How the Star Wars sequel trilogy is rewriting the temptation of the dark side

The Force-sensitive heroes of Star Wars always find themselves lured toward the dark side of the Force, but the sequel trilogy is changing the script.

Long before Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker killed Tusken Raiders or had yellow eyes, Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker faced the same sorts of temptations to give in to anger, hate and fear — three of the major negative emotions that Yoda says lead to the dark side of the Force and membership in the Sith instead of the Jedi. But both of these characters face temptation for the same reasons in Star Wars. However, the sequel trilogy suddenly flips the script on what tempts both Rey and Kylo Ren. Instead of the road to the dark side being paved with good intentions for the man in the pairing, it’s that way for Rey, not Kylo.

And it is “good intentions” for both Anakin and Luke, thanks to the women in their lives. Think back to what causes Anakin to even seek out Palpatine in the first place — his fears that he’ll lose his wife, Padmé Amidala, in childbirth. Before that, in Attack of the Clones, his massacring the Tusken Raiders comes in response to the loss of his mother. Luke, meanwhile, keeps his cool on the second Death Star right until Darth Vader recognizes that he has a sister.

It’s then that he unleashes an agonized scream of “No!” and absolutely goes berserk, coming closer to giving in at that moment than pretty much any other offers either the Emperor or Vader could dangle in his face. Power? Nope. Ruling the galaxy? Also a no.

One supposes that these attachments are exactly why the Jedi discourage them in the first place, but that leaves both Anakin and Luke more open to the temptation itself because they can’t stop themselves from forming those attachments. After all, it’d be a little boring story-wise if they didn’t care for anyone and remained aloof. But thematically, it makes sense too — what happens when this family with a grand cosmic destiny can’t be perfectly noble and really wants to protect women of the family? Whatever the Force is, it is capricious in choosing the Skywalker men — Kylo included.

For Kylo, however, his temptation centers around Rey. Setting aside the abusive undertones, which Buckie Wells has already covered extensively here, Kylo doesn’t face the temptation to protect Rey —  not in the same way his grandfather and uncle did in the past. Is there a temptation to come back to the light side?

Certainly. The Last Jedi seems to show that he considers it, or at least pretends to consider it for the sake of tempting Rey in return. However, The Force Awakens seems to suggest that the conflict is at least somewhat real because he believes killing his father will help completely squash the good within him, and he hesitates before nearly killing Leia.

Neither are great as the screams of either a newly created Darth Vader or a black-clad Luke Skywalker, but they’re not supposed to be. Kylo’s intentions are rarely good, and when they are in the grand scheme of things, it’s not for noble reasons.

He doesn’t have the same innate desire to protect — or if he does, he’s buried it deeply or has dismissed it as not worthy. Although he pointedly offers the idea of connection as temptation by The Last Jedi. As also pointed out by Buckie Wells, “you’re nothing — but not to me” is a fine way of saying that Kylo says he values her.

The lure to corrupt Rey is paramount, too; while he may have a facade of offering her strength and something like a family (or at the very least a place to belong), it’s the temptation to bring her to the darkness that seems to be strongest at the moment for Kylo. However, unlike even the prequel trilogy, we have a deeper look into the tempter’s — Kylo’s — psyche. In contrast, neither the prequel nor the original trilogy ever truly bothers to show Palpatine experiencing emotional conflict on a similar level.

However, he is not the only main character of the sequel trilogy who faces the temptation of the dark side of the Force. For the first time in the main saga, a woman who is Force-sensitive plays out the narrative of temptation, too, complete with the noble intention to try to save someone.

Granted, Rey’s trappings are different — for one, she’s not trying to save another woman, and for a second, she’s trying to redeem someone instead of coming close to the dark side through anger and fear. In short, instead of having two separate characters play the reason for the fall and the tempter, Kylo plays both those roles for her.

For her, that temptation is the connection of understanding that doom Anakin and nearly doom Luke. She and Kylo may not be related (or maybe they are), but they do share something.  Why else would she believe she can save him, or that she can bring him back to the light? She doesn’t have the same passivity that Padmé and Leia have in the narratives centered around Anakin and Luke.

In a way, the fact that Rey gets to have this narrative is perhaps the strongest evidence yet that she is truly meant to be the main character of this trilogy. Prior to The Last Jedi coming to theaters, Buckie Wells also argued that point, based more on how the film was being marketed. She ultimately concluded that Lucasfilm might “be setting her up” for it.

But the fact that Rey gets to have similar, though not identical, Force temptations to the unquestioned main characters of the first two trilogies makes the strongest point yet. However, the sequel trilogy has also given Kylo temptations of his own — both back to the side of good and to the side of darkness.

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Will he have to die like Anakin to succeed in returning to the light side? Or will Rey be successful,  stay on the path of good and bring Kylo back alive, further altering the story beats from the previous trilogies? The only way to find out is in Episode IX, which is a long year and a half away.