After The Rise of Skywalker effectively concluded the Skywalker Saga , fans were still left with many unanswered questions about the sequel trilogy-era. Since the film's release, an influx of new information has been released. The Skywalker Legacy documentary revealed a detailed behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film . The Rise of Skywalker 's official novelization also provided new details about Leia's training as a Jedi and the return of Emperor Palpatine .
But there are still a lot of questions about the origins of Kylo Ren, particularly about the details of his turn to the dark side. In The Last Jedi, audiences were shown a flashback scene in which Luke Skywalker believed his student and nephew, Ben Solo, was being corrupted by Snoke. Luke contemplated killing him, but couldn't go through with it. This led to Ben turning to Snoke and becoming Kylo Ren.
NEWS
In the new comic series The Rise of Kylo Ren, more details have been revealed about the origins of the ever-mysterious villain. In the final installment, it is shown how Kylo Ren's infamous crossguard lightsaber was born , this being the last step in Ben Solo's transition to his new identity.
After having killed the original Ren, and taken command of the Knights, Solo channels his emotions around his family, and successfully bleeds the blue kyber crystal from his lightsaber. This overwhelming raw power not only changes the crystal's color to the Sith red but also cracks it in two.
After Solo reinserts the broken crystal into his lightsaber, the saber unleashes an unstable blade of energy. Solo then reconstructs the saber hilt by adding a crossguard, providing an extra outlet to channel the energy of the blade. When Solo ignites his new saber for the first time, he also takes on the name of Kylo, which he came up with in his childhood , and accepts his new identity.
WHAT THIS MEANS
From the moment Kylo Ren and his crossguard lightsaber were revealed in The Force Awakens there were questions. Why was the lightsaber blade so unfocused? Why does it have a crossguard? And what does the name Kylo Ren mean? Now the answers have been revealed, and seem to be continuous with Kylo Ren's character in the sequel trilogy. Everything about Kylo's arc revolved around his internal war between the light and the dark side, and his personal identity crisis being Ben Solo and Kylo Ren.
The comic series has shown that this struggle was still present in the making of his lightsaber. Being torn between light and dark and not resolving his feelings towards his family caused Ben's unchannelled rage to split the crystal, continuing with the metaphor that his identity is also split. The unbalanced energy of the blade is also symbolic of Ren being torn between the two sides of the Force. The blade isn't pure because Ren isn't sure of himself.
It's unfortunate that this never played out on screen as it could've helped to understand Kylo Ren further, but The Rise of Kylo Ren comic series has certainly helped to fill in the blanks around his origins and the Knights of Ren .
