Ben Solo

"Forgive me. I feel it again&hellip; the call to the light. Supreme Leader senses it. Show me again, the power of the darkness, and I'll let nothing stand in our way. Show me, grandfather, and I will finish what you started."

- Kylo Ren to Darth Vader's mask

Kylo Ren, born Ben, was a Force-sensitive human male who was the master of the Knights of Ren, and to some capacity a commander of the First Order, approximately thirty years after the Battle of Endor. Born to Rebel heroes Leia Organa and Han Solo, Ben was trained as the Jedi apprentice of his uncle Luke Skywalker in Skywalker's new Jedi Academy. However, Ben was drawn to the dark side as a result of his obsession with the legacy of his grandfather, Darth Vader. Believing himself to be too weak to live up to his grandfather as a Jedi, Ben was lured to the dark side, significantly influenced by a mysterious Force-user named Snoke. Taking the name Kylo Ren, Ben left his uncle's new order behind and killed all of his fellow apprentices. Skywalker disappeared and Kylo became one of the Knights of Ren within the First Order. These events devastated his parents, causing Han to leave Leia and return to smuggling.

Seeking to find and destroy his uncle before he could rebuild the Jedi, Kylo tracked down the last remnant of the only map that indicated his location, recovering all but one from the Empire's archives. Nearly obtaining the last fragment on Jakku, Kylo was beaten to it by Resistance pilot Poe Dameron, who hid the map in his droid BB-8. Kylo and the First Order then hunted the droid who befriended the scavenger Rey and former stormtrooper Finn. After locating them on Takodana, Kylo captured Rey, knowing that she had seen the map. Rey's Force-sensitivity allowed her to resist Ren's probing of her mind and she escaped as Resistance forces arrived to destroy Starkiller Base.

During the battle, Ren encountered and killed his father, believing that it was his father's love that was weakening him in the dark side of the Force. After being shot by a furious Chewbacca, Ren chased into the woods, engaging both in a lightsaber duel. He was further injured by Finn in the initial duel, but eventually struck Finn down, critically injuring him. He was finally overpowered by the Force-sensitive Rey, who left a severely wounded Ren on the ground, to be recovered by the escaping forces of the First Order.

Biography
"There is no need for concern. Together we will destroy the Resistance—and the last Jedi."

- Kylo Ren

The son of Leia Organa and Han Solo, Ben was sent to study alongside other Jedi students at a young age, being instructed and led by his uncle Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. While Ben showed great potential as a Force-user, he began to develop an unhealthy obsession with his grandfather Anakin Skywalker, being inspired by his exploits as the Sith Lord Darth Vader. Feeling that he must uphold the legacy of Vader, Ben betrayed and destroyed his former Jedi peers, preventing Skywalker from fully restoring the Jedi Order. Having felt the dark side from killing his peers, Ben went out in search of what remained of the Galactic Empire, which had been reformed into the First Order under the leadership of the mysterious Force-user Snoke. Sensing Ben's Force potential, Snoke took Ben as an apprentice and taught him how to use the dark side of the Force, eventually shaping the young man into a powerful Dark Jedi. Having proved himself as a powerful ally to the First Order, Ben became a member of the Knights of Ren and changed his name to Kylo, taking on Ren as a surname in order to abandon his past identity. He apparently built his own lightsaber, a dangerous and ragged design, using an unstable crystal, making the blade distorted and crackle unlike that of a typical lightsaber.

He was a member of the First Order, a military junta born from the remnants of the Galactic Empire, and he worked under the organization's leader, Snoke, a powerful figure in the dark side. Ren desired the destruction of the Resistance (an organization that opposed the First Order) and the Jedi, with his primary concern being the location and extermination of his former master Luke Skywalker, the only Jedi known to have escaped Ren's uprising.

Ren soon discovered that the Resistance, were attempting to procure a map that contained the undisclosed location of Skywalker, from a village elder on, Jakku. With a squadron of his finest soldiers, Ren traveled to Jakku personally and laid siege to the small village, executing its leader, Lor Sann Tekka, and the surviving villagers. It was here that he also confronted Poe Dameron, a Resistance starfighter and spy who was sent to retrieve the map for General Leia Organa. Unaware that Poe had secretly stored the map on his droid BB-8, Kylo Ren took Dameron to the First Order's Imperial Star Destroyer Finalizer, where he tortured and interrogated the young starfighter pilot for information. Ren eventually learned of BB-8's whereabouts and sent a small group to acquire the droid.

After failing to gain the map on Jakku, Ren returned to Starkiller Base, where he sought council with his mentor and the First Order's supreme leader Snoke.

Later, while aboard the Starkiller Base, Ren was confronted by his father, Han Solo; Chewbacca, Solo's first mate; Finn, a former First Order Stormtrooper; and Rey, a scavenger from Jakku who possessed a strong connection to the Force. Han Solo pleaded with Ren to turn his back on the dark side and redeem himself for the choices he had made. He offered Ren anything he wanted if he would come back with him. Ren held out his lightsaber, seemingly offering it, but then, in an attempt to overcome the light side of the Force completely, he ignited the lightsaber, plunging it into his father's heart. As the dying Solo looked down in shock, Ren thanked him for giving him what he had wanted. An enraged Chewbacca severely wounded Ren by shooting him in the side with his bowcaster, allowing Finn and Rey to escape. Ren chased the two down and dueled with Finn, who used the blue lightsaber that had once belonged to Ren's grandfather Anakin Skywalker, was passed down to Luke, and was initially lost during Luke's confrontation with Darth Vader on the Cloud City of Bespin. Ren defeated and gravely wounded the former Stormtrooper, but not without receiving a wound to the shoulder. With Finn incapacitated, he then turned his attention to Rey, attempting to use the Force to bring the Skywalker lightsaber to him to strike her down.

Rey intercepted the lightsaber and engaged in her own fight with Ren. Though being the only one formally trained in lightsaber combat of the two, Ren received significant wounds during their battle and was eventually overpowered by Rey's use of the Force. She knocked him down with the lightsaber, leaving a gruesome facial scar. Yet, before she could kill him, the Starkiller base's destruction split the land between them. Rey then fled, eventually being rescued by Chewbacca from the ensuing planetary collapse in the Millennium Falcon. It was implied Ren was saved from the base's catastrophic explosion by General Hux, the base commander, on orders from Snoke to bring his fallen apprentice to him.

Personality and traits
"I am immune to the light."

- Kylo Ren

Kylo Ren was a male human. Before he adopted the name of Kylo Ren, he was known as Ben. As Kylo Ren, he wore a black hood and cloak, a dark mask, and wielded a dangerous and crudely-built lightsaber he assembled himself. Ren wore a mask and helmet that altered his voice much like Darth Vader, his idol. However, unlike Vader, who needed a mask to keep him alive and hide a severely burned physique, Ren did not need a mask. It can be argued that he adopted a mask to be more like his grandfather, furthering the symbolism that the dark side acts as a tomb. His lightsaber, based on an ancient design dating back to the Great Scourge of Malachor, relied upon a cracked kyber crystal that could barely contain the power of the weapon, necessitating the lateral plasma vents that produced its signature crossguard quillons. The fractured crystal was also responsible for the unstable, serrated appearance of the weapon's red plasma blades. The crossguard exhaust ports were also useful in combat, such as when Kylo and Finn were pushing their lightsabers against one another, and Kylo was able to injure Finn's shoulder with his crossguard.

Ren was obsessed with the fallen Sith Lord Darth Vader, his maternal grandfather and a powerful figure of the First Galactic Empire, and was believed to have modeled his appearance and behavior after him, and vows to finish what the Sith Lord started. One of the motivations for his obsession was the duty he feels to Vader. When questioned by Rey on board the Starkiller Base, Rey affirmed Ren's true fear--that he would never be as strong as Darth Vader&mdash;much to the frustration of Ren. The dark warrior was also known for his fiery temper, but compared to Vader, Ren seems less able to control his own anger. Met with adversity, he would throw dramatic tantrums where he might lash out with his lightsaber at anything within sight, devastating equipment simply to express his frustration. If they could, stormtroopers seemed to prefer to stay far away from the mentally unstable Kylo Ren when he was in that mood.

Despite his loyalty to the First Order and his devotion to Vader's legacy, Ren demonstrated deep conflict within himself. In spite of his commitment to Snoke and the dark side, he constantly felt the pull of the light and his family, and struggled to keep himself disconnected from his former life. In those regards, he was quite similar to his grandfather. Snoke believed Ren to be an ideal embodiment of the Force: a focal point of both the dark and light side.

Powers and abilities
"You need a teacher. I can show you the way to the force."

- Kylo to Rey Like his grandfather, uncle, and mother, Kylo Ren possessed a powerful connection to the Force. He was skilled in the use of telekinesis, able to use it to immobilize Poe Dameron and Rey in place, stop a blaster bolt in midair for an extended period of time after focusing, and send Rey flying with a Force push. Kylo Ren was also able to telepathically torture individuals like he did with Poe Dameron, and use the power of a mind probe to telepathically extract information from his victims. Ren was also able to sense disturbances in the Force such as when he felt an awakening in the Force and the presence of Han Solo in Starkiller Base. His skill with a lightsaber was somewhat lacking in comparison, as he was beaten by the untrained Rey in lightsaber combat. However, this was likely due to the fact that he had been injured by Chewbacca prior to their fight. He also possessed a strong tolerance to pain, able to continue fighting despite being shot by Chewbacca and wounded by both Finn and Rey. Kylo could be seen beating his wound, possibly so that he could utilize his pain to tap into the dark side of the Force.

Behind the scenes
"I’ve written four ‘Star Wars’ movies now, and there’s never been a character quite like the one that Adam plays."

- Lawrence Kasdan

Kylo Ren was first revealed in the first teaser trailer for Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens on November 28, 2014. Ren's name was revealed by Entertainment Weekly in an exclusive trading card. He also appeared in the second teaser trailer, and will appear on all The Force Awakens merchandise. On May 4, 2015, it was confirmed by video footage released by Vanity Fair that Kylo Ren is portrayed by Adam Driver.

A similar personality, Jacen Solo, appeared in the continuity of Star Wars Legends. Like Kylo Ren, Jacen was the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa who was trained as a Jedi by Luke Skywalker, only to turn to the dark side and take a new name, Darth Caedus. A villainous character named Kybo Ren appeared in the 1985 Star Wars: Droids animated series.

Appearances

 * Before the Awakening
 * Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens
 * Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens novelization
 * Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens junior novelization
 * Lightsaber Rescue

Non-canon appearances

 * Disney Infinity 3.0