In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Kylo Ren proved himself a unique kind of Dark Side user, renouncing both the ideologies of the Jedi and Sith while expressing his desire to create something new from their ashes. However, in the overarching Star Wars canon, Kylo was not the first Force user to express that desire, as an even more unhinged former Jedi expressed similar intentions decades before: Jedi: Fallen Order's Taron Malicos.

A secondary antagonist in Fallen Order, Malicos didn't start out as a Dark Side user. He was a former Jedi and served as a general in the Clone Wars, becoming renowned for his tactical skill. Of course, that was not to last, as Order 66 resulted in the Jedi Order getting wiped out, as seen in Revenge of the Sith. Malicos escaped, fighting off his own Clone Troopers, but his ship was damaged in the conflict. This resulted in him ending up on the planet Dathomir, home to the Nightsisters, Nightbrothers and Sith Lord Darth Maul. This was the start of Malicos' fall.

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He was initially captured by the Nightbrothers and taken to their leader, Brother Viscus, but Malicos killed him and took control of the group himself, an impressive feat considering the inhabitants of Dathomir hate being dictated to by outsiders. During this time, Malicos also encountered the sole surviving Nightsister, a young girl named Merrin. He manipulated her by claiming it was the Jedi who wiped out the Nightsisters, desiring to learn the magick of the Nightsisters from the young girl. Malicos choosing to raise the young and vulnerable girl only to take power for himself showed just how far he'd fallen to the Dark Side.

Five years after Order 66, a young Jedi Padawan named Cal Kestis landed on Dathomir in search of the Zeffo vault that was hidden on the planet. During his travels through the planet, he encountered Malicos, who was trying to gain access to the same temple that Cal was. The Padawan eventually learned who Malicos was, with the Dark Jedi explaining his philosophy: He desired power for its its own sake, something that Kylo Ren and even Darth Vader wouldn't stoop to. Both of those Dark Side users genuinely desired what they believed was best for the galaxy, and refused to let anything get in their way. Malicos desired power in and of itself, making him more comparable to Darth Sidious.

However, during this conversation, Merrin appeared and revealed she had become aware of Malicos' deception, summoning Nightsister zombies to attack both him and Cal, driving the latter off Dathomir for a time. When Cal returned, he was met by Merrin inside the Zeffo vault, who revealed Malicos was also inside, pursuing the power he so desired. Cal confronted Malicos and tried to persuade him to help in his goal of rebuilding the Jedi Order, but Malicos countered by offering Cal a chance to build something better from the ashes of the Jedi, having completely lost any faith in his former Order. The two of them came to blows over this difference in a lengthy duel inside the ancient ruins. Thanks in large part to Merrin's help, Cal survived the battle, and Malicos was entombed alive under Dathomir's surface.

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In the end, Malicos became a victim of the power he had sought to claim for himself, like so many Dark Side users before and after him. Years later, Kylo Ren espoused a similar philosophy to Rey during The Last Jedi, in a mirror image of the confrontation that happened years before either of them had been born. And yet, even for all of Kylo Ren's cruelty, he couldn't compare to the depths Malicos was willing to sink. At the end of the day, Kylo desired power to bring order to the galaxy, like his grandfather before him. The only thing Malicos desired was power for was himself, displaying a mindset not dissimilar to Emperor Palpatine.

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