So the release of The Last Jedi has come and gone, with the results being pretty divided between love and hate. Personally, I loved it, but I’m not going to stand here and tell you it wasn’t heavily flawed. There were definitely some seriously messed up decisions made in that artistic process, but I think this is kind of a “swing for the fences” kind of scenario, when it worked, it knocked it out of the park, but it missed a lot. One of the things I don’t think the movie messed up was the character development of the enigmatic Kylo Ren. People may criticize him, say that he doesn’t live up to the awe of Darth Vader, but I think that’s the point. Vader was a definitive personification of evil, who turned good. Kylo is something more, clearly unbalanced mentally and emotionally, pulled towards the light but rejecting it the same way he feels rejected.

The Star Wars universe we are used to is now gone, and we are in muddy waters. One of the muddiest aspects of the waters is everything surrounding Kylo Ren. Honestly, how many things can you list about him that you know definitively? He has a weird lightsaber, issues with his parents and sweet hair. That’s about it, right? Well, I’ll do my level best to help clear things up surrounding this dark and mysterious character. Close your eyes, reach out with your feelings, and let the Force tell you a little bit more about the Master of the Knights of Ren.

29 One Of Those Faces

What is the deal with Kylo Ren’s mask?  Even Supreme Leader Snoke thinks that thing is ridiculous, and that dude walks around with a forehead scar and a gold bathrobe.

Who thought that just wearing a mask is a good idea? Darth Vader hated his mask and took it off every chance he could, which I talk about here. So why would Kylo willingly wear something that is going to openly get him mocked? On the surface, he wears the mask as a symbol of being a member of the Knights of Ren, who seem to have a coordinated outfit kind of thing going.

Behind the scenes, though, the answer is far simpler. The simple lines, the blank mouth, the square looking chin, the void where the eyes should be. These are all very simple, basic shapes that even a child could process. The point of the mask was to create something visually distinct that even kids could follow, and easily recognize. It helps to remember that one of the key motivations in the creation of every Star Wars movie was to sell toys to kids.

28 Let The Force Be Your Guide

Vader wasn’t the only one who hated wearing his mask. I don’t mean to suggest that Kylo hated his mask, we’ve all seen how attached that dude is to his little outfit. No, I mean the actor behind Kylo Ren, Adam Driver, couldn’t see much out of the helmet while wearing it. It makes sense, if we can’t see his eyes, how is he able to see anything out of the thing? This also goes a long way to explain why we never see any scenes of Kylo in a big lightsaber fight with the helmet on. It’s always conveniently off whenever a big duel comes his way.

This is actually pretty common for a Star Wars film. If you look at old bloopers from A New Hope you’ll notice a common theme of the Stormtroopers having no idea where they are going, and tripping over all the set pieces. Most of the helmets in Star Wars pride themselves on style over function.

27 Somewhere To Call Home

Everybody needs to be from somewhere, they say. Even Ben Solo had a home planet, although you wouldn’t know it from his wanton disregard for life when it comes to destroying whole star systems. But yes, he was born on Chandrila, the then seat of the new galactic senate and original home world of Mon Mothma, that classy lady in all white who seems to exist for no other purpose but to boss around rebels.

Even then, about to give birth to Ben, Leia was still toiling away at creating a lasting form of democracy. But still, Chandrila is known as a beautiful planet, and it’s nice to picture her and Han preparing for a new family life there, free from the Empire’s oppression, knowing that they helped bring a form of peace to the galaxy, for a little while, at least. One needs to learn to appreciate the small victories.

26 A Time Of Peace

You’d have to imagine that after the Empire whooping at The Battle of Endor, and its’ subsequent massive defeat at the Battle of Jakku, there was a lot of partying throughout the galaxy. Heck, the Rebels couldn’t even wait to party after the destruction of the second Death Star, and decided to just let their freak flag fly while dancing with some Ewoks they just met. The desire to celebrate the end of tyranny is a strong one, that’s even true on boring old Earth.

So what is one of the best ways to celebrate being heroes to the Rebellion? By starting a family, of course. Turns out that Ben Solo was born about a year after the Battle of Endor, which means that Han and Leia did not wait long at all before decided they needed to start making some kids. Who wouldn’t after being frozen in carbonite, am I right?

25 That’s No Contraction

Pregnancy is a very weird time for a woman (so I’m told) so it must be doubly weird for someone trying to put the galaxy back together. To further complicate things, your husband is a habitual smuggler and your brother killed your dad and can lift stuff with his mind. So Leia was always doomed to have something of a complicated pregnancy. Luckily it wasn’t as complicated as her own mother’s since she didn’t die in childbirth from a broken heart or whatever.

What she did suffer from, which was exclusive to her, was the ability to sense the huge amount of The Force within Ben, even when he was a fetus. Since she was something of a Force sensitive herself (which we see in The Last Jedi when she torpedoes herself out of the vacuum of space) she was especially susceptible to feeling these fluctuations in power. Even then, she could feel something off, a darkness that swirled around the unborn Ben, ready to pull him to the Dark side.

24 Talk About A Birthday

The politics of the Star Wars is varied, complex, silly and ultimately not worth that much, which makes them surprisingly accurate to real life. The Galactic Concordance was a treaty signed by the New Republic and The Empire to end the conflict they had been fighting. It was a treatise which marked the death throes of the dreaded Empire, who were now disarmed and owed reparations to, like, everyone.

The same day this treaty was signed, Ben Solo was born, which seems like a good omen, from a certain perspective. The day peace is finally achieved is the day that a new, bright potential Jedi is born. The way I see it, though, is that the day that treaty was signed was the day that The First Order began to form, and on that very same day, their eventual Supreme Leader was also thrust out into the galaxy. Maybe I’m just seeing the negative.

23 Next On The Chopping Block

Ben Solo’s home world of Chandrila has existed in relative peace, even during the Empire’s occupation. It was the first seat of power in The New Republic, which was a huge milestone in the galaxy. That peace and prosperity almost never came, though, if Emperor Palpatine had his way. We need to remember that Palpatine was always thinking ten steps ahead, and that he never intended for his beloved Death Star II to be destroyed (it’s hard to plan for things like Ewoks, or being thrown down chasms.)

If both he and the station had survived The Battle of Endor, he would have turned his sights, and more importantly the sights of his fully armed and operational battle station, on Chandrila. His whole master plan was to destroy the rebellion through sheer terror by blowing away all the most peaceful planets in the galaxy, which is a fairly questionable plan. Luckily, he failed, and Ben Solo got to have a planet to grow up on.

22 Honoring The Fallen

It’s always nice to imagine that you will have a lasting impact on the world long after you are gone. Although some say immortality is unnatural, the long lasting memory you leave with others can bring comfort when confronted with your own mortality. We can only hope that we do enough good deeds that the people we love will talk about us in a pleasant way, passing down our achievements through the ages. That way, nobody is ever really gone.

That’s why it’s so nice to see that Han Solo and Princess Leia remember the man who brought them together, who first showed them the Force, who helped get their whole crazy, adventurous lives on track. They named their first son after Ben Kenobi, the crazy old hermit who sacrificed his life to buy them time, and to show Luke that there was a bigger power at work here. Sure, his name was actually Obi-wan, but I’m not here to split hairs.

21 A Latchkey Kid

I think we all foresaw that Han Solo was not going to be the best dad. I mean, he wasn’t even that good a smuggler, or a friend, or a general. He just kind of lucks out of most situation, or gets bailed out by his enormous fuzzy companion. We all figured that Leia would pick up whatever slack Han left behind when it came to raising a kid.

Turns out neither of them did all that bang up of a job raising Ben. Han could never stay in one place long enough, so was always jet setting around trying to find a new adventure, while Leia was singularly focused on rebuilding the government that The Empire had left in pieces. As it would with any kid, this lack of parental attention left Ben with a feeling of being abandoned and unloved, something that he carried over even into his Jedi training, and eventual conversion to the dark side of the force.

20 Family Secrets

The true identity of Darth Vader is not a widely publicized fact, even after the downfall of the Empire. Very few people were privy to the information that Luke and Leia were his offspring, and they seemed to like it this way. Ben Solo grew up knowing that his grandfather was Anakin Skywalker without knowing what he would eventually become. Leia shielded this from him, but fully intended to let Luke tell him at the appropriate time in his Jedi training.

But Leia is deeply involved in politics, and while in a race for an important election within the newly formed senate, one of her opponents ran a smear campaign against her, revealing her true parentage. And this is how Ben found out that he was related to Darth Vader, not through the gentle admission of a beloved family member, but shouted out in the streets as a way of insulting his mother and family.

19 Heir Apparent

Within the Inner Rim of the Star Wars galaxy lies a planet named Birren, which was settled by Alderaanian and Arkanisian explorers. It operates as something of a monarchy, which mostly exists as a figurehead, like Naboo or England. Eventually the ruling monarch passed without warning, and the throne was meant to pass to the closest living relative, which happened to be Leia Organa. Having no interest in being a mostly powerless monarch, and having her sights set on helping the galaxy rebuild, she passed at the chance, instead recommending Lady Carise Sindian.

Interestingly enough, the throne should have actually passed to Ben Solo, since he would have been the next closest living relative. Leia assumed he had no interest in ever being a monarch due to his Jedi studies, and passed over him completely. Oh, and that Sindian lady? She was the one who revealed to the galaxy that Vader was Leia’s father. All of this gets outlined in the Star Wars book “Bloodline.”

18 What’s In A Name?

The name “Kylo” seems to come out of nowhere. The “Ren” part I understand, that’s the order of knights he belongs to, but still, where the heck did “Kylo” come from? His name was Ben Solo. Did he arbitrarily just assign himself a name he thought sounded cool. That wouldn’t be the first time that has happened, since Darth Sidious/Palpatine seemed to pluck to immensely cool name of Darth Vader out of thin air. So maybe it’s a dark side tradition to just pull a cool sounding name out of a hat.

A little more thought went into Kylo’s name than Vader’s, it turns out. “Kylo” is Ben’s amalgamation of “Skywalker” and “Solo” since he is trying to embrace his birthright by finishing the work of Anakin Skywalker. That answer is… equally silly, but at least it has meaning behind it, not just chosen for its’ ability to impress chicks.

17 Only A Master Of Evil

Despite everything he has accomplished, be it building his own lightsaber, being able to freeze the time around people and blasters or mentally probing people for information he needs, there is one thing that still eludes Kylo: The Rank of Sith Lord. You’d think that being as powerful as he is, or that being trained by someone (thing?) as powerful as Snoke would have granted him that title a long time ago, but alas, it has yet to be.

This may have something to do with his mental maturity, since he obviously has a lot of maturing to do, but the smart money says this has more to do with his training. Snoke never states that he identifies with the Sith in any way, with no title of Darth, or even a lightsaber. Since Snoke trained Kylo as something more akin to a dark side warrior than a true Sith, Kylo will never achieve the same illustrious title as his grandfather.

16 The Only Choice

Becoming the next big, bad in the newest trilogy of Star Wars films is a big spot to fill. Thousands of actors must have been chomping at the bit for a chance to force choke some brand new set of heroes, so you have to wonder what Adam Driver had to do in order to secure the spot. How great of a performance did he give in his audition that beat out everyone else who desperately wanted the part?

He didn’t. He never even had to audition. J.J. Abrams knew right away that Adam Driver was the one and the only actor he wanted to play the part of Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, so they contacted him directly. As many questionable decisions as J.J. makes in his films, I always find his casting to be on point, and this is no exception. I think Adam adds a strange, powerful vulnerability to the character, an unhinged desperation, a conflicted zealousness, and that’s one of the things that make the character great.

15 A Very Good Call

Turns out that Adam Driver is something of a hot star right now, since he was in high demand even before being cast as Kylo Ren. He was also offered the part of Lex Luthor in the cringeworthy Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Luckily for us, and unluckily for that other movie, he turned it down. It isn’t clear if he made this decision out of fandom, enjoying the script more or if he just sensed that he was signing up for a far more lucrative franchise. I’m sure some people would argue with me that he made the wrong choice, since a lot of people hated The Last Jedi. I’m sure others still would say BvS was the superior film, but those people are wrong and weird and smell like damp earth. I think we can all agree that no matter who wins, the real loser here is Jesse Eisenberg.

14 Not All Bad

Kylo Ren is a pretty heinous dude, despite how conflicted he may be. Sure, he feels the call of the light, but he does a pretty good job of ignoring it to cut Lor San Tekka in half and then butchering a whole village. The light side has never stopped him from torturing people to get the information he needs. Heck, even at his most conflicted, he paused for the briefest of moments before fully stabbing Han Solo to death. I think it’s safe to say he falls in the category of “bad guy.”

Apparently Adam Driver disagrees. Adam thinks Kylo isn’t a fully fledged villain, but more of a religious zealot, which we can see instances of. Adam believes that every one of Kylo’s decisions seem morally justified from his point of view, not just lashing out in anger or greed. When you put it that way, that kind of makes him seem all the more dangerous, because there’s nothing he won’t do to accomplish his goals.

13 More Than His Mind Is Cracked

Right from the very first trailer, we knew something was different about the way Kylo Ren did things. His distinctive lightsaber had something off about it that wasn’t apparent the first time we saw it. Sure, it has that cool hilt thing where it has the two smaller blades, but the blade itself was not like any lightsaber we had seen before. It seemed to burn, to crackle, like it had a genuine rage inside it to match its’ master.

As most diehard Star Wars fans know, lightsabers are constructed from kyber crystals, the same powerful energy minerals that gave the Death Star its’ planet destroying power. For whatever reason, Kylo used a cracked crystal in the construction of his new lightsaber. This crack makes the power within barely contained, giving the blade of his lightsaber that “about to explode in my hand” look that drives all the Jedi crazy.

12 A Familiar Design

When it comes to designing things, the dark side loves following traditions. Even Darth Vader’s suit is based off of old Sith armor worn into battle to scare opponents. Kylo Ren, in turn, based the design of his crossguard lightsaber on an old Sith design. The design was found among ruins, leftover from a huge battle between the Sith and the Jedi on Malachor, one of the Sith’s homeworlds. Kylo tweaked it for his own needs, since the cracked kyber crystal he used needed extra vents for the excess energy it gave off. Of course, Kylo’s lightsaber was grievously damaged when he took a savage beating at the hands of Rey, but it wasn’t damaged beyond repair, as we saw in The Last Jedi. After some tinkering and meditation, his signature weapon was back in commission with a brand new black finish over the hilt. Seems odd that he wouldn’t take the opportunity to build a new one that didn’t have a cracked crystal, but what do I know?

11 The Perfect Specimen

It’s not hard to see why a creep like Snoke would want someone like Ben Solo on his team. The kid is immensely powerful, able to do things with the Force that were hitherto unknown. Not to mention his fragility, with his emotions and mind being easily manipulated, Ben would make for the perfect puppet. A living weapon that you could point at any of your detractors, and he would hunt them down with the kind of fervor only a true sociopath knows.

There’s something else about Ben/Kylo that deeply resonates within Snoke. It is the fact that Ben is almost perfectly torn between being on the light side or the dark. He has compassion, and the desire to help others, but also a rage inside him, and a selfishness, a desire to keep things as his own. With both of these factors at play within Kylo, he is able to tap into gifts from both the light side and the dark, making him the perfect Force Warrior.

10 Rewriting History

I’ve always found it kind of bogus that Anakin gets to turn into a light side force ghost at the end of Return of the Jedi. I also found it complete bunk that Vader had the audacity to say that Luke saved him, and that Luke “was right” about him. Sure, he may have had goodness inside him, but he also oversaw the destruction of a planet, plus the merciless slaughter of “younglings.” Just because you threw an old guy down a well to stop your son from being zapped to death doesn’t mean you’re a good guy.

Kylo Ren and Supreme Leader Snoke agree with me, in a way. They both operate under the impression that Darth Vader’s so called “redemption” when he destroyed the Emperor was a momentary lapse in judgment that tarnished the reputation in an otherwise productive and useful life. That’s one way of looking at it, I suppose.