Kylo Ren is the most fascinating character from Disney’s take on Star Wars. He’s gloomy, he’s shady, he’s angry, he’s aggressive, and he really really wants to be like Darth Vader. You know already that his real name is Ben Solo, the son of Princess Leia Organa and Han Solo. Let’s dig deeper into his character with the 32 most interesting facts about Kylo Ren.
1) Ben Solo was born on the planet Chandrila in 5 ABY to Princess Leia and Han Solo, one year after the ending of Return of the Jedi.
2) Ben Solo was gifted with natural raw strength in the Force as a direct descendent of the Skywalker bloodline.
3) Princess Leia Organa could feel Kylo from inside her womb through the Force and described it as, “a living band of light that sometimes dimmed and was sometimes thrust through with a vein of darkness.”
4) Ben’s favorite toy as a toddler was the gold dice that used to hang in the Millennium Falcon, which was Han Solo’s famous spaceship.
5) Ben looked up to his father, Han Solo, and expressed interest in following his footsteps to be a pilot from a young age.
6) Only Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Princess Leia knew that Ben was the grandson of Anakin Skywalker, or more famously known as Darth Vader.
In The Force Awakens, Kylo uses The Force to stop a laser bolt in mid-air.
7) With the busy lives of Han and Leia, Ben often felt abandoned and unfulfilled, which was the beginning of his turn to the dark side of the Force.
8) Supreme Leader Snoke knew about Ben Solo as he knew all about the Skywalker family (Luke and Darth Vader). Snoke used Ben’s feelings of abandonment as a weapon to seduce him towards the dark side of the Force.
9) Princess Leia Organa is the one who requested that Ben Solo be sent away to the Jedi Academy, a school that Master Luke Skywalker founded for training people sensitive in the ways of the Force.
10) Ben Solo’s training in the ways of the Force attracted the attention of (former) Supreme Leader Snoke, who took advantage of the young Jedi’s inner turmoil and led him to the Dark Side of the Force.
11) Luke Skywalker was Ben’s teacher at the Jedi Academy, along with other students.
Kylo stares at his Knights of Ren mask, contemplating who he has become.
12) Luke Skywalker is also Ben Solo’s uncle as well as Jedi instructor.
13) Luke sensed very powerful dark side energy coming from Ben, so much so that Luke contemplated murdering Ben as he slept.
14) One night, Luke crept into Ben’s rom and drew his lightsaber, which is a Jedi’s light-sword weapon. Luke immediately felt compassion and changed his mind, but before he could react in time Ben awoke and used the Force to crush the building on top of Luke Skywalker. Ben assumed that Luke was dead.
15) In a furious emotional rage in the middle of the night, Ben told every student at the Jedi academy that Luke attempted to kill him and many of the students joined forces with Ben and executed everyone who didn’t turn to the dark side with them.
16) The rogue students burned down the Jedi Academy and fled. This whole event was directly influenced by Supreme Commander Snoke.
17) Ben was then given his name Kylo Ren. Kylo became master of The Knights of Ren who were a group of dark side users that were under the command of Snoke, the former Supreme Leader of the First Order. The First Order are the organized remnants of the galactic empire which was destroyed at the end of the film Return of the Jedi.
18) Luke Skywalker went into self-imposed exile, and Kylo Ren commanded the First Order forces to search for the critical map information to locate him.
19) Princess Leia Organa and Han Solo ended their marriage soon after their son's murderous rampage.
20) Snoke decreed to never mention the name Ben Solo again, and ordered Kylo Ren to put the past behind him and to not be tempted by the ways of the light.
21) Kylo Ren’s helmet is modeled after the same battle gear worn by the Knights of Ren. The helmet contains a voice modulator that lowers the pitch of Kylo’s voice.
22) Kylo Ren began training in the dark side of the Force under Snoke. Kylo idolized his grandfather Darth Vader, who was the primary antagonist in the original Star Wars trilogy and Luke Skywalker’s father.
The charred remains of Darth Vader's helmet, who Kylo worships as an idol, believing he's praying to the spirit of the Dark Lord. He falsely believes that Darth Vader was the true self of Anakin Skywalker, when really, the opposite is true.
23) During the finale of Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader’s mechanical body suit was burned at a funeral pyre. Kylo keeps Vader’s burned helmet as a shrine to the Dark Lord of the Sith which he worships and idolizes. This idol is deep motivation for Kylo Ren.
24) Kylo Ren designed and built his own lightsaber. It’s the only lightsaber in the Star Wars films to have a cross-guard which functions as an exhaust vent for the unruly cracked Kyber crystal it contains. This gives the saber an unstable and fiery look, which is reflective of his own aggressive and hateful personality.
Kylo's lightsaber is arguably the coolest looking of all the films.
25) Kylo Ren often takes course of actions with intent to commit evil through his idealization of Darth Vader and his desire to be strong in the dark side of the Force. For example, he ordered stormtroopers to execute unarmed villagers in the beginning of The Force Awakens.
26) During the stormtroopers’ village raid in the beginning of The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren senses a disturbance in the energy field of the Force. He stares down a rogue stormtrooper - Finn, who refused to fire his weapon. Kylo chooses to ignore this for now.
Even as the planet is literally falling apart, Kylo will not let Rey and Finn escape without a fight.
27) Kylo has the ability to read minds by using the Force.
28) Kylo underestimated his own powers when he captured Rey - he did not realize her strong force-sensitivity and he was unable to read the location of the map from her mind. In the process of trying to read her mind, Rey absorbs some of Kylo’s powers and counters by revealing his hidden fear - that he will never be as strong as Darth Vader.
29) Kylo was instructed by Snoke to kill his father Han Solo. Kylo asks Han to help spare him from his inner pain and torment, and Han agrees, and then Han is stabbed with a lightsaber and killed.
Rey learns in this fight that a Jedi's power flows from The Force - something Kylo did not expect her to get right away!
30) After Han Solo’s death, Kylo was shot by Chewbacca’s laser, injuring him. Kylo then had a lightsaber battle in the forest as the planet was exploding. Rey, a total beginner, was able to defeat Kylo in a duel by feeling the Force and using the powers she was granted.
31) Kylo is very emotionally charged and filled with tremendous inner turmoil and self-doubting. Snoke instructed him to snuff out any trace of the light side as it would only weaken him. After Kylo Ren killed Snoke in The Last Jedi, it was almost his turning point to the light before his darker and confused intentions were revealed.
32) Kylo Ren and Rey grow very attracted to each other with the potential for a relationship. Kylo asked Rey to join the dark side with him to rule the First Order together as a dark power couple. Rey pleaded with Kylo Ren to abandon the dark side. Neither would concede and they were again separated.
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