Star Wars is celebrating its 44th birthday in a week and it is a good time to reflect on the deeper messages it shared with fans. Its core themes of good vs evil, of wisdom over ignorance, and of empathy over apathy are as relevant to today’s society as they were in the late Seventies. The Star Wars Saga is primarily about the Skywalker family and their impact on the galaxy at large. Specifically, the message from the Original Trilogy and the Disney Trilogy seems to be that though one can fall from grace, if one were to give up their selfish ego, or their life for another, they can be redeemed in the eyes of their family and society. It seems as if this was the case for Anakin Skywalker and Ben Solo. But could self-sacrifice alone redeem these two? Is that all it takes? Considering their heinous crimes, are Anakin and Ben Solo redeemable?
Children and adult fans worldwide are as familiar with Darth Vader as any cinematic villain ever conceived. Vader is the notorious all-black henchman of the Evil Emperor of the Galaxy. He is an enforcer, a fallen Jedi and to the surprise of all, the father of the Saga’s greatest hero. For the entire length of Star Wars’ cultural life, Darth Vader has been the antagonist of the movies, the games, the comics, and the animated series. His silhouette alone strikes a frightening presence, let alone the rhythm of his breathing apparatus. The same cannot necessarily be said for Kylo Ren, yet, or possibly ever. His presence in the Disney Trilogy was staggered, stunted and messy. Kylo did not have the same resonance in the films as Darth Vader had, even if he was Vader’s grandson, child of Leia and Han, and the acolyte of Snoke. Yet his actions as a Sith, like those of Vader’s, were no less evil.
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For those who are keeping score, as Sith, both Anakin Skywalker and Ben Solo committed terrible atrocities. Anakin slaughtered a village of Tusken Raiders with extreme prejudice and later committed mass infanticide. As a crony of the Empire, he hunted down and executed surviving Jedi. Likely too, he wantonly murdered innocent opponents of the regime. He attempted to kill his own son more than once.
For little Ben, after massacring a village of people in pursuit of BB-8 (including executing poor old Lor San Tekka), he committed patricide. His single-minded pursuit of power caused a great deal of havoc for the galaxy. His engagement with the First Order as a top commander makes him culpable for the mass murder of five entire planets full of people. Vader witnessed the annihilation of Alderaan. Kylo Ren celebrated the extinction of Hosnian Prime, Courtsilius, Raysho, Hosnian and Cardota at the barrel of Starkiller base. By these accounts, these two bask eyebrow deep in Sith death and destruction.
At the end of their stories, then, each is given a moment of assumed redemption. In Return of the Jedi Darth Vader saves Luke Skywalker by tossing Emperor Palpatine down the hole. In Rise of Skywalker, Kylo Ren gives Rey his entire lifeforce to bring her back from death, and then they share a kiss. One must wonder if this is how the Light side of the Force works? Certainly, it cannot be how the Galactic justice system works.
If they were put on trial, they would be convicted of multiple charges of war crimes and probably sentenced to execution – possibly sentenced to a harsh exile, but that is a merciful stretch. As for the Force, how could two men so thoroughly evil, with so much blood on their hands, essentially flip a switch and return to team white hat? If one were to tally their sins vs their acts of peace (or however it could be termed) the scales would be broken by the weight of their evil. They are clearly, unequivocally irredeemable.
Maybe then, redemption was never the gift at the ends of their lives? There is another meaning that can be extracted. For Anakin, killing the Emperor was never an act of redemption, it was simply to prove to his son Luke that he had not completely turned to the Dark side. Neither Luke nor Leia can forgive Anakin for his life, ever, but they can rest with the fact that Palpatine and the Sith doctrine failed to fully consume their father’s soul. As evil as Vader became, he could still come to some semblance of moral truth to recognize the horror that Palpatine and the Empire were doing and would do if it continued. So maybe there is hope for Luke and Leia, for the galaxy, and for the Light side of the Force to overcome the Dark side even at its highest peak of power.
To be honest, Kylo Ren’s story is a lot messier than Darth Vader’s in a couple of ways. For one, he only sacrificed himself to save Rey because he liked her. If it were Poe Dameron who got force electrocuted by Palpatine, Kylo Ren would probably laugh and shrug. There is no redemption in sacrificing himself for someone he likes. That is a self-serving act. For another, his sacrifice was because of the guilt he felt for his Mom (Princess Leia) who died a short time earlier.
For Ben Solo, then, maybe giving his life for Rey was a simple apology for killing his own father and his Jedi peers at Luke’s academy. There was no way he could continue living in the galaxy after all the terrible things he did with his life, so he might as well die for someone who wanted to make a positive difference to everyone else. At the end, he supported her to make a small recompense to everyone else he wronged.
Neither character is redeemed by the sacrifice of their lives for Luke and Rey. In small ways, however, these actions ended their journeys with a note of light, rather than a further commitment to evil. The message is that though someone may fall deep into the depths of whatever hell they think is worth killing for, light and truth will surface and win the day when it counts most. At least, this seems to be true in the Star Wars galaxy far, far away.