History Fridge / TheForceAwakens

** First, his actions have ironically pulled Rey back into the fight and given her a reason to finally take up the lightsaber. So the hilt flying towards him and then sailing past him and into her hand echoes how his actions, initially for his own benefit, have instead directly enabled Rey to rise and fight him, and as Luke's newest apprentice, she'll be trying to make sure Anakin's Light Side legacy outlives his Dark Side legacy.

** A lot of fans were also taking back their jokes about the cross-beams in Ren's hilt when he uses them to BURN FINN'S FLESH in close combat during their lightsaber duel. All of a sudden you realize "Oh God, THAT'S why they're there!"

* Rey has quickly been accused of being a MarySue due to her quick mastery of the Force with no training: She's able to perform a JediMindTrick on a stormtrooper after a couple tries, is able to call Anakin's lightsaber to her hand despite demonstrating no feats of telekinesis before, and is able to hold her own against and actually ''defeat'' Kylo Ren in a lightsaber duel. Plus she is an expert pilot of a type of ship the likes of which she's never flown before. However:

** Taking all of the above into account, people accusing Rey of being a MarySue should also take note of her state of mind in comparison to Luke's. Luke started on his journey with Obi-Wan with the mindset of naught but a simple farm boy with some potent wanderlust in his system. He had grown up knowing of some of the important bits of history (the Clone Wars, the legend of Obi-Wan himself, etc) but was kept firmly grounded by his adoptive family. He was likely never really told of the great things the Jedi could do with the Force or what the Sith could do after twisting it to their whims (especially considering his family history). Even after formally meeting Obi-Wan face-to-face and seeing what the Force could do after taking out the Death Star; his mind -- thanks to his upbringing -- was so suppressed he couldn't really, ''truly'' accept the myriad of possibilities beyond what he could see for himself. Naturally, this meant that his enormous potential took ''that'' much more work to bring to the surface. On the other hand, Rey had no one to hold back her imagination; and even though she's spent most of her life on a backwater dustball, some tales of past Jedi exploits must've made their way there in the form of tall tales and the like. Unlike Luke, she would be far more willing to believe things Luke just couldn't accept and as such, with an open mind like hers, she can piece things together faster the moment she knows the stories are ''all true.'' In short, Luke is like an employee that's done one job for so long that bad habits are hard to break and new lessons take longer to absorb; while Rey is someone who hasn't held anything down long enough to develop those habits to begin with -- allowing her to learn that much faster.

* Rey has received accusations of being a MarySue, with one of the reasons being that when she fights Kylo Ren with the Skywalker Lightsaber, she defeats him, thus making it look like as if she's really good at lightsaber dueling despite having never picked one up before. However, consider the following:

* Kylo Ren idolises Vader and wishes to emulate him without knowing what Anakin was like. In ''Film/ANewHope'' and ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', Luke idolises Anakin and wants to emulate him without knowing that he is actually Vader. Nephew and Uncle are NotSoDifferent.

* Leia comforted Rey at the end when she arrived at the Resistance base. But what if Rey had succeeded in killing Kylo Ren? She was trying very hard to do just that, and had it not been for an earthquake seperating them, she might have. And one must suspect that the two of them will fight at least one more time, and Rey may yet kill him in the end. For all the horrible things that Kylo Ren has done, how is Leia going to feel about Rey afterwards?

** An alternate to this is even more straightforward: Rey has SEEN IT before, as a very popular theory that's subtly hinted at in the film is that Rey is Luke's daughter or at least his former pupil.

* It's more than likely that Poe Dameron, whose parents were very good friends with Luke, Leia, and Han, and who is only slightly older than Kylo Ren, knew him as Ben Solo, and they were probably friends as children. Now re-watch that torture scene again. Poe could've also believed that the Knights of Ren ''killed'' his boyhood friend, the son of his lifelong hero. And FromACertainPointOfView… he'd be right.

* According to Aftermath, Ben Solo was born right around nine months after the Battle of Endor. I guess we know how Han and Leia celebrated the fall of the Empire.

* On Jakku, Rey is shown putting on a Rebel Alliance helmet that she apparently just keeps around the place. The name on the side reads (in the official GFFA alphabet) RÆH. This opens up a lot of possibilities. Did a Rebel couple settle on Jakku and then leave their little girl behind with some of their stuff (voluntarily or involuntarily)? Or is Rey even her name? Did she used to run around wearing that thing, and so the locals started calling her Rey? Could her name be something else entirely?

* The film (intentionally or not) continues the original trilogy's habit of giving its characters MeaningfulNames. For example, in some languages, 'Ben' means 'son', making Ben Solo 'the son of Solo'. Another provides a tease to Rey being a Skywalker - 'Luke' means 'light', and 'Reys' (or 'rays') transmit light.

* To make matters worse, his remaining in exile during these events amounts to his practicing what he learned from Yoda: that he shouldn't allow others to manipulate him through personal attachments to his friends and lure him into a trap. Considering that Vader tortured Luke's friends in part just to give him the premonitions that would lure him to Bespin in an attempt to rescue them, it's likely Snoke (who's been around long enough to have witnessed all of these events) was trying the ''exact same thing'' to lure Luke out of his hiding place when ordering Hux to fire up their latest planet-killing super-weapon, and when challenging Kylo Ren to face his father. The worst part of all? Luke had finally learned Yoda's lesson (that sometimes you have to sacrifice those nearest and dearest to you if you want their cause to prevail) just in time for it to be completely and hopelessly ''wrong''. Had he gone "brashly" charging off to save his nearest and dearest friends the way he did the last time he got such terrible premonitions, he might have prevented ''billions'' of deaths and assured the New Republic's ongoing political stability. Talk about survivor's guilt!

* Chewie is angry, Finn is shocked, but Rey is in visible anguish at Han's death to the point where after Chewie and Finn's reactions stop she's still pained. She just started using her abilities, she felt his death through the Force as well as saw it. Leia could feel it light-years away, Rey was only a few stories up from it. It probably felt like her soul tearing apart. Ren himself mentioned that Rey was already looking to Han as a surrogate father. Feeling his death in the Force or not, she's only recently consciously accepted that her real parents are never coming back for her, and only very recently relived the moment that they left her life forever. And now she's being abandoned with finality yet again.

* Kylo Ren is the frequent butt of jokes about his whiny, emo mentality and temper tantrums. The humor in this tends to fade when you consider that the First Order has multiple similarities to today's terrorist groups (think ISIS or Al-Qaeda). Kylo Ren is basically the leader of a terrorist cell, with access to, not just guns, but an army... And force powers... And an evil mentor... And a multi-planet-destroying superweapon that fires through hyperspace...
* Kylo Ren got his start by murdering his own classmates en masse in their place of study. It's probably meant to mirror Anakin's murder of his fellow Jedi, including younglings. However, realizing that Ben could have been no more than 16 at the time makes it significantly more disturbing.

* Kylo Ren intended Finn to have a painful, slow death in revenge for betraying the First Order, causing so much trouble, and wounding his shoulder. After Finn is disarmed, Ren is well within range of a killing blow. Instead he hits Finn and rakes the lightsaber up his back. Fatal injuries if untreated, but not instantly lethal.

* Starkiller Base is a planet sized weapon that shoots huge amounts of energy from one side of the galaxy to a planet that's on the other side. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-ray_burst These things exist in real life]].

* By the end of the film it's possible that Kylo Ren ''is'' becoming more Vader-like. In his last engagement he's wounded and clearly in pain from injuries to the gut and shoulder -- places that in RealLife would lead to long-lasting problems and discomfort and possibly never be quite right again- and channeling the pain into what even for him is frantic aggression. It's been said by WordOfGod that Vader's ventilator and other artificial organs, though imposing, gave him constant pain to live with, which did nothing for his temper. Now Kylo Ren had enough anger management problems in full health...

** Don't forget Kylo took a Bowcaster shot to the chest. So Finn and Rey were basically fighting the heavy weight champion of the world moments after he was hit by a truck.
** Add all of this together, and you have a reason as for why Rey beat Kylo -- She was using the Dark Side of the Force. She harnessed her anger and hate in that moments, and curb stomped Kylo as a result of that. And considering the wounds she gave Kylo, it's safe to say that she would've killed him had a chasm not formed and split the ground between the two. She was literally seconds away from turning to the Dark Side and undergoing a FaceHeelTurn.
* Rey might think it's her fault Han got killed. If she didn't get captured, or heck, even have BB-8 show them the map, Han and Finn would never have come to rescue her and the confrontation between Ben and Han wouldn't have happened. Imagine living with the guilt that the death of one of the galaxy's greatest heroes is on your hands. That happy exterior Rey has when her and Chewie are taking off at the end? For all we know, that could be a façade.
* Nobody seems to have given much thought until now to the implications of Chewie's shooting Kylo Ren. Consider this: Growing up, Chewbacca was most likely the closest thing Ben Solo had to a paternal uncle. Given Luke's responsibilities as the last Jedi, Ben was almost certainly closer to Chewie than to anybody else barring his parents. And the first thing that happens once Ren kills Han and completes his turn to the Dark Side is that ''Chewie shoots to kill.'' That pounding on his side during the forest fight may have been Kylo's way of tapping into the Dark Side by reminding himself: ''This is what love gets you.''

'''WARNING!''' All spoilers are '''UNMARKED!'''

* Kylo Ren is actually in a fairly similar position to Han Solo as seen in the original release of ''A New Hope''. Why? [[TheDogShotFirst Han]] [[HanShotFirst Shot First]]. Han Solo was first seen as an unscrupulous rogue who cared about money and wouldn't bother about killing those who were a threat to him first, and refused to help Luke during the Death Star attack until he finally moved towards his good side and saved Luke from Vader at the very last moment. That's not unlike Kylo, who is an unscrupulous killer who has a good side to him -- but he inverts his dad's legacy by wavering towards the Light Side before siding with the Dark and killing him.

* [[BadassNormal Ni]][[BossInMookClothing nes]] being able to take on someone wielding a lightsaber makes a bit more sense when you think about it. He knows Finn perfectly well, since they trained in the same unit together. Furthermore, Nines clearly knows how to use that stun baton, normally using it as riot gear. While Finn no doubt received the same training, he has ''no idea how to properly use a lightsaber'' (he doesn't even recognize it as a weapon) -- in fact, non-Force-sensitives can't wield them in the first place without ''serious'' training. Add in a dash of VillainousBreakdown by way of ''[[CategoryTraitor TRAITOR!!]]'', and you have the recipe for one of the most awesome [[CurbStompBattle curb-stompings]] in all of film.

* Similar to Vader being Dutch for Father, Kylo Ren’s past is subtly there in his name. The KY and come from Skywalker and LO come from his surname, Solo.