Despite not being the actual main villain in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Kylo Ren (Ben Solo) was technically in the same role type Darth Vader played in the original trilogy. Jacen Solo, a character created for the Star Wars Legends books back in the ’90s, was clearly used as the basis for Ben Solo. But honestly, I think Jacen was a far more interesting dark side character with a better overall story arc. No disrespect to Adam Driver, though—he did his job and acted the role well. A good actor can’t control the script or the direction.

So, Ben Solo is obviously the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia and is easily recruited into his uncle Luke’s Jedi school. Why his parents named him “Ben” is kind of confusing, since neither of them was particularly close to Obi-Wan Kenobi—especially considering these movies came out before the Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+. But then Luke tries to kill him for a split second, and that moment basically cements Ben Solo’s transformation into Kylo Ren.

It’s clear the filmmakers were going for a “new Darth Vader” vibe, and to be fair, Kylo’s costume is actually pretty cool—so is his unique lightsaber.

While he was injured by a surprise blaster shot to the leg, it’s still wild that he lost a duel to Rey—a random girl from a desert planet with no Force training—and her ex-Stormtrooper sidekick.

I did like how he betrayed Snoke in The Last Jedi. At the time, there was a fan theory that he would redeem himself and Rey would fall to the dark side. Honestly, that idea would’ve been way better than what they actually went with.

Because after taking over the First Order, Kylo basically just becomes Snoke 2.0. He’s still holding a lot of resentment toward his uncle Luke Skywalker and is furious when he realizes that Luke wasn’t really there at their final confrontation.

Another weird choice was trying to make Kylo and Rey a romantic couple. It just didn’t make sense—especially from Rey’s perspective. I mean, come on… the guy literally tried to murder her several times, and she falls in love with him?

And then Kylo just dies trying to protect Rey from Palpatine or something like that. I’ve watched that scene multiple times, and it still doesn’t make much sense. Just a bitter end to a character who had so much potential.