How Ben Solo Achieved What Anakin Couldn't
“I will finish, what you started.”
Those were Kylo Ren’s words to his grandfather Darth Vader as he spoke to his helmet, hoping to hear the voice inside his head once again. Many have wondered just what exactly that meant when he spoke those words to the possible dead spirit of a dark lord of the Sith. Was it to restore the Empire, destroy the Jedi, or become a Sith Lord? Well in a weird way, Kylo Ren may not have finished what Vader had started, but Ben Solo was able to complete a mission Anakin had begun all the way back in the prequels: the power to save the ones he cared about from dying.
Anakin Skywalker was tempted to the dark side at the end of the day because he wished to save Padme from death. The loss of his wife and the fear that it drove him to, to seek out the power within the Force to prevent this. Palpatine of course mentioned the power that Darth Plagueis had amassed using the dark side of the Force. Such power was very enticing to Anakin and thus he decided at the end of the day to join up with Palpatine and become Darth Vader. However, the dark side always has a price and he thus lost the one he loved, leaving him with nothing but a broken body and empty promises.
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Though this was not the end of Vader's search for the power of resurrection. On Mustafar, he would try many dark side experiments in order to try and bring Padme back to life. He built a massive castle so that he could connect with the Dark Side powers with the aid of an ancient Sith Lord from the past, Lord Momin. Of course throughout this time, his various experiments to bring back his dead wife failed.
When Ben Solo tried to take on Vader’s successive mantel, he did not think much about the reasons for why Vader turned to the dark side. He mimicked the basics. A Force user who enforced the will of a tyrannical force that wanted to impose order on the galaxy. In fact, he even went beyond what Vader did, killing his master and taking the power for himself. Something Anakin wished to do but could not. With the return of the Emperor, though, it seemed that the power to cheat death was found, at least from a dark side perspective. While Kylo Ren had no reason to restore anyone from death, he never thought that he himself might need that power used on him. Until his duel with Rey, that is.
On the Second Death Star, Rey and Kylo Ren dueled each other. It seemed like Kylo was about to win, but in a moment of surprise, his mother called to him using every ounce of willpower she had to say he could come back to the light. However, Rey used this moment of distraction to strike him down in the chest. He was wounded, pretty much in death, but in a moment of shock to even him, Rey healed him. Not through the power of the dark side but through the light. By transferring a bit of her Force essence into him, he was able to be healed and stopped from entering the realm of death. At least for a little while longer.
However, the dark side can also use this power to drain Force essence, and take it. For Palpatine was able to drain both of their life force, because they were a dyad in the force, thus restoring his clone body to full functionality, and thus restoring himself. But in the final battle, Rey was able to defeat the Emperor, thus destroying his evil once and for all. Though at the cost of her life.
Ben Solo, who had been taken out by the Emperor, was able to find Rey, lifeless. In a moment of pure selflessness, he gave her all of his Force energy. Knowing that the galaxy would be better with her in it than without her. Rey was restored, and Ben Solo passed on to be one with the Force, rejoining his family in the process in the netherworld of the force. By doing this act, Ben Solo was able to do what Anakin could never do: save the people he loved. However, instead of an act of possessive selfishness, it was an act of selflessness, making the ultimate sacrifice along the way.
Kylo Ren did not finish what Vader started, but Ben Solo did complete and even surpass what Anakin started.
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