Star Wars: Who destroyed Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Academy?

The first issue of Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren released with the force of a sledgehammer, relaying new information on how Ben turned to Ren.

This week is a bit of Star Wars overload – in all the best ways. With the TV series and the movie, some other things might get lost of the shuffle. But the Charles Soule-penned comic should not be one of them.

The first issue of The Rise of Kylo Ren miniseries released on Wednesday featuring a look into Kylo Ren’s past as Ben Solo. It picks up at the moment right the new Jedi academy was on fire.

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We have been led to believe Ben destroyed Jedi temple at Luke Skywalker’s academy. It turns out Ben didn’t kill anyone that night that changed everything, the comic shows.

Luke wasn’t killed. The students were killed but not by the hands of Ben.

If not, Ben, then who?

It’s a little unclear who was actually the perpetrator. There are two things I see that could be possibilities.

The first is the Knights of Ren. The comic actually opens with a flashback to the Knights of Ren and with us meeting the ‘Ren’ in question. While it gets into who Ren is what his mission is, the scene also implies that they are looking for Force users in tune with the Dark Side of the power.

This section of the panel ends with Ren saying, “Let’s go find something to burn.”

The next panel is Ben Solo staring at the Jedi temple as it’s covered in flames.

It changes everything in how we viewed Kylo Ren up to this point. He was portrayed as cold-blooded monster with the killing beginning on that fateful night.

He wasn’t. He didn’t.

With the change of scenes from the Knights of Ren to the destruction of the temple, it makes it seem the Knights of Ren are responsible.

However, the thing that stands out is during the flashback of the temple exploding, lightning is surrounding it. It almost seems like it could be Force lightning raining down on the building. And we know what Force Lightning means.

It’s not surprising then that Ben seeks out Snoke rather than his mother. Snoke – and whoever is behind him – have been grooming and manipulating Ben up to this point. This is no different.

So who blew of the Jedi temple killing all the students?

Well, it wasn’t Ben Solo/Kylo Ren.

And that changes everything.

The Rise of Kylo Ren is in comic stores now.