Legacy of Vader: Reign of Kylo Ren: Part 9
What is it ? : Annoyed at Tava Ren being part of the Knights of Ren, Kylo draws his lightsaber and attacks her, she defends, and the First Order Stormtroopers open fire on the person attacking their leader, but Kylo uses the force to push them away as Tava tells Kylo he is having more fun than he has for ages.
As they fight Tava tells him only she can talk with him about the secrets they've learned of the Shadow and he disarms her, telling her to remember how easy it was for him, and she smiles and asks if they've got anything to eat.
In private dining, Kylo asks her why she took control of the Knights of Ren, and she tells him that he treated them like garbage, she treats them like a prize. She tells him that after him the Knights met a gangster called Bedat, and became common enforcers for him, shaking down shopkeepers for protection money and the like. At that time she was an assassin for Bedat, and although she hid it, she could touch the Shadow which was useful in her role and she learned more of the Dark Side in hidden places.
At one point the Knights killed someone they were supposed to be intimidating, so Bedat threw them in a jail cell, so Tava killed Bedat and all of his forces and freed them taking control of the Knights.
She tells Kylo that she came here to kill him, which he asks if she thought that would work, but she tells him he is fascinated by her. She tells him she has changed that plan because she can see he is a free spirit, and yet he lives in a cage, telling him they are kindred spirits and she kisses him. But his reaction is to call security and say she is a fugitive, so she grabs her lightsaber and escapes into the ship. She fights her way through Stormtroopers, until she reaches the bay where her ship is landed, discovering it packed with a horde of Stormtroopers, so she grabs her ship with the force and crushes the Stormtroopers, allowing her fly away.
On the bridge, Hux detects her leaving, and asks for permission to fire as she races away, but Kylo delays while she jumps to hyperspace and they lose her. . . .
High Points : So this series is all about Kylo destroying his past, as he tries to free him of his destiny, and to a degree we see this continuing here, he's trying to destroy the Knights of Ren, and even though Tava isn't part of his history she's tied into that. And while she intrigues him, he still lashes out to destroy her, not wanting someone else to have his old stuff even if he doesn't want it anymore.
It really shows him as a torn individual, interested by Vader, interested by Tava, but lashing out to destroy his past to try to prove himself better than it now.
Low Points : Tava comes across as yet another wise cracking female character that we see so often in Star Wars, she's another Dr Aphra, and she's desperately trying to be another Mara Jade. But I've seen this character type so often now that it's becoming very boring, she supposedly instinctively knows what Kylo really wants, she is his equal in battle until she's not, a real Mary Sue type, knowing everything the writers want her to know.
And within the story, she's an expert assassin, who just happens to be Force Sensitive, who found hidden places which taught her the Dark Side of the Force. If a random individual just happens to learn this and become the near equal of Kylo Ren, it makes me wonder why Kylo and Rey needed any training at all, since you can just pick him lightsaber combat from a book, not from practice.
And the Knights of Ren are jailed by some local thug who has them shaking down protection money from shopkeepers? The mighty Knights of Ren are disarmed, locked in a jail cell, and need rescuing? It makes them look as weak as the comic keeps making Kylo look.
So what do you really think ? : This is dross, a waste of time. The story is basically, Kylo's replacement flirts with him and runs away when he turns on her. She hasn't earned any interest by doing anything, she hasn't an earned history, just magically being a Dark Side Warrior of similar skill to Kylo just by finding some hidden places, and the Knights of Ren which were made out to be such a secret and such a group of powerful warriors turn out to be a bunch of mafioso type thugs but in fancy masks.
The only one to come out of this entire issue with any type of credit is General Hux who just looks so disappointed that Kylo can't even bring himself to order other people to fire when Kava is escaping having caused chaos aboard the flagship of the First Order. He's staring at Kylo in disbelief, obviously thinking "Really, this clown is our supreme leader!"
Final Words : I really don't know why they felt the need to introduce Tava Ren into this series, they're obviously setting her up for future comic appearances, but doesn't serve this story particularly well, and she doesn't interest me to bother looking up future appearances.
These two issues could have been so much more interesting if they'd explored Kylo's time with the Knights of Ren more, if we'd seen him actually find some comrades, friendships after leaving Luke's training, seeing him finally fit in somewhere, then the tragedy when he throws that all away when confronted by Snoke would have been more interesting, the Knights themselves becoming broken would have made sense, when they were betrayed by their leader who they had some connection to. But instead we got this mess.
Score : 6/10
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