Star Wars: The moment Ben Solo turns to Kylo Ren is revealed

We finally got the full backstory in how Ben Solo turned to Kylo Ren. It’s sad and heartbreaking, the way we expect a good Star Wars story to be.

Knowing Ben Solo turned into the killing machine that is Kylo Ren is devastating. As Star Wars fans, we fell in love with his parents. Leia and Han were couple goals, the love story we enjoyed in the background while the Rebels fought to rid the galaxy of the Empire.

The Rise of Kylo Ren four-part miniseries showed that fall. How a person with Leia’s bloodline could turn into such a cruel and maniacal person was hard to fathom. Sure, he turned in the end to save Rey, but you can’t dismiss the years of bloodshed.

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The final installment of the comic miniseries came out this week and showed a few telling moments, including the one that solidified Ben’s footing toward the Dark Side.

Up until that moment, Ben had a choice. He could have walked away and the pain he caused would have been nothing compared to what came years later. Instead, he allowed the Dark Side to consume him when he killed someone he knew and doing it with purpose.

In a fight with Ren – the leader of the Knights of Ren all those years ago – Ben took him down. He channeled all his anger, his frustrations from two sides pulling him in opposite directions to defeat someone who was probably a better fighter at the time.

Yet, this isn’t what turned Ben, in my opinion. While he certainly struck Ren down in anger, Ren was also an awful person who put Ben in situations he wasn’t comfortable with. Ben looked for non-violent solutions. Ren hungered for death.

Even when Ben killed Ren, there was still a moment where he could have walked away from the Dark Side, from all of it.

Instead, Ben went to his former classmate and while she sat helpless on the ground and plunged a lightsaber through her chest.

That was the moment.

It was not a good kill. It was sad and pathetic. He killed a person who fought for good for no other reason than he allowed the hate to consume him. Ben took her life because he felt as though his own was gone. She was a reminder in that moment of what he could have been.

Instead, he became a murderer, doing the thing he was accused of although he hadn’t up until that point.

That’s when Ben Solo turned to Kylo Ren – and the galaxy was sadder for it.

If you want to see the full panel, you can check it out here on Reddit.

The Rise of Kylo Ren comic miniseries is well worth the read. Pick it up at your local comic shop.