Let’s go ahead and say this right off the bat: ‘Cool motive, still murder’ is the world’s biggest truth. I am not in any way, shape, or form excusing the truly horrible actions of some of my favorite characters. Bad things are still and always will be bad. However, how people find themselves on a darker path and what they choose to do about it is inherently fascinating and worth some further musings. This? Would be that musing.

For a long time now, I’ve thought a lot about the paths and lives of some of my favorite male characters in Star Wars. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about Del Meeko, Kylo Ren, and Armitage Hux who have all, at one point or another, found themselves on the bad guy side in a galaxy far, far away. One made a choice to be better, one fell to the dark side, and one never knew any other way in life. Their paths are uniquely their own, informed by their experiences, the worlds they were born into, and their choices.

Part I: Del Meeko, the Empire, and the Choice To Be Better

Del Meeko is perhaps the purest example we have of someone who joined the Empire but was never a bad person. In fact, Del Meeko is probably a better person than almost everyone reading this essay and that’s including me. Although he was born under the Republic, Del grew up during the rise and height of the Empire. “I’ve heard a hundred stories about the Jedi. They terrified me as a boy on Coruscant,” he says to Luke Skywalker when they become allies of convenience on the planet Pillio. This one line highlights the true power of the Empire and how Palpatine was able to so deftly pull the wool over people’s eyes. He offered the Republic’s citizens proof of an evil Jedi conspiracy, ended the war against the Separatists, and presented the “renaming” of the Galactic Empire as a move towards safety and security. After three years, the call of peace was undoubtedly alluring. In the years that followed, believing Palpatine’s lies was easy especially for those who lived on a well-off planet that wasn’t a victim of the Empire’s harsher tactics. Signing up for the stormtrooper corps would have seemed no different than signing up for the military in our world.

“I don’t think you can. There’s still conflict in you.”
“Of course there’s conflict in me. I’m not blind. I know what the Empire is capable of but what else is there?”
“A choice.”
“The Rebellion?”
“No. A choice to be better.”

Those were the words that changed everything. It was the first time Del really understood that leaving the Empire and its evil behind was an actual option. Before then, he may have been aware that the Empire’s methods were often less than perfect but the Rebel Alliance was portrayed as a terrorist organization, doing more harm than good. He’d spent time with the remnants of Saw Gerrera’s Partisans after the destruction of the first Death Star where he was shown both the good and the worst people fighting against the Empire.

It would take some time before Del (and Iden Versio) made the decision to leave the Empire but this was the conversation that sparked the change. He was shown another path was possible but the onus to take the first steps towards it always rested upon his shoulders and no one else’s. Del could’ve stayed with the Empire until the bitter end like his squadmate Hask but he didn’t. Instead, he and Iden turned themselves into the New Republic to warn them about the horrors of Operation: Cinder and then, when given the option, chose to fight alongside their former enemies to stop it. Now firmly on the path to becoming better, Del fought against the Empire through the final Battle of Jakku and went on to find a life of peace and purpose, never looking back wistfully at the person he’d been before meeting Luke Skywalker. Change happened because he was willing to put in the work.

Part II: Armitage Hux and The First Order’s Pervasive Mentality

In comparison to the Empire, the plight of the First Order’s stormtroopers is another story entirely. When the Empire fell, it splintered. Some chose to surrender, some went down fighting over the sands of Jakku, and some simply vanished. One group went into the Unknown Regions under the guidance of Grand Admiral Rae Sloane and eventually evolved into the First Order. The First Order is what you get when the remaining leaders of totalitarian regime take what’s left of their army, go into almost total isolation for decades, kidnap kids to indoctrinate into becoming nameless soldiers, and raise everyone to fanatically believe that their cause is just and that they should rule the galaxy.

While we don’t know tons about the inner workings of the First Order, we do know their propaganda was strong especially amongst their own troopers. Those who showed signs of nonconformity were sent to reconditioning until they were perfect little soldiers again. We know of only two stormtroopers who got away. The first is Finn who realized he couldn’t be a part of it the first time he was asked to kill people for the First Order. With help from Poe, Rey, and BB-8, he become a member of the Resistance and got a chance to figure out who he was as an individual, not a number. The second is Captain Cardinal who challenged Captain Phasma and almost died. His departure from the First Order was more of a necessity to continue living at first but he eventually fought for the Resistance’s cause. It’s through Cardinal’s eyes that we see how the First Order presented themselves in a positive manner to the stormtroopers and gave them purpose and security, something that would’ve seemed like a luxury to an orphan from Jakku. Breaking free from that mindset couldn’t have been easy for either man and their work to change for the better should be applauded.

Higher up the food chain, we have someone like Armitage Hux whose destiny become linked with the First Order from the minute Gallius Rax instructed that Commandant Brendol Hux and his illegitimate young son were to be extracted from Arkanis in the wake of the Emperor’s death. After the Empire fled into the Unknown Regions, he was raised and educated as a part of what would become the First Order, a fervent believer in their right to rule the galaxy. After his father’s death, Hux took over the running of the stormtrooper program and even held the rank of General, securing his spot amongst the leadership of the First Order.

It’s difficult to see how Hux could have become anything else but the person he is. He grew up within an evil organization and raised to believe that he was better than the stormtroopers and that it was his right to be placed above them. His was rarely, if ever, the hand pulling the actual trigger. The First Order existed in isolation. There was (initially) no Rebel Alliance trying to bring them down. The New Republic was simply, in their eyes, bad and by the time Leia Organa began the Resistance, those who came of age during the decades prior were firmly entrenched in their ways. No Jedi Knight appeared to show him there was another way in life. Maybe it could have made a difference, maybe it wouldn’t have. Ultimately, Hux is what he is: a not nice, ambitious person who is fine with murder and determined to end democracy in the galaxy.

Let’s be crystal clear on one point: Armitage Hux is responsible for the murder of billions of people by firing Starkiller at the Hosnian System. Their blood is on his hands and the hands of the other leaders in the First Order. Absolutely nothing can and ever will excuse that. Mass murder is mass murder no matter how you dress it up. If he’s still alive by the end of The Rise of Skywalker, the New Republic should absolutely try him for war crimes and lock him away. If, for whatever reason, he decided to change sides and to try and be a decent person, he’d still have to do a hell of a lot to atone for those horrors. Regardless of his upbringing, Hux’s choices were his own and he must carry the weight of that evil. Circumstances can explain actions but not excuse them.

Part III: Kylo Ren and the Rejection of the Light

And then there’s Kylo Ren. Ohhhh Kylo. Is there anyone who doesn’t have a strongly held opinion about Kylo Ren, whether it be good or bad? (No. The answer is no.) Born Ben Solo, he had every chance in the world to be a hero especially given his pedigree. While we don’t know much about his life before becoming Kylo Ren, we do know and can assume a few things, one of which is that his parents loved him very much–even if they weren’t there every single minute of every single day–and who would have taught him right from wrong. We also know that Han and Leia chose to conceal the truth about Darth Vader from him and the rest of the galaxy in hopes of sparing him that terrible burden. At some point prior, he went to his uncle Luke Skywalker for Jedi training and eventually learned that Anakin Skywalker was Darth Vader.

We don’t yet know the details of Ben’s fall. What we do know is that Snoke manipulated him and that Luke sensed the darkness growing within him and briefly considered killing his nephew, something Ben woke up to see and understandably reacted badly to. (The massacre that followed… much less understandable.) Like his grandfather before him, there was a moment where Ben chose the dark side and he did so knowing full well where Anakin Skywalker’s path took him. He became Kylo Ren. “Your son is gone. He was weak and foolish like his father. So I destroyed him.”

What sets Kylo apart from either of the other men featured in this piece is that he has been repeatedly offered the chance to turn away from the dark side and he has thus far always said no. Han tried to bring his son home and received a lightsaber through the chest as an answer. Rey begged him to save the Resistance Fleet after he turned on Snoke and instead, he asked her to conquer the galaxy with him. After she refused, he declared himself the new Supreme Leader and lead the First Order in an effort to destroy the last of the Resistance, including his own mother. If anything, Kylo seems to drag himself further towards the dark side each time someone offers him a chance to be better.

During one of their Force linked conversations, Rey says, “You are a monster” and Kylo’s response is a simple, “Yes I am.” Ben Solo was raised by Rebellion war heroes. His mother watched the destruction of her entire planet. This isn’t a case of a person not knowing what it is to be on the other side. He does know better which begs the question: how many chances does one person get? At what point does being party to genocide, wiping out entire villages, and committing patricide to name but a few become far too much red in a ledger for it to ever be balanced? How many times can anyone, even someone who carries the Skywalker lineage, turn down the chance to be a better and why must the burden of responsibility continue to rest on others? We may not know how Kylo’s story will end yet but so far, he has shown an unwillingness to work towards redemption and if there’s any hope of that happening, he’ll have to take the first step. And then the next. And then the next.

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So where does that leave us? (Besides in a galaxy far, far away.)

When the Expanded Universe became Legends and canon was given a fresh start in 2014, it gave the franchise a chance to add some nuance to its take on what redemption really means, particularly with Darth Vader. Some of the core messages of Star Wars such as the hope for redemption and the belief that goodness that may linger still even in those who we think may be too far down the path of darkness still hold true. Some people may be born and raised into evil and others may collide straight into it. Everyone deserves the chance to turn over a new leaf. But the burden cannot continuously be placed on others to make you become that better person. Redemption is not a simple thing, gifted by others upon a silver platter. If you want it, you’ll have to work for it and then spend the rest of your life continuing to work for it.

What ultimately matters most is how you respond when someone offers you a hand and a chance to come back to the light side. The true test of character is what you do when presented with an opportunity to be better than you are. You are the one thing in life you can control. Choose and act. What happens next is up to you.