Introduction
A few days ago, I was discussing with a friend the topic of whether or not Ben is abusive to Rey. My friend admitted to experiencing a moment of doubt when confronted by social media posts decrying him as an abuser and master manipulator, though after some reflection she remained firm in her compassion for his character. I experienced the same brief doubt when I, too, saw such posts; I defied them by writing Let Old Things Die. I suppose it was my way of demonstrating my viewpoint; an effort to show people that Ben might not be what he appears on the surface. Discussing the topic, and agreeing that the answer to the question of his abusive behavior is far more complicated than a simple yes or no, made both of us feel better.
I began to wonder how many other fans of the Ben Solo character have been shamed for giving him their support. How many others would appreciate knowing they’re not alone, and that there’s no shame in caring about someone who appears to be mean and heartless? How many others are afraid there’s something wrong with them, because they sympathize with a murderer? How many others don’t know how to explain why they care about him? I decided someone needed to explore this character and explain how he is so much more than any one term could define. Caring about Ben Solo as I do, fascinated by him as I am, I eagerly volunteered to take on the challenge.
Ben Solo: Villain or Antihero?
I want to establish this now: I firmly believe Ben isn’t a villain. He’s an antihero.
What’s an antihero? It’s a protagonist who does not possess, display, and/or value typical hero qualities, such as morality, courage, nobility, etc. Put more plainly, they’re good guys who behave like bad guys. I know that seems suspicious and counterintuitive; understanding antiheroes requires letting go of any preconceived, ingrained, and oversimplified notions of good versus evil.
They can be much more relatable than traditional heroes. Why? Well, I feel it’s because they tend to be more conflicted in their motivations and are easily misunderstood—and who hasn’t felt like that at some point in their life? But they don’t do themselves any favors. They typically come off as self-serving assholes to the nth degree, and they’re not going to tell you otherwise. In part, it’s their nature; and in part, it’s a defense mechanism they’ve developed to protect the weaker part of themselves, a vulnerable part they learned to suppress to survive in a harsh environment. They adapt and survive.
While classifying characters is completely subjective on the part of the classifier, my list of favorites includes: Severus Snape from Harry Potter; Spike from Buffy; Loki from the MCU; Deadpool of Marvel; Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean; any incarnation of Sherlock Holmes; Shrek; House from House; Scarlet O’Hara from Gone with the Wind; and Beatrix Kiddo from Kill Bill. They tend to be male characters—[insert sexist joke here]—but I figure that’s because woman are more subtle in their assholery.
Episode IX could prove me wrong—on this entire essay—but I have confidence in my opinion.
So confident am I that I respectfully, openly, and wholeheartedly disagree with He Who Shall Direct IX.
“…This is not just ‘the Force awakens’ in a young woman; this is the dark side of the Force awakening in the villain.” – J. J. Abrams, “Secrets of The Force Awakens – A Cinematic Journey”
Amazing. Every word in that sentence was wrong.
Disclaimers
1) The character of Ben Solo—the entire Star Wars universe, in fact—is subject to individual perception. All opinions are unique and 100 percent valid. In no way do I mean to claim that my viewpoint is, alone, the correct one.
2) I do not condone abusive relationships. I don’t encourage interacting with people who fail to show you the respect you deserve as a human being, period. I do, however, very much encourage not judging a book by the cover.
3) I am not a professional psychologist or anything of the like. My only training in psychology is a vaguely familiar Intro to Psych class during my freshman year in college. Ditto philosophy.
4) It’s been several years since I wrote a formal paper, so the formatting of my essay may not meet MLA or APA criteria. I guarantee my citations aren’t correctly formatted. Hopefully it’s semi-professional in quality. If it’s not, well, it’s a good thing this isn’t a professional paper.
5) Lastly, BEWARE SPOILERS! For the movies, the books—I’m pulling from everything I can get my hands on. I’m sure I’ll fail to consider everything, but I’ll do my best to be comprehensive.
Works Cited
“Secrets of The Force Awakens – A Cinematic Journey.” Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Dir. J. J. Abrams. 2015. Blu-ray. LucasFilm, 2016. (I wasn’t sure how to cite that; included as a bonus feature on the blu-ray, it’s a documentary about the making of TFA.)
PART I: Kylo Ren – An Origin Story
PART II
Feel free to share excerpts on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, etc.–just please be sure to credit me and link back to this site. 
Thanks, guys!
Thank you for this whole series of analyses and terrific fanfics! I, too, am a huge fan of Ben Solo, Narcissist. He is by far the most interesting character in the SW universe, multi-layered and multifaceted to an extent that we haven’t seen before. I particularly appreciate your “Parental Parallels,” as I’m toying with my own Ben Solo childhood fanfic and have found your thorough analysis (with citations!) quite useful. If you haven’t had a chance to see Psychology in Seattle’s “The Psychology of Kylo Ren” YouTube video, I highly recommend it. They do a good job of psychoanalyzing his behaviors based upon assumptions about his relationship with his family. https://youtu.be/xUXXup_GyRE (They also offer videos on Star Wars family trauma and a Reylo analysis. Great stuff!) I hope you keep the fanfics coming. Cheers!
Yay! I’m glad you found it useful! Thanks for the recommendations, I will definitely check them out. Good luck with the Ben childhood fics!
The Reylo video isn’t as interesting as the Kylo and Star Wars family ones. Those are fascinating.
:/ I started with listening to their TLJ review and stopped when–I think it was Humberto–said people who support a romance between Rey and Kylo Ren are mentally disabled. Just no. Out of curiosity and fairness, though, I listened to just about all of their Reylo episode–which was recorded long before TLJ was released–and while Dr. Honda *seemed* to be open to the idea, Humberto was not, and it was clear they were both dubious of not only the possibility of the pairing but the sanity of it. I understood their points, and if they’d simply agreed to disagree with Reylos, I would have been open to listening to more of their discussions, but my respect for their opinions–or at least Humberto’s–went out the window when he called me psycho. Just. No. The ironic thing is, they spent the first part of the Reylo episode talking about how inappropriate and unnecessary it was to bully Reylo shippers on social media. Really didn’t like that guy.
1:03:30 – Star Wars The Last Jedi Review – The Psychology in Seattle Podcast
Dr. Honda: “Well, okay, so, two things – one is the Reylo shippers could claim victory just based on Episode VIII because they could claim, ‘look, we were right, there was some kind of connection between these two people’–”
Humberto: “They meant romantic, and I disag–”
DrH: “And they could say that they interpret those scenes as having some romantic flame that started to spark that maybe got snuffed out later.”
Humberto: “But I would say that’s because of the same mental disability that led to them thinking that was the case in Episode VII!”
Humberto’s perspective on Ben is exactly the perspective I aimed to counter with this as-yet-unfinished character study. I’m not sure I want to listen to the Kylo Ren episode based on the opinions they’ve already shared; they clearly aren’t informed on the character now, much less a couple days after TFA was released. To them, he’s the villain, done deal. Thanks for recommending them, though, Monica. It’s always valuable to consider other opinions–until it’s the clear the other party considers yours invalid regardless of your argument. What did you think about their opinions?
Ah, that’s too bad about the TLJ review and Humberto’s attitude. I didn’t get a chance to listen to that video and I agree that it’s a surprisingly negative and narrow-minded view. I’m disappointed because Dr. H was open to the ship based on what he said in his Reylo video and, yes, because they were so adamant about the shippers not being bullied. (Guess I’ll use those three hours otherwise.)
I do think Honda’s assessment of Kylo’s psychology (in his Kylo Ren video) is interesting and more useful (as an author), likely because he’s coming at that from a more clinical/professional POV, rather than as a fan. (I get the feeling Humberto isn’t a SW fan, and it’s clear that he’s not a therapist.) There’s a focus on Ben’s narcissism and a conversation about sadism and psychopathy in that video.
The Star Wars Family video is also interesting as Dr. H focuses on multi-generational trauma, stretching from Shmi to Ben. (Also, Humberto isn’t in that video. There’s a female family counselor with Dr. H in that one. I can’t remember her name, unfortunately.)
While I was cleaning today I listened to the family trauma video and the psych of Kylo Ren, and you’re right, they were very interesting and not as off-putting. The family trauma one was fascinating–almost everything they said about Anakin could be applied to Ben. That’s the one I find invaluable as a writer. The Kylo Ren one had a few good points, but was generally outdated and not well-informed as far as character/story details; they could have answered a lot of their own questions just by glancing through the TFA visual dictionary. And if they were familiar with the TFA novel, they wouldn’t have thought for a second that Ben’s sadistic; unlike the movie, the book makes it clear that Ben doesn’t like hurting people, but his judgment is skewed and he’s narcissistic–which was one of the points they made in the video–so he does what he needs to to accomplish his goals. I don’t mean to sound snotty touting the books, I’m just saying that they didn’t exactly do their homework; they were just going off of the first and only time they had watched TFA at that point. Still, though, they presented excellent insights and I enjoyed listening to them.
I’m glad you enjoyed those videos. (You don’t sound snotty about the books, FYI, just passionate. Nothing wrong with that. LOL!)
I agree that there are strong parallels between Anakin and Ben; I’m curious to see if Ep.9 will heal the wounds opened by Anakin’s imbalance. I’m hopeful that a nobody from nowhere can finally teach a Skywalker what a healthy, loving relationship looks like.
I actually do think we see moments of sadism from Kylo (not Ben) in his treatment of Poe and Finn (even in him choking Lieutenant Mitaka), but I don’t think Ben is a sadist. I think he’s demonstrating learned behavior he picked up from Snoke. (Witness Snoke’s mistreatment of Hux in TLJ.) It’s also indicative of Ben’s narcissism; he’s prone to viewing people and their pain dismissively. It’s a trait, I don’t doubt, enhanced by Snoke’s mistreatment of him. (Certainly, it’s a trait we’ve seen in Han, albeit to a lesser extent.) Importantly, I don’t believe Ben’s behavior with his father is sadistic, though I know there’s an element of the fandom that would argue against me. Han’s openness and emotional generosity disarmed Ben; that was not the Han Solo he’d waited so long to confront. He’d expected (likely was told by Snoke to expect) to meet an indifferent, cold man who’d see him not as a lost son but as a lost cause, an enemy to be destroyed. Instead, Ben met a father who missed his son, told him he didn’t need to hide behind a mask, accepted his pain, and offered to do anything to help him escape his suffering. (The more I think about that scene, the more I love it.)
I’m waiting with itching fingers to get my hands on the TLJ novel. It’s scheduled to land on my doorstep tomorrow!