*SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!* Kylo Ren is one of the most interesting Star Wars villains ever.

Since there is quite a bit of overlap between video game fans and Star Wars fans I think a post like this fits just fine on a game blog...if anyone disagrees, I don't care ;). Anyways before I get started, and this should be fairly obvious:

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously if you haven't seen the movie don't read this unless you want some major things spoiled.

Ok so over the past few days I have been thinking quite a bit about the main villain of TFA and I have come to realize that he is amazingly interesting and IMO one of the best new villains we have seen in awhile.

So why do I make this claim? He just has incredible depth and is really a perfect counter to Rey. In other Star Wars movies and lore we see many cases of the dark side tempting and sometimes seducing force users away from the light. Luke of course struggles with this himself while confronting the Emperor and his Father. Despite being tempted to join his father or give into his anger he resists because he knows what is right and that the dark side is evil. Darth Vader after seeing his son resist is finally able to do the right thing and through strength of will he finally breaks free. Ok so what does that have to do with Kylo? He's the opposite. He has been brought up by "good" people including Luke who I assume have been teaching him from birth that the light side is good and the dark is evil. Despite this he ends up developing and obsession with his grand father which eventually leads to him turning to the dark side. Here's the big difference between Kylo and Anakin: it seems he turned to the dark side willingly and actually feels the dark side is the correct choice. As seen in the scene where he is talking to Vader's helmet he is fighting the light side of the force...the light side is trying to seduce him! This is why he actually goes through with killing his father instead of redeeming himself, not killing Han is actually the easy choice for him in this situation. Han is in the Emperor's role trying to get Kylo to give into his feelings of compassion and love. Just to push this home, if this movie were from the First Order's perspective he would be the Hero that was resisting the evil light side users.

I can't wait to see where this leads and I hope they explore more about the dark side. The Jedi in the prequels always talk about Anakin bringing balance to the force, but what does that actually mean? For some reason they seem to think that means destroying the dark side, but that isn't what balance means. As has been explored in many other works: doesn't good need evil in order to matter? If the universe needs the dark side does that make it's followers really evil? Unfortunately we'll have to wait another year and a half to find out more, I know I can't wait!

Anyways thanks for reading! Please let me know your thoughts in the comments ;)

Dude put a spoiler tag in the topic title.

Alright finished reading. I hope we get some more confirmation that that you're correct about Kylo Ren choosing the dark side because he thinks it's the right path to take. That would indeed make him a very interesting character to follow. It would also be very interesting to see star wars actually tackle the idea of the dark side being necessary and perhaps as evil as we think, but at this point I'm pretty sure that the series is all about true good vs true evil. There may be flaws in the setup because pure good doesn’t really exist any more than true evil exists, but ultimately I don't believe that this series will tackle these deeper issues. I hope I'm wrong though.

@korvus: They're just meant to distract the jedi while the sith do their work. I'm pretty sure that guy got reprimanded when his boss got a hold of him.

Man your post has got me thinking. Qui Gon thought Anakin was supposed to bring balance to the force, and eventually it was assumed that Luke was the one to do so after all, but when you think about it, the light side seemed to be far greater compared to the dark side in the prequels. Anakin turning in to Vader and killing all the Jedi's WAS him bringing balance to the force.

On topic, I think Kylo Ren was great. Early on he left such a badass impression, but would slowly reveal all of his flaws. Plus, he blocked a plasma bolt with the force. That was fucking sick.

Was it?

It is arguable that Palpatine's existence is a balance to the Jedi. Perhaps not in midichlorian count, but his influence is comparable to the Jedi order. To expound on that, Palpatine is the most powerful person in the Republic before the coup d'état. His influence is so well orchestrated that master Jedi cannot detect him and he managed to change the course of a galaxy.

Kylo Ren is fucking annoying but yes, hes one of the best villains ever created in Star Wars. So much depth and personality.

And if some of the "leaked" things (which accurately predicted the demise of that person) are true, we will see that there are a lot more to Kylo Ren than simply some guy trying to be as strong as Darth Vader. He's a story of great tragedy and sadness that rivals the story of Anakin himself.

So how was Finn able to hold his own against him for so long when KR is a skilled Sith?

The dude nearly got his ass handed to him by a wuss stormtrooper who'd barely ever held a lightsaber in his life, and then got fucked up by his girl cousin who'd literally never held a lightsaber in her life up to that point.

Yeah, he's interesting all right.

You mean the story of a whiny, angsty teen who falls in love with the first girl he sees when he's 10? Yeah great depth there.

He's the worst Star Wars villain in the history of star wars. He might as well been a character straight out of Twilight or related to Draco Malfoy from Harry potter. He comes off as some whiny, angst-ridden teen and was a total joke. To top things off, he's a wimp and nearly got his ass handed to him by a storm trooper and did get his ass whooped by a girl who up to that point never even touched a light saber or had a single day of Jedi training.

I liked the new movie, just saw it a couple days ago, but as far as Kylo Ren goes he almost ruined the movie for me. The only people I could see Kylo appealing to is other angsty teens, or people who are into weebo-over-emotional-bullshit type stuff.

ahahahahaha that made me laugh out loud.

Unless I'm mistaken, there's about 4000 years between Revan and Luke...

Revan was born on 3994 BBY and Luke on 19 BBY

Also, Revan was canonically male; it was the Exile (KoTOR 2) who was female. Of course, they can ignore all of that and just rewrite Revan but I don't see that happening.

Kylo is a basement dweller.

@korvus: In 20 years, your son will be proud of your advanced Star Wars knowledge. (Naturally by then, you'll be 50-70 years old, potentially, making you chronically uncool. Damn.)

Revan was in the old republic. WAAAAAY before the events of the Star Wars original trilogy and Luke. If they're going to break the character by changing the time period he lives in, they might as well just make a new character.

As far as Kylo Ren goes, people have to understand that he's not some powerful sith lord. He's a trainee that most likely started recently. Not only was he injured before the lightsaber battle with Rey and Finn, but Rey also already demonstrated excellent prowess in hand to hand combat. Finn is a bit more unbelievable, but I'm assuming storm troopers had some hand to hand combat training. Plus, he lost to an injured Kylo Ren.

Kylo Ren is literally fucking Dark Helmet from Spaceballs. He wears a fucking mask for no reason thinking it makes him look badass, when he's actually an inept pussy in real life.

Kylo ren is one of the worst villains ever put on screen. Zero depth.

Do you guys just hate pop culture? That truly is the only way I can start to grasp what you mean...

Have you seen any other blockbuster? Like ever?

Kylo Ren was exceedingly more intriguing of a villain than almost any other blockbuster type film.

@battlefront23:

There was nothing to the character. ..."but I feel the pull of the light side". It was just elementary. It is nothing like Star Wars. The film contradicts the original trilogy more than anything else, all while trying to mimic it. It was soooooo ridiculously bad--poor filmmaking. Copy/paste events from A New Hope does not equate to it being similar. The structure was incredibly messy. It baffles me how people say it brings back the spirit of Star Wars when it is actually changing the mythological nature of the series. The entire film was a joke.

How?

How?

How?

@Allicrombie: Well, he went from that to fucking Darth Vader, so yeah, definitely some depth there.

Lol no. You want to see a good Star Wars villain, look at Darth Traya in KotOR2.

The very fact that Ren not only adheres but even reinforces the dichotomy that is the joke morality of light/dark side makes him about as interesting as looking at an accelerated video of growing grass.

Did anybody else get the impression that Ren had a strange gait. Reminded me of the Vader model motion that was in the Force Unleashed. Also he seemed to weild that Saber really slowly, so not a advanced force weilder as I thought he would have been. Anyway I thought the silliest thing was Ren's Saber. Thought they were supposed to be metaphorically like the Katana, not a whacking great Broadsword.

"Dad, for the last time...just because you're on life support and you make wheezing sounds when you breathe that does not make you Darth Vader. Now go back to bed and stop trying to Force Pull that pudding!"

I agree. In addition, it's not painted as some sort of irredeemable, incarnation of evil like the others were. He leans a little more towards the morally ambiguous side and he's not above losing his shit and displaying some form of emotion.

I liked him.

Also, when he removed his helmet in the cinema almost everyone I was sitting next to was like "that's the guy from Girls!"

It was based on a longsword. Broadswords have basket-hilt. It offered some hand protection. Always wondered how jedi and sith have all their fingers and hands intact, with no hand guard.

All I saw was a cry baby, that threw temper tantrums. Then he gets his ass kicked by two people that have never held a light saber before......................................The whole movie was a rehash, what made the originals great was they were original , no one knew the story or the setting, now its just starwars mania and nostalgia.

The next 2 movies will be garbage as well but will still make billions. It was a watchable movie, that was all.

I have read and many opinions on those web shows all geeky. One in particular thought that maybe the hilt was an exhaust port. Whether in Star Wars science that holds up I don’t know, but it seemed to me that Ren has struggled to tame the blade. Well in a Lightsaber sense if that term can fit. I do wonder how much of that Saber came from the one you could build in KOTOR. Anyway, taking what seemed to be natural talent in Rey, coupled with being a force sensitive, I would say that Ren is going to get annihilated in future combative situation. Perhaps EP VIII will be couple of years further on in time, as it is 2017 slated.

Yep, and I will definately watch them despite my opinion on TFA.

Speaking as a NO Star wars fan Kylo Ren was the only interesting thing in the movie for me. He was a badass but kinda of a Vader copycat (wich probably was the whole point)

Well, KR was wounded after all... I'm not even sure Rey could get the best of him if he wasnt wounded

Again, its like you people willingly missed the part where he was wounded by a sucker shot...

@Vatusus: No we didn't...we all saw when a Sith got hit by a blaster shot... *shakes head* =P

Title needs editing to say "SPOILERS", how abou... Kylo Ren, Most Interesting Star Wars Character **SPOILERS**...that should fit, right?

Anyhow, I wouldn't say his character started getting interesting until you learn how he's constantly in doubt about his actions worrying the light still has a pull on him, even again when he is confronted by Han Solo; and his decision to nearly give up but then kill his father was probably one of the more interesting parts of the movie, way more moving than the Obi-Wan death in Episode VII.

Just a side note: I'm kind of glad they did away with all that fluffy acrobatic light saber fighting. The saber fighting felt a bit more 'visceral' and heavy. No more dance fighting just for the sake of looking cool.

Your probley a Girls fan, and like the guy who plays Ren. Everyone I know thought Kylo Ren was a pathetic wuss, throwing tantrums destroying rooms with his saber.

I fail to see how that makes him a "wuss." He murdered an entire village for no real reason. He murdered his own father. Yet somehow him destroying a room in anger makes him a wuss? I get that it might be childish, but I still don't see how it makes him a wuss. Please explain that.

.......... Not to mention this shit has been done before in the form of REVAN which did it far better.

It was ok until you realized that the supposed villain of the movie, a trained jedi, struggled and was ultimately defeated more or less against a storm trooper and a person with literally no training what so ever..

It shouldn't matter.. Neither character, who had absolutely no training in the force and lightsaber combat, was able to best him.. I mean Luke was trained The Empire Strikes Back and he still couldn't defeat Vader.. Furthermore what happened to Kylo's force powers in which he can choke people, freeze gun fire, and other such things during the fight? Did he forget?

.. I am more leaning towards ripping off over inspired, his attire is even similar to Revan's..

The way he acted made him a wuss, his character was just plain bad, but so was Anakin's in the last three as well. Destroying the room with the saber, along with how his character was portrayed, came across as a spoiled brat throwing a tantrum.

Agreed, I liked how different he was along with having depth, plus he's more relate able than the Sith Lords of the prequels.

How did he have depth?

huh? whats girls?

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwin6eKF2vrJAhUp6oMKHY-eAFQQFggjMAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FGirls_(TV_series)&usg=AFQjCNHVFgqLdZtgIQkUHDFwv3dW0X_vHQ&bvm=bv.110151844,d.eWE

There was none. The prequels have incredible depth. So much so that apparently much of them went completely over peoples heads. People have become accustomed to watching braindead cinema. Force Awakens fits in the same genre as Fast and the Furious.