I would say that the creature guarding the Wayfinder is critical for Kylo’s character arc. He tells him that he will discover his true self at the end of this journey, which is something I wish would have been in the film.
There’s never really a sense in the big print that Kylo feels like he’s rushing towards something in that way, although it could be interesting to build on the conversation with the creature by adding that. Have him assume he’s racing towards one destiny (being Supreme Leader Kylo Ren), then after his conversation with Han, he realises it was actually the opposite this whole time (being a redeemed Ben Solo).
There’s a playful meta to that which I really like - the creature basically points out to him how a character arc works. I’ll keep the idea in mind as I go through the rest of the book.
Yes that’s exactly what I mean. In TLJ he thinks he will only become what he was meant to be when he lets the past die. So when the Eye of Webbish Bog tells him he is about to become what he was meant to be, he’s thinking, “Oh boy, I finally won’t have to deal with all of these feelings of regret and pain. They’ll just vanish.” Instead, he ironically embraces the past in the end to discover he was Ben Solo all along.