A comment on #BenSoloLives

With the Force, nothing is impossible. ~Darth Vader

This is all speculation and if for some reason you have not seen the last trilogy of Star Wars films, then let me tell you up front…

SPOILER WARNING!!!!!

There are a whole lot of people out there who wanted Ben Solo to live, but as Cinema Therapy on Youtube pointed out, he could not live with himself after all the atrocious acts he committed as Kylo Ren. If you haven’t seen Cinema Therapy’s character break down of Kylo Ren, you should. You should also have a look at all the comments that Girls with Sabers (also on Youtube) have added to the monomyth discussion about this last trilogy of movies. I think the character is very popular so hopefully Disney will catch on, and carry on the story of Ben Solo, and not just in comics or books.

One of my friends who has only seen the movies was shocked to find out Kylo Ren wasn’t responsible for the deaths of his former classmates. But, you’d have to read the Rise of Kylo Ren comics to know that. This means that the casual Star Wars fans don’t read all the canon additional material and it also proves my point that it would be possible to bring back Ben Solo.

Two clues from the various media would make it possible. In one of the Darth Vader comics, Vader says , “Nothing is impossible with the Force.” and Luke says, “No one is ever really gone.” in The Last Jedi.

Let’s think about this then. Ben Solo was a powerful Force user, arguably more powerful than Luke, and in all likely hood more powerful than Anakin Skywalker. Snoke said in TLJ that, “Darkness rises and light rises to meet it.” If we consider that the dark he is referring to is himself/Palpatine, then yes, Ben Solo’s rise in the Light would make him a powerful adversary to Snoke/Palpatine. But, child predator Palpatine, manages to manipulate the situation so that Ben has no idea of his true potential. He’s hamstrung by Snoke/Palpatine starting in Leia’s womb. This is a guy, who never knew just how powerful he was, and he’s terrifyingly powerful enough for mom, dad, and uncle. Luke tried to curb his power, while at the same time, Snoke/Palpatine was also encouraged to grow stronger but at the same time indoctrinating him. This indoctrination by Snoke/Palpatine also curbed his power.

Solo is incredibly powerful, but he’s been conditioned to think he’s not strong enough. In all honesty, he’s probably stronger than Darth Vader, but because he’s been effectively brainwashed since birth, he would doubt himself. While his emo tantrums in the first movie look like a child with anger issues, this brainwashing has undermined his sense of self. Those tantrums, placed in context, are extreme cutting behaviors. Instead of finding peace through carving slashes into himself for not being perfect, he took it out on consoles and interrogation rooms. Those are the actions of someone in a great deal of psychic pain.

Snoke/Palpatine not only got revenge on the heroes who defeated him, he took a powerful lightsider that the Force probably intended to be the instrument to fight Palpatine, and twisted him. This is why Rey feels his fall to the Dark. She was already his dyad, but the Force activated their bond at that moment. Snoke is correct about powerful light and powerful dark.

Ben Solo has a lot to atone for, and while his absolution was giving his lifeforce to Rey, he’s still not 100%. A lot of chatter about resurrecting Ben falls to speculation and a fair number of fanfictions on the subject. So, lets think about some of those elements.

1. Ben is about half insane because of the voices in his head. He would need to be seen working through his mental problems.
2. The New New Republic is going to want his head on a platter. Like the majority of fans who don’t read the canon back story, they believe him to have given the order for Hosnia Prime and Kajimi, when he wasn’t responsible for those.
3. He’s that kid that has heard he is bad so long, that he finally succumbs to the court of public opinion and starts doing the bad things that he’s already considered guilty of.
4. He’s Ben Solo, he has to work at being the bad guy. He really does because it is against his inner nature.
5. Lor San Tekka’s death is not because BB8 was not in the village. San Tekka reminds him of who he really is, and that’s not something he’s prepared to process. Plus, it is possible that characters in the story don’t know that Kylo Ren and Ben Solo are the same person. Those few that do, are best eliminated.
6. I see a lot of people putting forth the theory of the World Between Worlds and that’s how Ben will come back. That is probably the most obvious way for it, and the most logical, provided the Asoka series touches on it. If he did come back via the WBW then the story would not begin in the same timeline as Rey. If Rey was in it at all, she’d probably be an old woman. Having him re-emerge in the future would be better because no one is looking for him by that time.
7. A clone. This is also a good avenue for resurrecting him. It would stand to reason, if Snoke/Palpatine wanted, it would be very easy to obtain blood and tissue samples from Ben. So who is to say that out there somewhere is a cloning facility attempting to recreate his powerful Force abilities. (a) Hold that thought…why didn’t Palpatine clone Ben, and used the clone to park his psychic energy into? With the real Ben Solo and Rey, there is always the possibility that they would not be cooperative. So, whoops, plot hole.
8. There really is an archive kept by LucasFilm about all the characters and back stories. Why JJ Abrams never thought to look there for inspiration is beyond me. Rian Johnson too. *shakes head*
9. Ben’s Force Ghost. Remember, that when a Jedi dies, they become more powerful. Ben is already off the charts, so I think it is possible that once he learns how to Force Ghost (because you know Leia will tell him) he could visit Rey any time he wants to. He could even appear human with no blue glow. He could help Rey with her Jedi academy. He could still be her teacher since he was a Jedi. He needs to work through his issues and atone for his actions in life. He and Rey are interconnected in ways that only the Force knows how powerful they are together. Maybe he can’t move on and truly be one with the Force until he’s made a sincere effort to correct his mistakes. I think death won’t stop him at all. I also think that this scenario works because maybe there is an extragalactic threat from beyond Chiss territory that will threaten the galaxy. Several authors have already suggested extragalactic threats. (The Mother, Grysatx (I think, it started with a G but I don’t remember exactly) and the Yuzon-Vong)

I’d read that. I think an animated series would work just fine for it too. As much as I would like to see Adam Driver reprise the role, I am not sure Disney can talk him into it. Although, they did get Natalie Portman to return to the MCU so,,,

With the Force, nothing is impossible.

Peace, love, and guacamole, y’all.

What I’m Reading

Or re-reading as the case may be. I’m reading a lot of Reylo fanfiction. #bensololives Been doing that for quite a while. I am also re-reading Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire. I remember reading about Thrawn a long time ago, and I have these books in hard cover somewhere, probably in storage.

What I thought I would do is write chapter breakdowns and discuss some of the Star Wars lore. I’m also going to review some books that are science fiction classics…that you probably never heard of. In general, I don’t plan to edit these posts much. I’m just going to write what I think and get on with it, because I have learned through that lovely dissertation process that you can peck something to death and never progress forward.

Anyway, the first chapter of Heir to the Empire establishes that Thrawn is a military genius. He can determine the best way to conquer an enemy is to understand the culture of the enemy through their art. I don’t know if that is a characterization of Thrawn in the Clone Wars series stuff or not because I have only read the synopsis of the episodes. I’ve not watched the series. In the book, he demonstrates to his Captain that he understands the commander of the opposing forces, and knows a way to utterly destroy him. Which he does much to the surprise of the Captain. The leftover Imperials are stealing data dumps in which to find the world named Wayland. If I remember right, Wayland is a world in the Outer Reaches/Unknown Region of space that is a stronghold for Palpatine’s personal collection of artifacts. In terms of historical events, I would compare it to the allies in WW2 searching for Hitler’s various bunkers to find priceless works of art he’d stolen from their Jewish owners.

I’m going to switch gears here, for just a moment, and talk about Frank Herbert’s massive Dune series. I know they’ve finished filming a third adaptation of it, starring Timothy Chalmet and Oscar Issacs as Duke Leto Atreides. The problem I had with the way it has been portrayed so far is that the trailer is a shot for shot identical video of the David Lynch version of Dune. Why David Lynch took Dune on, I will never understand because he has said he doesn’t like Science Fiction. (I also don’t understand Chris Chibnall showrunning Dr. Who either since it is clear he’s not a sf fan either.) What I also don’t understand are YouTube channel people, who are otherwise literate and fun in their Star Wars commentary, referring to Dune as having a lot of “woo woo stuff”. Dune is heavy on theological commentary gained from Herbert’s extensive knowledge of Muslim culture and that is inclusive of the traditional treatment of women. I would argue that women have a great deal of power in Dune, but that is an argument for another post. The “woo woo” stuff is Herbert calling something by a name that the culture of the characters in Dune would have called the phenomena. Take for a moment, the Bene Tleilax. In Dune parlance, anything that starts with Bene means “good”, so in theory, the Tleilaxu Face Dancers are nominal allies. However, they are not, 90% of the time. They have the shape changer abilities of a chimera and make excellent spies. The use of the term Bene means the race has been familiar to humanity for a very long time, and probably formed around the same time as the Bene Gesserit witches. In a lot of his stories in the Dune canon, Herbert uses historical references such as the crusades to model his conflicts. George R.R. Martin (who is a Frank Herbert fan) does much the same with his world building. So, to call this elaborate and intricate world building, “woo woo stuff” makes my head ache.

Okay. Enough for now. Peace, love, guacamole!