Kylo Ren loses his climactic duel with Rey at the end of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but one key moment shortly before the duel explains his perplexing loss. Kylo Ren, formerly Ben Solo, is one of the two primary antagonists of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, having once been a student in Luke Skywalker’s new generation of Jedi but eventually falling to the dark side of the Force and joining the Knights of Ren, a deadly dark side-using organization that is different from the Sith Order. While Kylo Ren is depicted as a powerful and skilled villain in the film, his loss to Rey may seem perplexing at first.
After brutally murdering his father, Han Solo, in cold blood, Kylo Ren pursues Finn and Rey into the forests of Ilum (with the ancient Jedi world having been converted into the First Order superweapon Starkiller Base). Wielding the lightsaber of Anakin Skywalker, Finn bravely battles Kylo but is swiftly defeated, despite his tenacity. Rey then summons the lightsaber and duels Ren, only she manages to best him, leaving him wounded. While Rey’s victory may seem dubious, there are several factors at play that allow it to make sense in-universe.
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Kylo Ren Took A Shot From A Wookiee Bowcaster – & Was Still Standing
Shortly before his duels with Finn and Rey, Kylo Ren is blasted by Chewbacca, who was using his signature weapon: a Wookiee bowcaster. In both the Star Wars canon and Legends continuities, bowcasters are exceptionally deadly weapons that are far more destructive than blasters. The Force Awakens even makes a point to showcase this in multiple action scenes, with Han Solo (who uses an extremely powerful modified DL-44 blaster) taking a liking to the Wookiee weapon.
Kylo Ren’s Injury Explains Why He Was Defeated By Rey
The fact that Kylo Ren survives the bowcaster blast at all proves how dangerous he is. Jason Fry’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Expanded Edition explains that Kylo Ren used the dark side to dampen the effects of the wound, which would naturally make him far less formidable in his battles with Finn and Rey. The Force Awakens even makes a point to show Kylo Ren still suffering the effects of his bowcaster wound before and during his duels. Still, the other reason why Kylo Ren defeated Finn with ease but lost to Rey is that he intended to kill the former while he only wished to capture the latter.
Kylo Ren’s debilitating injury and the fact that he did not use his full strength against Rey suitably explains his loss in-universe. From a real-world perspective, however, the choice to have Kylo Ren be defeated in single combat in his debut movie was a poor one. Kylo Ren is the most prominent villain in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and having him be bested in The Force Awakens severely reduces his threat level as an antagonist – even if it makes sense in-universe – when a wiser and more satisfying choice would be to save his defeat for the sequel trilogy’s final installment.
