Future STAR WARS Plot Ideas

As those of us who spend a lot of time on social networking know, there's a lot of talk out there about The Skywalker Rise, and in particular a lot of fans are angry.

SPOILERS

Ben Solo, identified as Dark Jedi and First Order Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, dies using the Revived Force Rey, who fell in combat against her undead grandfather, none other than Emperor Palpatine. Seeing how The Last Jedi turned me into the "Reylo fandom" and the two of them were completely Adorable when they had the Big Darn Kiss, this was a little disappointing.

(Look at their facial expressions, seriously. It's so cute.)

However, given the severity of Ben's crimes, it would have been really shameful for him to show up at the big Resistance Victory Party, particularly given how many people he had grievously wronged (mind-raping Poe, murdering Chewbacca's best friend, lots of battle victims for namesless characters) are all there and happy. That's why Redemption Equal Death is such a popular trope—someone who has done too much wrong, even though they're flipping sides and doing anything useful (killing Palpatine the first time for Anakin, reviving the dead or dying last Jedi for Ben) isn't going to be readily embraced by the good people.

That said, if you're willing to work, you might come up with all kinds of interesting plots:

*Ben, by virtue of his brief tenure as Supreme Leader, provides the information needed to kill more rapidly the First Order forces which were not involved in the Exegol war. Realistically, they will be over-extended (film references "free worlds" so the New Republic has not yet been fully conquered) and there is a huge leadership vacuum with General Hux, Allegiant General Pryde, and Palpatine gone. Seeing how the First Order was made up of Imperial survivors who were permitted to stay, but disarmed, or dead-hards who had fled to the Unknown Regions, no one would want a negotiated peace or anything resembling the First Order left intact.

If you want to punish Ben, that means that he has to sell out people who were loyal to him while he was bad, even people who may have been true friends. Moreover, as my uncle pointed out, "no one trusts a traitor" and at this point, Ben betrayed both the New Jedi Order/Republic and the First Order. He'd have to send some very good material, independent backup. If you want to turn the clumsiness up, he may also have to work with Finn, whom he had purposely wounded but not killed in The Force Awakens, to engineer stormtrooper defections from First Order Army units he knows are prone to discontent and mutiny. More about Poe and Finn's next drama...

*Although Poe, Finn, and Rey are the latest power trio in the veins of Luke, Leia, and Han in the original trilogy, or Ron, Hermione, and Harry in Harry Potter, this could be destroyed by Rey's romance with Ben. In The Force Awakens, Ben's mind-raped Poe is clearly an extremely unpleasant operation, and let's not forget the lightsaber-to-the-spin with Finn. While Poe only saw Ben with his mask on, it is my recollection that he was unmasked when he battled Finn and Rey for the first time. They're going to know Ben (or at least Finn's going to say Poe) and they're going to feel massively betrayed. Given how two, if not the two senior leaders of the Resistance at this stage, are likely to have correspondingly high positions in the New (New?) Republic, Ben might end up in exile or even a fugitive, and Rey would have the sadistic option of leaving him to stay with or join her friends of Resistance.

* When Chewbacca hears of Leia's death, he collapses to his knees in pain and drives away any effort to console him. As someone pointed out on Twitter, this is the third friend he'd lost as a result of Ben-straight-up Han's assassination, Luke burned himself out of Force-projecting to distract Ben from finishing Resistance at Crait, and Leia burned herself out of Force-projecting to jump-start Ben's redemption. While Chewbacca flew Rey to the First Order fleet in The Last Jedi to promote what everyone hoped would be Ben's defection, at this point he might well be of the opinion, "Screw that kid." He may be violently (emphasis on violently) displeased to see Ben again. I remember Han's statement about Wookiees taking his arms out of sockets, and depending on how remorseful Ben is for his bad deeds, I'm imagining to make him do that.

*The fleet that arrives to relieve Poe and his pilots over Exegol seems to have been assembled by Lando, according to the above. Lando, Han's long-time friend, Luke's friend enough to help him with his "rebuild the Jedi" dream, and considering his history, I'm pretty sure he was trying to hit Leia like the Empire Strikes Back now that Han is no longer in the frame. Even though he was a kind of uncle to Ben as a child with some new-canon content, he's not going to be happy with him either. Since it was Lando who took the fleet to Exegol and had the actual experience of administering it (running Cloud City), I'm imagining him as the new Chancellor (with Poe possibly being the naval commander and Finn being the commander of the ground forces) once the Republic has been re-established and he will be able to express his displeasure even more forcefully than simply punching Ben in the face before he wears out his weapon.

*Given how Snoke had forbidden Ben's true name from being spoken by the First Order and most of the galaxy may be only slightly aware of him (as opposed to Kylo Ren), he's not likely to be the most hated person in the entire galaxy, at least right away. But the word will spread, and then it will be.

Perhaps the leaders of the Rebellion agree to allow him back to help clean up the First Order of Survivors (depending on how well-known his defection is, he might order surrenders or withdrawals from the territory of the Republic as Supreme Leader in addition to the information he can offer), but as the word spreads, widespread resentment rises. Think how, in Bloodline's new-canon book, the reveal that Leia had hidden that her father was Darth Vader triggered a huge public uproar and ruined her political career. And in this situation, the indignation is said to be even more justifiable considering Ben's actual crimes.

Ironically enough, if a surviving Ben works with Rey to restore the Jedi Order, a separation between the Jedi and the New Republic—either the Jedi Order needs to be restored beyond the boundaries of the Republic because one of its two new leaders is going to be shot in sight or Rey and Ben are allowed to stay (probably as a favour for Rey rather than out of some respect for Ben) but the leadership of the Republic. The Jedi will not be part of the political system with all its distractions and corruption and will basically function as an order of students, mystics, and errant knights (I'm thinking a visit to Canto Bight to free some child slaves and to employ a New Jedi Order broom boy is a good idea) rather than a close ally or arm of the state.