Unmasking the Narrative Failures of Helmets in The Force Awakens
Facial coverings are an intrinsic part of the Star Wars universe. Whether it’s Darth Vader’s helmet, the Mandalorian’s helmet, or the helmets worn by Stormtroopers and Clone Troopers — they are a symbolic part of the world created by George Lucas. Many articles could be written about the strengths and flaws of the Sequel Trilogy, but this article intends to focus on the untapped potential of the imagery connected to the masks and helmets in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This is a topic I have dwelled on since I first sat down to view the film in 2015 and a topic that has sparked my interest over the years.
““Covered by the mask and costume, the [wearer] loses his previous identity and assumes a new one.”
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Three characters in The Force Awakens are first introduced to the audience with masks concealing their identity: Kylo Ren, Finn, and Rey.
Kylo Ren
Kylo Ren’s mask is perhaps the most iconic imagery from the Sequel Trilogy. At the very start of the film, we are introduced to Kylo Ren as he descends the ramp of his command shuttle. He cuts a rather imposing figure; cloaked in black, with a hood drawn over the intimidating mask he has chosen to wear. Shortly before the release of The Force Awakens, TIME Magazine interviewed costume designer Michael Kaplan, who explained that J.J. Abram’s vision for Kylo Ren’s design was that his mask would “be something that a child would remember, you know, that would be indelible in a child’s mind.” While the choice was an intentional one from a costuming and marketing standpoint, there was also an undeniable narrative associated with the construction of the mask.
Later on in the film, after capturing Rey, Kylo Ren removes his helmet — revealing his face not only to Rey, but to the audience for the first time. In the director’s commentary for The Force Awakens, J.J. Abrams reflected on that scene by saying, “But when his mask comes off, you see Adam Driver, and he just looks like a sort of prince. And it makes no sense. Why would he wear a mask?” Indeed, why would he wear a mask?
In the recently published Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren #3 by Charles Soule and Will Sliney, a young Ben Solo first encounters the Knights of Ren, whose leader imparts this little nugget about his own mask: "Here. Relax. The mask's kind of intense -- that's the point -- but you and me, maybe we're gonna be friends. Snoke thinks so anyway." While Snoke — and, by extension, Palpatine’s — predatory nature in relation to Ben Solo is not fully delved into on screen, readers of supplemental materials can attest to the fact that Ben Solo was a victim of grooming and manipulation. His helmet was not just a tool to conceal his identity, but it was his way of masking his emotions. This emotional follow-through is actually seen in Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi when Snoke snidely tells Kylo Ren to "take that ridiculous thing off,” which prompts him to destroy his helmet in the elevator.
There was so much power in the symbolism of having him not only destroy his mask, a symbol of who he has become, but by killing Snoke, he has severed that connection to the man who had manipulated and corrupted Ben since he was quite literally in his mother’s womb. This moment was the physical manifestation of Kylo Ren’s quote “Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to.” But, rather than building on this pivotal moment, where Kylo Ren reclaimed his narrative, The Rise of Skywalker chose to walk back on this character growth. The repaired helmet served no purpose within the story in the final film, outside of looking cool.
Finn
The Force Awakens opens on a transport unit filled with Stormtroopers. Presumably, the Stormtrooper which is focused on in the foreground is FN-2187 - or Finn, as he is later named. He is indistinguishable from the other Stormtroopers, until they arrive on Jakku. As the attack on the villagers is underway, another Trooper is injured; and as Finn stops to render aid, the fallen Stormtrooper’s blood smears across Finn’s helmet. The crimson blood stands out in stark contrast against the sea of impassive white helmets. It is in the wake of this moment, in the aftermath of the bloodshed on Jakku, that Finn looks for a way out of his current situation.
Finn, like nearly all of the Stormtroopers, was a child who was kidnapped from a planet that had fallen to the First Order. He was a child-soldier who had been brainwashed by the First Order, yet he was able to overcome that conditioning and find freedom with the Resistance. The act of removing his helmet was, in essence, him breaking those bonds. He was choosing to no longer be one of the many faceless bodies that the First Order used. He was more than a helmet, more than a number, more than a mercenary.
Perhaps the reason why he was able to break away from First Order indoctrination was because he was “awoken.” While there are hints of his Force sensitive nature in The Force Awakens and even in The Last Jedi, it was only loosely confirmed in The Rise of Skywalker that Finn, like Rey and Ben Solo, was Force sensitive. This is one of the many ways that Finn’s storyline was underdeveloped throughout the Sequel Trilogy.
The groundwork was laid in The Last Jedi for Finn to lead an uprising against the First Order, inspiring fellow Stormtroopers to take off their helmets and be free. Much in the same way Kylo Ren turned on his oppressor in the film, Finn rose up — literally — against Captain Phasma. This easily could have been the call to arms, a battle cry for freedom for other Stormtroopers. Rather than pursue this storyline, The Rise of Skywalker introduced Jannah, another defected Stormtrooper (and potentially Lando Calrissian’s long lost daughter), who teams up with Finn to… kill other Stormtroopers in the final battle against the First Order.
Finn is also the only instance within the canon of the three trilogies where we see a Stormtrooper sans-helmet. The only other example of a Stormtrooper removing their helmet was during Leia’s rescue in A New Hope, when Han and Luke impersonated Stormtroopers to get close to her holding cell, which was ironically holding cell 2187.
Rey
Eleven minutes into the film, the audience meets Rey for the first time. Like Kylo Ren and Finn, her face is covered. Now, her facial covering is born out of utilitarian purposes. She’s scavenging, deep in the bowels of the wreckage of the Star Destroyer on Jakku — a desert planet known for sandstorms. It’s not until she exits the ship with her scavenged goods that she removes her goggles and facial coverings to reveal her appearance. This is a persona she has adopted out of necessity. She was abandoned by her parents on Jakku, left to her own devices to make a life for herself out of nothing.
Later on, Rey dons a fighter pilot helmet as she eats her rations outside the toppled AT-AT walker, Hellhound Two, that she calls home. It’s the only other covering she wears in the film, but this one has deep connections to her childhood. The helmet belonged to the pilot Dosmit Ræh, a figure which Rey idolized as a child. In supplemental materials, it is noted that Rey created a fighter pilot doll from the flight suit she scavenged, alongside the flight helmet. As a child, she wore the helmet and went on adventures — alone — with the doll as her only companion. Leaving behind these emblems of her past and setting out on her heroine’s journey, offered powerful imagery.
Unfortunately, The Rise of Skywalker leans into regressive tropes cleverly wrapped in full circle motifs. When Rey ventures to Tatooine to pay homage to the late Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa at the Lars Homestead, she grabs a piece of scrap material and slides down the sandy slope - much in the same way she did in The Force Awakens, when she departed the Star Destroyer wreckage in her face coverings. Rather than forging her own path into adulthood, as the heroine of the Sequel Trilogy, she ventures to the childhood home of the Original Trilogy’s hero Luke Skywalker. Perhaps it was an allegory for the way that we, as fans, cling to our own childhoods through toys, helmets, and other memorabilia from our beloved Star Wars. But it wasn’t necessarily the best path forward for Rey’s journey as her own individual, disconnected from the legacy of other characters.
Conclusion
Star Wars has always been a character driven franchise. The titular “war” is merely a backdrop to the characters and their development within the narrative. In the Original Trilogy, Luke Skywalker evolves from a starry-eyed farmboy into a battle-forged Jedi. In the Prequel Trilogy, audiences are invited to witness nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker grow in the Force, find love, and fall to the Dark Side as he becomes Darth Vader.
A rushed third-act redemption fractures Ben Solo’s arc; an unengaged storyline halts Finn’s potential; and a nostalgia-driven ploy reverts Rey to adolescence. The Sequel Trilogy failed to recognize the brilliance of symbolism in their initial character designs and subsequent introductions. Masks carry such deep meaning; the person who wears the mask is also considered to be in direct association with the mask’s spirit force. It is frustrating for audiences when the subliminal messages provided for them are thrown aside by the creators.
For these three characters, the removal of their masks meant freedom. Once Kylo Ren removed his mask, the pull to the light side — to good — was able to reach him. Once Finn removed his mask, he was able to escape from the First Order and find a new life with the Resistance. And once Rey removed her masks, she was able to set aside her past on Jakku and forge a new path for her life.
