I think the cross guard lightsaber should stay. Red is used by villains because it’s an aggressive color. It generally works when designing a villain. Unlike Lucas’ prequel Sith, it makes sense for Kylo Ren to carry a lightsaber because he was once a Jedi (the Emperor specifically called the light saber a “JEDI weapon” not a Sith weapon). The crossguard makes it more similar to swords of religous knights too. If Vader was a samurai Nazi enforcer then Kylo Ren is a religous crusader knight.

I don’t know about using espionage and mirroring the Cold War. This is Star WARS (emphasis on WARS). The Cold War was called the Cold War because there wasn’t much of the usual kinds of battles where people shoot each other. Who’s going to be the hero of the sequel trilogy? A sports player? “Oh look out! It’s Kylo Ren, space Russia’s deadliest chess player!”