Over the nearly five decades of Star Wars, the franchise has grown much bigger than many of its early fans and creators ever anticipated. There are so many Star Wars characters to meet and explore that even the most extensive encyclopedias can barely include them all.
With this kind of expansive universe comes a real danger: that some characters' motives and true purposes in various stories become assumed rather than explained. The most misunderstood Star Wars characters, however, also happen to be the most interesting to analyze.
1. Rey Skywalker
Rey Skywalker -- known as simply "Rey" for most of the sequel trilogy films -- is a complicated, deeply layered, and flawed hero. She has significant amounts of power that she often unintentionally misuses. She is stubborn and used to doing things her own way. She rejects her destiny as a hero until the very last minute. In the end, she literally buries the past and looks forward to a new, brighter future.
Many people misunderstand her character and her final moments in the sequel trilogy. She takes on the Skywalker name and, presumably, commits to guarding the legacy of her chosen family in the desert. It's highly unlikely she ever intended to stay on Tatooine, though; this is just an assumption. And her choosing her lineage isn't a means of escaping where she came from. Rather, it's an active choice not to allow history to repeat itself on her watch.
2. Bo-Katan Kryze
The Mandalorian warrior and former Death Watch member Bo-Katan Kryze is not the villain many assume her to be. In her youth, she chose to deviate from her family's wishes and choose the side that opposed her sister's government. The defining trait of Bo-Katan, however, is that she always learns from her mistakes.
Later on in her life, we see Bo-Katan atone for her past. She displays honorable leadership when the Night of a Thousand Tears ends with her pleading that the Empire spare her people -- even though it doesn't. She later joins Din Djarin in the fight to take Mandalore back, and sees the legendary Darksaber destroyed in the process. She may have once done unspeakable things, but her character growth is a highly realistic display of how action can inspire forgiveness.
3. Ben Solo / Kylo Ren
The son of Leia Organa and Han Solo -- and the grandson of Darth Vader -- remains one of the most misunderstood characters of the sequel trilogy. He is often perceived as weak, whiny, and a waste of potential -- especially in The Rise of Skywalker, when he becomes the catalyst to Rey's galaxy-saving efforts.
Ben Solo, however, is a wondrous example of what his grandfather could have been. Though he did not have much screen time to atone for his wrongs, he had the privilege of participating in the final battle against Palpatine and bringing Rey back from the dead. He was never a symbol of weakness or an inferior copy of his lineage. Instead, he was simply a victim of the same evil that had plagued the galaxy once before. In the end, he rose above it and became a hero.
4. Jar Jar Binks
Star Wars fans have notoriously treated the Gungan Jar Jar Binks quite poorly in the decades since his franchise debut. The character originally got so much hate that it bled into mistreatment of the actor who portrayed him, Ahmed Best, who later admitted that such backlash almost led him to end his own life.
It wasn't until Jar Jar's appearance in Chuck Wendig's Star Wars: Aftermath book trilogy that the character's impact on the galaxy and the Skywalker Saga was truly understood. In the book, Wendig shows Jar Jar's guilt over believing he caused the Clone Wars and the fall of the Republic, and how it led him to exile. It wasn't his fault at all, though; the galaxy was simply looking for someone to blame for the Empire's rise.
5. Ahsoka Tano
When Ahsoka Tano first entered Star Wars canon in 2008 -- courtesy of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie -- her character was not well-received. To this day, many find her early appearances in the movie and subsequent show annoying and unimportant. Ahsoka, however, is one of the most significant and essential characters in Star Wars.
The Clone Wars series and the ongoing war it depicted was a coming-of-age journey for Ahsoka. She started out as a 14-year-old Padawan learner forced into the field before she was fully trained due to the conflict between the Republic and Separatists. She not only matured as the series progressed; she also became an admirable symbol of what the Jedi were always supposed to be, rather than what the war turned them into.
More from Dork Side of the Force: