Five years after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, I think I’ve finally figured out the real reason Ben Solo fell to the dark side. Played by Adam Driver, the villainous Kylo Ren – originally Ben Solo – was initially framed as the villain of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Lucasfilm’s original plan was for Kylo Ren’s story to be one that ended in tragedy, an inversion of Anakin Skywalker’s in that there was no redemption for him. Plans changed, of course, and in the end Kylo Ren was redeemed after all.

Unfortunately, the various course-corrections have always made me feel there’s something of an inconsistency in his portrayal. We’ve seen Anakin’s fall as well as his redemption, which means we can understand it, but Kylo Ren’s is still very awkward and ambiguous. The most important part of his fall was told in Charles Soule and Will Sliney’s The Rise of Kylo Ren miniseries, which seemed to suggest Kylo Ren was never truly evil in the first place. It’s taken me years – and a post on social media of all things – to finally figure it out.

Palpatine Began Seducing Kylo Ren To The Dark Side From An Early Age

It doesn’t help that Kylo Ren’s origin story is being subtly retconned. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker implied the spirit of Palpatine jumped straight into a clone body after his death in Return of the Jedi, and that he fixed his covetous eyes on Ben Solo from the moment of his birth. The Mandalorian, however, has revealed that Project Necromancer – the cloning experiments that brought Palpatine back – still hadn’t been successful by the time Ben was four years old. This means Ben’s childhood was free from Palpatine’s influence.

We don’t really know when Project Necromancer achieved its goal, restoring Palpatine into a failing body. Whenever that may be, though, it’s safe to assume the Emperor immediately decided to manipulate Ben Solo into falling to the dark side. He’d have loved the idea of a host boy descended from the Chosen One; Palpatine would have been delighted to gain that power, and would have considered it a fitting revenge on Anakin Skywalker for his betrayal. So Palpatine began whispering dark nothings into Ben’s mind through the Force.

The Skywalker Family Never Told Ben The Truth About Darth Vader

Claudia Gray’s Bloodline revealed that the Skywalkers and Solos kept their true heritage a closely guarded secret. Leia was certain the truth would bring an end to her political career, while Luke likely believed it would make the galaxy distrust the New Jedi Order he was attempting to establish. But what would this secrecy mean for Ben Solo, as he grew up and began to develop sensitivity to the ways of the Force?

Ben was tremendously powerful, outpacing all his fellow students because he was the grandson of the Chosen One. Power is seductive, which means the most powerful Force-sensitives are the ones who are most tempted by the dark side. But every time Ben struggled with the dark side, with the seductive whispers of Palpatine through the Force, his family would have looked at him askance. They would have feared that he had inherited Anakin’s darkness as well as his power. Ben, for his part, would have sensed their misgivings.

But Ben would have also known they were hiding something from him. Luke and Leia had Jedi training, helping them hide their true feelings and concerns, but Han wouldn’t have been able to pull it off. As skilled a Sabacc player as Han may be, he couldn’t possibly hide this deception from his son. Palpatine’s spirit would have pointed out every flinch, every hint of deceit.

Ben Was 24 Years Old When He Learned The Truth About Darth Vader

Ben learned the truth in the worst possible way. As seen in Claudia Gray’s novel Bloodline, Leia’s political opponents discovered a recording from her adopted father Bail Organa that revealed the truth about her heritage. They used this to end Leia’s career, bringing her down in the middle of a bid to become Chief of State. Leia sensed a conspiracy behind this, founding the Resiistance just before the First Order emerged as a political and military force.

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How did this affect Ben? He’d learned the truth in spectacular fashion, with no warning and no preparation. Suddenly he was facing the reality that everyone around him had been lying to him all his life. Worse still, he’d have finally understood why his family looked at him strangely. The whispers of Palpatine – which Ben believed to either come from his own nature or from the Force itself – would have suggested to him that he had indeed inherited his grandfather’s darkness. And then there’s another factor, which never occurred to me; did Ben ever learn Darth Vader was redeemed?

This question had never occurred to me until I read a post on social media pointing out that Ben had a false perception of Darth Vader. Luke and Leia had concealed the reality of Darth Vader, the conflicted man who fell to the dark side but who was redeemed in the end. Little wonder Ben began to despair; he looked back at his grandfather, and he saw a man consumed by the dark side.

Luke Skywalker’s Mistake

This brings us to the events glimpsed in flashback in Star Wars: The Last Jedi – events that, according to Star Wars: Timelines, seem to be shortly after Bloodline. Luke Skywalker entered Ben’s room, concerned about his nephew, and he used the Force to probe Ben’s mind. This is a violation in the Force, but what caused Luke to do it? I’m now beginning to wonder whether Luke and Ben had argued in the aftermath of the Darth Vader revelations, and Ben stormed away, leaving Luke troubled. It’s easy to imagine this as the context for Luke’s mistake.

The Rise of Kylo Ren reveals that Palpatine’s presence was with Ben Solo at the time. I’ve long suspected that Luke didn’t sense Ben’s darkness at all when he probed his nephew’s mind; rather, I think Palpatine finally allowed Luke to sense him. Worse still, this wasn’t the Emperor who had faced Luke on the Second Death Star; it was a Palpatine who had lived in Chaos for at least five years, the Hellish afterlife reserved for Sith. He had become the dark side incarnate. Little surprise even Luke Skywalker reacted in shock, triggering his lightsaber.

Ben Solo woke then, likely prompted by Palpatine. Imagine the emotions roiing within his heart; he’d just learned his true heritage, feared the darkness within his own heart, and now his uncle was standing over him with a lightsaber drawn. Ben reacted in fury, unleashing his power, destroying his hut and stunning his uncle. With Luke unconscious, The Rise of Kylo Ren hints Palpatine destroyed Luke’s Jedi Temple in a Force Storm – allowing Ben Solo to take the blame for it.

Palpatine was always an opportunist at heart. He liked to claim that everything had happened as he had foreseen, but the truth is that he excelled at adapting his plans to suit the circumstances around him. In the case of Ben Solo, I think Palpatine saw the opportunity presented by the Skywalker deception, confident the truth would one day come to light. When it did, he made sure events proceeded so quickly that Ben Solo never had time to learn the full truth, meaning he believed his fate was shared with his grandfather’s – one of darkness, not redemption.