One of the weirdest things about Kylo Ren is that he spends so much time worshipping Darth Vader, when Vader himself would probably hate what Kylo was doing.
Vader’s final act was saving his son and turning against Palpatine. Kylo knew the legend, but he seemed obsessed with only one part of it, the mask, the fear, the darkness, and the idea of finishing what Vader started.
So if Anakin could still appear after death as a Force ghost, why didn’t he ever show up to his own grandson and tell him he was following the wrong path?
Kylo Was Looking For Darth Vader, Not Anakin Skywalker
He was reaching out to Darth Vader, or at least the version of Vader he wanted to believe in. In The Force Awakens, Kylo speaks to Vader’s burned helmet and says, “Show me again, the power of the darkness.” He also says he will finish what Vader started. That tells us exactly what Kylo wanted from his grandfather. He was not asking Anakin for the truth. He was asking Vader to help him bury the light inside himself.
That is why Anakin showing up would not have been some easy fix. Kylo was not interested in the man who saved Luke and turned against Palpatine. He was obsessed with the mask, the fear, the power, and the part of Vader’s story that made him feel stronger. He took the darkest part of Anakin’s life and treated it like the whole legacy.
And that obsession was exactly what Palpatine used against him. In The Rise of Skywalker, Palpatine tells Kylo, “I have been every voice you have ever heard inside your head.” So while Kylo thought he was being guided by Vader’s darkness, the truth was even worse. The same Sith Lord who destroyed Anakin Skywalker was now using Vader’s image to poison Ben Solo too.
The Force Awakens novelization makes this even clearer. In the book, Snoke does not describe Vader’s final choice as redemption. He treats it like failure. He says Vader made a “foolish error of judgment” and says the Empire would have survived if “the father had killed the son.” Kylo’s answer is not to defend Anakin or question Snoke. He tells him, “I am immune to the light,” and says he will not be seduced.
Force Ghosts Can Guide People, But They Cannot Choose For Them
When Obi-Wan appears to Luke, he gives guidance. He tells him to go to Dagobah. He helps point him toward Yoda. But Obi-Wan does not make Luke become a Jedi. Luke still has to choose it himself. Even when Luke rushes to Bespin and ignores the warning, Obi-Wan and Yoda cannot simply stop him.
The same thing happens later with Yoda on Ahch-To. Yoda appears when Luke is lost, angry, and ready to let the Jedi end. He teaches him, but he does not take Luke’s choice away. Luke still has to decide whether he will stand up again and help the Resistance.
Qui-Gon’s return to Obi-Wan shows the same limit in a different way. For years after Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan wanted to reach his old master, but Qui-Gon did not simply appear and fix him. In Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon only appears after Obi-Wan has faced Vader again, let go of some of his guilt, and found his way back to the Force.
When Qui-Gon finally shows himself, he tells Obi-Wan, “I was always here, Obi-Wan. You just were not ready to see.”
That line matters for Kylo too. A Force ghost can be present, but the person still has to be ready to listen.
That is why Anakin’s Force ghost could not just appear in front of Kylo Ren and fix him with one sentence. He could have warned him. He could have told him Vader’s path only led to pain. He could have told him that saving Luke was not weakness, it was the one good choice that finally freed him from Palpatine. But Kylo still would have had to accept it.
And that was the problem. Kylo spent years trying to kill the light inside himself. He killed Han Solo because he believed it would make him stronger. He rejected Luke. He rejected Leia’s love again and again. So even if Anakin had appeared, Kylo was not in a place where one warning would suddenly undo everything Snoke and Palpatine had planted in him.