With Star Wars: The Force Awakens only 100 days away, fans are all too eager to see the faithful words Episode VII, scroll across the screen. The rumor mill has been spinning away since 2012, when Disney acquired Lucasfilm at a mere 4 billion dollars. One aspect that has really lured me in to all the pre-Force Awakens hype is the black cloaked villain known as Kylo Ren, and also his cohorts, The Knights of Ren. At first it was believed that Kylo Ren might be some form of lost Sith lord or maybe even an apprentice of one. The character himself according to sources, was born sometime after the Battle of Endor. Keep in mind that there is a thirty year gap between the end of Return of the Jedi, and the beginning of The Force Awakens. This leaves a large gap to fill when the Star Wars: The Force Awakens storyline begins.
Lucasfilm has begun to release a series of books to fill this three decade gap, with tombs like Aftermath by Chuck Wendig and Lost Stars by Claudia Gray. Thirty years does leave massive amounts of storyline to fill in, and maybe that is perhaps an aspect that Lucasfilm planned during the writing phase of this new trilogy. Also we need to take into account the aging value of the original three (Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford) among others down the road like Billy Dee Williams.
The Knights of Ren who have spawned a partnership with new fractions of the once united Empire, take kin to the Knight’s Templars of old, from the fashioned environmental armor to the new type lightsaber that has made quite a stir among fans, both pro and con. In days past, the Sith lords would use “Darth” to represent title as well as training. This can also be seen in the same regards to the surname “Ren” in the Knights of Ren.
With the newest canon material surfacing, it is interesting how the Knights are playing into the order of the things to come. The early sources point to a group of Acolytes on the planet Taris (familiar indeed) that are on the hunt for all the relics, that in fact are associated with the dark side of the Force. In the meantime the hunt is on for the revealed “wellspring” to which the dark side energy flows. This source seems to lie somewhere in void space, past the outer rim or in wild space. If you recall, the planet Dagobah and the ancient Sith cave contained a powerful dark side presence as well, however I do not believe that is the direction they are heading in.
What is interesting here is how the story could in fact unfold in a multitude of different directions. If a fallen brother of the knighthood was to die, would another simply take his place, and if so is this a possible story arc? Other questions that I felt can be asked here is about the journey that Kylo Ren is taking. Does it take him from the dark path into the light, which would be a virtual reversal of the original stories? It is hard to tell what the future of the new franchises hold, but one thing is for certain, they are in fact very different in many aspects that parallel the first six movies. The Knights of Ren tied together with the First Order should provide a worthwhile adversary, like the Sith of old, and the Galactic Empire ruled under Palpatine and Vader.
