Star Wars Sequels: Rey should’ve been the villain, not Kylo Ren

The Star Wars sequels have gotten a mixed reaction since their release. Would it have been better if Rey had been the villain and not Kylo Ren?

The Star Wars sequels have been complete for nearly a year now. There has been plenty of debate about these films, with some fans loving them and others very much on the opposite side of the spectrum.

While the films definitely have their positives and negatives, would a simple reversal of the main protagonist and antagonist have made this trilogy better? If Ben Solo was the hero the entire trilogy, and Rey the villain, would fans have embraced this set of sequels more than they do now?

Let’s take a look at how things would’ve been different for these films if Rey was the villain. Here are some reasons why that decision could’ve made the entire trilogy better.

Reasons Rey should’ve been the villain: Unique and original story

If the roles were reversed and Ben Solo was the hero and Rey the villain, the story of the sequel trilogy would’ve been far more unique and original. We’ve already seen a member of the Skywalker clan fall to the Dark Side, and seeing Ben Solo basically be Vader 2.0 wasn’t exactly inspired creative thinking.

The basic outline wouldn’t have had to change too much. Perhaps it is Ben who is initially captured by the First Order and crashes on Jakku during his escape. He meets Rey who happens to have his droid and as they try to return to the Resistance, Ben realizes she is strong with the Force. So not only does he want to return to the Resistance, he wants to bring her to Luke Skywalker to train to be a Jedi.

Perhaps during their adventure back, Rey acts through anger at times. She still won’t know who she is, but gradually shows signs of being Force-sensitive and uses her anger to access her powers.

At the end of the first film, we see her kill some evil force user through anger, taking another step further to becoming a Sith. During the second film, she could find out that she is the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine and that could be enough to push her fully to the dark side, and she becomes the leader of the First Order and has a goal to bring the Emperor back to life.

In the third and final film, she succeeds in bringing Palpatine to life and attempts to run the galaxy with him by her side. In the end, she is saved by Ben and gives her life to save his or lives on to start a family with her newfound love. This would be a story of redemption and the twist would be that it was a Skywalker who saved a Palpatine from falling to the dark side.

This version of the story would’ve been unique. We would’ve gotten our first female villain in the Star Wars films, and it also would’ve been a slow build-up to the resurrection of the Emperor rather than a rush job like we saw in The Rise of Skywalker.