After one of the best movies in the Star Wars franchise was released, The Last Jedi, fans were hoping that the last film in the Skywalker Saga’s sequel trilogy would follow the previous films’ upward trajectory of quality. Unfortunately, the movie ended up doing essentially the opposite.
When The Rise of Skywalker finally came out, fans were disappointed in countless ways, the least of which were focused on Kylo Ren. What could have been one of the best villain arcs in Star Wars history ended not with a bang, but with a whimper. The Rise of Skywalker let down Kylo Ren’s character in many major ways, and many fans still aren’t over it.
10 Kylo Ren Would Not Want To Immediately Kill Rey, As Palpatine Orders
When The Rise of Skywalker first opens, Kylo Ren is not quite as large and in charge as The Last Jedi may have implied he would be. Instead, of course, Palpatine infamously returned and took over the First Order. Kylo Ren was, once again, immediately reduced to the big bad’s stooge, and was sent after Rey to kill her.
After the way The Last Jedi ended, Kylo Ren would be far more likely to want to capture Rey at the most aggressive, and work with her at the least. Killing her, however, would not be on Kylo Ren’s agenda —especially not where he’s at when the movie opens, though he may have been able to get there by the end.
9 His Force Bond With Rey Is Little More Than A Tracking Device At Most Times
A Force dyad is not particularly common and is an incredibly powerful bond in the Force. Rey and Kylo Ren are a Force dyad, which is something that could be explored in incredible depth in The Rise of Skywalker, if only it were given the space.
Unfortunately, instead, the Force bond that Rey and Kylo Ren share ends up relegated to little more than a tracking device they use to find one another at random times. While they occasionally use it to fight, as well, their Force bond is ultimately unimportant and doesn’t end up serving more of a role than an average GPS or even a cell phone might.
8 Kylo Ren Should Be One Of The Best Fighters In The Galaxy
By the time Kylo Ren appears in The Rise of Skywalker, he should inarguably be one of the best fighters in the entire galaxy. He is the grandchild of Anakin Skywalker, he was taught by none other than Luke Skywalker, and he spent his time since that training learning to take over the entire First Order.
Kylo Ren is not only in possession of a great deal of inherent strength but also perhaps an even greater amount of learned skill. He is definitely one of the galaxy’s best fighters, and yet characters can brush him off easily. Rey even escapes encounters with him with barely an injury multiple times in this film.
7 He Pulls Back On His “You’re Nothing” Speech To Rey
One of the best parts of The Last Jedi was its commitment to the idea that an important person can come from nothing. Kylo Ren was the one who told Rey, in no uncertain terms, that she was nobody, that she came from nothing, and that her parents were nobody important. Rey’s story means something, when she’s nobody, because it means that anybody could be a hero.
The all-important message of The Last Jedi was completely trampled by the muddled, fanservice-y mess of The Rise of Skywalker, which turned Rey into a Palpatine —and had none other than Kylo Ren reveal this news to her once again.
6 He Was Ultimately Responsible For His Mother’s Death
In The Last Jedi, Kylo Ren was nearly responsible for the death of his mother, and the film dealt with this in multiple ways. In The Rise of Skywalker, however, Leia reaches out to Kylo Ren through the Force to stop him from killing Rey, and it is this act that ultimately kills Leia, draining her of the last of her life force.
Kylo Ren is, in this way, responsible for his mother’s death, and yet the film spends hardly any time exploring how he might feel about this. Kylo Ren has now killed his mother, his father, and his uncle, and yet The Rise of Skywalker doesn’t explore his feelings or any potential repercussions of these actions.
5 A Vision Of Han Changes Kylo Ren’s Mind, For Some Reason
After Kylo Ren kills his mother, he has a vision of his father that makes him want to be a better person. It was, of course, difficult to include Leia in this movie in many ways, as Carrie Fisher had unfortunately passed before the sequel trilogy was completed.
However, the movie didn’t really try to pull Leia and Luke’s death into Kylo Ren’s (incredibly sudden) turn to the light side. His “redemption” as he tried to become Ben Solo once again, and not Kylo Ren, was instead instigated by a vision he has of his father, which is little more than a memory.
4 Ben Solo Is A Completely Unfamiliar —& Underutilized— Character
The Rise of Skywalker almost introduced an interesting character as Kylo Ren tried to become Ben Solo once again. Of course, the movie does not really acknowledge the atrocities that Kylo Ren has committed, nor does it do any heavy lifting regarding the fact that, whoever Ben Solo is, he’s likely not a light-hearted goofball who should get to kiss the girl he tried to murder roughly two hours before.
Had the movie spent any time building up to Ben Solo, he could have been a well-utilized character in the film. As it is, he’s poorly established, unfamiliar, and ultimately underutilized, which is unfortunate for him, the story, and the series as a whole.
3 Kylo Ren’s Power Levels Fluctuate Wildly Throughout The Film
Seeing as how Kylo Ren is meant to be the most powerful fighter in the galaxy, it would make sense that he could fight practically anybody. Despite this, as it was mentioned before, Rey escapes him multiple times, as do even weaker characters, such as Finn, Poe, or Chewbacca. Not only is this true, but Kylo Ren’s power levels in the film fluctuate based on what the plot needs at any given moment.
When it’s Rey's time to shine against Palpatine, Kylo Ren gets knocked out instantly; when Rey needs to win the fight against Kylo Ren, he’s distracted by Leia in the Force. Other times, he can wipe out his own Knights of Ren on his own without anybody’s help. These careless inconsistencies just make Kylo Ren a weaker character overall.
2 His Kiss With Rey Is A Disservice To Both Of Their Characters
The much-discussed kiss between Kylo Ren and Rey in the climax of The Rise of Skywalker was a complete mess. There is no logical reason for the two of them to share romantic feelings for one another, especially not to the degree where Rey would reciprocate them if Kylo Ren even did feel them for her.
Forcing the characters’ developments forward to the point where they do kiss jumps over a lot of major work they would have to do, both on themselves and on their relationship with one another, before they could get to this point. Ultimately, having these two characters kiss at this point is a disservice to them and their arcs at that point.
1 Kylo Ren’s Arc Was Never Really Fulfilled, Nor Fully Realized
By the end of The Rise of Skywalker, Kylo Ren dies, because most movie franchises are not really sure what to do with their villains except imprisoning them or, more often, just killing them off. It’s a neat and easy way to tie everything up, even if it is strongly indicative of weak storytelling and an easy-way-out ending.
Kylo Ren’s arc is incredibly rushed at the end and ends in him dying, so he never has to do any further work on his own redemption. In this way, his arc was never really fulfilled, nor was it ever fully realized, unfortunately. In the end, he was just another let-down victim of the mess that was The Rise of Skywalker.
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