Star Wars has long been known for great villains–Darth Vader is one of the most popular characters in the entire Saga, and Emperor Palpatine is so iconic that they couldn’t help but bring him back in the Sequel Trilogy. Lucasfilm positioned Kylo Ren to be a similar sort of villain, and while he has a lot of fans who think he’s the best, it’s plain to see that Lucasfilm did not do him any favors.
There are many lessons that Lucasfilm can learn from the Sequels and Kylo Ren is one of them. In many ways, the character never even had a chance.
10 They Put Him On All The Episode VII Merch Packaging
From the get-go, it felt like Lucasfilm was banking a lot on Kylo Ren. It’s no secret that even though he’s the villain, Darth Vader is the unofficial mascot for Star Wars and it felt like Lucasfilm was trying to replicate that by putting Ren’s mask on everything. This was a grave misstep.
Lucas had a keen eye for visuals and okayed everything. Vader wasn’t put on all of the merch when the Star Wars first came out. Darth Maul wasn’t on all the packaging of Episode I merch. It was a huge risk to put Ren on everything before fans ever knew who he was or if they even liked him just because he looked cool, and it set him up for a fall unless he was Darth Vader level.
9 He Was Never As Cool As He Was In His First Scene In The Entire Trilogy
Kylo Ren’s introduction was pretty great. It was stylistically copied from Episode IV (because that’s how JJ Abrams rolled throughout the movie) but it made Ren into a striking figure, one who does something with the Force viewers had never seen before, freezing a blaster bolt in mid-air. It was a great introduction and unfortunately, he’d never be that cool again.
Throughout the rest of the trilogy, he was getting punked out constantly, made to look like a whiny angsty teen, and generally having his mystique ruined. He reached his height in the first scene and it was just about all downhill from there.
8 They Unmasked Him & Revealed His Identity Too Quickly
Apparently, when you pay for Adam Driver, you want to show people Adam Driver. One of the great things about Darth Vader is no one knew what was under his helmet or who he was for a large portion of the Original Trilogy. Episode VII, though, basically couldn’t wait to let everyone know who Ren was and that was a mistake.
While it wasn’t as bad as showing Ren as a little boy who said, “Yippeee,” it ruined the mystique of the character pretty quickly and lost the hype. It could have been an epic reveal but instead, it happened almost in a matter-of-fact way that had little impact.
7 His Temper Tantrums Made Him Harder To Take Seriously
Showing Kylo Ren having a temper tantrum was a huge way of undermining him in the eyes of viewers. It’s hard to take a villain seriously who just casually destroys something when things aren’t going his way. It’s a terrible look for a villain when Ren carves up a console with his lightsaber, and an officer just casually leaves the room like it’s a normal occurrence.
While the dark side is all about anger, seeing Ren react like this doesn’t make him seem dangerous. Rather, it makes him seem like an out-of-control child having a tantrum. There are other ways to show how the dark side has ruined him than a petulant fit.
6 They Kept Changing His Origin
Kylo Ren was partly copied from the Legends story of Jacen Solo, a story fans got to experience from the beginning. With Kylo Ren, viewers were told one thing–that he fell to the dark side and destroyed Luke’s academy. Then it kept changing until it became a story where he didn’t even destroy the academy personally but didn’t stop its destruction either.
Instead of picking a story and sticking to it, they kept changing it as the focus of the Sequel Trilogy kept changing and it didn’t do the character any favors. Lucasfilm wanted to have their cake and eat it too–they wanted an awesome villain who also wasn’t really that bad, and it hurt him immensely because he wasn’t either.
5 He Rarely Won A Fight On His Own
Darth Vader only lost one fight, and it was at the end of the Original Trilogy. Darth Maul was killed off in his first appearance but also killed a Jedi Master right before that. Count Dooku beat Anakin and Obi-Wan and was able to hang with Master Yoda. What do all of these villains have in common?
They were made to look strong. Kylo Ren never looked strong. Sure, he killed those unarmed villagers and was able to beat Finn in a lightsaber fight, but those were unfair fights. Rey beat him every time they fought and beyond Finn, he only ever killed faceless goons and Snoke, who was distracted. It was hard to take him seriously as a threat.
4 The Reylo Shipping Wars Became A Mess
This isn’t entirely Lucasfilm’s fault, but it has to be brought up because they did fan the flames. Shipping culture is a big deal on the internet and The Last Jedi leaned into it heavily, introducing a nearly romantic subplot between the two. It gave a segment of the fandom something to obsess over, and it spilled out in an ugly direction.
Reylos lashed out against anyone who didn’t support their ship, stalked Driver and his wife, and basically made themselves look bad. It also affected the perception of Ren in some fan circles, as the obsessive Reylo fans spurred on people who became ardently anti-Ren in response.
3 They Never Pulled The Trigger On Him As The Main Villain
For all its perceived flaws, The Last Jedi did a lot to build Kylo Ren and positioned him as the main villain for the last movie. Then JJ Abrams was brought back as director and somehow, Palpatine had returned. This relegated Ren back to a subordinate position, something TLJ seemingly ended for him.
This was yet another strike against the perception of Ren. Everyone was ready for him to finally take his place as the main villain, and instead, they got him running errands and getting killed and resurrected by Rey before his redemption. It squandered all of his potential.
2 He Killed Han Solo
No matter what happened, Harrison Ford’s Han Solo was going to get killed off and people were going to be angry about it. Kylo Ren killing his father was a great move for his character but it also immediately angered a whole segment of the Star Wars fandom. People loved Solo, and using his death as character development wasn’t the best idea for a villain who part of the audience wasn’t completely sold on.
It was an important character moment, but that didn’t matter for a portion of the fandom–they already had knives out and were waiting to pounce on someone because they were never getting a reunion of the Original Trilogy heroes, and Ren was the target.
1 His Redemption Felt Slapdash & Unearned
Kylo Ren getting a redemption arc was inevitable–Ren was the Vader stand-in and that’s all there was to it. He was getting redeemed and he was probably going to die regardless of anything else. The problem comes in that Ren’s redemption just sort of came out of nowhere. Leia sent him a Force vision of his father and that was that. Suddenly, he was redeemed.
It didn’t really feel earned in the story. He never showed any remorse over his father’s death before, and yet, now he felt bad? It was such a weird moment and it went against prior storytelling. It was the final nail in the character’s coffin.
About The Author
