Originally Posted by
ZeroBG82
So, you're utterly entitled to your opinion. I don't want you to think that what follows is disparaging that or saying you're wrong or "didn't get it." I just want to point at something because you brought it up.
You note that he has one good moment in the opening. I assume you mean when he stops the blaster bolt in midair. Yes. That's the point of the character. Look at his trajectory in the film, beginning with that beat, and you get the picture of what they are going for.
Kylo Ren is toxic (white, male) privilege. He is the Chosen One. He doesn't have to work or put in effort, the universe simply bows to his whims because of who he is, who was born as. He isn't well trained, or better that those around him. He's just MORE POWERFUL. He brute forces everything, because he believes that there is nobody in the universe who can stand up to him on the power front. He stops the blaster bolt, and that's impressive and all, but it's a pure force application of the Force. No elegance or nuance, just raw power.
Now we see how the movie progresses. Any time the universe denies him he rages. He throws petty tantrums. He's pathetic. The first time he faces Rey, he overwhelms her. She never has a chance. When he faces Finn at the film's climax, we see how "well trained" Kylo is. He easily defeats a dubiously trained Stormtrooper conscript who has never held a lightsaber before, toying with him cruelly. But he doesn't need to display superior swordsmanship or skill. His opponent never stood a chance. It's punching down in a way that reveals how utterly sad Kylo Ren is as a human being. That he feels the need to play with his food isn't just despicable, it's a mark of privilege trying to put someone back in their place. Of maintaining the power imbalance.
Then he faces Rey. By this point, she has become his equal in power in the Force. She has no training, only instinct and her survival experience to draw from. She's a fighter, but has never held a lightsaber in combat before this moment. And she absolutely owns him. On equal ground, with no advantage in raw supernatural power to draw on, Kylo Ren gets his @$$ beat by someone who has had to fight to survive her whole life. Who has had to face defeats and hardship and suffering. Who has had to do the work and doesn't just expect their whims to be catered to. Suddenly Kylo Ren isn't looking that qualified to be the Chosen One anymore. Suddenly there is someone who works harder, who has more talent. Who simply has never had the opportunity offered to Ben Solo by virtue of his birth.
It's no accident that Kylo Ren's arch foes in TFA are a black man who was forced into labor against his will and a girl who spends the whole movie finding her voice in a universe that has spent her whole life telling her she doesn't matter. Say what you want about the forces of "wokeness" in the later two sequels, TFA is the single most "woke" piece of Star Wars fiction ever produced.