The First Order, undoubtedly, has a whole slew of bizarre rules, but the fact that speaking Kylo Ren’s birth name (Ben Solo) is forbidden within its ranks probably numbers among the weirdest.
Today, the official Star Wars Twitter account dropped that fun little tidbit, revealing that Supreme Leader Snoke is kind of a stickler for odd rules. Was there a reason for Snoke putting an out-and-out ban on Kylo Ren’s real name? Did he think that using Kylo Ren’s birth name would prevent him from distancing himself from the person he was before he committed himself to the First Order? Or is he just kind of a weird dude who’s obsessed with maintaining a next-level sinister vibe?
Whatever his reasons, Snoke isn’t the first baddie in the Star Wars universe to get weird about using birth names. Emperor Palpatine never used Anakin Skywalker’s real name. It was always Darth Vader, and that separation between Anakin and Vader created actual distance between who Anakin was and who he would become, even if it was in name only.
What the First Order has in store for Ben Solo Kylo Ren post-The Force Awakens is still murky, but it’s pretty clear that no one’s going to be calling him Ben unless the want to incur the wrath of Supreme Leader Snoke. And if Ben turns back to the light, maybe pissing off Snoke won’t bother him one bit.
