Quote Originally Posted by FRC Coazze View Post
Kylo is the only character that tries to be interesting in the sequel trilogy. I think much of his appeal is due to the actor: Adam Driver carries the trilogy on his shoulders. It really is a pity to see so much potential getting wasted. Overall the entire sequel trilogy is just disappointing and annoying (I’m not angry as other fans are, but those movies can be really frustrating).

TFA is where Kylo really fails as a character I think, it’s his worst movie. He started off cool and ended up as a waste, and his arc in the first movie undermined his credibility as a villain in the sequels. He can’t be a menacing threat ‘cause he got beaten by the protagonist in their first fight, and if you don't have a good villain you can't have a decent hero (and the sequel trilogy doesn't have a villain at all). I liked him better in The Last Jedi… except from the fact that there was another movie before and that Kylo’s character in TLJ clashes with the same character from TFA. But we know how consistent the sequel trilogy is.

I liked him when he’s Ben Solo again. Pity he doesn’t even say a word.

I don’t know, and can’t fathom, what went on at Disney… but were they scared he could actually be a good interesting character? Is that why they treated him so poorly? Is that why he was the one to die? Is that why he doesn’t utter a word in the last scenes of TROS? He’s the only legit Skywalker there, for crying out loud! I like Kylo. If I had to choose a character from the sequel trilogy that would be him. That's why I'm so displeased by they way he's been handled.
I think it comes down to this: what did you, LFL, and others wants the ST to be?

Because Abrams was hired to make, and then set out to make a Sequel Trilogy focusing on a female Jedi hero played by Daisy Ridley (Rey) with a male co-lead who *he, Lawrence Kasdan, and Bad Robot* decided should be played by John Boyega (Finn). And the film they produced based off that *specific* idea had Adam Driver playing the *antagonist,* not a protagonist, and a rather loathsomeness one at that, one fans would love to cheer against... and that film made $2 Billion and set the record for domestic box office.

That film also reportedly caught LFL a bit by surprise, with them being shocked by how positive and enthusiastic the response was for Rey and Finn.

LFL seemed to picture the ST as being, yes, about a female Jedi hero... but they themselves weren’t as invested in the specific character and actress they’d recruited for the role in comparison to the character they seemed to regard as the “real” male lead, played by Adam Driver. They shared this opinions with Rian Johnson, and he seemed to agree, with neither LFL nor Johnson quite seeing what the substance of his arc in TFA was, and produced TLJ... which saw support for Rey and Finn decrease immensely after it was released, made $700 Million less than TFA, was incredibly divisive, and saw Kylo’s popularity kind fo pulled by fan sf his increased profile and haters of his increased profile.

Understand: as far as I’m concerned, nothing about Kylo is actually original (he’s just an inversion of Vader inconsistently portrayed) and Driver is massively underserved by his material.

John Boyega got to show much more range and skill in just TFA than Driver did across three films, and Finn’s a more original and interesting character than Kylo in just TFA than across all three films... but LFL was uninterested in Boyega and Finn in spite of his success, and couldn’t decide exactly what Kylo was supposed to be. Driver is an excellent, even generational talent... but if 95% of what the script requires you to do is just be a sad but predictable monster, you can work the hell out of being a sad but predictable monster, but you can’t really be more.

TLJ didn’t make him a greater villain at all, in either dimension or threat level - it simply presented him as though he were a deep character without actually showing why, and to the detriment of Rey and Finn, mostly; Boyega just got flat out demoted and handed material that condescendingly dismissed and downplayed his work in TFA, while Ridley got stuck with a character arc that was mostly “be a tool for telling the audience to pity and sympathize with Kylo.”

And then TLJ also simultaneously argued that Kylo should just be the main villain now without explaining his origin, but also the last Skywalker.

That’s why TROS had to “pay the bill” on a story where:

- Rey, as the female heroine, is supposed to be the main character... but didn’t get much of a story in the middle film and in fact had stuff subtracted from her (they screwed her over because they didn’t want Kylo hated) and isn’t a Skywalker in a story that’s trying to end their 9 film saga.
- Kylo is just a mess of contradictions, because LFL is firmly elevating him to male lead and romantic lead for Rey with a redemption story... but in terms of substance, he’s still just a Neo-Nazi school shooter who tried to mind-rape Rey... AND he ended TLJ refusing to get redeemed again and being placed as the main villain for the story... AND giving him special treatment to try and achieve his new endpoint goals were all liabilities to Rey.
- And of course, Abrams isn’t the guy who suffers from the delusion that Kylo is already a sympathetic character, and isn’t going to forget that Rey is the main character.

Don’t get me wrong: Kylo got screwed and the Skywalkers ended on a wet fart of an ending, with Driver skills being the only consistent asset the films used across the entire Trilogy. But...

Ridley as Rey and Boyega as Finn got screwed over a lot more for Kylo’s sake.

Kylo has to die because it wasn't his Trilogy, and they’d put too much importance and double standards on him to let him survive when Rey’s so underserved by TLJ, and the Skywalker had to be screwed over because Kylo was the only Skywalker.

And Finn just got screwed, period.