SPECULATION What if Kylo isn't speaking to Vader?

assuming Kylo Ren doesn't have a different relationship with Vader than we think. while i don't subscribe to the double-agent theory, we don't really know what goes on between him and Vader's ghost. or whether Ren has some other agenda that hasn't been fully revealed.

Snoke using the mask to control Ren sounds like an interesting possibility. i certainly keep questioning why, if Vader fell due to "sentiment", Ren would appeal to Vader for guidance of the Dark. if Anakin's ghost was really talking to him, he'd probably be saying: get yourself together and go. back. home.

given Ren's abilities with the Force, you'd think his connection to Vader through the mask should be legitimate, but he's so brainwashed by Snoke, this could well be part of his cognitive dissonance.

 

While Ventriloquist Snoke is interesting, I think Ben's dialogue with the mask works well by simply taking it at face value - that is, he's not really talking to it, and he knows it.

It's like when we talk to our dear departed when we visit their grave.
Sure, most of us don't do it out loud, but people do it out loud in the movies, and this is a movie.

If you want to take the scene more literally, though, the words "show me again the power of the darkside" could indicate that the mask is a hallucinogenic force-relic, like the lightsaber.

In this scenario, though, the mask is imbued not with Anakin's ghost, obviously, but with the power of the dark side. So maybe Ben's touched it before and seen visions of Vader kicking a$$? That would certainly constitute showing someone "the power of the darkside."

 

I just assumed he spoke to the helmet, knowing there would be no reply, but then meditated in his quarters. Who the helmet belonged to and what it represents then becomes a powerful totem to focus Kylo's thought. I'd compare it to altar tools for rituals/invocations in the same vein as theistic Satanism/Paganism practices.

 

What if... Kylo is talking to someone off camera... another big bad that Snoke is unaware of.

The master that encouraged Kylo to eliminate Snoke.

That's where I thought you were going with this. Maybe Kylo is a Sith apprentice looking to subvert the current status quo of dark force user supremacy.