The story of Star Wars takes place “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” where Jedi Knights master the Force, a mysterious energy that binds all living things together. The most recent movies – The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker — follow Rey, a desert scavenger on the planet Jakku, and Finn, an ex-stormtrooper. Together, they join Han Solo, a legendary smuggler and freedom fighter, and Chewbacca, a Wookie warrior, to restore peace to the galaxy. And when Rey finds a BB-8 droid that knows the whereabouts of the long-lost Luke Skywalker, she must, along with her comrades, search for him in the hopes of swaying the battle in the direction of the Resistance against the legions of the First Order.
The plotlines of the three aforementioned movies take place 30 years after the original films of the 1970s-1980s, when the Resistance defeated the Empire. However, the First Order, another formidable foe, has risen from the ashes of the Empire and threatens the galaxy. A particularly sinister individual of the First Order is Kylo Ren.
Kylo Ren, originally Ben Solo, is a force-sensitive Sith who fell to the Dark Side and eventually became the Supreme Leader of the First Order. Although his parents were considered great heroes of the Alliance, the events in his early life led him to master the Force in such a way that is evil and dark. With a potential for limitless power, he became a force to be reckoned with and caused mayhem and destruction across the galaxy. With the propensity to throw temper tantrums in an angsty teenage-like style, he is one of the main antagonists in the recent Star Wars sequels. With his signature red lightsaber, Kylo Ren was one of the most talented and skilled with the Force, and a master swordsman. In combat, he typically utilized his lightsaber in the standard grip form, but was also proficient in the unorthodox reverse grip.
In the tradition of the Jedi Order, Kylo Ren constructed his lightsaber while he was still going by the moniker Ben Solo. However, he repurposed the kyber crystal, the heart of the lightsaber, and the hilt when transitioning to the Dark Side. First, he used the Dark Side to bleed the crystal when it then cracked in his grip with a surge of energy. It then transitioned from blue to red, and he was able to channel dangerous amounts of power through the broken crystal. He then added vents on either side to divert the excess heat and produced quillion blades, the crossguard that helps keep your hand or fingers from moving off the grip and onto the blade. Even with these adaptations, the kyber crystal could barely contain the lightsaber’s power, and the broken crystal gave the blade an unstable, fiery, and flickering appearance. Despite its crude appearance and the fact that it was constructed by his inexperienced hand, Ren preferred the volatile nature and chose not to repair it.
With this unforgiving, forbidding weapon, Kylo Ren followed in the footsteps of Darth Vader in his undertaking of the destruction of the Jedi Order and the Resistance.