Supreme Leader Snoke called Kylo Ren “Master of the Knights of Ren,” in The Force Awakens, but what if the Knights of Ren had a different master before Kylo? A compelling new theory suggests that The Last Jedi will reveal Kylo’s back-up baddies were all once Jedi Padawans under the tutelage of Luke Skywalker.
Many fan theories surrounding Snoke or Kylo Ren are insane to the point of parody. In July 2016, comedian Steel Saunders mocked the ridiculous amounts of kooky fan theories with his “Your Snoke Theory Sucks,” sticker. “I think a lot of fans are just burned out on the ridiculous theories,” Saunders told Inverse on July 19. So, with that in mind, why should another fan theory connected to Snoke be taken seriously at all? Probably because this one makes a little bit more sense than something like “Snoke is Mace Windu.”
Reddit user reverent_irrelevance puts it like this: “What if Luke’s Padawans weren’t slain? What if they sided with Ren and broke away to form the Knights of Ren, inspired by his death and questioning Luke’s teachings?”
The Knights of Ren in Rey's flashback Force vision.
This theory feels really likely mostly because it’s so simple. Assuming what Rey saw her in Force vision was a flashback, the quick question is: How did Kylo Ren get a posse of so many badasses so quickly? The answer is: He already knew all of them because they went to Jedi school together under Luke. If all the other Knights of Ren are Luke’s former Jedi, then Han’s comments about one boy who “destroyed it all” could make a little more sense. Not only did Ben turn to the Dark side of the Force to become Kylo Ren, but he convinced everyone at Luke’s Jedi school to do the same thing. This would elegantly explain why Luke Skywalker would be depressed enough to go into exile.
But why would Ben Solo want to become Kylo Ren and start the Knights of Ren in the first place? The theory from reverent_irrelevance also asserts that Ben Solo wasn’t the first person to turn to the Dark side of the Force, which while compelling, seems unlikely because it would require another new character to be retroactively introduced. If all of Luke’s pupils were converted into the Knights of Ren, it seems safe to assume that Kylo Ren/Ben Solo was their ringleader. Meanwhile, how Snoke fits into the Knights of Ren will doubtlessly be the source of a bevy of fan new theories.
The Last Jedi hits theaters on December 15, 2017.
