“I’ve given everything I have to you… to the dark side”
So this discussion on Reddit caught my eye because well, it’s about Kylo Ren/Ben Solo and also because I never realised just how powerful this scene actually is until reading the post linked above.
While I’m not sure it’s the most heartbreaking (for me that would be the way Luke as a character was written in The Last Jedi), it’s certainly one that holds a lot more weight now that the comics that focus on Kylo Ren’s rise through the ranks of the First Order have been released.
We now know that Kylo Ren suffered copious amounts of abuse at Snoke’s side, abuse that helped to shape him into the evil person that he became when he was Kylo Ren.
I find the line that Adam Driver delivers in this scene interesting because we know that what he’s saying to Snoke is not entirely true. While he may have killed Han Solo, a man that he felt a lot of anger towards, he was still being tempted by the light, even as he kneeled before his master. It’s not by coincidence that he’s still brandishing the mask when facing Snoke’s scrutinisation. The mask does several things for Kylo in this scene, including hiding his true emotions from Snoke.
We also know that a powerful force user could easily disguise their true feelings and thoughts if they needed to. Or even disguise their entire presence as Yoda did while living on Dagobah. I don’t think Kylo Ren was at that point in his training where he could rely entirely on his power over the force to hide from Snoke what he needed to hide to stay alive. That means that Snoke may have been aware of Kylo’s deceit which is surprising given the way he died.
So that’s why I don’t find this scene particularly heartbreaking. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a powerful scene but it just doesn’t pull at my heart strings enough for me to call it “heart breaking”.
What do you think about this? How do you interpret this particular scene in The Last Jedi?
Let me know in the comments, friends 🙂
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