Star Wars Chat Pack: What if Ben Solo never turned to the dark side?

Welcome to Day 25 of my NaBloPoMo Challenge, where I randomly pick a card from the Star Wars Chat Pack.

Today’s question is: What if Ben Solo never turned to the dark side? Would he still have a connection to Rey? Would the destiny of the galaxy-at-large be affected differently?

Ooh, this is a good one, and another Sequel question! But hard, because I’ve never been good with What If scenarios. Everything in the stories seem so pre-ordained, it’s hard for me to imagine if something was different. I see them a lot on Youtube and such: What if Anakin never turned to the dark side? What if Luke was brought up on Alderaan and Leia went to Tatooine? What if Padme didn’t die? What if, what if, what if….well, I dunno, lol. We’d have a completely different story, that’s for sure.

But this one intrigues me. I’m not sure why; maybe because I find Kylo Ren so fascinating; maybe because we never got to know Ben Solo; maybe because the concept of the dyad is so interesting to me. Whatever the reason, I’ll give it a go.

So first of all, if Ben never turned–if, for whatever reason, Palps never whispered poison into his ear–then I think perhaps his parents would have stayed together. It’s the pain of losing Ben that caused them to separate. I think Leia still would have become involved in the Resistance. She did that before Ben burned down Luke’s school and went in search of Snoke. Not much before that, but she did.

I think the Resistance would still be needed because the First Order would still rise. I’m getting a lot of this from the book Bloodline, by Claudia Gray, and it outlines how the First Order rose from the ashes of the Empire. So Leia would be a General still. What about Han? In the book Bloodline, he was involved in racing. Maybe he would have stayed with racing, or maybe he would have helped his wife in the Resistance, but I don’t think he would have gone back to smuggling. That was a knee-jerk reaction to losing his family.

So, Ben–he would have gone to Luke’s school. He never would have burned it down. He never would have caused Luke to question his loyalties. The school would have gone on, producing more Jedi to help in the fight against the First Order. Luke certainly wouldn’t have exiled himself to Ach-To. He wouldn’t be all “I failed my nephew and the Jedi Order sucks and needs to die,” etc.

So if Luke is not on Ach-To, then Poe would never have to go looking for a map to him, would never have gone to Jakku, would never have met a psycho named Kylo Ren and become his prisoner; Finn would never have been on Jakku, although he still might have had a change of heart somewhere else with some other atrocity.

So, no map in BB-8 going down to Jakku, no Finn or Poe crashing there. The Millenium Falcon would not be on Jakku, and Rey certainly would never have met Han. Rey would have just gone on with her awful life there, scavenging and waiting for a family that would never show. Or would she?

The other part of this question is, would Ben and Rey still have the dyad connection? I think so. Snoke claims he caused the connection between them, but I don’t think I believe him. Also, Palpatine was surprised by the dyad connection in TROS, but speaks of it as if it’s a thing. “Not seen for generations,” he says.

So they would still have the dyad connection, and because Ben never turned to the dark side, it would be truly what it was meant to be, a profound connection in the Force that makes them one. They get a glimpse of this at the end of TROS, when Ben goes to Exegol to help Rey. The whole lightsaber hand-off is rather mind-blowing, and probably just hints at what they might be capable of.

I think they would have found each other somehow. The connection is too strong and profound for them not to. Perhaps Ben senses it and goes in search of her. Can you imagine what they could do against the First Order, with other Jedi beside them?

But of course, that’s too easy. Our heroes need obstacles, things have to go terribly wrong, tragedy must strike, the odds must ever be against them–at least for a good story. It makes the triumph at the end that much sweeter. Maybe Ben would still die at the end, sacrificing himself to save Rey or something, I don’t know. But I believe they would definitely defeat Palpatine, just as they did in TROS.

Although it pains me that Han and Leia’s love child was manipulated and twisted to the dark side, it does bring more drama to the table (and borrows from Legends, as well, as one of their sons–Jacen–fell to the dark side). And Kylo/Ben’s redemption arc was satisfying.

What do you think about all this? How do you think it would have played out if Ben Solo never turned? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!