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This Villainous Benchmark was Headlined on September 2023. | ||
| “ | Your son is gone. He was weak and foolish like his father. So I destroyed him. | „ |
| ~ Kylo Ren stressing to his father that there is no Ben Solo left in him. |
| “ | Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to. It's the only way to become what you're meant to be. | „ |
| ~ Kylo Ren telling Rey not to be attached to the past. |
| “ | I know what I have to do, but I don't know if I have the strength to do it. | „ |
| ~ Kylo Ren to the memory of his father just before returning to the light. |
Kylo Ren, originally born as Ben Solo, is the secondary antagonist of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. He is the dark, powerful, and extremely wrathful master of the Knights of Ren, as well as the apprentice of Supreme Leader Snoke, before killing him and becoming the new Supreme Leader of the First Order.
Ben Solo was born as the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, the nephew of Luke Skywalker, the grandson of Darth Vader (Anakin Skywalker) and Padmé Amidala. He is also the archenemy-turned-ally of Rey (Emperor Palpatine's granddaughter), who is his love interest besides being connected with him through a dyad in the Force.
He was portrayed by Adam Driver, who also voiced the character in Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In all other subsequent media, he was voiced by Matthew Russel Wood. In Star Wars: Battlefront II, he was voiced by Rodger Craig Smith in his unmasked form.
His Evil Ranking[]
His Villainous Deeds[]
Background[]
- He joined Supreme Leader Snoke and the dark side, before joining the Knights of Ren and the First Order.
- He killed Hennix (one of Luke's apprentices), although it was an accident. Hennix was killed by his own lightsaber after Ben defended himself by deflecting his lightsaber throw. He then killed Voe, the last of Luke's apprentices.
- He helped Snoke hunt down Luke, his own uncle, across the galaxy, to avenge Luke almost killing him in his sleep and also to end the Jedi.
- He killed a Zillo Beast to ensure the planet Benathy loyalty.
- He painfully mind probed Del Meeko's mind and while Meeko managed to redirect him, Kylo left him to be killed by his old friend Gideon Hask.
- While he does have a few cometic moments such as his memed lines more and traitor, they are brief and he is still taken seriously. Thus, he isn’t laughably evil.
Resistance Season 1[]
- At some point, he massacred a village on Tehar, leaving the siblings Kel and Eila as survivors of the destruction. Since the children bore the knowledge of its aggressive actions against the people on Tehar, he had the First Order place a bounty on them.
The Force Awakens[]
- He stormed a village in Jakku in search for BB-8, and he personally killed Lor San Tekka with his lightsaber. Shortly after the deed, he ordered Captain Phasma to have her stormtroopers execute every single Tuanul villager that was present during the incident.
- He mentally tortured Poe Dameron to get the information of the map to Luke.
- He choked a messenger out of anger after being informed that BB-8 had escaped.
- He conducted an invasion over Takodona to capture BB-8.
- He killed Han Solo, his own father, on Snoke's orders.
- He gravely injured Finn during their duel on Starkiller Base.
- He tried to convince Rey to join the dark side during his first duel with her.
The Last Jedi[]
- He thought about shooting down a ship containing his own mother Leia.
- After Rey refused to take his hand and escaped the Supremacy, he told Hux that she was the one who killed Snoke (although he had to do it to save his own skin and prevent the First Order from knowing about his betrayal).
- He attempted to convince Rey to join the dark side and rule the galaxy with him instead of helping her to save the Resistance fleet.
- He launched an invasion over Crait, intending to kill the remaining members of the Resistance. He also tried to kill Luke (he didn't know he was being fooled by a projection, but his intentions fully counts).
Resistance Season 2[]
- When Agent Tierny and Commander Pyre failed several times in finding the Colossus, he used the Force to make them hold each other at gunpoint. He then threatened to make them shoot each other as a lesson to never disappoint him again (although they deserved it).
- After failing to destroy the Colossus the last time, he Force choked Tierny and executed her after she asked him for reinforcements.
Legacy of Vader[]
- He want on a quest to destroy everything Vader had in the past. He used his saber to destroy his grandfather's name on the racing walls, killed Anakin's former slave owner Gardulla the Hutt (although she deserved it), and even took over Naboo.
The Rise of Skywalker[]
- Despite making a deal with Palpatine, he actually plans to turn Rey to the dark side and kill him so that they can rule together.
- He stalked Rey to convince her to join him and have her by his side for them to defeat Palpatine together.
- He destroyed the Sith wayfinder that Rey found to convince her to come with him.
- Despite his romantic feelings for her, he was at times tempted by the dark side to kill Rey and eliminate his weakness, as seen when he flies his TIE whisper towards her at full speed (although he immediately feels relief when he sees that she was not injured, but also sort of blames her for tempting him with her light).
Why He Doesn't Stand Out?[]
- Although he passes the baseline for killing his own father, Han Solo, which was a big point for his villainous deeds, as Han was one of the most important heroes during the Galactic Civil War era, he still massively fails the high standards to more heinous characters in Star Wars such as General Hux, who not only killed his own father but also destroyed an entire planetary system, and several other characters with much lower resources.
- He only turned to the dark side because he was manipulated by both Snoke and Palpatine during his entire life since his childhood. He even endured Snoke's and Palpatine's psychological manipulation for a very long time before turning, as he started hearing their voices through the Force during his early childhood but only turned to the dark side at the age of 24.
- Despite claiming that he destroyed Luke's Jedi Temple, The Rise of Kylo Ren comic reveals that it was destroyed by a lightning storm with unclear origin. If Ben Solo caused it (as he claims he did), it was an accidental and unconscious action, not a villainous deed.
- He also truly cared for the other students of the Jedi academy. When the Temple is destroyed by the lightning storm, he becomes horrified and runs towards the Temple in an attempt to save the others.
- He was extremely reluctant to kill others even after joining the Knights of Ren.
- He uses a mind probe for the first time on a group of miners because Ren (the previous leader of the Knights of Ren) was going to kill them after they refused to give any information. While testing the mind probe, he tries to make sure to get the information without killing the miners.
- He hesitates to harm his best friend (Tai) during their duel, prompting Ren to kill Tai.
- He is so reluctant to kill that Ren disapproves of his actions and when Ben hesitates to kill Tai, Ren tells him that he isn't fit to be part of the Knights of Ren.
- He killed Ren to avenge his best friend, as Ren killed Tai in front of him.
- He genuinely loves his parents.
- He couldn't bring himself to destroy an illusion of his parents in the Cave of Evil, when Snoke takes him to train there.
- He feels remorse right after killing Han Solo and is haunted by his own action, to the point that he becomes even more emotionally unstable and depressed. Upon seeing Han, Kylo was also very conflicted about whether or not to kill his father before deciding to do it.
- He couldn't bring himself to fire on the Resistance ship after sensing that Leia was aboard showing that he did care about her.
- He is sincerely in love with Rey.
- He became disturbed while watching Rey being tortured by Snoke in front of him and was furious when his master revealed he had manipulated their Force-bond.
- He killed Supreme Leader Snoke to save Rey and helped her to defeat the Praetorian Guard.
- After the duel with Rey on the ruins of the second Death Star, he sees a memory of his father because of the great remorse he feels for killing Han Solo.
- After his mother's death and being saved by Rey on the ruins of the second Death Star, he ends up redeeming himself to protect Rey.
- Right after turning to the light, he rushes to team up with Rey and face Palpatine, only thinking about saving her from the Sith Lord.
- He helps Rey by defeating the Knights of Ren and his presence motivates her to confront Palpatine when she had already lost hope.
- He gives all the remaining of his own life force to revive Rey, not caring if he will die in the process.
- He has honor and moral standards, even as Kylo Ren.
- Ben Solo is horrified when Ren kills a group of miners after promising to let them go once he got the information the Knights of Ren needed.
- In the script of The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren is stunned when Snoke ordered Hux to fire Starkiller Base on the Hosnian system after he failed to get the map and thinks that he didn't mean to cause this outcome at all.
- He was stunned upon witnessing Snoke torturing Rey and got furious with Snoke for manipulating their Force bond.
- Kylo Ren kills King Kristoff because the latter refuses to stop wiping out all the life on nearby planets.
- He came to respect his grandfather's homeworld of Tatooine and was enraged that he was a slave.
- He redeems himself and crosses the Goodness Zone by sacrificing the rest of his life force to resurrect Rey, making him responsible of Rey renaming herself to Rey Skywalker and carrying the legacy of the Skywalker family.
Trivia[]
- He is the icon of the stub template. It is a reference to the scene from The Last Jedi where he shouts "More!"
External Links[]
- Kylo Ren on the Villains Wiki
- Kylo Ren on the Star Wars Wiki
- Kylo Ren on the Disney Wiki
- Kylo Ren on the VS Battles Wiki
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 Villainous Benchmarks
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