Kylo Ren is the perfect villain for Star Wars' latest trilogy, though it helps that he carries a particularly menacing weapon.
Outfitted with an almost medieval-looking crossguard - a first for the franchise - Ren's blade marks a discernible shift away from traditional Sith ornaments both visually and audibly. When ignited, Ren's blade sounds almost as if it snarls, containing within it a kind of energy traditional lightsabers wouldn't really be able to hold.
And that's what makes it so interesting. Based in part on an ancient Sith relic, Kylo's weapon encapsulates all there is to know about the character, from his worship of Sith lore to his increasingly pitiful attempts to live-up to his deceased grandfather. It's heavy, impractical, and on the cusp of blowing up in his face - everything a wannabe Sith would look for in a blade.
It does look great though, and while the design raised a few eyebrows at first, it's become one of the defining features of the new trilogy, and one everyone can rally behind at that.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
