We may be misinterpreting those leaks about Kylo's ending in 'Star Wars 9'
Rey and Kylo's Force bond could be even more important than we think.
Kylo Ren is totally going to die in Star Wars: Episode IX, right? We’ve been anticipating a grim ending for Ben Solo for a while now, and recent leaks seem to spell doom for the son of Han and Leia (regardless of whether he redeems himself first or not). However, as one clever Star Wars fan points out in a recent Reddit post, maybe we’ve been thinking about those Rise of Skywalker leaks all wrong. Is it possible that the biggest twist could be that Kylo … survives?
Warning! Possible spoilers for the ending of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker below.
First, a bit of background. Plot-heavy leaks from trusted tipsters Jason Ward (who runs Making Star Wars) and JediPaxis (the anonymous moderator of Reddit’s “Star Wars Leaks” community) both report that Kylo Ren’s story will end when he confronts a rejuvenated Emperor Palpatine and gets tossed into a deep hole — which seems to be a pattern in Star Wars. The jury is still out on whether he’ll survive, but at best it’s a maybe and at worst it’s definite death for poor Ben Solo.
The Emperor fell down a hole too, and he survived.
But as any Star Wars fan can tell you, falling down a very deep hole doesn’t guarantee death. Just ask Emperor Palpatine. We still don’t know how Palps survived that fall in Return of the Jedi, but a convincing new theory from redditor u/Nantoone may reveal how Kylo survives his own plummet in Episode IX. In short, it all comes back to Rey and Kylo’s Force bond in The Last Jedi, and the rumors that it could become even more powerful in The Rise of Skywalker.
u/Nantoone runs through a few key Rise of Skywalker leaks, most notably the rumor that Rey and Kylo will be able to physically interact using their Force bond. In one early scene, leaked by MSW, Kylo even reaches across the galaxy and yanks Rey’s necklace clean off. The theory continues by noting that based another leak, when the Force bond is broken, each character is automatically transported back to their original location.
“The Paxis leaks suggest Kylo doesn’t remain at Rey’s location once the force bond ends, because the heroes have time to hide on Pasaana before Kylo and the First Order physically arrive there,” they write. “This means Kylo could step through a force bond to wherever Rey is, and then return to his previous location once the force bond ends.” (Emphasis added.)
The Force bond in 'The Last Jedi'
See where we’re going with this? No? Okay. Moving forward …
According to these same leaks, at the end of the movie, Kylo Ren is able to quickly travel across the galaxy to help Rey defeat Emperor Palpatine, which raises some interesting red flags.
“If Rey has the only Wayfinder at that point in the story, and she’s on Exogol in the Unknown Regions, how could Ben possibly get there from Endor without his ship, the First Order, or even a weapon?” asks u/Nantoone. “Stranded on Endor, just about the only thing he has left is his Force bond with Rey*.”
Ok, so now you’ve got to see where we’re headed! If Kylo uses the Force bond to reach Rey and the Emperor and then gets tossed into a pit soon afterward, he wouldn’t die, he’d just transport to wherever he was before the Force bond.
Or, in other words: “When Ben ‘dies,’ he simply falls down the shaft and he and Rey end the force bond. He then returns to Endor.”
So does this mean that Kylo Ren will make it out of Rise of Skywalker alive? We can’t say for sure, but if this theory is right — and, to be honest, it really makes a lot of sense — then at the very least, Kylo won’t have to die by falling down a hole.
Darth Maul also fell down a hole.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters on December 20.
Read the full theory below.
