![]() ![]() ![]() Rey may be a fan of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, but she isn’t hung up on being the galaxy’s next great hero. That may not do any favors for the new heroic trio Rey, Finn, and Poe, but in the case of the new film’s villain, the fact that Kylo Ren cannot escape being viewed as “the new Darth Vader” is actually built into the text. ![]() Abrams’ reboot, but it’s hard to deny that it feels a bit like a Greatest Hits album. Reverence for the original Star Wars seeps through every pore of J.J. The most common knock by fans and critics against The Force Awakens is that it’s less of a follow-up to Return of the Jedi or a new beginning for Star Wars as a whole than it is a remake of A New Hope. Kylo Ren’s inadequacy is what makes him a great villain Quite the contrary - Kylo Ren being a pale imitation of Darth Vader is precisely what makes him an interesting antagonist. However, that doesn’t make him a worse character. Sick crossguard lightsaber notwithstanding, that makes the last of the Knights of Ren less cool, by definition. Just as the First Order is essentially a Galactic Empire cover band, Kylo Ren is a Darth Vader impersonator. Everything about Kylo Ren’s Sith Lord persona is derivative of his famous forbearer, from the black helmet whose shape implies a pained grimace, to his cape, to his distorted voice. So, naturally, his grandson, Kylo Ren (aka Ben Solo), had some huge boots to fill when he debuted in Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015. ![]() (RIP to those younglings, Remember Alderaan, et cetera.) Our point is that, since 1977, Darth Vader has been the standard by which all other Big Bads are measured. Vader is so superficially awe-inspiring that we have to remind ourselves occasionally that this guy is a mass murderer and that gushing about him to this extent is probably a bad look. He’s outer space’s greatest movie monster, an unstoppable half-human menace whose powers are limited only by the available special effects. We’re talking about a figure so imposing and confident that he makes wearing a respirator look rad as hell. Judging by pure cool factor, there are precious few villains in cinematic history who can contend with the OG Sith Lord himself, Darth Vader. Darth Vader is unquestionably cooler than Kylo Ren Disney ![]()
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