(Abrams’s editor, Maryann Brandon, complained of The Last Jedi, “You can’t just abandon a story.” She was talking about the death of Luke Skywalker, though the sentiment applies to other strands as well.) Much has been made of Palpatine’s sudden, underexplained return as a hasty retcon of this third trilogy into the first and a dubiously necessary explanation of Rey’s heritage. Abrams, who may or may not be one of said dissenters, Johnson’s choices look less like an innovation and more like a frustrating dead end. To both legions of Last Jedi dissenters and Rise of Skywalker director J.J. (There’s also any number of casual deaths inflicted either directly by Kylo or on his orders, but the nature of storytelling is that we attach ourselves more firmly to protagonists than nameless background players.) When Rey telepathically walks away from Kylo and into the Millennium Falcon with her comrades, it feels like a definitive break: Kylo has chosen his path, and Rey has taken what was assumed to be his rightful place as a Jedi leader. Murdering Han Solo was one thing, given that the father all but gave his son permission to lightsaber him through the stomach assuming command of the First Order, and the title of Supreme Leader, as Rey literally begs him not to was quite another. One of the many intriguing ideas The Last Jedi injected into Star Wars’ core narrative was that Kylo, unlike Vader, isn’t the deputy to the Big Bad-he is the Big Bad, made all the more heartbreaking by how close he came to being good. Is Kylo’s redemption earned? Can sacrificing his life for Rey’s make up for the thousands, if not millions, he’s taken over the years? Does their romance work as well on the screen as it does in fanfiction? In other words: Has Kylo Ren earned the right to call himself Ben Solo? Whether one side of this balance ultimately overpowers the other is almost a personal question, depending as it does on how one answers a litany of subjective questions. Parts of of Kylo’s story embody widespread frustrations with The Rise of Skywalker, while others serve as their most obvious counterpoint. In lieu of filial devotion, or rather in addition to it, Kylo’s reverse heel turn has a different motivation: attraction to Rey, which The Rise of Skywalker makes explicit with a full-on deathbed kiss. But apart from a few minor tweaks, Kylo’s ultimate arc hews closely to Vader’s: rediscovering his moral compass with the help of an immediate family member, turning on his Sith master, and sacrificing himself for the greater good of the Resistance. His Force-assisted connection with Rey, a holdover from Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi, continues to supply some of the series’ most electrifying scenes, now escalating from a fateful hand touch into an intragalactic necklace grab, and even the passing of Luke’s lightsaber. Kylo’s story line in The Rise of Skywalker threads this delicate line until the very end. What’s in a Color? The Significance of Rey’s Lightsaber at the End of ‘The Rise of Skywalker.’ ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ Exit Survey The Debate Over ‘Star Wars’ Is Almost As Old As ‘Star Wars’ Itself 84 Lingering Questions After ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ The feeling is only compounded by his relationship with Rey, with whom he has a kindred-spirits, equal-yet-opposite bond that has enough charge to power a thousand Star Destroyers. And yet Kylo’s characterization, not so much a villain but a villain in the making, has made him the new trilogy’s single most exciting, and innovative, addition. His ancestry-son of Leia Organa and Han Solo, grandson of Vader-makes him a literal callback his trajectory, as a dark side disciple compelled to the light by family bonds, makes him a metaphorical one. Seen through this lens, Kylo Ren is both supporting evidence and a crucial caveat. The movie, the rapidly solidifying consensus holds, is far too indebted to fans’ expectations of the franchise, which they in turn picked up from the original trilogy. The Rise of Skywalker has been roundly criticized, by both this site and others, for a lack of originality. Even before Rey assumes the title herself, Kylo reverts to a different, equally resonant identity: Ben Solo, the name he was born with and initially swore off. Consider yourself forewarned.) And before he tosses Kylo Ren down a reactor shaft, the resurrected Emperor Palpatine calls him the “last Skywalker”-but of course that isn’t true. (Yes, this is the sort of piece that discusses a movie’s final scene, as well as all the scenes before it. In the saga’s final scene, Rey, once “just Rey,” adopts the Skywalker moniker. Sweet, immaculately conceived Anakin Skywalker reinvents himself as Darth Vader.
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