The epic climax of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker finally put a Jedi lightsaber into the hands of Ben Solo, confirming his return to the light and his mother's family legacy. But fans didn't know the secret meaning of Ben and Rey's lightsaber teleportation -- and even the Han Solo spirit at work -- until now.
Audiences got a brief glimpse of Ben wielding a lightsaber as Luke's student in a grim flashback. But what happened after Ben Solo fell to the dark side, and how he came to follow Snoke are questions unanswered by the films alone. It falls to the novels and comics to expand the story -- with the Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren comic providing the biggest revelations. And now, the series has made Ben Solo's unforgettable lightsaber draw even more meaningful, since it's actually a return to the young man he used to be... in more ways than fans could have ever realized.
The comic has already introduced readers to the Knights of Ren and their leader, offering Ben a new family and path if he ever sought it. Now having lost his Jedi home, Ben has come to apply for membership to Ren directly. But given that his Jedi robes are now no longer a proper fit, the next challenge is showing who Kylo Ren becomes instead. And when he makes his wardrobe change in Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren #3, fans may miss one of the most important details. One now confirmed by the mastermind of Kylo Ren's new black costume, artist Will Sliney.
The reaction to this really blew me away. Thank you Ben Solo fans! And yes! He draws his saber from over his shoulder.
The new design for Kylo Ren is modeled after neither Jedi nor Sith, but falls much closer to an outfit befitting his Han Solo lineage (albeit in all black, since the Knights of Ren have a style to maintain). Trading robes for a jacket, and keeping a blaster low-slung on his hip, many fans took the new design as Sliney and writer Charles Soule giving Ben's Solo side some love, too. But what most will have missed is the placement of Ben's lightsaber, and the way he chooses to draw it once given the freedom to decide for himself.
Marvel's official preview of The Rise of Kylo Ren #4 actually shows Ben drawing his lightsaber from over his shoulder on his first mission with the Knights of Ren, meaning readers don't have to deduce the motion from the first image. Seeming to acknowledge the reference being made, Sliney soon took to Twitter to confirm that Ben's new method of holstering his saber means he draws it from over his shoulder -- exactly as he does when receiving and drawing the Skywalker saber from Rey in the film's final battle. A moment audiences took as a return to the light and the Jedi way, now to be read as a return to the man Ben Solo wanted to become, outside of his family's demands or plans for his future.
The Rise of Skywalker's official novelization has clarified or modified several of the film's events, but the changes made, or the true meaning revealed by this comic detail is something different. Instead of explaining what's in the film, the comic is filling in the gaps, aiming to enrich what is already there. Does a connection between Ben's lightsaber draw with Rey and his shoulder-drawn saber, forgotten for years as he went from one master to the next, make the scene or story better? That's impossible to say.
But will fans now see that moment -- a Skywalker lightsaber embraced, in a fashion only the son of the irreverent Han Solo could think up -- and see something greater? That's for each viewer and comic reader to decide. But one thing is for sure: now that Ben Solo's vision of a warrior drawing a lightsaber from his back has been revealed, fans WILL see it in Star Wars stories to come.
Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren #4 arrives on March 11th, 2020.
Source: Will Sliney