I like the ideas. Granted, it does give Kylo less of a reason to reforge his mask which Ascendant fixes pretty well. Then again, I never had much of an issue with that to begin with. I’d be curious to see what else you can come up with here.
Sure, Ascendant gives us flashbacks to ‘a creature in a mask’, but I don’t think that is a reason for Kylo to reforge it. If anything, I’d think Kylo would want to connect with Rey without the mask to interfere, so that Rey would view him as more of a person.
I think the most coherent reason for the reforging (other than rule of cool) is simply that he’s ‘serving another master’ but with an ulterior motive, so the helmet would mask his expressions while also visually signifying that he’s taking the role of Vader in Palpatine’s orbit. I don’t think we can get a deeper character reason, so to go from meeting Palpatine to the mask reforging would strengthen that concept.
Ascendent already does give a motivation with the Knights of Ren voices. Wearing the mask could partly be due to obligation toward his Knights. Perhaps the emergence of Palpatine, or this new mission to hunt down Rey, is sort of why he is doing it now and not sooner. But it could be a combo of the Knights of Ren, and like you said, signifying his role in Palpatine’s orbit, as you said.
Honestly, what the Knights are exactly are kept pretty vague, but I feel like you could elaborate here and there a little.
For example, when the helmet is being reforged, you can have one of the Knights say, “May our bond never again be broken” (I think broken would sound better than shattered, which I think is currently the word used in the Ascendent version). And then, as he is putting it on, the Knights could chant something like, “Long live the Sith”. Which I think would demonstrate that although they are loyal to Kylo, they worship the Sith. So when Palpatine reappeared, they are also loyal to him and would explain why the Knights fight Kylo on Exegol.
I’m pretty sure a new line does exist here in Ascendant, but when the Knights of Ren pass the stormtroopers in the hallway, I think it could be nice for the second stormtrooper could say, “Jedi hunters”, just to clarify what exactly their job description is. Sort of like the Imperial officer in Empire Strikes Back saying, “Bounty hunters. We don’t need that scum” to clarify to the audience who these guys are exactly.
Looking retrospectively back at the other movies, I think it would be nice if there could be some way to hint at Snoke’s affiliation with the Sith as well. Whether it be Snoke stating his goal to bring back the Sith, and/or someone else describing Snoke as a Sith cultist himself. It would make sense to do so, since he already walks and talks like a Sith. And, after Kylo kills him, Kylo explicitly says it is time for both the Jedi AND the Sith to die, which I don’t think Kylo would’ve said if Snoke did not affiliate himself with the Sith.
I think the question regarding Snoke is, if he was so powerful in the Force, why didn’t he proclaim himself as a Sith? Of course we know he was made by Palpatine, but what did Snoke tell Kylo about himself? At the very least, it did appear that Snoke saw Kylo as the heir to the Sith, or at least that is what he told Kylo. It would be nice if there was even a little clarification for this in the first two movies.