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 will 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 and became obsessed with fulfilling 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 Jedi 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 and Leia to separate; Han returned to smuggling, and Leia returned to her leadership in the former Alliance.

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 feelings for his parents that was weakening him in the dark side of the Force. After being shot by a furious Chewbacca, Kylo chased Rey into the woods. He was further injured by Finn in an initial lightsaber duel, but eventually struck Finn down, critically injuring him. He was finally overpowered by the Force-sensitive Rey, who severely wounded him. They were separated by the collapsing of the planet, and Ren was recovered by the escaping forces of the First Order. Snoke ordered Ren to be taken to him to complete Ren's training.

Early life
"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 fallen under the influence of the mysterious Force-user Snoke, Ben became his apprentice, joining Snoke's First Order and the Knights of Ren, taking on the name Kylo Ren. 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, and started wearing a metal helmet. Ren was at the forefront of the First Order's attempts to destroy 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.

Jakku
The Resistance was also looking for Skywalker and both sides were after a map that led to his location. The First Order had recovered most of it in the archives of the Empire, but one piece was missing, and the Resistance found it first. Their best pilot, Poe Dameron, was sent to the desert planet Jakku to recover the fragment from Lor San Tekka, but Ren and the First Order were close behind. As the stormtroopers attacked, Dameron hid the map on his on droid BB-8, who fled into the desert. Ren had traveled to Jakku personally and laid siege to the small village, executing its leader and the surviving villagers and taking Dameron prisioner. He was taken to the First Order's Imperial Star Destroyer Finalizer, where Ren tortured and interrogated the young starfighter pilot for information, successfully learning about BB-8. The First Order offered a bounty to anyone capable of retrieving the droid and sent a group of troopers to search for it, but lost contact with the defeated group shortly after.

Realizing that he needed help, Ren returned to Starkiller Base, where he sought council with his mentor and leader of the First Order, Supreme Leader Snoke. Ren told his master of an awakening he had felt in the Force, and Snoke confirmed that he had felt it too, having also foreseen that Ren would eventually confront Han Solo, and in order for him to overcome the light side of the Force, he would need to kill his father. Ren stated that Solo meant nothing to him, and that his journey to the Dark Side would soon be completed.

News of BB-8's whereabouts soon reached the First Order. This time it had been spotted in a cantina on Takodana.

Capturing Rey
While his troops attacked Maz Kanata's castle in Takodana, Ren went in search of BB-8 in the nearby woods. Instead, he found Rey, a scavenger from Jakku who had helped BB-8 and the former stormtrooper Finn escape the planet. After a brief confrontation, Ren probed her mind and discovered that she had already seen the map to Skywalker and therefore decided that the droid was no longer needed. With an unconscious Rey on his arms, he called back his troops and returned to his shuttle to interrogate the girl at Starkiller Base. Due to her latent Force-sensitivity, Rey was able to resist his interrogation and even reverse it, tapping into his fear of never achieving the power Vader had. Distressed, Ren turned to Snoke, who ordered his apprentice to bring the girl to his presence, but she had escaped while they talked.

Confrontation with Solo
While searching for Rey at Starkiller Base, Ren was confronted by his father, Han Solo, who was attempting to explode the thermal oscilator with Chewbacca, Finn and Rey. Solo pleaded with Ren to turn his back on the dark side and redeem himself for the choices he had made, offering 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 into the woods and dueled with Finn, who used the blue lightsaber that had once belonged to Ren's grandfather Anakin Skywalker. 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. 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 ways of 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.

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.

J.J. Abrams wanted The Force Awakens to depict an evolving villain as well as a hero's journey, and tapped into parental fears of a child gone wrong in creating Kylo Ren. He felt they needed to be bold with Kylo Ren. "The only reason why Kylo Ren has any hope of being a worthy successor [to Darth Vader] is because we lose one of the most beloved characters," he said.

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. Michael Arndt stated Kylo Ren's backstory came about from needing a rationale for the original trilogy's main characters to have separated after Return of the Jedi.

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