Warning! Spoilers ahead forStar Wars: Legacy of Vader!
Star Warshas confirmed that a driving force of Kylo Ren’s downfall was his ignorance of galactic history; Marvel’sLegacy of Vaderseries has been tracing the pivotaltime betweenLast JediandRise of Skywalker, and as Kylo has confronted the actions of his predecessor, the story has repeatedly made clear how little he knows.
Star Wars: Legacy of Vader#7, by the creative team of Charles Soule and Luke Ross, contains the latest moment in which Kylo Ren’s fault knowledge of history is emphasized.
However, this is far from just a personal failing on Ren’s part; rather, it epitomizes the flimsy grasp on history that theStar Warsgalaxy has always seemingly had.
Star Wars: Legacy of Vader#7, By The Creative Team Of Charles Soule And Luke Ross
InA New Hope, it was implied that Luke Skywalker had been raised with a garbled version of the Empire’s founding story, while the true nature of the Jedi Order had already faded from common memory, just a few decades after its downfall. Thirty years beyond that, Kylo Ren is depicted struggling to understand the past, because the facts aren’t readily available.
Star Wars: Legacy of Vader#7 brings Kylo face-to-face witha Jedi who survived Order 66, and she questions whether he even knows what it was. Earlier issues have shown that the Supreme Leader of the First Order lacks valuable knowledge of historicalfigures like Palpatine, and even his own grandfather, Darth Vader.
What this amounts to is the suggestion that history is poorly recorded in theStar WarsUniverse, and that facts are easily manipulated, with disinformation and false narratives easy to spread across the vast interstellar distances that make up civilization. The result is a franchise that embodies the classic saying, “those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it.”
In The Hands Of Palpatine’s Galactic Empire, History Was Just Another Superweapon
Control Of The Historical Narrative Was Key To Palpatine’s Reign
Kylo Ren’s historical reckoning inLegacy of Vaderspeaks to the effectiveness with which Palpatine’s Empire was able to rewrite history after the Clone Wars. Of course, much of this focused on the Jedi, who were simultaneously branded as traitors, and also written out of existence as much as possible, to the point where they became semi-legendary within a single generation.
The scope of this, when applied to the whole galaxy, is hard for manyStar Warsfans to comprehend, but in fact, that likely aided the Empire’s efforts. Consider the fact that in many parts of the galaxy, Jedi would have already been looked at as distant, almost mythical figures, rather than flesh-and-blood beings.
Star Warsstories are so often Jedi-centricit can be hard to remember that even at their height, the Order’s numbers were miniscule in comparison to the total population of the galaxy. Further, the Jedi kept their own history. Once the Imperials destroyed, or at least suppressed that, it was likely surprisingly easy to manipulate galactic perception of the Order.
Though it is less extensivelycovered inStar Warslore, it is clear that this process of historical revisionism extended beyond just the Jedi, to the history of the Republic, and the circumstances of the Emperor’s ascension as well. Of course, in a very real world parallel, this revisionism was all toward the purpose of the Empire glorifying and justifying itself.
As Kylo Ren Uncovers The Past, Star Wars Has The Opportunity To Be More Relevant To The Present Than Ever
HowStar WarsUnintentionally Became Social Commentary
Star Wars: Legacy of Vaderraises fascinating questions about history in theStar Warsgalaxy, and the short answer is that it seems the scale of galactic civilization makes it difficult for historians to propagate a detailed record of the facts. Which, in turn, made it easy for the Empire to spin its own account.
The consequences of this are adriving factor inLegacy of Vader. More than just the latestgeneration of the Skywalker/Solo clan, Kylo Ren represents an entire generation of galactic citizens who don’t fully grasp the tyranny that the preceding generation fought so hard to overthrow, or have proper context for just how nefarious the Empire truly was.
Of course, it wouldn’t be right to neglect the urgent way in which this reflects real life. Misinformation and lack of historical understanding are ever-present societal dangers, but they are playing an especially outsized role in shaping the contemporary world.Star Warsdidn’t set out to provide commentary on this, but that parallel has developed organically.
This is something the franchise should absolutely lean into;Star Warshas the opportunity to be arguably more relevant than ever by exploring the fractured understanding of history in the Sequel era of the franchise.As for Kylo Ren, it has illuminated that hisStar Warscharacter arc is even more tragic, because he didn’t realize he was repeating familiar mistakes.
