Star Wars Fans Are Loving the Han and Ben Solo Parallels in The Rise of Skywalker

In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, audiences learned that the villainous Kylo Ren was the son of Han [...]

By Patrick Cavanaugh

In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, audiences learned that the villainous Kylo Ren was the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, though he embraced the teachings of the Dark Side and left whatever good existed in "Ben Solo" behind for good. Leaving his heritage behind is easier said than done, as fans have noticed that the character mirrored a number of previous traits displayed by Han Solo from former Star Wars films, with some Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker actions mirroring Han almost exactly. Check out a comparison of some of those mannerisms in the tweets below and see The Rise of Skywalker in theaters now.

WARNING: Spoilers below for The Rise of Skywalker

Throughout most of his appearances in the sequel trilogy, Kylo Ren had attempted to turn his back on his former identity of "Ben Solo," but once Leia had used the Force to reach out to him, the Sith opted to embrace his former self. When shooting a blaster at one of the Knights of Ren, Ben pulled off a no-look shot that mirrored a maneuver his father accomplished in The Force Awakens.

Twitter user @reyssben shared the above GIF comparison of the two sequences, which makes the similarities appear obvious. Twitter user @lexie_labollita then shared even more comparisons using GIFs from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.

The first comparison shows Ben shrugging in a similar way to his father, with both scenes taking place when the characters were up against various threats. The final comparison shows a slide Han does in Return of the Jedi and a slide Kylo does in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The context for these sequences is different, so it's unclear if this was an intentional callback by Last Jedi writer/director Rian Johnson, but it's hard to deny how similar the body language looks.

Given that J.J. Abrams directed both The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker, it would seem obvious that Ben's move in the recent film was meant to be a nod to the first entry in the sequel trilogy, with the final entry in the Skywalker Saga offering a variety of nods to Han and Ben's former encounter, which ended in tragedy.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is in theaters now.

Did you catch these similarities? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

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