Destruction of the Jedi Temple

Following the conclusion of the Galactic Civil War, Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker stood as the last remaining Jedi in the galaxy. His Jedi Master, Yoda, had passed away after extracting a promise to impart his knowledge. His Twin sister, Senator Leia Organa of the New Republic, initially served as his student until a vision redirected her path. Aided by allies such as Lieutenant Shara Bey from the Rebel Alliance and the explorer Lor San Tekka, Skywalker sought out ancient Jedi relics and texts to deepen his understanding of their history and teachings. Skywalker held great aspirations for the Jedi's resurgence, believing that if a solitary Jedi could restore balance to the Force, a revitalized Jedi Order could maintain harmony and prevent the dark side of the Force from reclaiming its dominion over the galaxy.

In 5 ABY, Organa and her husband, General Han Solo, celebrated the birth of their son, whom they named Ben Solo. Organa sensed the potential for both light and darkness within Ben. Over the ensuing years, she detected the influence of Snoke, the Supreme Leader of the clandestine First Order that had emerged from the remnants of the Galactic Empire. In reality, the secretly resurrected Darth Sidious was orchestrating Luke Skywalker's eventual failures; the Dark Lord of the Sith had fashioned Snoke as an instrument of his vengeance. Sidious's Sith apprentice had been Organa and Skywalker's father, Anakin Skywalker, who ultimately rejected his dark side identity as Darth Vader by slaying Sidious, saving his son at the cost of his own life. Seeking to shield Ben Solo from Snoke, Organa implored her brother to train the boy in the Jedi arts. Solo embraced his uncle's tutelage, unaware that his family was concealing the truth about his grandfather.

With his nephew and a select group of other disciples, Skywalker established a Jedi temple to impart the Jedi teachings. Throughout Solo's training, Skywalker perceived the growing darkness within his nephew, yet believed he could contain it and steer Solo towards the light. Unbeknownst to Skywalker, enigmatic voices were grooming Solo for the dark side. He resented the burden of living up to his namesake, Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi, and his family's legacy, while becoming increasingly captivated by the dark side as Snoke infiltrated his thoughts. As his own power grew, Solo became convinced that Skywalker sensed and feared it, fostering resentment towards his uncle despite respecting the Jedi Master's abilities.

One night in 28 ABY, Skywalker approached Solo's hut to confront the escalating darkness within his nephew. Finding Solo asleep, Skywalker employed the Force to delve into Solo's mind, revealing a darkness far greater than he had anticipated, confirming Snoke's manipulation of his nephew's heart. In a vision, he foresaw Solo wielding a crackling red lightsaber, bringing death and devastation to all Skywalker held dear. Reacting to this vision, Skywalker instinctively ignited his lightsaber, momentarily contemplating preventing the future by ending Solo's life, a thought quickly replaced by shame. However, Solo awoke to find his uncle looming over him with an ignited blade; understanding what Skywalker had witnessed in his mind, he believed his uncle intended to murder him in his sleep. Solo ignited his own lightsaber and attempted to strike first. As their blades clashed, Solo used the Force to collapse the roof of his room onto Skywalker.

Solo felt betrayed by his uncle, confirming his deepest fears about his family; Skywalker had reacted to his nephew's darkness with a fleeting thought of killing him. With Skywalker trapped beneath the rubble, presumed dead, Solo emerged from his ruined room and faced Skywalker's temple. Under a cloudless sky, he raged in confusion over his uncle's apparent attack. He pointed his ignited lightsaber at the temple, demanding answers. Driven by fear and anger, he lashed out against Skywalker and his uncle's temple. He yielded to the dark side's power and conjured a storm; his pupils constricted in his red-tinged eyes, and crimson storm clouds materialized above the temple. He questioned their sudden appearance just before lightning erupted from the clouds. The storm he unleashed ignited the structures, razing the temple and killing most of his fellow students.

The temple's initial explosion threw Solo off his feet, and he rose to witness the scattered bodies of the fallen students. Despite his protests and attempts to rush into the burning temple, he was knocked down again by another explosion. He watched the temple burn, claiming he had not desired it. The disembodied voice that often communicated with Solo asserted that Skywalker and the Jedi had chosen this fate, not Solo.

Jedi students Hennix, Tai, and Voe initially survived the temple's destruction as they were on an off-world mission. Upon their return, they discovered the temple reduced to burning ruins, their fellow students dead except for Solo, who stood watching the inferno. They could sense no other presence besides Solo. Solo informed them that Master Skywalker had attempted to murder him in his sleep and was now deceased. When Voe expressed disbelief, Solo retorted that he was stronger in the Force than the three Jedi combined, even stronger than Skywalker. He declared the temple a lie that was now over. Tai's attempts to defuse the situation failed, and Hennix and Voe drew their lightsabers to prevent Solo's departure. As the three Jedi failed to subdue Solo, he used the Force to strike them with debris, stopping only after impaling Hennix. While Tai and Voe tended to Hennix's wound, Solo fled aboard his personal starship, the Grimtaash. The other Jedi pursued Solo in their starship Verity, but Solo disabled their ship's main engines with a precise shot. The three resolved to continue tracking Solo to uncover the truth behind the destruction. Hennix was bewildered, Tai refused to believe Solo could betray or kill, and Voe sought to bring Solo to justice for the murders of Master Skywalker and the other Jedi.

Following Solo's departure and that of his pursuers, Skywalker regained consciousness to find the temple ablaze and the corpses of most of his students scattered across the grounds. His attempt to intervene in Solo's growing darkness had instead resulted in Solo destroying his temple, murdering his students, and embracing the dark side. With some of his students missing from the ruins, Skywalker mistakenly concluded that Solo had slaughtered those who refused to join him in the dark side, and that the missing students had chosen to align with Solo. Overwhelmed by despair and shame, with only his faithful astromech droid R2-D2 at his side, Skywalker watched as his Jedi temple and the future of the Jedi Order crumbled into ashes.

After the temple's destruction and the deaths of the other students, Solo felt misunderstood and rejected. He fled to a space station to rendezvous with Snoke, who welcomed him. Snoke questioned whether Skywalker was truly dead and inquired about Solo's future plans now that he was free from Skywalker's influence. Solo decided to seek out the Knights of Ren, a shadowy group of dark siders led by the enigmatic "Ren" who adhered to an ideology centered around his lightsaber, the [Ren](/article/ren_(lightsaber)]. Tai, Voe, and Hennix tracked Solo to Elphrona, where he had first encountered and been invited to learn from the Knights as a child. In their duel, Solo attempted to kill Voe and unintentionally killed Hennix. Afterward, Tai inquired about Hennix's fate, but Solo dismissed its importance. He collapsed the outpost's entrance to prevent Voe and Tai from following him, then departed to join the Knights of Ren.

Solo expressed his desire to join the Knights of Ren. In recounting the events leading to Hennix's death, he claimed to have burned and destroyed Skywalker's temple. Though unimpressed by his tale, Ren acknowledged Solo's strength in the "shadow" and Snoke's endorsement.

Solo still failed to impress on the Minemoon of Mimban, where Voe and Tai caught up to him once more. Tai pleaded with Solo to abandon his dark path, but before Solo could decide, Ren killed Tai. Solo succumbed to the dark side of the Force to duel Ren; his fall was sensed by Snoke, Darth Sidious, his mother, and Rey. Lightning from above engulfed Solo and struck Ren as Solo impaled him with Tai's lightsaber, killing Ren and throwing back the Knights and Voe. Solo then murdered Voe with the Ren lightsaber. The Knights accepted Solo as their new Master of the Knights of Ren. With Voe's murder and Solo's turn, the destruction of Skywalker's Jedi Order appeared complete. On the Night Buzzard, the ship used by the Knights of Ren, the former Jedi bled his kyber crystal and assumed the name Kylo Ren.

Kylo Ren joined the First Order under the tutelage of Supreme Leader Snoke. Ren's betrayal and the destruction of Skywalker's Jedi students earned him the title of "Jedi Killer" among the First Order's ranks, although the wider galaxy remained unaware of the temple's fate for many years. Solo had eradicated the fledgling Jedi Order, leaving only Skywalker, but Snoke believed that Skywalker too must be eliminated to prevent the rise of new Jedi.

Ren idolized Darth Vader, the dark side persona of his grandfather. He struggled with the persistent pull of the light, which threatened to lead him away from his grandfather's legacy. In 34 ABY, Han Solo arrived at Starkiller Base and implored his son to return home, but Ren murdered his father in an attempt to quell his inner turmoil. Shortly thereafter, he killed Snoke and seized the position of Supreme Leader of the First Order.

Skywalker felt he had failed to restore the Jedi Order and protect his students, especially his own nephew, from the dark legacy of their family, and the thought of what his other students had experienced was too painful for him. He blamed himself, not Snoke, for Solo's descent into darkness, as well as the subsequent disintegration of his sister's family, and believed himself ultimately responsible for Kylo Ren's turning the galaxy toward darkness. The Jedi Master retreated into exile on Ahch-To, the birthplace of the Jedi Order and the location of the first Jedi Temple, intending to die there. He resolved to end the Jedi religion, which he believed had only a legacy of hubris and destruction in the galaxy—in his view, it was the Jedi who enabled Darth Sidious to establish the Galactic Empire and seduce his father, Anakin Skywalker, to the dark side.

Rumors and stories circulated about Skywalker's whereabouts, but those closest to him believed he was searching for the first Jedi temple. Both the First Order and the Resistance, led by General Organa, sought Skywalker and San Tekka, who possessed a fragment of a map to Ahch-To. The Resistance pieced together the map and entrusted it to Rey, a powerful Force prodigy, who used it to locate Skywalker on Ahch-To. She persistently tried to convince Skywalker that the Jedi's return was crucial for the Resistance to prevail in its war against the First Order, but he remained consumed by guilt. Meanwhile, the connection between Kylo Ren and Rey intensified.

When Skywalker initially recounted Solo's fall to Rey, he omitted key details. Ren inquired whether Skywalker had revealed why he had destroyed his uncle's temple, then offered his own perspective; Rey subsequently confronted Skywalker to learn the truth. Upon leaving the planet, she believed she could redeem Ren, while he believed she would embrace the dark side. The spectral intervention of Yoda freed Skywalker from his guilt, and he placed his faith in Rey as the future of the Jedi. During the Battle of Crait, he projected his image into the conflict to distract Ren with a personal confrontation, enabling the Resistance to escape certain destruction. The effort Skywalker expended proved fatal, and he passed away into the Force on Ahch-To; however, his actions amplified the legend of Skywalker and the hope of the Jedi and the Resistance throughout the galaxy.

During this period, Darth Sidious continued his clandestine machinations on the Sith planet Exegol. At some point, he recorded The Secrets of the Sith, a book that compiled his knowledge of the Sith and his own history. He described using Snoke as his proxy to turn Ben Solo against his family, the Jedi Order, and the light. According to Sidious, despite Solo's slaughter of the other Jedi students and his contribution to Skywalker's sacrifice, the destruction of the Jedi would remain incomplete until he killed Rey. Solo ultimately returned to the light, and he helped Rey defeat Sidious before joining the Force, sacrificing his life to restore hers.

The destruction of Luke Skywalker's Jedi Temple was first mentioned in the 2015 film Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens, the inaugural installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Although the event occurred in the film's backstory, its aftermath was briefly glimpsed in Rey's vision. The event's development and its aftermath were explored in its 2017 sequel, Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi, during Luke Skywalker's and Kylo Ren's flashback sequences. The destruction itself was initially depicted in The Rise of Kylo Ren 1.

Though they were ultimately included in the final cut of the movie, director Rian Johnson decided rather late in the process to add the three flashbacks depicting the events leading up to and following the incident; these scenes were not originally part of the screenplay before filming commenced. Drawing inspiration from the 1950 motion picture Rashōmon, Johnson opted to present the sequence through three distinct perspectives, rather than a single, lengthy flashback, as he desired something that would more profoundly influence Rey's character arc.

Before the creation of The Rise of Kylo Ren, Lucasfilm established a general outline through discussions with J.J. Abrams. This outline was then utilized by writer Charles Soule and artist Will Sliney to develop the narrative surrounding Solo's descent into darkness. Both Soule and Sliney understood that the destruction of the Jedi temple was a crucial event in the timeline, occurring before Ren's introduction on Jakku in The Force Awakens. In certain panels, Soule intentionally omitted dialogue to emphasize Sliney's artwork and Solo's internal conflict.

Before the initial depiction of the event in The Rise of Kylo Ren 1, Ben Solo was consistently identified as the one responsible for the destruction of Luke Skywalker's Jedi students, or both the Jedi Order and its temple. Some of these sources also specified that Solo set the temple ablaze; the fiery aftermath of the temple was visualized in both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, as well as their respective adaptations. Released on December 18, 2019, The Rise of Kylo Ren 1 illustrated a lightning strike originating from crimson storm clouds igniting the fire. The 2021 book Skywalker: A Family at War by Kristin Baver, a Skywalker family biography, refrains from detailing the exact moment of destruction, instead showcasing the events before and after without explicitly naming Solo as the perpetrator. The book offers an alternative in-universe explanation, stating that meteorological reports later suggested the fire was caused by an unusual "dry-lightning storm." Other materials released after The Rise of Kylo Ren 1 maintain that Solo was responsible for the destruction, without mentioning the storm. However, the Star Wars Encyclopedia booklet "Kylo Ren and Other Followers of the Dark Side" asserts, "Consumed by rage, the boy unleashed his full powers, generating a storm that ignited the surrounding structures and toppled the Jedi temple, resulting in the deaths of most of his fellow students."

Prior to Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi, no sources indicated that any of Skywalker's students had survived the destruction. Princess Leia: Royal Rebel stated that Leia's son "killed all the apprentices" before adopting the name Kylo Ren. In The Last Jedi, Skywalker mentioned that a "handful of [his] students" departed with Ren after he "slaughtered the rest." The Secrets of the Jedi further elaborated that Ren had "slaughtered any students who refused to follow him to the dark side." In contrast, The Rise of Kylo Ren 1 revealed that Skywalker was mistaken; three students who were not present during the destruction pursued Solo afterward, but all perished, and none joined him on the dark side.

Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know, Updated and Expanded claimed that the Knights of Ren participated in the temple's destruction, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi: The Visual Dictionary stated that Ren "led its destruction," implying the involvement of at least one other individual. The "Dark Side Servants" segment in Star Wars Helmet Collection 51 also asserted that he led the Knights of Ren in this act and included a still from Rey's vision in The Force Awakens, depicting Ren and his Knights in the rain. However, The Rise of Kylo Ren 1 did not explicitly show the Knights of Ren during the destruction, nor did it indicate the involvement of anyone else before Solo fled from Tai, Hennix, and Voe.

Two sources indicated that Ren's exceptional lightsaber skills prevented the Jedi Order's resurgence, and that he decimated Skywalker's students with his "talent in combat." The Rise of Kylo Ren 1 depicted Solo wielding his lightsaber in a fit of rage at the temple, but he did not engage in combat. Despite this, The Secrets of the Sith similarly stated that Ben Solo "cut down his fellow students."

Matt Martin from the Lucasfilm Story Group has addressed questions about this event on Twitter on multiple occasions. According to Martin, the statements in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary indicating that Ben Solo set fire to and destroyed Skywalker's temple did not contradict The Rise of Kylo Ren 1, as some readers believed. Martin pointed out that the series was still ongoing at the time, but he was unsure about the source of people's misinterpretations of the comic. He drew a parallel between Solo's subsequent reaction and Anakin Skywalker's reaction following the death of Mace Windu in the 2005 prequel trilogy film, Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith.

Martin's personal opinion is that Rey's Force awakening was triggered by "Ben's destruction of the temple and Jedi." He acknowledged that if there was any ambiguity surrounding the event, he couldn't resolve it through a tweet, but maintained that "the movie" clearly stated that Solo destroyed the temple. Martin refuted the claim that the "comics [made] it clear that Ben did not destroy the temple" and described the user's theory about Snoke or Palpatine as "one way to read it." When asked whether someone else destroyed the temple or Solo unconsciously did so in his rage, Martin responded, "The latter is more my read on it."

Martin has expressed his reluctance to "completely explain things like this" and suggested inquiring with the writer. When Soule was asked if there was "any chance" he would answer a question about the lightning strike depicted in The Rise of Kylo Ren, he gave a literal response, acknowledging that such a chance existed.