Ben Solo

"Forgive me. I feel it again... the call from 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 with the given name Ben, was a Force-sensitive human male who was a member of the Knights of Ren and ally of the First Order, approximately thirty years after the Battle of Endor. Born to Rebel heroes Leia Organa and Han Solo, Ben was taken by his uncle Luke Skywalker to become his Jedi apprentice 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 he was too weak to live up to his grandfather as a Jedi, Ben was lured to the dark side by a mysterious Force-user named Snoke. Taking the name Kylo Ren, Ben left his uncle's new Order behind and killed all his fellow apprentices. Skywalker disappeared and Kylo became one of the Knights of Ren within the First Order.

Seeking to find and destroy his uncle before he could rebuild the Jedi, Ren sought to track 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 Ren captured Rey after reading her mind with the Force knowing she had seen the map. Due to Rey's latent force powers Kylo couldn't extract the information from her mind as he thought he would be able to - Rey used Kylo's fears against him. This bought time for her to escape as the Resistance mounted an attack on Starkiller Base. During the battle Kylo encountered and killed his father, Han Solo, believing that it was his father's love that was weakening him in the Force. Shot by Chewbacca, Kylo then chased after Rey and Finn into the woods engaging both in a lightsaber duel, critically wounding the helpless Finn before being equaled by the Force-strong Rey, leaving a severely wounded and unstable Kylo on the ground. With Starkiller Base imploding, Supreme Leader Snoke instructed General Hux to leave the base with Ren.

Biography
"Together, we will destroy the Resistance and the last Jedi."

- Kylo Ren

The son of Leia Organa and Han Solo, Ben studied alongside other Jedi students, instructed and led by his uncle Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. However, the man who became Kylo Ren betrayed and destroyed his former Jedi peers, preventing Skywalker from fully restoring the Jedi Order. Ren became a follower of the dark side of the Force, and a member of the Knights of Ren, taking on Ren as a surname. 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 hunting down Skywalker, the only Jedi known to have escaped Ren's uprising. Following Ren's failed attempt to capture a map leading to Skywalker's location from the Resistance, Ren interrogated the captured Resistance pilot Poe Dameron by mentally torturing him with the Force.

Later, while aboard the Starkiller Base, Ren engaged in a confrontation with 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. A raging Chewbacca severely wounded Ren by shooting him on the side with his bowcaster following the slaying of Han Solo, allowing Finn and Rey to get free. 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 saber 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 order 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. 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 is 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 is the duty he feels to Vader. The dark warrior was also known for his fiery temper, albeit 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
Like his grandfather, Kylo Ren possessed a powerful connection to the Force. He was highly 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. 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. In addition to being strong with the Force, Kylo Ren was also skilled with a lightsaber, able to deflect blaster bolts and defeat Finn in single combat. The dark warrior also possessed a strong tolerance to physical pain, able to fight even after being shot by Chewbacca and wounded by Finn and Rey. Kylo could be seen beating his wound to utilize his pain and 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 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.

Appearances

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

Non-canon appearances

 * Disney Infinity 3.0