I actually rather dislike Kylo Ren as a character, but I think it was fortuitous that I found my post about him and Sheev on the same day the final TROS trailer dropped. It may seem strange for someone to say a character they dislike is similar to one of their favorites, but I certainly don't enjoy Palpatine because I think he's a good guy, and I certainly don't dislike Kylo for merely being a villain. There's a very significant amount of arbitary aesthetics involved in getting me to like a character, and Kylo just doesn't really check those boxes for me whereas Palpatine very definitively does.
I'm really excited by their actual juxtaposition in this film, though, which is something I never dreamed would happen when I wrote that post over a year ago. I'm not sure if the film will actually highlight the similarity of the two characters, but there's certainly an incredible opportunity for it being presented here. I mean, I just really want to see these two characters interact or be compared in some way.
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 ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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.
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