Upon a second viewing of The Force Awakens, I find that I simply can't swallow the idea of Kylo Ren being the son of Han and Leia. Genes just don't work that way, and we don't even see Adam Driver's hair adjusted/colored to resemble something that might have come out of the pair.

So my thinking is that his lack of parental resemblance is of plot importance: specifically, Han is not his father; Luke is, and Han and Leia adopted him. There is not a lot of evidence supporting this, but little to oppose it that I find (please correct me where I'm wrong). Here's my summary of the contributing evidence, followed by a brief speculation on what might have happened.

• The above-mentioned lack of resemblance between Kylo and either of his parents. Sadly, his black hair more or less rules out Mara Jade as we know her, but the potential for Luke to have had a child with someone in the past remains possible despite his Jedi role, depending on how much of his father he has in him.

• Leia blames herself for sending their son to Luke, saying this was "when I lost him." Given Kylo's skill in the Force (though granted one that pales in comparison to Rey after he exposes her to it), it strikes me as odd that the plan wasn't to send him for Jedi training as soon as the power was sensed in him, if not by Leia then by a still non-hermitic Luke, and that the safest place for someone to be if they did not wish to fall to the dark side would be by Luke's side, training with the other Jedi hopefuls.

• For Han and Leia, choosing "Ben" as the name of their son seems off: Han never referred to Obi-Wan as Ben himself, at least onscreen (preferring the moniker "old man/fossil" instead), and Leia only calls him that in response to Luke referring to Obi-Wan as such. Luke, however, continues to remember his mentor as Ben as late as Hoth, when the latter appears as a Force ghost in The Empire Strikes Back, still dated roughly 3-4 years after A New Hope. In fact, he only calls the man Obi-Wan once, when he sees him again on Dagobah in Return of the Jedi. And of course, the boy Luke has with Mara in Legends is named Ben Skywalker.

If this theory turns out to be correct, I think what possibly occurred is that shortly before Ben's birth (much like his father experienced), Luke had a Jedi prophecy that his son would bring about the destruction of the New Jedi Order. Kylo Ren's appearance as of The Force Awakens places his time of birth as occurring very shortly after Return of the Jedi, a time when Luke still has things to learn about the Force before he can call himself a Jedi Master. It's not that unreasonable to see him making the mistake here of sending Ben away from the Jedi, to be raised by his sister and his best friend. The only wrinkle here, is that he must not have told Leia the truth about why he could not raise the child, or she would not have sent him back to Luke. I feel that Luke is the kind of person who would only lie to his sister if he felt it were necessary, and it is possible that Leia would be afraid of raising a child supposedly destined to destroy the Jedi, echoing his grandfather's tragedy.

Adam Driver looks a lot more like a young Harrison Ford than he does a young Mark Hamill.

Genes just don't work that way, and we don't even see Adam Driver's hair adjusted/colored to resemble something that might have come out of the pair.

None of that ever matters in a movie really.

Also, there's no reason why Luke would give up his son. If there was some sort of force vision about him, then why would Luke train him? If he was going to send him away, why would he send him away to his sister?

Genes just don't work that way, and we don't even see Adam Driver's hair adjusted/colored to resemble something that might have come out of the pair.

None of that ever matters in a movie really.

Also, there's no reason why Luke would give up his son. If there was some sort of force vision about him, then why would Luke train him? If he was going to send him away, why would he send him away to his sister?

No, but there's generally some attempt to limit the audience's suspension of disbelief. Granted, it's not nearly as bad as Benedict Cumberbatch claiming to be Khan, but it's the analogy that popped into my head when I first saw Kylo Ren unmasked in the film.

I assume you mean why wouldn't Luke train him? Because if he wants to prevent his vision from coming true, he decides to send him away from the Jedi Order, which I am speculating is located in a specific place and that this is where Luke spends most of his time. As for why he chooses his sister, I'm not sure, though I don't think it's that far-fetched for him to choose the couple he trusts the most. The best specific explanation I can come up with is that he does so out of love: perhaps she and Han wanted a child but were unable to have one

Personally, I think Driver looks a LOT like Harrison Ford. They have really similar noses, the same rangy build, and the same naturally smirking mouths. They both have really intense gazes and great smiles that totally change the nature of their faces. I also can see shades of Hayden Christensen in Driver's face.

ren is not lukes son, rey is.

Because if he wants to prevent his vision from coming true, he decides to send him away from the Jedi Order, which I am speculating is located in a specific place and that this is where Luke spends most of his time.

Which could be anywhere, there's no reason to assume it's someplace far away from Han and Leia, especially considering how fast people can get from point A to B in Star Wars.

As for why he chooses his sister, I'm not sure, though I don't think it's that far-fetched for him to choose the couple he trusts the most.

And the one couple in the whole galaxy who are most likely to send Ben to Luke to be trained as a Jedi. By giving him to them, he is making it absolutely certain that they'll contact Luke when Ben shows that he can use the force.

So if there was a vision, and so Luke decides to send Ben away, he sends him to the one person in the whole galaxy is most likely to return him?

Also as Sitborg points out, Adam looks a lot more like Harrison then he does Mark.

ren is not lukes son, rey is.

Rey is Luke's son? Wow that would be quite the twist.

I think that Rey being Luke's is completely possible, but myself I hope she isn't, just because it would make for a more interesting story I think.

ren is not lukes son, rey is.

how can she be lukes son when she is clearly Female and actually Rey Kenobi, granddaughter of old Obi wan 'Ben' Kenobi.

Genes can work however they like in real life; I'm the only person in my family with brown hair. Everyone else's is black. It's even possible for white parents to give birth to a black child depending on ancestry. Nice theory, but I think you're backing it up with questionable evidence.

Nice theory, but I think you're backing it up with shady evidence.

Could we substitute "shady" with "questionable," at least? The theory started with evidence: having compared pictures of the three side-by-side after the first viewing, I see very little similarity between Driver and either Ford or Fisher. I did not know ancestry could produce such diverse traits as we see here, honestly. I always thought it was primarily parents (or grandparents) that pass these on.

In a moment of weakness Luke and Leia gave into the feelings they developed in episodes IV & V and Ben was spawned from that incestuous union, Leia raised the child as Han's but sent him to live with his real dad when he was old enough.

Snoke was somehow able to find the truth about Ben's real parents and that knowledge drove him to the dark side and caused the fall of the new Jedi order.

Rey is also Luke's by his wife, Luke confessed all after the slaughter of the Jedi and his wife left with Rey. The trauma of the Jedi massacre led Rey to block out a lot of her early memories but still gets occasional flashes of the island in her dreams.

Ben is Rey's brother by another mother.

Luke crawled under a rock and went to live in the middle of nowhere.

In episode 8 an unconscious Finn gets tested and the resistance are able to determine who he really is, when Finn calrisian wakes he goes on a road trip with lando to find Rey.

Lando, Luke, Rey and Finn return to cloud city (once again owned by lando) and faces kylo on the same bridge once faced Vader, this time it's Luke's turn to cut off a hand and say "Ben, I am your father"... Ben replies "I know". One of them dies and the other completes their journey to the dark side.

Hair color genetics is not at all straightforward. Even less so in a galaxy far, far away where there is a completely different set of physical laws.

Oh god, I'm getting flashbacks to the issues of Aang's children in Legend of Korra.

Maybe they should've forced Ford and Fisher to have a couple of kids back in the day so super obsessed fans could be satisfied 30 years later!

Could we substitute "shady" with "questionable," at least?

Of course we can! Done!

If the hair color is your biggest problem with it, lemme just say.

Hair dye.

WHOA

So, no possible resemblance at all?

So, no possible resemblance at all?

...I'm out.

I'd like to clarify: Sboom's commentary on genes being wonky did sway me, at least to the point of accepting that Kylo could have reasonably been born to Han and Leia. But no, you can't convince me that they look alike: there are no shared features in that comparison other than skin tone. Their irises are close in hue.

Can we not just say Lando is everybody's daddy father, and be done with it?

So, no possible resemblance at all?

So, no possible resemblance at all?

Assuming photoshop hasn't been employed, the resemblance is uncanny. They literally have the same mouth.

Combine young Han with young Leia and boom, Kylo Ren.

So, no possible resemblance at all?

Assuming photoshop hasn't been employed, the resemblance is uncanny. They literally have the same mouth.

Combine young Han with young Leia and boom, Kylo Ren.

Well that just gave me nightmares...

Can we not just say Lando is everybody's daddy father, and be done with it?

He fathered an entire legion of New Order storm troopers