Alright here it is. What happened to Ben?
Here is my full (ie long), complete breakdown of what I think happened to him and why heās currently stuck in the World Between Worlds. #bensololives
Here is my full (ie long), complete breakdown of what I think happened to him and why heās currently stuck in the World Between Worlds. #bensololives
First I want to establish: What is the World Between Worlds?
Because this is a very powerful and mysterious area of the Force and thereās so much that we donāt know about it, but letās look at what we do know. Itās been described as:
Because this is a very powerful and mysterious area of the Force and thereās so much that we donāt know about it, but letās look at what we do know. Itās been described as:
-A mystical plane in the Force that exists across time and space, linking all moments in time together. (TROS Visual Dictionary)
-A conduit through which the entire Force of the universe flows (Rebels)
-A conduit through which the entire Force of the universe flows (Rebels)
-A twisted ribbon lining the perimeter of all reality that allows for transit to any point across the cosmos (TROS Visual Dictionary)
-A conduit between the living and the dead (Rebels)
-Beyond the veil (Rebels)
-A conduit between the living and the dead (Rebels)
-Beyond the veil (Rebels)
So we have 3 planes of existence, and the WBW is quite literally a world between the worlds of Realspace (the world of the living) and the Netherworld of the Force (the place āwhere souls ascend after their physical bodies dieā - ie where the dead people are) It seems to be a
type of purgatory that one passes through after dying, on their way to the Netherworld.
We also know that people from both planes can travel into the WBW. We see Ezra (who is alive) enter into the WBW on Rebels, and we see Yoda (a Force ghost) also in the WBW.
We also know that people from both planes can travel into the WBW. We see Ezra (who is alive) enter into the WBW on Rebels, and we see Yoda (a Force ghost) also in the WBW.
Qui-Gon was also able to physically manifest on Mortis (a place directly related to the WBW) even though he canāt appear as a Force ghost elsewhere.
Letās move on to TROS and what happened to Ben. I will go in order of events as much as possible.
Letās move on to TROS and what happened to Ben. I will go in order of events as much as possible.
In the TROS novel Luke, several times, kept telling Leia that it was time for her to pass on. Luke, who is one with the Force, would have knowledge of future events and what needs to be done. But Leia ignored him for quite a while.
(Seriously Luke this is bad timing sheās in the middle of a war here)
Right before she dies Luke tells her āLeia there is only one thing left to doā and she finally gives into him and reaches out to Ben to help him turn back to the light. Leia uses all of her energy to do this,
Right before she dies Luke tells her āLeia there is only one thing left to doā and she finally gives into him and reaches out to Ben to help him turn back to the light. Leia uses all of her energy to do this,
and we then see Leia die. But her body does not disappear yet, so she hasnāt yet become one with the Force. Where would Leia be after dying but before joining the Cosmic Force? She would be in an in-between place: the WBW.
Upon dying there was āa surge of welcome from Luke, who was not aloneā¦ā (TROS novel). So at this point she saw Luke and some unknown person or persons, who welcomed her.
(Sidenote: this novel set up a mystery that one or more people were with Luke when Leia died, but never revealed who. This implies, especially since there is a āā¦ā, that itās something that will be explored and revealed at a later point :))
Fast forward to Luke telling Rey about Leiaās vision when theyāre on Ahch-To. Here is the full quote from the scene:
āIt was the last night of her training. Leia told me that she had sensed the death of her son at the end of her Jedi path. She surrendered her saber to me and
āIt was the last night of her training. Leia told me that she had sensed the death of her son at the end of her Jedi path. She surrendered her saber to me and
said that one day it would be picked up again by someone who would finish her journey. A thousand generations live in you now. But this is your fight. Youāll take both sabers to Exegol.ā
Several things to break down in here:
Several things to break down in here:
1. Leia sensed the death of her son at the end of her Jedi path so she quit training, probably thinking that if she doesnāt become a Jedi then he wonāt die. But what we know from literature about prophecies and visions is that theyāre usually tricky to decipher and often get
misread, and that no matter how much people try to avoid them they usually end up coming true anyway. So I believe that Leia thought this would prevent Benās death, but ultimately it did not.
Because the end of Leiaās Jedi path is not the end of her training, but the end of her life. That is quite literally the end of her path. And that is exactly what ends up happening. They die together. Leia doesnāt cause Benās death, it just occurs at the same time.
2. I donāt think Rey picking up Leiaās saber has anything to do with the prophecy. Leiaās path is her own, and the idea that Rey taking her saber would somehow finish her path and cause Benās death is way too literal.
Leia wasnāt going to become a Jedi, so she gave Luke her lightsaber so someone else could use it one day instead. This to me is completely unrelated to Benās death.
3. Luke then literally tells Rey āyouāll take both sabers to Exegol.ā So just like earlier, when Luke was telling Leia that it was time to die and reach out to Ben, that it had to happen at that moment, Luke *knows things*.
He knows Rey will need two sabers, meaning he knows that Ben will be there and need the second one.
So letās backtrack for one second. Why would Leia, after dying, not pass into the Netherworld of the Force at that point? Well I think that Luke, our resident Force ghost, who is part of the Force and who has been pulling the strings this entire time, and who
we know for a fact greeted Leia upon her death, told her what was going to happen to Ben. So then Leia would have held onto her lifeforce to wait for Ben and meet him in the WBW.
Moving on to Exegol. Ben gives all of his lifeforce to Rey and dies.
So where would he have gone when he disappeared? Well we already established that he would have first passed through the WBW on his way to the Netherworld. Where Leia is currently waiting for him.

(Also can Luke and the mystery person(s) (Anakin?? Han???) also still be there please? Ben deserves nothing less than his entire family giving him a giant hug. Thanks.)
So hereās where I run into a slight problem about what actually saved Ben. This isnāt a bad thing. The āproblemā is that there is more than one possibility, both of which work, that would have kept Ben in the WBW. The first option is that the dyad bond saved him.
The second is that Leia saved him, which would then also work in combination with the dyad bond. Iām definitely leaning towards this option, but Iām going to actually cover both of these.
Option 1: The dyad bond saved Ben.
It is established that Ben and Rey are ātwo that are oneā in the Force. They literally share the same Force. So how could Ben pass into the Netherworld and become one with the Force when half of his Force still exists in the plane
It is established that Ben and Rey are ātwo that are oneā in the Force. They literally share the same Force. So how could Ben pass into the Netherworld and become one with the Force when half of his Force still exists in the plane
of the living. That shouldnāt be possible. They can be separated with Ben being in the WBW because people from Realspace are able to enter the WBW. Those two planes are connected. So Rey and Benās Force should be able to exist in both of these places.
But the Netherworld is then on the other side of the WBW. These two planes do not touch. It canāt split that way. So after dying, Ben would get stuck in the WBW because Rey being alive is tethering him there.
In the novel we know that when Ben dies Rey feels like āhalf of her is missingā, but this doesnāt necessarily mean Ben is in the Netherworld. Because Rey felt the same thing when Ben fell down into the pit, which we know from the Visual Dictionary is where the vergence to
the WBW is located. In the book when Ben gets tossed in the pit it says āsheād vaguely sensed Ben falling, but it was like heād fallen out of existence itself, leaving her carved out and broken.ā So her feelings are basically the same in both of these instances.
So because of the dyad bond Ben is stuck in the WBW, and Leia had waited for him so that she could reunite with him there before passing on. When Leiaās body disappears Maz smiles because Leia, who has been dead for some time, finally was at peace and became one with the Force.
(Sidenote on the pit: I donāt think Ben went through the portal into the WBW when he fell down. In the novel it says he caught himself on an outcropping of rock. I think Ben was just very close to the vergence to the WBW, and it affects the area around it,
so now Rey canāt sense him anymore and feels broken. We know time on Ahch-To acts strangely because it has a vergence (TLJ Visual Dictionary), and ātime and space became near meaningless in exotic spaceā (TROS novel when Ben is traveling to Exegol),
so the WBW vergence points seem to affect the areas around them, and Ben was *extremely* close to the gateway.)
Option 2: Leia saved Ben.
What if Ben is able to die and this just breaks the bond? Regular Force bonds are able to break in death (Although I donāt think those people share the same Force the same way Ben and Rey do.) We also know that the bond can be weakened because of
What if Ben is able to die and this just breaks the bond? Regular Force bonds are able to break in death (Although I donāt think those people share the same Force the same way Ben and Rey do.) We also know that the bond can be weakened because of
the novel. āTheir connection had weakened when the Emperor stole their life-force.ā In this case - what would keep Ben āaliveā?
Weāve already established that Leia and Ben are both in the WBW right now. Well lifeforce transfer is a recurring theme of this movie, and Leia
Weāve already established that Leia and Ben are both in the WBW right now. Well lifeforce transfer is a recurring theme of this movie, and Leia
could have given the last of her lifeforce to Ben the same way he had for Rey. The novel letās us know that Rey learned how to do this from her Jedi texts, so Leia would have also learned it with her. Leia āsensed the death of her son at the end of her Jedi path.ā
The end of Leiaās Jedi path is now her literally giving her life to her son upon his death. So Leia would now pass into the Netherworld, which is why we saw her body disappear at the same time as Benās. And then because of the dyad bond and now having regained lifeforce
from Leia, Ben would still be tethered to Rey and kept āaliveā in the WBW for the same reasons I had already mentioned above.
Maz then smiles when Leiaās body disappears possibly for the same reason - because Leia had finally found peace, or more likely because Maz, who āknows the Forceā could sense that Leia had just saved her son.
We now skip to the end of the movie. Rey is on Tatooine, where we see both Leia and Lukeās Force ghosts. And Ben Solo is very notably missing. Because you canāt become a Force ghost if you arenāt one with the Force.
