Kylo Ren Character Comparison (Tumblr Archive)

Kylo Ren has been compared to a lot of other Star Wars villains, but the one who I think he most resembles is…not Darth Vader.

I bring up Vader because he’s the most common character people draw comparisons to when discussing Kylo Ren. While they do both have some surface similarities in temperament, they’re actually otherwise quite dissimilar.

There is, however, a character whose EU arc greatly resembles that of Kylo’s, despite having, in certain respects, a very different temperament.

And that character is…not Jacen Solo.

That character is Palpatine.

My source for a lot of this is the Darth Plagueis novel, so I will reference that heavily in this post, but I will also reference the movies in which he features.

Let’s look at the similarities, starting at birth.

Palpatine is born to wealthy, politically influential nobility. House Palpatine is one of the great Houses of Naboo, supposedly tasked with keeping Chaos itself at bay.

Kylo Ren is born to a wealthy, politically influential Princess and Senator and a war hero general who were instrumental in destroying the Empire and helped to build the New Republic.

Palpatine encounters a powerful near-human Sith Lord who convinces him to murder his entire family.

Kylo encounters a powerful near-human Force sensitive who convinces him to murder family (his father and uncle).

Palpatine kills his father first.

Kylo kills his father first.

Neither Palpatine nor Kylo lose any limbs (as of Ep 8)

Palpatine kills Plagueis in his sleep.

Kylo kills Snoke shortly after he closes his eyes.

Palpatine uses emotional manipulation to turn the younger Anakin to the Dark Side.

Kylo uses emotional manipulation in his (unsuccessful) attempt to turn the younger Rey to the Dark Side.

Kylo keeps some less powerful Force sensitives called the Knights of Ren around.

Palpatine keeps some less powerful Force sensitives called the Inquisitors around.

Palpatine becomes Chancellor shortly after killing Plagueis, and later Emperor.

Kylo becomes Supreme Leader shortly after killing Snoke.

Palpatine is the main antagonist of the original trilogy.

Kylo Ren is the main antagonist of the sequel trilogy.

Palpatine has a confrontation with Luke Skywalker. Palpatine dies shortly afterward.

Kylo Ren has a confrontation with Luke Skywalker. Luke Skywalker dies shortly afterward.

Anyway, that’s just what I can think of that’s similar/has echoes between them. Obviously they’re not identical in every aspect, and I certainly think there are important differences between them, but the number of similarities is quite large. I mentioned this a while back in a conversation with sl_walker and a few others and just now got around to posting it.

Tumblr-tags: kylo ren, sheev palpatine, star wars, character similarities

Post archived from this Tumblr post.  Can't believe I finally found this thing!  I have been looking for it for ages but been unable to track it down because Tumblr search is garbage and it wasn't coming up when I searched 'kylo ren' on my blog.