Ben Solo

"Nothing will stand in our way [...] I will finish what you started, Grandfather."

- Kylo Ren to Darth Vader's mask.

Kylo Ren, born Ben Solo, 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 as the first child to Alliance to Restore the Republic heroes Leia Organa and Han Solo, Ben was taken by his uncle Luke Skywalker to become his Jedi apprentice in Luke's new Jedi Academy. Ben however, was drawn to the Dark Side and 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 the powerful Dark Side user Snoke, who made him Master of the Knights of Ren, taking on his new name and proclaiming that Ben was dead. Kylo then killed the rest of Luke's students, forcing Luke to disappear. Kylo would spend the next few years searching for a map to the missing Jedi Master's location.

Nearly obtaining the map on Jakku, Kylo was beaten to it by the 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, but she escaped as the Resistance mounted an attack on Starkiller Base. Kylo killed his father, Han Solo, believing that it was his father's light that was weakening him in the Force. 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. While Supreme Leader Snoke instructs General Hux to leave the base with Ren, it is unclear whether Ren survives.

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 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 allied with 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, 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 sword and engaged in her own fight with Ren. Though better skilled, 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 fled to eventually be rescued by Chewbacca. 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 (last name probably Organa or Solo). As Kylo Ren, he wore a black hood and cloak, a dark mask, and wielded a dangerous and crudely-built lightsaber he assembled himself. 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.

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. 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 preferred 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. Despite his committment 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.

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.

Appearances

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

Non-canon appearances

 * Disney Infinity 3.0