For almost 50 years, Star Wars has explained the Force in the simplest terms possible. There is a light side, there is a dark side, and the Jedi and the Sith have spent the better part of the saga fighting over which one gets the final say.
That binary has survived three trilogies, multiple animated series, and more novels than most fans could fit on a single shelf. But not everyone in a galaxy far, far away was raised on Jedi teachings, and Lucasfilm’s latest release is a reminder that the familiar labels were never universal.
Marvel’s “Star Wars: The Fall of Kylo Ren” has confirmed that the Knights of Ren, the masked marauders who trailed Ben Solo (Adam Driver) through the sequel trilogy, have their own vocabulary for both sides of the Force. It is not a language Luke Skywalker would recognize.
Written by Charles Soule, “The Fall of Kylo Ren” follows Kylo and his Knights in the gap between Star Wars: Episode VIII–The Last Jedi (2017) and Star Wars: Episode IX–The Rise of Skywalker (2019), a stretch of the timeline the films skipped almost entirely.
Within its pages, the Knights refer to the light side of the Force as “The Shine.” Their name for the dark side, “The Shadow,” was established in an earlier installment of Soule’s work with the group, meaning the new series completes the pairing rather than introducing both terms from scratch.
“The Fall of Kylo Ren #3” goes one step further. In that issue, the Knights describe someone as “Radiant,” a term that appears to be their label for an individual who is sensitive to the Force.
It is a small detail, but it carries weight. On the big screen, the Knights of Ren were little more than background menace, standing in the rain and following orders before Ben Solo dispatched them on Exegol. Giving them their own language suggests a culture with its own traditions, one that sits outside both the Jedi Order and the Sith and owes neither its definitions.
The Knights are far from the first group in canon to put their own spin on the Force. The most recent high-profile example came from The Acolyte, the 2024 Disney+ series created by Leslye Headland.
Set around a century before Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), during the final days of the High Republic era, the show introduced a coven of Force witches on the planet Brendok. Led by Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith), the coven rejected the Jedi’s understanding of the Force and referred to it instead as “the Thread.”
To the witches, the Force was not something to be carved into light and dark. It was a single strand that could be pulled, woven, and shared between those connected to it. Notably, the Jedi in the series did not dismiss the idea outright, treating it as another tradition and examining the same power from a different angle. Interestingly, it has also been confirmed since the show’s cancellation that Qimir (Manny Jacinto) was essentially the first Knight of Ren.
That reframing quickly became one more entry on the long list of grievances aimed at The Acolyte during its single season. Critics of the show argued it was rewriting established lore, and the Thread was frequently grouped alongside complaints about the coven’s apparent ability to create life through the Force and the series’ portrayal of the Jedi Order.
The online debate rarely cooled, and in August 2024, Lucasfilm confirmed The Acolyte would not return for a second season, leaving the show’s closing cliffhangers unresolved.
The parallel with the Knights of Ren is hard to miss. Like the Thread, “The Shine” and “The Shadow” are one group’s interpretation of the Force, not a franchise-wide rebrand. The difference this time is the medium, with the new terms arriving in a comic book rather than a flagship live-action series under a far brighter spotlight.
The timing of the reveal is telling, as Lucasfilm appears more interested than ever in what the Force actually is. Ahsoka Season 2 is the next major live-action project expected to dig into that question. Dave Filoni, now Lucasfilm’s President and Chief Creative Officer, has indicated that the series will explore the mythology surrounding the Mortis Gods, the Father, the Son, and the Daughter, first introduced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Then there is the project that promises to go deeper than any of them. At Star Wars Celebration London in April 2023, Lucasfilm announced that James Mangold would direct a feature film set at the dawn of the Jedi, roughly 25,000 years before the Skywalker Saga, telling the story of how the Force was first discovered.
The movie technically remains on the slate. In the years since its announcement, however, it has seemingly been placed on indefinite pause, with no production start, no cast, and no release date attached. Should it ever move forward, Mangold’s film would be the first Star Wars story positioned to explain where the Force came from, and by extension, how terms like “light side” and “dark side” came to be in the first place.
What the comic does offer is a rare look inside one of the sequel trilogy’s most underexplored groups. Fans curious about the Knights of Ren’s past, or how “The Shine” and “The Shadow” fit into Kylo Ren’s story, can find “The Fall of Kylo Ren” at comic book shops and digital retailers now.
As for the bigger questions about the Force’s origins, those may have to wait for Ahsoka Season 2, or for James Mangold’s long-gestating film to finally return from hiatus.
How do you feel about the change to the name of the Force in this new Star Wars entry? Let us know in the comments down below!
