Waht is your opinion on Ben Solo
Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2020 11:34 pm
(sigh) You know, I get why so many people like Ben Solo for the little screen time he had in Rise of Skywalker. My sister, who Strongly dislikes The Disney Sequel Trilogy, really liked Ben for what little screen time he had. I, however, really don't care for him either way. Adam Driver gives a great performance and he's able to give us an idea of who Ben is and doing so with basically no real dialogue throughout the film which is a real testament to Driver's talents as an actor.
But here's my first issue with Ben, he's completely pointless to the Entire Film. No really, if you cut him out of the film almost nothing would change as he has no real impact on the plot or the characters. To show what I mean, let's go over everything Ben did the moment he decided to be good. He killed the Knights of Ren, got a bit of his life force sucked out by Palpatine, revived Rey and then he died. That's it!
And done of this is really that vital for him to be there. Killing the Knights of Ren, they are so irrelivent to the story that just about every review out there has barely mentioned them, if they're mentioned at all. Getting his life Force sucked out and thus reviving Palpatine, given how OP Rey is and given that the Dyad is barely mentioned in ROS Paplatine could have just sucked out Rey's life force along. And finally reviving Rey, Rey could have just been written to have survived the explosion that killed Palpatine via Force Shield or that her sudden ties to the Jedi gave her some extra protection.
Ben is completely pointless and I honestly wonder if Kylo was suppose to have died on the Ocean Planet given how little he ended up doing just to give Reylo shippers that kiss at the end. Which ended up just pissing them off given how he was killed and it was later revealed in the novels that the kiss wasn't romantic so even THAT was pointless.
Here's my other issue, over the course of this Trilogy we've learned NOTHING about Ben Solo. Let's take a look at Anakin in the Original Trilogy. Based on that Trilogy alone, we know that he was a skilled pilot, a powerful Jedi and most importantly a good friend before he was manipulated by the Dark Side.
By contrast, no one who knew Ben before his fall to the Dark Side ever talks about Ben. Han and Leia only talk about how he was manipulated by Snoke into falling to the dark side and Luke only ever talks about how he had already fell to the Dark Side or was at least tempted by the Dark Side on the night he went on a killing spree.
He might have been a good kid or he could have been an utter twat from day one as both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi don't delve into his backstory that much, if at all and what we do get conflicts with what the other film says. Han and Leia seem to imply that Ben was good and was simply tricked into fall to the Dark Side while Luke implies that he was never the best person to begin with. And the ROS comes around and... tells us nothing. No one who knew Ben before he became Kylo talks about him and for all of Disney's constant flashbacks this series NEVER Bothered to give us a Flashback to who Ben Solo was.
And then we get to finally meet Ben and from what little we see he seems to almost be a completely different character from Kylo Ren. Going back over to Vader, as many have pointed out, Anakin and Vader are, at their core, the same person. Both are selfish short tampered, very loyal to those they consider family, (note how much it took Anakin to truly turn on Obi-Wan, Padme and Ahsoka, and even Palpatine) both also work very similar in how they operate in combat, run head long into the problem and hit it until it DIES!!!
Kylo has no self control over himself, while Ben is so in control that he doesn't even speak when he's fighting. Kylo never goes into any situation unless he feels he can control the outcome and has no idea what to do when he loses control. Ben is a daredevil he literally throws himself into danger just to get a head start and only gets mildly annoyed when things go south. Kylo spends the entire Trilogy monologuing every chance he gets while Ben only ever says ONE Word During the Entire Trilogy (for anyone wondering that word was Ow).
Given this, and what little we get in the tie-ins, Kylo and Ben have NOTHING in common so we can't use Kylo to get into the mind set of Ben and since he only appears at the VERY End of the Trilogy we are given no real time to get to know him outside of action scenes and ROS is already over stuffed with action scenes.
Let's take another look at Anakin and Vader, in both A New Hope and The Phantom Menace both show they are not found of being belittled in anyway, shape or form. When one of the Imperial officers insults the Force, and by extension Vader, Vader responds by Force Chocking him to show him who really has the power. This lines up perfectly with Anakin in Phantom where Anakin's rivalry with Sebulba who spends most of his screen time belittling Anakin and Anakin insults him back at every encounter.
And yet, both are willing to take criticism. Again, only using Phantom and Hope, in the latter when another Imperial Officer outright criticizes Vader for just arresting Leia instead of threatening or chocking him Vader just explains why he's doing what he's doing in a rather calm manner. And in Phantom, when Padme is annoyed by the fact that Anakin has never even finished a race Anakin just smiles and assures her he will this time.
When Kylo is insulted he basically throws a tantrum and breaks everything within lightsaber range, when Ben is insulted... I don't know how he would react because we've never been shown how he acted before becoming Kylo Ren.
Again, Driver gives a great performance but a good performance does not a good character make.
But here's my first issue with Ben, he's completely pointless to the Entire Film. No really, if you cut him out of the film almost nothing would change as he has no real impact on the plot or the characters. To show what I mean, let's go over everything Ben did the moment he decided to be good. He killed the Knights of Ren, got a bit of his life force sucked out by Palpatine, revived Rey and then he died. That's it!
And done of this is really that vital for him to be there. Killing the Knights of Ren, they are so irrelivent to the story that just about every review out there has barely mentioned them, if they're mentioned at all. Getting his life Force sucked out and thus reviving Palpatine, given how OP Rey is and given that the Dyad is barely mentioned in ROS Paplatine could have just sucked out Rey's life force along. And finally reviving Rey, Rey could have just been written to have survived the explosion that killed Palpatine via Force Shield or that her sudden ties to the Jedi gave her some extra protection.
Ben is completely pointless and I honestly wonder if Kylo was suppose to have died on the Ocean Planet given how little he ended up doing just to give Reylo shippers that kiss at the end. Which ended up just pissing them off given how he was killed and it was later revealed in the novels that the kiss wasn't romantic so even THAT was pointless.
Here's my other issue, over the course of this Trilogy we've learned NOTHING about Ben Solo. Let's take a look at Anakin in the Original Trilogy. Based on that Trilogy alone, we know that he was a skilled pilot, a powerful Jedi and most importantly a good friend before he was manipulated by the Dark Side.
By contrast, no one who knew Ben before his fall to the Dark Side ever talks about Ben. Han and Leia only talk about how he was manipulated by Snoke into falling to the dark side and Luke only ever talks about how he had already fell to the Dark Side or was at least tempted by the Dark Side on the night he went on a killing spree.
He might have been a good kid or he could have been an utter twat from day one as both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi don't delve into his backstory that much, if at all and what we do get conflicts with what the other film says. Han and Leia seem to imply that Ben was good and was simply tricked into fall to the Dark Side while Luke implies that he was never the best person to begin with. And the ROS comes around and... tells us nothing. No one who knew Ben before he became Kylo talks about him and for all of Disney's constant flashbacks this series NEVER Bothered to give us a Flashback to who Ben Solo was.
And then we get to finally meet Ben and from what little we see he seems to almost be a completely different character from Kylo Ren. Going back over to Vader, as many have pointed out, Anakin and Vader are, at their core, the same person. Both are selfish short tampered, very loyal to those they consider family, (note how much it took Anakin to truly turn on Obi-Wan, Padme and Ahsoka, and even Palpatine) both also work very similar in how they operate in combat, run head long into the problem and hit it until it DIES!!!
Kylo has no self control over himself, while Ben is so in control that he doesn't even speak when he's fighting. Kylo never goes into any situation unless he feels he can control the outcome and has no idea what to do when he loses control. Ben is a daredevil he literally throws himself into danger just to get a head start and only gets mildly annoyed when things go south. Kylo spends the entire Trilogy monologuing every chance he gets while Ben only ever says ONE Word During the Entire Trilogy (for anyone wondering that word was Ow).
Given this, and what little we get in the tie-ins, Kylo and Ben have NOTHING in common so we can't use Kylo to get into the mind set of Ben and since he only appears at the VERY End of the Trilogy we are given no real time to get to know him outside of action scenes and ROS is already over stuffed with action scenes.
Let's take another look at Anakin and Vader, in both A New Hope and The Phantom Menace both show they are not found of being belittled in anyway, shape or form. When one of the Imperial officers insults the Force, and by extension Vader, Vader responds by Force Chocking him to show him who really has the power. This lines up perfectly with Anakin in Phantom where Anakin's rivalry with Sebulba who spends most of his screen time belittling Anakin and Anakin insults him back at every encounter.
And yet, both are willing to take criticism. Again, only using Phantom and Hope, in the latter when another Imperial Officer outright criticizes Vader for just arresting Leia instead of threatening or chocking him Vader just explains why he's doing what he's doing in a rather calm manner. And in Phantom, when Padme is annoyed by the fact that Anakin has never even finished a race Anakin just smiles and assures her he will this time.
When Kylo is insulted he basically throws a tantrum and breaks everything within lightsaber range, when Ben is insulted... I don't know how he would react because we've never been shown how he acted before becoming Kylo Ren.
Again, Driver gives a great performance but a good performance does not a good character make.