There is a lot of discussion around Kylo Ren, and how it was possible that he could have gotten his ass kicked by a couple of Force newbies (or one Force newbie and one lucky ex-stormtrooper). Some people have pointed this out as a flaw in the plotline, but I view it differently. I think that the character of Kylo Ren is actually pretty complex, and it gives us a different kind of insight into the world of the Force adept. And I think that the starting place for these discussions begins not with the person, but the Force itself, and the relationship that the person has with the Force.
This is where the Star Wars Expanded Universe (SWEU) comes in. If you are not familiar with it, this is the world of novels, games, comics and graphic novels that George Lucas authorized after the making of A New Hope. There is a book for each film, developed from the original screenplays, that fills in the blanks of edited scenes and backstories. You can find everything from weird Luke Skywalker romances to technical specs for just about every ship seen in the films, to floor plans of set interiors, to world art and descriptions. If you have not explored the SWEU, the easiest access is through the Wookiepedia which draws from all sources available for its entries.
All of this material was official Star Wars canon until the acquisition of Lucasfilm by Disney. You can imagine the difficulty of Disney working with the intellectual property of dozens of writers, artists, and game designers, which is why I am not surprised by their decision to reset the canon to the actual films and go from there.
This was not a popular move, especially among writers who created beloved characters (I am Facebook friends with one of them and he is pretty pissed, but is trying for the pragmatic view), but as someone familiar with the SWEU I think that Disney was influenced by it even if they don't want to admit it. For example, in the SWEU Han and Leia had three children, twins Jacen and Jaina and younger brother Anakin. Luke eventually had one son named Ben. Jacen turned bad and destroyed a lot of what Luke had built, Anakin was killed in a battle, and I don't know what happened to Ben because I wasn't reading the books by the time he came along. But you can see that the character of Kylo Ren could be said to be a conglomerate of SWEU Skywalker children.
So if you are going to talk about the Force, and how Force adepts work, and how this influenced character creation in Ep 7, you have to start with the SWEU and work your way forward. I am a big enough Star Wars nerd that I enjoy this, if you do too then I guess what I am writing is for you.
One thing that becomes clear in the SWEU is that the area of galactic space that the films are set in is the scene of an ancient and epic conflict between the forces of good and evil. Sometimes the galaxy is firmly in the hands of the bad guys, sometimes the good guys prevail, and sometimes both are pretty much nonexistent. Rarely, both forces are at fairly full numbers and rise up in conflict which means galactic war.
The bad guys are the Sith, and they predate the Jedi. The Sith originally came from a single race of Force adepts, but other races started discovering the Force and figuring stuff out for themselves. The Sith took a simple view of their Force powers: use it to subdue and control, to conquer and expand. They created the Sith Empire which held a huge territory.
Although the Sith were aggressively dominant and killed each other off in spectacular ways, they were capable of working together—but this really depended on who was in charge at the time. So you have periods of the Sith growing in numbers and forming coalitions or fellowships. Eventually this cooperation falls apart or is taken apart by the Jedi, but it isn't out of the realms of possibility for Sith to work towards a common cause rather than destroy themselves through infighting.
The Sith developed different paths to the Force. The ones I remember are the way of pain, the way of betrayal, and the way of hunger. So obviously there is this idea that one uses these things, inflicted upon oneself or upon others, to try to gain insight into and control over the Force.
Eventually the Sith discovered a way to cheat death, for lack of a better term. There are accounts in the SWEU of massive Sith temples that are inhabited by the incorporeal spirits of long-dead Sith Lords. Interestingly, one of the biggest reveals of the Force was in the video game Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR), where you travel to the Sith world of Korriban to battle one of these spirits. And this gives a clue into what separates Sith from Jedi.
In the SWEU, the Jedi Order started as a group of Force adepts who formed a meditative group with the goal of understanding how the Force worked, and to see if the Force could be used in a different way than the Sith did. Only after a good deal of time had passed did the Jedi try their strength against the Sith, with mixed results. It became apparent that the Jedi couldn't just sit around and meditate, they actually had to go out and do something to defeat the Sith. But launching an offensive against the Sith posed problems for the Jedi. Many Jedi Knights were unable to resist the draw of the dark side and became Dark Jedi, using their powers for evil. And then there were those who became Gray Jedi, who tried to remain neutral while cultivating both dark and light side powers.
A core concept of the Jedi was that of becoming one with the Force. This shows the biggest difference between the Jedi and the Sith—the Sith used the Force to gain their objectives, the Jedi tried to understand the workings of the Force and live in harmony with it. The ultimate goal of the Jedi was to become part of the living Force upon death, where the Sith goal was to cheat bodily death and achieve immortality in that way.
But through all of this exposition in the SWEU, there are some things that stand out about the Force and Force adepts. First, there is the idea that being a Force adept is no guarantee that one will become a proficient user of the Force, in fact there is a long and arduous path of inner and outer training for both Sith and Jedi.
Many people feel that Lucas was inspired by (or ripped off) elements of Eastern meditation and martial arts training when he created his vision of the Force. There are striking similarities, including the idea that a person has to have mastery over the self before one can transcend normal physical boundaries and perform extraordinary feats. A Jedi seeks to master anger and set it aside to channel the Force more effectively, the Sith seeks to master anger and use it as a channel for the Force, but they both must exercise supreme self-control to achieve the highest level of mastery of the Force. So it's no surprise that basic training for Force adepts is pretty similar whether the eventual goal is the Sith or Jedi path.
Force adepts are periodically tested as to fitness, and failure is met with harsh consequences. The Sith do not tolerate mediocrity, and the Jedi must protect what the Order stands for. This is why both Obi-Wan and Yoda see only one way to deal with Anakin Skywalker's defection to the dark side—he must be killed because of what he has done and what he has betrayed. It doesn't matter that Luke senses good in Vader, to maintain the integrity of the Jedi Vader must be destroyed.
I am well aware of the flaws of Ep 1-3, but one thing I think Lucas got right was the relationship of Anakin Skywalker with the Force, the Jedi, and Palpatine. It's a pretty big deal that the Jedi Council decide to deny Anakin training on the flimsiest of excuses. He's too powerful, he's a wild card, and even after they agree to train him they never trust him. Ever. Not only do they not trust him, they don't listen to him and they invalidate his needs. This only magnifies his fatal weaknesses and it makes it easier for Palpatine to manipulate and exploit Anakin under the guise of wise mentorship. Then it's pretty much just a matter of timing for Palpatine to turn Anakin to the dark side by offering a solution to all his problems if he is only courageous enough to take it.
It's interesting that while Anakin was strong and self-disciplined, he was brittle. One wrong move and he could shatter into a million pieces. In contrast, his son Luke is not nearly as self-disciplined but he is far more resilient. His nature is more yielding, which makes it possible to see the good in Vader even though Vader has done so many evil things. It's unlikely that Anakin would have seen the good in Luke if their situations were reversed.
But as the strength of Anakin betrayed him, Luke's flexibility became his own worst enemy as well. In Dark Force Rising, a comic series set after Return of the Jedi, Luke turns to the dark side and serves the Emperor Reborn. He is only saved by the love of Leia who is convinced that he has not turned completely to darkness.
Luke goes on to form the Jedi Academy on Yavin 4, where he trains other Force adepts. About the time that I stopped reading the novels, the idea was introduced that a true master of the Force actually does very little—because they understand that what they do can unbalance the Force in unforeseen ways. So the strongest masters of the Force do the least, and with great discrimination. I thought the idea of being careful or thrifty with power was very cool.
So how does all of this relate to the character of Kylo Ren? The Wookiepedia fills out Ren's back story a bit more than the film does, using information from the film book which is not yet available in hard copy. He was the grandson of Anakin, the son of Han and Leia, the nephew of Luke. He had daddy issues (I am thinking it is because his father was not a Force adept and he sees that as weakness). He was sent to the Jedi Academy to be trained by his uncle but couldn't be reached, which implies that he resisted his training.
He has a continuing obsession with Anakin Skywalker in the form of Darth Vader, to the point of obtaining Vader's melted helmet from his funeral pyre on Endor and enshrining it in his meditation chamber. He wants to finish the work that Vader started, presumably imposing order upon the known galaxy with himself as enforcer and eventual leader. This leads him to Supreme Leader Snokes, who may or may not be a Sith Lord but is ostensibly the leader of the Knights of Ren, which Kylo joins. He betrays Luke and destroys his work (which in the SWEU is limited because Vader and Palpatine destroyed Jedi knowledge pretty completely), and then joins the First Order.
Kylo Ren believes that he can communicate with the spirit of Darth Vader, In fact he believes that Vader has revealed the dark side to him and pleads with him to reveal it again. He believes this even though Anakin is shown as being part of the light side of the Force again at the conclusion of Return of the Jedi and it would make sense that Luke and Leia would have told him this. And he believes that it is his connection to his family, particularly his weak (non-Force adept) father, that keeps the revelation from happening.
When Kylo Ren confronts his father and kills him, it is obvious that he is expecting an epiphany of sorts. How so? Well, Snokes virtually promises it to him, saying that this is the next step of his journey or training. I think this is a pivotal plot point and we really need to think about the whole scene to gain insight into Ren's character.
If there was one thing that Kylo should have known, it was that his father would never have been on that base alone. Chewbacca owed him a life-debt (SWEU) which meant that he never left Han's side. Kylo would have known that, known the capability of Chewie's bowcaster, and would have been prepared for retaliation. Instead, he is immobilized by the thing that doesn't happen. The rush of power that isn't there, the veil that doesn't lift. He can't even perform a basic tuck-and-roll defense to dodge the blast, much less stop the bolt with his brain like he has at other times.
This shows how little Kylo has developed as a Force adept. He obviously had great potential in the Force, but it is apparent that he has not mastered himself. His tenuous self-control translates to a tenuous control of the Force, which means that he can pull off great feats but that this is not a constant. When things are going well and he is able to achieve rapport with the Force, he can stop a laser bolt with his brain. When he is thwarted or angry or disappointed, he loses all semblance of self-control and resorts to wrecking things with his badly-constructed lightsaber.
Kylo can probe people's minds but cannot shield his own. He wants people to cower in fear before him but is a prisoner of his own fear, because on some level he knows he hasn't done the work. He hasn't put in the time, he hasn't done the stuff that isn't fun, and it's only a matter of time before this betrays him. Even knowing this, he is still searching for the easier way. He is still resisting. He would rather listen to the voices in his head, begging for them to show them the way to power, than actually just do it right. And this is what makes him a danger to the Jedi and expendable to the Sith.
This is why Kylo Ren is not a Sith but a member of the Knights of Ren, which I think will end up being described as Sith enforcers. These are the Force adepts that band together so that their numbers make up for their lack of individual strength. Because no matter what his potential in the Force is, Kylo Ren is weak. He will never be able to aspire to the heights of Sith Lordship because he isn't willing or able to put in the work. He will always be mastered by someone, and if he slips his leash his master will put him down like the mad dog he is.
I think that Disney made a bold move in creating such a flawed main character, and this is what makes Ep 7 so different than Ep 4, even though the story arc is similar. I don't think it is outside of the realm of possibility that Poe and Finn are also Force adepts, and that together with Rae they will form the nucleus of the New Jedi Order. I think that Disney has left Rae's backstory wide open, she could well have received early training from Luke Skywalker before being left on Jakku. This goes for Poe too, who grew up on Yavin 4. Since Finn's parentage is unknown, he could also be a Force adept who never received training. So instead of Ep 7 being a rewrite of Ep 4, I think this opens up the field for the refounding of the Jedi in a deeper and more meaningful way than was done in the SWEU.
Looked at in this way, Ep7 gives us a deeper look into the world of the Force adept. I think that Ep 7 also gives us a look into the deeper workings of family. It's sad that the tragedies of the Skywalker family end up being played out on a galactic stage, but they are at their heart quite intimate tragedies. I am really looking forward to seeing how the plots further develop in the next 2 movies.
