Note: Since each part of this multipart ask asks a different question
or makes a different point I will quote each part throughout the post,
and append the screenshots after a cut for those who want to view the
originals.

To preface, this series of asks is in reference to my recent prediction of what the twist in The Last Jedi will be. This post comes with a potential spoiler warning much like the original theory post.

On
the first part, anon, your quoted passage actually gives me more
doubts. If it’s canon that Kylo slaughtered the students, why put it in
such roundabout terms? We don’t even know if the passage refers to
ironbound canon or conventional wisdom in-universe. Even if it’s canon,
betrayal and moral responsibility can refer to a lot of things from
outright murder to giving information. If Kylo murdered the students,
why not say so instead of using wording that is open to broad
interpretation?

This wording could also work with a modified theory proposed by @tegdoh​ in this thread, where then-Ben unwittingly betrayed his fellow students to Snoke without meaning to kill them.

None of this absolves Kylo of responsibility, of course, especially if he covered up his role in the event and especially if he hid Rey away to avoid responsibility as I suggest. But the passage you quote, much like Han’s telling in The Force Awakens, does make me wonder if Kylo Ren as a school shooter is what we have been led to believe rather than what actually happened.

also stuff like the legends of luke skywalker confirm that luke
was already travelling quite a lot after rotj. i think his temple/school
was actually very informal and it was more of a community of people who
studied the force together rather than luke as a pt style jedi master.
this is purely my assumption but i always assumed he continued to travel
and learn after forming the school, passing his knowledge on to his
‘pupils’ (2/4)

Thank you for the information, and
that’s a strong possibility, too. Like I have said, I am fully prepared
to be (and actually hoping to be) wrong. I wasn’t saying the school,
whatever its form, was definitely gone by the time of Bloodline,
only that there’s no definitive proof that it existed at that point. It
just seems odd that Luke and his apprentice were out of communication
for such long stretches of time that it’s a source of distress to Leia.

Even
if Luke was traveling a lot, it seems to me he should have been at
least reachable if he was responsible for a school. And no matter how
informal the community was there was at least a building that could be
burned down and where the students could be found and slaughtered,
suggesting some kind of fixed location that Luke needed to be in touch
with.

Even if he didn’t have the kind of responsibilities
that required his presence and contact, there is still the question of
influence. Why had he faded almost into myth when by all rights he
should have a couple of generations of students who kept his teachings
alive?

(The rest under a cut for length)

also if rey was a solo why did han and leia send an infant to
luke? i think it makes more sense that if she were at the temple it was
because she was lukes kid and he left her with his students/extended fam
while he travelled i’ve also wondered if kylo dumped her on jakku for
whatever reason but if that’s the case i really don’t think he’s going
to be played as sympathetically/heroically as your theory paints him
(¾)

As stated in the post, the theory itself is
largely agnostic on these details and can work with just about any
parentage theory. She could have been Han and Leia’s kid visiting her
brother, Luke’s daughter who lived there, a Kenobi scion or Random whom
Luke took in and so on and so forth. It does have more emotional weight
with the first two scenarios, however.

Does my theory paint
him as heroic? Maybe he’s understandable as a response to trauma and
manipulation, and sympathetic for that reason, but I thought it was
clear that he is a very unreliable narrator and what he did to Rey was
horrible.

I said in the post that abandoning Rey on Jakku was
arguably abusive, but I take it back. There’s no argument, it’s abusive
as SHIT. In my theory then-Ben took Rey’s fate into his sole purview,
put her beyond all help by faking her death, and even tampered with her
mind. That’s control, isolation, and removal of agency, three major
elements of abuse.

Note that malice is not a requirement for
abuse. Even if he had the best of intentions, even if his heart ached to
pieces for her, good intentions don’t erase the impact on Rey in the
deprivation, loneliness, danger, and trauma she suffered. Maybe he
reacted badly in the first panicked moments after the tragedy, but there
was no excuse whatsoever for leaving her there for the better part of a
decade. And this isn’t even going into Ren’s later crimes committed
directly against Rey, those she cared about, and billions of others.

don’t take this is harsh criticism i like the base idea of your
theory i just think stuff like ‘he had to kill han to protect rey’ is
kinda garbage. imo rian is going to make him ‘relatable’ but at the end
of the day he’ll still be a villain. (personally i hope he kills snoke,
take his place, offers rey a chance to join him and lose it when she
rejects him). rian talks a lot of shit but i think kylo will be even
more in the dark by the end of tlj, he’s leading those troops to crait
after all 4/4

Never be afraid to criticize me, I
enjoy challenges. I completely agree it’s garbage. The “had to kill Han"
part was solely from Kylo’s warped perspective and it’s why I put “had”
in quotes. What he should have done was seek the grownups’ help and not
take matters into his own hands, especially in a way that irrevocably
changed Rey’s life.

I also agree that whatever happens in the
movie Kylo will still be a villain. Heck, I think my theory makes him
even more of one, just one with human impulses and feelings that should
keep all of us on our toes because no one is immune from doing evil with
the best of intentions. And I like your speculation, too! Very
reminiscent of ESB Vader, as I think the trailer was intentionally cut
to be.

also if rey was so powerful and being manipulated by snoke and
kylo was also being manipulated snoke when he came up with the jakku
idea, why didnt snoke ever go get her? she’s clearly very powerful in
the force, maybe even more so than kylo and we see in tfa and in tlj
snoke has an interest in her. if kylo left her on jakku i think he did
it of his own accord, not because snoke told him to. also if snoke was
in rey’s head why would he lose contact with her just because she’s on a
new planet?

Well, why not turn that question
around–why didn’t Snoke get Kylo? There could be a lot of reasons, such
as Snoke wanting to use her supposed death and the gnawing guilt of
abandoning her as a way to turn Kylo thoroughly against his parents and
Luke. Maybe she was too powerful, and Snoke feared he would not be able to control her without Kylo as leverage so he had to wait.

You
do propose an interesting possibility, though, so here’s an alternate
version of the theory: Maybe Kylo was the one who introduced Snoke to
Rey, and when Snoke touched her mind disaster ensued. Maybe Snoke did
want to get Rey right away, and Kylo wanted to protect her from him and
prevent other such disasters. We know that whatever connection Snoke has
to Kylo is not absolute–Kylo disobeyed direct orders in TFA and had
his own agenda–so this may have been an example of such rebellion. I
like this version better than the original, although it debunks parts of
the original (such as Snoke alluding to Rey when he said Kylo would
face a test with Han).

As for why Snoke couldn’t still get to
her, there are two answers: First, because Kylo evaded him as discussed
above, and second, because in this theory parts of Jakku have Force
properties that confuse Force sense and/or signature. Maybe this was why
Kylo stopped to stare at Finn after the massacre of the village,
because he thought he sensed a Force signature but couldn’t be sure due
to the area’s suppressive properties.

But why would Ben/Kylo
continue to be in contact with Snoke if he knew Snoke was a bad guy? For
one thing, Snoke by this time was effectively blackmailing him because
it was then-Ben’s action that led to the students’ deaths, no matter how
innocently. For another, I think then-Ben was jealous that Rey had
captured Snoke’s attention so much, and it was as much an attempt to
keep Snoke’s teachings and praise focused on himself as an attempt to
protect Rey. This would give him very mixed motivations.and make him
more of a bad guy than ever.

(This is NOT to say that Snoke’s
abuse of then-Ben under this theory was Ben’s fault, or that Ben wanted
it. Under this theory jealousy would be Ben’s response to the grooming,
the desperate attempt to get his fix in a situation where he was
increasingly being manipulated into dependence. Hurting Rey to get that
hollow validation, however, is a wrongful response to the abuse. Again,
this is all hypothetical of course.)

sorry my asks got so long winded! also don’t take this as me
thinking your full of shit or that i hate your theory. i actually think
the base idea is intriguing and wanted to discuss it a bit. sincerest
apologies if my tone ever came across as inflammatory

No
problem anon! I’m trained to take tough questions. I really wanted to
discuss this theory too, so thanks for taking the time to send the asks.
I enjoyed the conversation.

(Screenshots of original asks below.)