WARNING: The following contains spoilers for LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales, now streaming on Disney+.
With spooky season now here, Star Wars has started releasing some of its yearly, creepy content. This includes LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales, which follows Poe Dameron after he crash-landed on the planet of Mustafar, where Graballa the Hutt was turning Vader’s Castle into a Dark Side-themed hotel. There, Poe heard several old stores – which didn’t seem to be entirely true – from the castle’s caretaker and former servant to Vader, Vaneé. The “Lost Boy” segment was about Kylo Ren.
The Disney Star Wars sequels were pretty polarizing for fans, but one source of agreement came from Kylo Ren. His repeated temper tantrums, outbursts and obsession with killing the past seemed odd for an evil Dark Side user. The story that Poe heard, however, took a much-needed step in explaining why Kylo was constantly in a bad mood, and it had to do with his name.
Previously, the meaning of Kylo Ren was addressed in The Rise of Kylo Ren #2 by Charles Soule and Will Sliney, when a young Ben Solo was talking to a not-so-evil-yet Snoke. Ben was telling his secret mentor about wanting to join the Knights of Ren. At first, Snoke cast doubt on that possibility but later told Ben that he needed to find his true name if he intended to join the Dark Side followers because his purpose would come forth in his name.
Snoke continued to say that a name “represents what you want to do on a deep level. The part of yourself you want to cut away. The part you want to kill. Perhaps someday you will do it. The galaxy will hear that name and see you.” “Ren” simply had to do with becoming a knight of that group; “Kylo,” therefore, represented the part of himself that Ben couldn’t stand and wanted to kill.
LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales took that premise and ran with it. The “The Lost Boy” segment follows a young Ben Solo, who was upset with his uncle Luke for holding back his Jedi training. His anger led him to the Knights of Ren, and with them, he saw excitement and purpose. Their leader, called the Ren (Christian Slater), was going to let Ben join the group, and all he had to do was destroy Skywalker’s Jedi Temple.
When Ben hesitated, one of the Knights of Ren, Trudgen, began to mock him – sounding like Evil Ed from Fright Night: “Don’t waste your time with him, Ren. The kid’s a total Kylo.” When Ben responded, “Kylo?” Trudgen explained, “Yeah, Kylo. Small. Weak. Scared.” The Knights then began chanting “Kylo … Kylo … Kylo…” Pushed by their taunting, Ben defeated them all, killed Ren and took the first step towards becoming a true villain. When Luke saw him, Ben told his uncle he could call him Kylo from then on.
What all of that means is that in the Star Wars universe, “Kylo” is an insult, and Ben taking on that name held a deeper meaning. He felt small and insignificant because of the expectations that were heaped on him as the son of two great heroes and being called “Ben” only compounded the issue. So, he chose to call himself “Kylo” as a way to show that he could command his own destiny and destroy the parts of his past that he didn’t like. His very name was a constant reminder of what he didn’t want to be.
To see the other two tales that Vaneé told Poe, watch LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales on Disney+ streaming now,
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