Ben Solo | Kylo Ren

Name: Wei
Over 18? Yes
Contact: zeroq1, discord at nobody#7007, or PM
Current Character: N/A


Name: Ben Solo (original name), Kylo Ren (current alias)
Canon: Star Wars
Canon Point: Early in The Rise of Skywalker
Age: 30

Heba or Tian? Heba. I think the general yang nature of it suits him as he’s aggressive and blunt in how he handles things, but also I want to play with him being effectively powerless here. He’s used to having extensive abilities with the Force and he relies heavily on his senses from it, so I want to see how he handles having that stripped away without having a new magic system to learn how to use in its place.
Acquired Ability: Dormant for now. I’ll get back to you at some point, but again, I want to drive him a little nuts with this first.

History: Wiki
Canon Abilities/Skills: Wiki
Suitability: Tethering is a draw for me, being similar in some ways to his tie with Rey in canon, but requiring voluntary trust (which he generally does not have for people) to get there. So is being part of a war that's entirely different from the one he's used to.
Inventory: His dramatic black clothes, helmet that's been glued back together, and light saber


Aggressive - Really, he might actually hurt you for looking at him wrong, depending on the day. Though he's more likely to just intimidate unless he sees a reason for direct violence.
Reckless - Has been known to make very bad impulse decisions when his emotions get the better of him.
Conflicted - Sort of positive and negative. He's always been in a constant struggle between what he is and what he thinks he should be, no matter which direction that "should" is facing.
Dedicated - Again, good and bad, depending on what he's decided to be dedicated to. He latches onto the above "should" real hard.
Honest - He says what he thinks he means. If it ever sounds manipulative, it is probably because he has somehow convinced himself to the bottom of his heart that it is true, even if it is objectively very wrong.
Intelligent - Common sense notwithstanding, it is implied that he has thrown himself into studying the Force and would be knowledgeable enough to make good on his offer to teach Rey. He's also been surviving for a year in the role of Supreme Leader after not having originally planned to be in that position, so that says something.



What are your character's feelings on freedom? How would they define freedom? How important is it to them? Would they fight for it, or have they fought for it in the past? If they have, how did they go about it?

Kylo's feelings about freedom are primarily personal. Having taken on the role of Supreme Leader, it's obvious that the freedom of the galaxy at large isn't something of concern to him. But his desire to take all the power he has access to is, in fact, a quest for personal freedom. His young life was filled with the expectation to live up to his parents' heroic legacies. Then he was expected to be a perfect Jedi, all while Snoke was whispering into his mind and pointing out all the ways that didn't really suit him. His shift to the Dark Side and focus on honing his strength was a way of breaking free of that. Killing Snoke and taking his place as Supreme Leader was his way of breaking free of Snoke's influence. The problem is that none of this truly makes him happy, nor gives him the freedom he desires. At any given time, he knows what he doesn't want, but not what he does, and so he ends up just repeatedly trading one box for another.

Describe a formative moment in your character's life, something that changed them and defined who they are as a person.

The biggest formative moment in his life was waking up to his uncle standing over him with a lightsaber at the ready. Luke never truly intended to kill him, but he had looked into Ben and seen enough darkness to prompt him to react, and all Ben saw was the threat. This was the incident that prompted him to turn to the Dark Side, and also what solidified his black and white thinking about the subject, leading to much of his internal conflict. There is a large part of him that remains more compassionate and moral than his present persona would suggest, but he squashes it down as much as possible because this experience taught him that he will not be accepted as "good" even if he tries.

Does your character have a favorite person? If so, how would they describe that person? What do they like about that person? What do they dislike? If they don't have a favorite person, what would they look for in a favorite person? What traits would draw them to another person? What traits could they tolerate that others might not be able to?

Rey is the one person in the galaxy he views as an equal. Her powers match his, and when he searched through her memories, he immediately found things that resonated with him. What he sees in her is someone capable of understanding and accepting him in all his complexity, and that's all he's ever really wanted. His frustration with her comes from her rejection of him. Objectively, the truth of him that she sees and likes is largely the part of himself that he's trying to deny. From his perspective, she refuses to understand him as he is and puts the Resistance as priority over him just like his parents did. As of this canon point, a part of him still longs for her in his life, but he's immensely hurt by her refusal to fully accept his (warped) perspective.

What has your character's arc been like so far? How have they developed from their first appearance to their canon point?

At the first appearance, Kylo was already mired in the dark and serving Snoke. The biggest changes come from his killing his father, bonding with Rey, and proceeding to assert more of his own will versus submitting to Snoke's control. His father's death had more of an effect on him than he would like to admit. He would still claim it was necessary, that he did it by his own choice for his own development in the Dark, but in truth, he deeply regrets it and it haunts him. This makes him both more certain that he can never return to the Light, but also less certain that he truly belongs in the Dark. Right at this canon point, he's sort of doubling down on being the violent Supreme Leader to avoid admitting to that doubt, but he's also on the precipice of getting to a breaking point and giving up on that persona.

How would you like to continue your character's arc in the game? How would you like them to develop? What would you like to have them accomplish?

I feel like at the canon point I'm taking him from, he has the potential to go a lot of different directions, so I'm interested in what happens when he's stripped of powers and entirely separated from the war that forms so much of his current world view. I've plotted a bit with the Rey player regarding things their relationship specifically, but otherwise I just want to see what CR happens when everyone else he meets is generally on his same side of this conflict and he's not expected to be in charge of anything.


TDM: 1 2
PSL: Link

August 2020
TDM - Toplevel: Arha, Loki | Rey
Log - Elena meets an upset Ben
Event - Rey

October 2020
Network - Wei Wuxian about charms
Event - Toplevel (Casper, Rey, Diana | Otoha

APPLICATION
OOC
Name: Wei
Age: 33
Contact: plurk: zeroq1, discord: nobody#7007
Character(s) Played: n/a

IC
Name: Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren
Canon: Star Wars
Canon Point: Just after The Last Jedi
Age: 30
Appearance: Picture
Abilities: Kylo is a Force user and a strong one, which gives him a wide range of telekinetic and telepathic abilities. A reasonably complete but probably non-exhaustive list:
-move objects by will alone, including doing things like stopping a bullet in midair or changing the course of a small spaceship
-pick up on the emotions or surface level thoughts of people he's near
-dig into their mind to pull out whatever deeper thoughts he wants to find
-plant suggestions in other people's minds
-he's shown being able to heal people by giving up some of his own energy, but I don't think he knows he can do that as of when I'm taking him from
-has visions occasionally of the past or future, but that's neither predictable nor necessarily clear
-a really strong psychic bond with Rey specifically that lets them see each other across distances and eventually hand off objects to each other
-I'm probably forgetting something, but basically he is really strong and perceptive but he's not always smart about it so it absolutely doesn't make him invincible, if someone/something can get around his defenses or he's just having a really bad day.

Personality:
The most important thing to know about Kylo Ren is the exact thing he would most hesitate to tell you: he was once Ben Solo, the son of two heroes who had previously fought against the Empire. His young life was filled with a lot of crushing expectations, not enough attention from his busy parents, and too much attention from Snoke, who groomed him toward the Dark Side starting before he was even born. He's spent most of his life feeling alone, unappreciated, and angry.

As a Jedi student, he was talented and studious. He absorbed his uncle's teachings more easily than the other students and was invested enough in the philosophy to have taken hand-written notes (in a galaxy that barely uses paper). His reckless side showed--he didn't like how Luke kept most artefacts and more potentially dangerous teachings under lock and key--and he had moments of letting his underlying anger surface, but he embraced the Jedi value of compassion.

After Luke betrayed him, he felt as if he no longer had a place in the light, and that darkness was the only path available to him. With nowhere else he felt he could turn, he went to Snoke to learn the ways of the Dark Side. He learned that his grandfather, Anakin Skywalker, had actually been Darth Vader, one of the leaders of the former Empire and a powerful Dark Side user, and he vowed from then on to follow in his grandfather's footsteps. He cut himself off from his compassion, becoming someone who would have no problem ordering the death of a small village full of innocents. The Ben Solo of the past was no more and Kylo Ren had risen as something completely different.

Of course, things are never so simple. At the canon point I'm taking him from, Kylo is incredibly conflicted. He wants to escape the past he left behind, going so far as killing his father to prove he was fully dark once and for all, but he can't. Every attempt he makes to move on from his past actually speaks to being so obsessed with past hurts that he'll never be able to let go of them. And through it all, his lighter side is far from dead. The conscience he shoved down sits in the back of his mind, reacting to every terrible thing he does with a gnawing guilt that won't go away--but the more he does, the more convinced he is that he can't ever go back. His experiences have taught him that he's never good enough and that he's not deserving of anyone's love or positive attention. He's decided for himself that he's irredeemable.

And yet, he's intensely attached to Rey precisely because she acknowledges him as something more than the monster he's made himself out to be. Given a split-second moment to choose between the lives of Snoke and Rey, he chooses Rey without hesitation. They fight, often with swords, but it's pretty clear that actually hurting her is the last thing on his mind. Well before he eventually does decide to acknowledge the lighter part of himself again, she's able to draw out a softer side of him than most people ever see. When it comes down to it, he loves her, deeply, but his own issues (combined with them being on opposite sides of a war) do a very good job of getting in the way.

He's not necessarily interested in power for its own sake, but he'll use whatever he has, especially if he sees that it will let him make his own decisions about his life's direction. He feels that he's had little control over his life up to this point, and considering he's been subject to Snoke's manipulation and abuse his whole life, that's pretty true. Still, he doesn't tend to play the victim unless he's really pressed to it. He would rather claim agency over his actions as a way of feeling he's in some kind of control of his life.

He very much doesn't like the feeling of not being in control, though given how volatile he can be, he does lose control of himself in some way on a semi-regular basis. Usually it's a violent outburst involving damage to whatever inanimate objects happen to be nearby. It's probably noteworthy that he doesn't tend to attack living targets unless he feels he has a reason. As much as he's convinced himself not to care, he's still highly attuned to the emotions of others and doesn't find their suffering pleasant.

In his interactions with others, he's wary and will try to take command, but he's fundamentally honest. For all that he spends a lot of time lying to himself, he won't lie to others unless he feels it absolutely necessary. What he's saying might be wrong, but it's a good bet that he believes it in the moment he's saying it. He doesn't let most people get to know him, though, prefering to keep up an intimidating facade. He has a sense of humor that comes out now and then, but it's so dry and sardonic as to not be recognised by most others as humor.

Ultimately, Kylo Ren is a big ball of existential crisis with a core of loneliness, guilt, and longing covered over with a veneer of anger and hate. There's a better person under there somewhere, but as of now, he's not willing to consciously acknowledge it.

History: An extensive wiki article

Sample(s):
Current TDM
Bakerstreet with this canon point meeting a future version of himself
Bakerstreet with Rey shortly after this canon point
<href="https://bakerstreet.dreamwidth.org/6390983.html?thread=2807082951#cmt2807082951">Bakerstreet in which he time travels and meets his granddad

Since this seems to be my default mode for playing him post-TRoS, and I keep absorbing more and more separate threads into it, I figured it's worth it to lay out a timeline. So here is the order of events for anyone who's interested:

Obviously, Ben survived TRoS. I haven't solidly decided whether that's because Leia gave him a second life or if he just didn't quite spend all of his energy. Either way, he needed a good few days to recover, during which time he and Rey stayed together, keeping to themselves and keeping him a secret. Once he was at least somewhat back to normal health-wise, they briefly separated; Rey went back to the Resistance to check in with everyone and avoid suspicion that she was harbouring a war criminal, and Ben took the time to do some thinking and have his first real chat with his grandfather.

Rey came back with news that Leia, before her death, had recorded a message giving orders for the Resistance to treat him as a normal defector if he decided to cooperate, which gave him the incentive he needed to hand himself over to the Resistance. He was locked up for several days while they figured out what to actually do with him. He was confronted by Finn early on and then, after decisions had been made, had conversations with Poe and the ghost of his mom about where he might go from here.

Ultimately, he ended up helping the Resistance rebuild a city on Issin-Jara that had been under First Order occupation and basically destroyed by the war. He was met with a predictable level of distrust from the Resistance, made doubly hard by the fact that they'd decided he needed to prove he could behave himself without Rey being glued to him 24/7, so at first, they didn't even tell Rey where he'd been stationed. During this time, he met Babu Frik, who refreshingly lacked the bias of most everyone else he was interacting with, and helped him with a project making city-cleaning mouse droids.

Of course, telling Rey to stay away didn't last long; he told her where to find him via their Force connection, and she came to help him with the work for a few days and also take advantage of Issin-Jara's very nice bathtubs (and to hang out with Babu). He was allowed to visit her again after he earned a bit of positive recognition for his not at all required contribution to Babu's droid project. (They reminisced over the time Kylo Ren stole her blanket.) During that trip, he and Rey decided to return to Exegol for the sake of digging up Sith texts to go along with Rey's stolen Jedi collection.

After he came back, he worked with Babu to make a different droid, with the intent of it being a present for Rey, but lbr he's probably going to keep it for himself. The job of rebuilding the city was coming along nicely by this point, but there was still work to be done, and Ben met a girl named Pepper who had disobediently wandered into a work area and also turned out to be Force-sensitive.

And somewhere in here, he also wandered into a multidimensional bar where he talked to an alternate version of himself who had never been Kylo Ren. It was a very weird night, but it exists in this timeline, fight me.

Nursed Back to Health
Memorial
Romantic Gift
Truth, again
Sexting
Hearts
Time Stream
Midnight Texting
Ghost
Inspirobot
Marooned
Anon Confessions