Star Wars secretly confirmed that Kylo Ren was never meant for the dark side. Having been seduced by Snoke before the events of The Force Awakens, Ben Solo left carnage in his wake after he chose to leave his uncle Luke Skywalker and become Kylo Ren. However, departing the light and fully embracing the dark was never an easy path for Ben, an idea that’s further been proven by a Star Wars show set over 150 years before he was even born.

As pointed out by X user @ebongawk, the ease with which Osha Aniseya bleeds her former Jedi master’s kyber crystal from blue to red in The Acolyte’s finale likely communicates volumes about Kylo Ren’s own experience. In comparison, Ben Solo bleeding his own piece of blue kyber was a far more difficult task:

seeing how easy it was for Osha to bleed her Kyber made me think of how *difficult* of a time Ben had bleeding his own. to the point that he had to crush his crystal in half, making himself bleed and permanently destabilizing his own lightsaber. he was never meant for Darkness. pic.twitter.com/BdWbUX0RYr — Tricia 🥔 (@ebongawk) August 18, 2024

Keeping this in mind, it does seem as though the struggle to bleed his kyber crystal further proves that Ben was never meant for the darkness as others were, considering his ongoing resistance as he fought to stay away from the light’s pull ahead of The Rise of Skywalker.

Ben Solo Found It So Much Harder Than Osha To Bleed A Kyber Crystal

Becoming Kylo Ren Wasn’t Easy

As seen in the canonical series The Rise of Kylo Ren by Charles Soule and Will Sliney, Ben Solo carried deep regret for what happened to his uncle’s Jedi academy on Ossus. However, he continued on his new path of darkness in his determination to be reborn as Kylo Ren with guidance from Snoke. After killing both the preceding leader of the Knights of Ren and some of his fellow Jedi students, Ben bled his own blue kyber, a traditional initiation of the Sith and dark side users.

Clenching the kyber in his hand, Ben had great difficulty compared to Ohsa’s far more seamless lightsaber transition as seen in The Acolyte. He even cut his hand and was bleeding himself from gripping the crystal so hard. As such, one could argue that the great effort required was one of the first signs that Ben Solo was never meant to fully embrace the dark side, no matter how much he believed he wanted to.

Ben Solo Even Cracked The Kyber Trying To Bleed It

A Representation Of His Inner Conflict

While Kylo Ren was ultimately successful in bleeding his kyber, the effort did significantly crack the crystal itself. This explains the need for Kylo Ren’s unique lightsaber design with its dual crossguard vents to help manage the blade’s unique instability. At any rate, The Acolyte having the first live-action depiction of kyber bleeding does support the idea that the light’s call to Ben Solo was always quite strong, considering how hard it was to bleed his own kyber in comparison to Osha.

All episodes of The Acolyte are now streaming on Disney+.