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Ben Solo's Fall to the Dark Side


Darth Wicket
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I just think it's funny that they named their kid using Kenobi's fake name.

That makes sense really. While Vader and Yoda refer to him as Obi-Wan consistently, Luke only really calls him Obi-Wan once in Return of the Jedi. Other than that, it's always Ben. It's the name Luke knew him by his entire life.

 

And, for what it's worth, Ben Kenobi was the more recognized name among the non-hardcore fans until the Prequels started getting underway. Plus the credits implied it was the correct name by formatting it as "Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi". Personally, I make a habit of calling Ewan's performance "Obi-Wan" and Alec Guiness's "Ben".

 

It always annoyed me more than Leia never met Ben. If anything, you'd think she'd honor her own adopted father and name him Bail if she were to name her son after anyone. That would make more sense to me. And wouldn't give it quite the same Deathly Hallows Epilogue quality of laziness.

 

Plus, hello, Bail Solo. Double down on that descriptive name by adding the power of emo to it.

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I just noticed something about ANH. Leia knows him as Obi-Wan, as per the message she stuffed into Artoo. Luke knows him as Ben, but doesn't make the connection that Obi-Wan IS Ben until he is spoon-fed that information. However, during the death Star rescue attempt, Luke tells her "I'm here with Ben Kenobi", and Leia replies "Ben Kenobi?! where is he?!" which leads one to believe she is either:

 

familiar with Obi-Wan and his alias Ben

Or

She immediately put two and two together...like instantly

Or

It's only star wars, and it can't be held accountable for such fine inconsistencies

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Seriously.

 

I'm glad she didn't name him Bail because 1) Bail Solo sounds really stupid, 2) Talk about sullying that name, 3) Most people would have gone "huh? who?" during that part in TFA, whereas everyone who's seen the original Star Wars knows why the name "Ben" is important, 4) yelling out "Ben!" sounds so much better than "Bail!"

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Kylo Ren had no original name until they were filming that scene, and Harrison Ford said "hey I should yell out his name, hey my kid's name is Ben," and Abrams was like "that's a Star Wars name, do it."

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3) Most people would have gone "huh? who?" during that part in TFA, whereas everyone who's seen the original Star Wars knows why the name "Ben" is important

 

Good! That would have meant much less snickering. It would have just been an Easter egg that didn't need to be explained to the casual fans, but could be picked up and would make sense to the hardcore. That's the butter zone for these things.

 

"Ben" was simultaneously too easy a reference in the realm of fan-fiction reveal, and yet still didn't make much sense from a character standpoint. Neither Han nor Leia were close to Ben Kenobi.

 

I'm not married to the idea of Bail, I'm perfectly cool with naming him whatever other random name you'd like, just not Ben. That was silly and another little piece showing that while Abrams kinda sorta got Star Wars in the macro (unlike his awful Trek which got everything wrong), you realize that it was a pretty simple and shallow impression.

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3) Most people would have gone "huh? who?" during that part in TFA, whereas everyone who's seen the original Star Wars knows why the name "Ben" is important

 

Good! That would have meant much less snickering.

 

 

Who the hell snickered during that part? Everyone in my theatre gasped, and then fell completely silent.

 

Ben Kenobi is the reason Han and Leia met, and he was important to Luke, so yeah, I think he's an important person to them all. *shrug*

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Everyone in my theatre gasped, and then fell completely silent.

 

Pfft, sure. You know, you really don't have to make everything so much bigger than life about the movie in order to defend it. It doesn't enhance your credibility, it eviscerates it.

 

 

 

This is literally the first time I've ever seen anyone have a problem with Ben.

 

It's been floating around since the movie came out.

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Literally everyone in my theater had no reaction.

 

Because it's a name. A fairly common name in the US, and very few of those people have been names because of Obi-Wan.

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Oh no! I have no credibility on a message board! :p

 

 

Well, as long as you admit that you're not to be taken seriously.

 

Literally everyone in my theater had no reaction.

 

Had one person say "called it" or something similar nearby, but otherwise nothing here either. Certainly not a theater full of gasps. Same person felt quite proud of themselves for knowing Han was going to die when Leia hugged him goodbye.

 

BTW, I was speaking of the post-mortems when talking about people snickering over the Ben name. Not a reaction within the theater itself.

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On my first viewing there were a couple gasps when Han got ran through. On my third viewing in the theater it was completely absent of reaction save for when Han caresses Ren's face-- somebody in the back row blew a heavy fart noise on their arm.

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I always thought he was called Ben jus cause it was easy to shout in one syllable. "BEN!" That and Ben is quite a normal, almost dorky name for a kid, totally stripping away the "kylo Ren" bad guy visage to this weedy little kid who is still mad at daddy. All in three letters. Which I thought was the desired effect. He coulda been Tristan and the effect would be similar, but it lacks the punch.

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Maybe he should have named him little Tim Tim.

 

Dude, Ben is fine. It's star warsy, and it's a simple little way to honor Ben Kenobi. Star wars is a simple story with basic character archetypes that have simple, clear motivations. It's Star Wars,not Game of Thrones. Expecting some grand nomenclature scheme is exceeding what Star Wars is designed to be.

 

Besides, Bail Solo is a stupid, stupid name. Nobody cares about Bail.

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It is amusing, though, that naming him Ben made Poe want to Bail.

Oh, it's pretty far down on the list of flaws with the movie.

 

 

 

Besides, Bail Solo is a stupid, stupid name. Nobody cares about Bail.

 

Sure, but Leia might. It is her father's name. A man who would likely be a heck of a lot more a hero to her than Ben Kenobi. I would rather be true to the character of Leia than have her name him something that doesn't really make sense. Furthermore, to Leia, it probably IS Obi-Wan Kenobi. Only Luke really thinks of him as Ben. Han didn't even like the guy.

 

It only makes sense as a cheap bone to throw at the audience. "See guys! We referenced Obi-Wan." I put it somewhere on the level of putting Pike in that chair at the end of the first Star Trek movie. I get what you're doing clever man, but it's pretty darned shallow.

 

Like I said, I'm not married to the idea of Bail. It's only a suggestion for a better legacy name. Though, I'm not sure how it's suddenly become a bad name when it's been around Star Wars since the beginning and is a fairly innocuous one-syllable name.

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