What is the “Mission” of Kylo Ren?
In Episode 7: The Force Awakens we see Kylo Ren clearly
state to Darth Vader’s burnt and destroyed helmet that Kylo wanted to “finish
what you started” but the point was left wide open with no indication of what
Kylo was referring to or what purpose Darth Vader could have mysteriously been
up to in the first place. At first glance you might think that Vader’s
“mission” was simply to dominate the galaxy, but I suspect something far more
poetic. Did Darth Vader want to conquer and rule the galaxy himself? Yes, but
that motive and plan was more of an afterthought for him – as Vader himself
said in Episode 4: A New Hope, “the ability to destroy a planet is
insignificant next to the power of the Force”. Darth Vader’s journey was always
about becoming stronger in the Force and using any political or military power
to further that aim.
So why did Darth Vader want to improve his power in the
Force? What was the true reason the Emperor and Vader put so much effort into
developing a weapon as costly as the Death Star? Why did the Empire need such a
weapon if the Force truly was stronger, as Vader said?
To answer these questions, we should first look at what the
Force actually is and where the Force itself gains its own power. In Episode 7:
The Force Awakens, Maz Kanada tells Rey that the Force moves through “every
living thing”; in Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda instructs Luke that
the Force is created and grown by Life – that it binds all living things
together; in Episode 3: The Revenge of the Sith, Yoda counsels a disturbed Anakin
Skywalker that “death is a natural part of life, rejoice for those who
transform into the Force, mourn them do not, miss them do not”. The pattern in
these quotes is quite clear, the people who die become part of the Force –
which by default means that the more people who die, the stronger the Force
gets.
Realizing this puts the Force and all Force users, Jedi and
Sith alike (plus the Knights of Ren) into a whole new perspective. The Jedi do
not mourn those who become One with the Force and the Sith (and other Dark Side
users) enjoy adding death and destruction and feel powerful from the
destruction they cause; these viewpoints are two sides of the same coin: that
death only enhances your strength so you have no reason to feel sorry for those
who die.
But I’m not here to talk about the finer points of Jedi
Force Philosophy, instead I’m only going discuss how this uneasy truth
regarding the correlation between Death and the Force and how it applies to
Darth Vader and Kylo Ren.
In Darth Vader, or Anakin Skywalker, we find a hero turned
villain – but he is a villain with an emotional cause: Darth Vader wants to
prevent the people he cares about from dying. This was a prominent part of the
story line in Episodes 2 & 3. Then
Chancellor Palpatine shared with Anakin the story of Darth Plagueis who learned
to prevent his loved ones from dying, a story that was immediately followed by
Anakin asking if it was possible to learn that power. This point was repeatedly
emphasized in Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith, where Chancellor/Emperor
Palpatine used recollections of Anakin’s mother and the nightmares of Padme’s
fate to persuade Anakin to become his apprentice, betray Mace Windu, and
destroy the Jedi – all with the promise that by doing all these things Anakin
would become powerful enough to save his wife.
Adding up what we’ve already pointed out: The more people
who die, the stronger the Force itself gets + Anakin/Darth Vader wanted to
become more powerful in the Force so that he could accomplish the goal of
controlling death. The logical conclusion is that Darth Vader needed the Death
Star to easily add large numbers of victims to the Force in a way he could control
so that he could personally absorb the power added to the Force by the victims
of the Death Star. With that added power Vader could begin to focus his study
and training in the Dark Side of the Force, looking for a way to accomplish his
stated goal of controlling death (preventing it at will).
So, if Darth Vader’s mission was to kill enough people that
he learned to control death itself, we can assume that he left that work
unfinished in Episode 6: Return of the Jedi (where he died of course). With this
in mind, we can assume that Kylo Ren also intends to learn how to control death
at will (remember his quote from Episode 7 about finishing what Vader
started?). This context would provide a handy guidebook for analyzing Kylo
Ren’s character, the reason he turned to the Dark Side, and why he is so
involved in Starkiller Base.
If Kylo Ren is indeed attempting to continue Darth Vader’s
mission to control death, then it makes sense that Kylo himself lost (or is
afraid to lose) someone he cares about. As Yoda explains repeatedly, the fear
of losing someone is an easy path to the Dark Side of the Force. If we use
Anakin’s behavior as a baseline we can assume that Luke Skywalker was involved
in this death or potential death of someone Kylo deeply cared about. We could
expect Kylo’s reaction to Luke to be similar to Anakin’s reaction to Mace Windu
– desperate opposition with fatal consequences out of a misguided desire to
protect someone else. We could also assume that Kylo’s parents, Leia Organa and
Han Solo, were somehow implicated in the situation (not likely through any
malicious act but maybe through inaction), which would explain Kylo’s hostility
towards them as well. My working theory here is that Snoke played the role of
Emperor Palpatine in taking advantage of Kylo’s desperate need to save his
loved him and made him a similar promise in studying the Dark Side to save his
loved one, a loved one either killed or “rejected” by Kylo’s family and
associates.
Kylo’s involvement in Starkiller Base is a bit more complex
of a puzzle to answer. While Kylo used Starkiller Base as his base, the actual
fanatic of the weapon and its power was General Hux with Kylo displaying a
total disinterest in the weapon. Instead Kylo demonstrates a complete obsession
with getting revenge on Luke Skywalker, all else (including learning how to
finish Vader’s mission) was taking a backseat in Kylo’s mind. I should point
out that this vengeful obsession with Luke supports the idea that Luke actually
did do something to cause or allow harm to someone Kylo loved. But this revenge
mentality does not mean that Kylo is not attempting to learn the power to
control death as his grandfather, Darth Vader, tried to do, it simply means
that the circumstances around Kylo’s seduction to the Dark Side were
substantially more dangerous than Anakin’s.
But does any of this radically change the way we think about
Star Wars or any of its characters? I believe it does. We are presented with a
far more “gray” perspective that affects both heroes and villains alike. We
suddenly have the tools to empathize with Kylo Ren and his very chaotic
emotional outbursts and his willingness to kill his own father, Han Solo – as
well as his presumed desire to kill Luke, his uncle. We can now view our famed
heroes as flawed personas who have made mistakes and have gotten their hands
dirty in the name of doing good (a concept pointedly expressed in Rogue One).
But more importantly, we now can put all the pieces together and explain, with
logical reasoning, how and why both Anakin Skywalker and Ben Solo were able to
make the mental and emotional jump from kind hearted people to insatiable mass
murderers. But perhaps the most game-changing concept offered here is the idea
that these “evil” Force users did in fact need the iconic Death Star, that it
was not simply a military tool unrelated to the personal or emotional needs of
the Emperor or Lord Vader. The Prequel Trilogy made it quite clear that Darth
Vader’s primary reason for his Dark Side conversion was emotional, not
political (which was only an afterthought) – which makes the idea of a strictly
political or military application of the Death Star a giant and random change
in character for Anakin as Darth Vader.
But now, through Darth Vader’s grandson we begin to see the
Death Star, Darth Vader, and all other Dark Side Force users in a new
methodical light: one that ties in all 8 movies into one poetic story of loss,
revenge and redemption. This is the new “Axis Mundi”, everything in Star Wars
now seems to revolve around “controlling death” and all Episodes are united
around that ultimate goal. Nothing happens in this saga that does not center
around this singular concept.
The question now becomes: Who did Luke kill or let die,
leading his nephew, Ben Solo, to become Kylo Ren?
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