Kylo Ren / Ben Solo

Kylo Ren shows up on Jakku leading a massacre in a village and killing Lor San Tekka, who held part of the map to Luke. He captures pilot Poe Dameron and pulls information out of his head with the Force. When the droid BB-8 escapes with the map, he goes after it.

When he captures the scavenger Rey, he tries to read her mind and gets a surprise: she pushes back and sees his fear of never being as strong as Vader. The mask comes off and reveals a young man. Kylo is Ben Solo, son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, and Luke's former student.

Away from the troops, Kylo talks to Darth Vader's melted helmet and promises to finish what his grandfather started. He admits he feels the pull to the light and fears he can't resist it. In the chain of command, he competes with General Hux for Snoke's attention, and Snoke makes no secret to either of them that he considers Kylo's training unfinished. The saber he carries, with an unstable red blade and side vents of energy, matches his temper: when he's crossed, Kylo slashes entire control panels to pieces.

Han goes to Starkiller Base to bring his son home. On the walkway over the chasm, Kylo seems to give in, but he ignites his saber and runs his father through, thinking it would end the doubt inside him. Chewbacca wounds him with his bowcaster. Still bleeding, he duels Finn and Rey in the snow, loses to her and is left with a scar across his face.

Ben's past comes out in two versions. In Luke's, he sensed the darkness in his nephew and ignited his saber for an instant before regretting it. In Ben's, he woke up to his uncle standing over him with the blade drawn. Both agree on the outcome: Ben brought down the temple and left to join Snoke.

Humiliated by Snoke, Kylo smashes his own mask. Attacking the Resistance ship, he can't pull the trigger on his mother. A Force connection starts to link him to Rey, and their conversations build a strange intimacy.

When Rey is brought to the throne room, Kylo uses the Force to turn Luke's saber, which was sitting beside his master, and cuts Snoke in half, and the two fight the Praetorian Guard together. Then he asks Rey to rule the galaxy with him, she refuses, and Kylo takes over as Supreme Leader. On Crait, he spends all his fury on a Luke who wasn't there: it was just a projection.

In one of the connections, Rey and Kylo touch hands through the Force, and she has a vision that there's still a way back for him. Kylo, in turn, sees her future at his side. Both walk away convinced they'll turn the other, and both are wrong.

Kylo follows clues to Exegol and finds Palpatine alive. The Emperor admits he created Snoke and that he was the voice Kylo had heard in his head his whole life. He offers an empire in exchange for Rey's death. Kylo reforges the mask, hunts Rey and, face to face aboard his Star Destroyer, the Steadfast, tells her she's Palpatine's granddaughter.

In the wreckage of the Death Star, on Kef Bir, the two duel. Leia calls out to her son through the Force and dies from the effort. Distracted, Kylo is run through by Rey's saber, and she then heals him. Alone, he talks to the memory of Han, throws his saber into the sea and becomes Ben Solo again.

Unarmed, Ben goes to Exegol, receives Luke's saber from Rey and takes down the Knights of Ren. Palpatine drains the pair's life to make himself stronger and throws Ben into a chasm. He climbs back, finds Rey dead after her victory over the Emperor and gives her the energy he has left. Rey wakes up, the two kiss and Ben vanishes into the Force.

Marvel's comic miniseries The Rise of Kylo Ren tells how Ben left Luke's temple and joined the Knights of Ren, who until then were led by Ren.