The Star Wars movies feature a clear protagonist and antagonist structure. Palpatine is the antagonist of the entire saga. Obi-Wan and Padme are the major protagonists of the prequels, Luke is the hero of the original trilogy, and Rey is the hero of the sequels. However, they aren’t fighting for just the galaxy. They are fighting for the souls of the Skywalker saga.
Anakin is the soul of the prequel and original trilogy; Ben Skywalker is the soul of the sequel trilogy. Making it personal makes the stories universal.
Kylo is a Villain; Ben Solo is Not
Kylo Ren is an awful person. He struck down Lor San Tekka and ordered the death of the entire village on Jakku. He strikes down Ben Solo’s dad, Han Solo.
The problem with Kylo is that we didn’t know why Ben Solo went to the dark side. The prequel trilogy explores Anakin’s fall from grace, but Ben Solo’s is told in media res in the sequel trilogy. I wrote more about the problem with Kylo’s redemption in this post.
We now know that Palpatine has been abusing Ben Solo from the beginning. He mentally abused him by putting the voices in his head, and physically abused him through Snoke.
Palpatine made Kylo Ren out of Ben Solo.
This fact doesn’t make Kylo innocent and free from blame. It gives him a reason for being so thoroughly seduced by the dark side.
However, in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, there is someone who still believes he can break the cycle. Both times, he rejects it.
The Souls of the Skywalker Saga
Yet, Ben is still redeemable. For good to win, everyone has to think this way.
Ok, maybe not Palpatine, but everyone else.
But still, if no one believes that Kylo can’t be Ben again, then what are they fighting for? If the darkness is so seductive and strong that it devours someone with Ren’s powers, what chance do ordinary people have against it?
He doesn’t need all of the Resistance to believe in him, just the most important two – Leia and Rey.
Saving Ben’s soul is the story of the sequel trilogy.
Rey isn’t the only one who brings Ben back to life. Leia does it as well. She is holding on to save Ben. Together, they do what Luke did with Anakin. They bring him back.
And of course, Rey never truly gives up on Ben. Why? Because she always chooses the light.
Now, I might get some disagreements with this, including from the filmmakers, but I’ll fight to my grave that it was a force ghost speaking to Ben on the remains of the Death Star.
Except it wasn’t Han.
It was Leia projecting herself as Han. I don’t know if that power is canon, but in my head, it will forever be this.
She knows that Ben can not forgive himself until Han forgives him. It doesn’t matter that Ben thinks it’s a memory.
It works.
Ben Solo Reborn
And here is where Adam Driver shines. He has practically no dialogue for the rest of the film, yet says so much with his body.
He has shed the coil of Kylo Ren. He becomes Ben Solo reborn.
His whole persona changed. My wife and I finally understood the Reylos in these scenes.
It was a tour de force performance. He transforms into a new person in front of our eyes.
I’m still in awe of how great Driver is in these scenes.
Yet, the filmmakers didn’t have the courage to do something different with Ben that they truly couldn’t do without Anakin. They could have let him live.
More unforgivable is that neither Anakin nor Ben is in the final Force Ghost shot with Luke and Leia. They are the reason the films exist in the first place. They belonged in that shot.
They might not be the heroes of the story, but they are the souls of the Skywalker saga. They are the reason why heroes go on their journey.
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