dramatic part of the film, so much so I needed two days to process my thoughts before I could even think about the other characters (and write my usual subject matter for this blog lol).
I think the response to Kylo Ren says a lot about how people perceive masculinity, and in particular how they expect and want men to behave. Everyone wanted and expected Kylo to be some emotionless, cold and calculating badass, and people were unsettled when they instead got an emotional and deeply unhappy young man who struggles to regulate his emotions.
We associate displays of emotion with weakness and vulnerability, deeming them feminine, and it’s especially taboo for men to be honest and unguarded about their feelings. That is part of why it’s so painful and raw to watch Kylo in his moments of profound turmoil and distress. He only increases his self-loathing in those moments where he’s helpless to contain his emotions, which makes him more and more desperate and frustrated. It creates a vicious cycle.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens // Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Kylo Ren’s helmet.
I just had this thought. About the helm. Before, it was masking Kylo, giving him anonymity, but now it’s crushed, and he has to face things directly, without hiding. This gives me hope that he will find redemption.
I don’t necessarily think of redemption as what I’d like to see (face it, I want Kylo and Hux taking over the universe), but if I have to pick between redemption and death, it’s not a choice. I need my fractured son to live.
Finished this up! Sorry it’s been awhile since my last painting—these illustrations take a bit longer to do.
I kept myself up last night worrying about spoilers from this episode, and then I saw this art today (which is stunning) but it just … made my heart clench. It’s reading into the clothing and the purported “opulent” throne room, but I am just imagining Snoke as nothing more than an extremely powerful manipulator, a Baron Harkonnen, who has cultivated Ben Solo / Kylo Ren as a sort of servant droid not for power but for leisure.
Even if I can’t condone Kylo Ren’s choices, I can at least identify with the idea that he felt he has a purpose. That he believed in it. To imagine the rug was so fully pulled over his eyes, that Snoke was naught but a hedonist, demeans him him much, and it makes me really sad. It’s also pretty brilliant, in terms of a twist that knifes the heart. If Snoke is truly such a self-indulgent creature, and I can see it, then not only is Kylo Ren a puppet, but so is Hux. So it the First Order. Legitimacy is stripped.
Ideally, my power duo Kylo Ren and General Hux will recognize him for what he is, be equally offended and agree to put him down for minimizing their respective genius, deigning to use an empire and a legacy to fill his teacup.
Listen, I slammed through a bunch of Empire’s End, and I’m just gonna leave you with this quote from the very final portion of the book. This is Rae Sloane’s POV. She calls our Hux Armitage, so the Hux here is Brendol.
Their new galaxy will never have known a time without an Empire.
That thrills her.
And, indeed, it worries her, too.
“It’s time to start over,” she says to Hux. “That is our first order. To begin again. And to get it right, this time.”
“Yes, of course, Grand Admiral. Anything you need. Glory be to Grand Admiral Sloane.”
“No,” she says. “Glory goes only to the Empire.”
My Empire, she thinks.
She’s talking to a sniveling, groveling Brendol Hux and this comes on the heels of Rae thinking about how much she likes Armitage and how vicious he’s grown even for such a small boy. Rae Sloane’s philosophy is very much Hux’s – the Hux we know, the sort of soul of the First Order’s ideology. And like – if this woman is your mentor.
Then yes. Yes, you want to be emperor. And those aspirations are 110% now as far as I’m concerned
After reading the new infos about baby Ben Solo, i’ve been wanting to put together all the evidences pointing to a likely redemption arc.
The Force Awakens novelization:
When next Snoke spoke there was an intimacy in his voice, a familiarity that stood in sharp contrast to the commanding tone he had used with Hux. “I have never had a student with such promise—before you.” Ren straightened. “It is your teachings that make me strong, Supreme Leader.” Snoke demurred. “It is far more than that. It is where you are from. What you are made of. The dark side—and the light. The finest sculptor cannot fashion a masterpiece from poor materials. He must have something pure, something strong, something unbreakable, with which to work. I have—you.”
He met her eyes steadily. “We’ve lost our son, forever.” Leia bit her lower lip, refusing to concede. “No. It was Snoke.” Han drew back slightly. “Snoke?” She nodded. “He knew our child would be strong with the Force. That he was born with equal potential for good or evil.” “You knew this from the beginning? Why didn’t you tell me?” She sighed. “Many reasons. I was hoping that I was wrong, that it wasn’t true. I hoped I could sway him, turn him away from the dark side, without having to involve you.” A small smile appeared. “You had—you have—wonderful qualities, Han, but patience and understanding were never among them. I was afraid that your reactions would only drive him farther to the dark side. I thought I could shield him from Snoke’s influence and you from what was happening.” Her voice dropped. “It’s clear now that I was wrong. Whether your involvement would have made a difference, we’ll never know.” He had trouble believing what he was hearing. “So Snoke was watching our son.” “Always,” she told him. “From the shadows, in the beginning, even before I realized what was happening, he was manipulating everything, pulling our son toward the dark side.”
The Supreme Leader’s voice was flat. “You have compassion for her.” “No—never. Compassion? For an enemy of the Order?” “I perceive the problem,” Snoke intoned. “It isn’t her strength that is making you fail. It’s your weakness.” The rebuke hurt, but Ren didn’t show it. […]
“I want the entire Ileenium system destroyed.” Daring to disagree, Ren took a step forward. “No—Supreme Leader, I can get the map from the girl, and that will be the end of it. I just need your guidance.” “And you promised me when it came to destroying the Resistance you wouldn’t fail me.” The threatening figure of Snoke leaned toward Ren.[…]
“Kylo Ren. It appears that a reminder is in order. So I will show you the dark side. Bring the girl to me.”
He (Kylo Ren) looked at the officer. “The trooper who was on guard?” “Still being debriefed, sir. He doesn’t remember what happened. One minute he was at his post, at ease. The next, he found himself in his quarters, changing out of uniform. Initial assessment indicates he is telling the truth.” The officer hesitated. “If you would wish to try stronger methods I can…” “No—no. Keep questioning him. Just—questioning. He may remember something.”
Ren hesitated. “It’s too late,” he said. “No, it’s not.” Halfway across the walkway now, Han continued to move forward, smiling. “Never too late for the truth. Leave here with me. Come home.” Without the slightest trace of malice or deception, he cast a dagger. “Your mother misses you.” A strange sensation touched the younger man’s cheeks. Something long forgotten. Dampness. Tears.[…] Stunned by his own action, Kylo Ren fell to his knees. Following through on the act ought to have made him stronger, a part of him believed. Instead, he found himself weakened.
The Force Awakens junior novelization:
Snoke’s voice assumed a fatherly tone. “I never had a student with such promise…before you.” “It’s your teachings that make me strong, Supreme Leader,” Ren said. “It is far more than that. It is where you are from. What you are made of. The dark side,” the Supreme Leader said, hesitating before saying the next words, “and the light.”
He held her stare, and then his gloved hands touched the sides of his mask and took it off. He had a young man’s face, with an old man’s eyes. His lips and dark hair stood out against the pale complexion of one who shirked the sun. He looked like a student who took no joy in his studies. One who perceived only the great problems of the galaxy and not its simple pleasures.[…]
“And Han Solo,” he said. “He feels like the father you never had.” His tone softened, as if he cared. “Let it go. He would disappoint you.”
Ben had the wavy dark hair that Han remembered, now shoulder length. His mother’s cheeks, Han’s chin. Yet everything about him was narrow and stark, as if he had starved himself of nourishment. And his eyes were not the brown eyes Han remembered. They were dim and dark and terribly sad.[…]
In the last few seconds of his life, he thought of the Falcon and his furry first mate and his beautiful princess, but he saw only his son. The darkness in his eyes. And the sadness. Han forgave his son for what he had done. He prayed someday his son would forgive him in turn.
Aftermath Empire’s End:
Who is out there, who is watching us? Hands reach for her, hands of shadow, lifting her up, reaching for her throat, her wrists, her stomach – Inside, the child kicks. She feels her baby turning inside, right-side, up and down, struggling to find his bearings, trying so hard to find his way free of her.
He is less a human shaped thing and more a pulsing, living band of light. Light that sometimes dims, that sometimes is thrust with a vein of darkness. She tells herself that it’s normal – Luke said to her, Leia, we all have that. He explained that the brighter the light, the darker the shadow. Right now, her son is upset, tumbling inside her as if he can’t get comfortable. His light, flickering with dark. […]
As Leia finds her peace, so does her son. […]
My son is alive. The future is bright.
[…]
The baby turns inside her again, troubled by something she cannot feel and cannot yet understand.
Quotes:
“They (Han and Leia) had this kid who was born equal parts good and evil. He is someone who is broken….But it’s more than just having a bad seed as a kid.Snoke had targeted this kid, knew that this kid was gonna be incredibly powerful in the force and wanted him as an ally. So this mother and father had a target for a son. Someone was watching their boy. And these parents aren’t there enough to guide him.”(J.J. Abrams)
Q: Without giving away any spoilers, what’s one aspect about Kylo Ren you are excited for fans to see in the next film?
Adam Driver: I think that’s such a general answer, but you know… humanity.
“Imagine the stakes for him in his youth… Having all these special powers and having your parents absent during that process on their own agendas, equally as selfish. He’s lost in the world that he was raised in, and feels that he was kind of abandoned by the people he was closest with.” (Adam Driver)
[…] The family dynamic and desperately wanting family to be part of his life but not getting it. The anxiety and lot of anger that that creates and that last a lifetime. (Adam Driver)
I hope i’m not forgetting anything, but please feel free to add.
Jules' Kylux Stuff 