The Fate of Ben Solo

He'll redeem himself in VIII. Luke will die by his side in IX

 

Yes to all!
My (absolutely speculative) theory (based on nothing but a hunch) for the moment is that in Rogue One we will see that together with stealing the plans for the Death Star Mads Mikkelsen's character (or somebody else) also downloads the Imperial maps (in ANH we see Leia putting the info into R2 sending him to Obi-Wan).
For reasons (still unknown) the Imperial maps about the jedi temples (and other places strong with the Force?) are incomplete at the time of TFA. Someone (for reasons unknown) has cut out the map part about the 1st Jedi Temple (which is the piece Tekka gives to Poe in TFA) and erased that part from the Empire's own archives...(Kylo tells Rey they have the rest of the Empire's maps but are missing a piece...That indicates he has looked. Also, that shows that he knows
Luke may have wanted to find it to protect it or study it? I think Kylo needs to find the 1st temple as well because of a reason connected with the Force and the balance. ..
Snoke, just seems to want to prevent Luke from returning and training new jedi...We have been told that Kylo may have "personal interests" that conflict with Snoke's orders as regards to the finding of the map...

In short. I think, the 1st Jedi Temple will be an important plot point in VIII and we will be told new information about the Force.

Also to add to my above timeline. I think it is highly possible before Ben was send to train with Luke (apart from influence by Snoke who probably spoke in Ben's head from a distance - we saw that happening with Rey at the end of her fight with Ren) and possibly also in person (ala Palpatine to Anakin), that Ben could have had "force nightmares" similar to what Anakin had and that he may have joined the Knights of Ren and the FO or chosen that path because he believed this path to prevent something he saw in the visions from happening?!

 

Who at the end will have the right arguments to convince Kylo, that "love is not a weakness". I would not be the best one for such a job..
"Ren, you bloody father killing mother betraying bastard wth do you think......." etc... would not be the best speech to trigger his redemptation

 

I don't think what looking for the 1st temple necessarily connects with Vader, but it must connect with the balance of the Force. Snoke is telling Kylo that he is a perfect specimen of someone who has equal parts of Light and Dark, maybe Kylo (in his delusion) is trying to find the source of the light and destroy it to stop being torn apart? To somehow stop the conflict altogether? Destroying one side brings the balance? (The mistakenly interpreted prophesy about the Chosen one was that destroying the Sith would bring balance...)
I know that the force nightmares was not fleshed out well in the PT about Anakin's main reason to turn to the Dark, but Force visions are an important way to see the future canonically (Yoda uses those too) and canonically they have determined what Luke did in the OT...For good or bad, precedent and canon is that Skywalkers and Force Sensitives do have visions and they are guided or misguided by them to make their choices...I think this will be further explored in these films...but of course, hopefully better and more convincingly than with Anakin's in PT...
With the fact that Rey had a Force vision in TFA which contained both past and future I think it is safe to speculate that force visions are to be considered...

 

I think Ben will witness the pain Snoke can cause and regret his actions... will be an interesting set up for IX. I think it all depends on how powerful Snoke is compared to Luke!

 

Perhaps it won't be something someone says to Kylo to convince him...I think he will witness things that will make him seriously reconsider what Snoke taught him to believe about the only mistake in the otherwise exemplary life of Vader - sentiment - and indeed it will be sentiment that will make Kylo/Ben Solo start to rethink how he has to act...Most probably it will be a moment like Vader and Luke had where Kylo has to hurt or see being hurt someone he loves - his mother, Luke, Rey?
Personally I would like to see him waver a bit in VIII (so that the audience who has still not realised there is hope for him) sees it as well, and then in IX this will be developed...
I personally imagine the following: in VIII Kylo does something that is surprising - refuses to hurt/kill someone out of compassion. Also it is revealed that he has not been entirely evil and that his reasons for joining the FO have some excusable logic even if it was misguided. This information will also give pause to the "good guys", especially Rey and/or Luke and they will try to bring him back instead of treating him like an enemy. In IX he will essentially turn and join them at the end defeating Snoke and the FO. He in grey clothes (and maybe someone else with him) walk towards the sunset/sunrise or fly away together towards undisclosed new horizons in the Falcon Cue John Williams' end credits music.

 

ah, the optimistic future of Ben Solo at the end of IX...

well, his companion could be in lighter grey or beige...

I'll be more than just very happy with this:



And if Luke is to survive I also want this:



The perfect end scene for me is Ben in the pilot seat and Rey in the co-pilot in the Falcon, they silently look at each other, Rey gives him a knowing nod and a little smile, maybe a reassuring squeeze of the hand, and they are flying into the horizon with Luke and Leia on the ground together with R2 silently looking on the Falcon leaving.
Very subtly optimistic and no ewok parties. Cue the John Williams music and end credits.

That's basically my headcanon about the end of IX.

I really want Ben to take over the Falcon and thus symbolically showing us that he has gone back to the fact that he is Han Solo's son and that he has accepted and embraced it...That's why the cut Falcon scene should have stayed in the TFA. I needed it to illustrate the growth and change of Kylo Ren sitting in the Falcon and Ben Solo sitting there... Not to worry. They can still do it for the ending right?

 

Yep. definitely no ewoks, fireworks, silly jubilation of CGI-ed Coruscant and Naboo and such...

I like the Falcon scene for the end too much. Who do I have to speak to to make it canon?!

Love him in black too. It suits him. Maybe black and grey for the end then as a compromise?

Yep, the imagery works even if they are related, but we know they are not...

 

Ben as the pilot of the Falcon and Rey as the co-pilot? What about poor old Chewy? I hope he's at least going to get a medal or something out of this.

 

Redemption would be too cliched in my opinion .

 

Certainly not! We've only had one redemption so far. One. And at the end the redeemed character (Vader) died. The redemption of Ben Solo will be him not dying.

Definition of cliche : a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought. Thus:

"I've got a bad feeling about this"
"We've got company", etc.

are cliches.



The redemption of Han and Leia's son is certainly not a cliche, but is the saga's narrative necessity.

 

I think his redemption is a necessity too, for the arc begun for him in TFA. I'm really looking forward to how TPTB go about accomplishing it. IMO they will need to:

1. make the audience believe Kylo/Ben is redeemable, or that he deserves a second chance (how will they do this after he murdered Han Solo?)
2. make the audience believe Kylo/Ben is sincere and won't change his mind when he turns back to the Light (he's spectacularly unstable/unpredictable as he stands now)
3. give him some way to make believable amends for his crimes if he is going to live after his redemption

I've already been won over for #1 by Han's own forgiveness of Kylo/Ben, but there are many out there who aren't so easily swayed.

 

Proof that Ben Solo turned on his saber and not Han Solo:

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/new-details-on-hans-death-and-mazs-force-powers-213010183.html

.

 

Thanks for that link. I noticed the article also says this:

But while Frank Oz did come in to record some lines for The Force Awakens, Smirke says that the little green guy’s voice ended up being cut from the scene. . . . "We played around with things, with Yoda’s voice, we had Frank Oz come in and he recorded some lines that were very specific to our film, which we ultimately didn’t end up using.”​

There is a line that quotes Yoda's line "surrounds us..." during Rey's vision. (There's probably more to the quote, but that's all I heard.) So...who says that if it's not Yoda's voice?

 

Probably Obi-Wan Kenovie ...