Now let's go to the real point, is Kylo strong or not? I got confused, he seemed very talented with the force, then goes to have trouble in a saber duel with 2 untrained users.
Points to him being strong:
- He can stop a blaster rifle in midair, and hold it there for a good 5 minutes while walking around and talking to the stormtroopers. That would probably take a massive amount of physical energy to stop a laser with so much energy and a massive amount of mental energy to be able to hold it there while carrying on with business as usual. We have also never (to my knowledge) seen a previous Jedi/Sith do this.
- He reads Rey's mind. And Poe's mind. While this has been seen in previous movies, he clearly has great skill when it comes to mind reading. We have also never seen someone so directly reading someone else's mind.
- He pulls the general all the way across the room and holds him in the air in a rage of fit when he learns of Finn and Rey escaping.
- He is related to Anakin, and trained by Luke. While that doesn't automatically make someone talented with the force, it means he must be very genetically predisposed to the force, and he was trained by one of the best.
Points to him being a weakling
- He is unable to withstand Rey reading his mind. Although I suppose you could chalk this up to Rey being very talented with the force, rather then Ren being bad at it.
- He loses in a light-saber battle with Rey, who has no force training whatsoever. Though you could also say this is because of Rey's talent, he also just barely managed to beat Finn just minutes earlier. This shouldn't have even been a contest, as Finn has no force sensitivities, and most likely very little training in melee-combat.
- He is hit with Chewie's bowcaster on the bridge scene. No Sith Lord in any of the previous movies would be hit by a blaster rifle, because they could so easily deflect it with their light-saber. That said, Chewie is most likely very skilled by now, being such a veteran since the Clone Wars.
