Anna Daniels
Jannah’s likely parentage isn’t the only plot point made clear by Rise of Skywalker — The Visual Dictionary, and many of its more interesting revelations have the effect of canonizing tangential Star Wars properties, many of them Extended Universe works from before Lucasfilm’s absorption by Disney. Take, for example, the section explaining that the Sith Trooper legions bear the names of famous Sith Lords of the past: among these names are Phobos, Desoulos, and Revan.
Darth Phobos and Darth Desoulos were both characters encountered in the 2008 video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, which took place between the events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: A New Hope. Its plot deals with the machinations of Darth Vader, who trains the player character Galen Marek in the ways of the Dark Side of the Force with the intent to use him to assassinate Emperor Palpatine and take his place as ruler of the Empire.
Darth Revan is the main character of the 2003 RPG Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, widely considered to be one of the finest Star Wars games ever created. The game slowly reveals that the player, who begins the story with severe amnesia, is indeed the Sith Lord Revan; the player can use this knowledge either to defeat his former apprentice Darth Malak and save the galaxy, or to usurp his position to become the new Dark Lord of the Sith.
The fact that Rise of Skywalker canonizes both of these games is incredibly significant, as they have long been considered canon by the fan base. For that matter, it’s been heavily rumored since mid-2019 that one of the next Star Wars films to enter development will be based on Knights of the Old Republic, although this hasn’t been confirmed.
A couple more interesting revelations from the book: that Starkiller Base, the deadly space station employed by the First Order in The Force Awakens, was built from the remains of the planet Ilum (as seen in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars), and that the planet Kylo Ren visits during The Rise of Skywalker‘s opening scene is Mustafar, the volcanic planet on which Anakin Skywalker lost his fateful fight with Obi-Wan Kenobi and became Darth Vader.
Needless to say, the book is a highly interesting read, and it serves to illustrate the fact that Rise of Skywalker contained damn near too much story to fit into one film. At 200 pages, it seems pretty likely that there are a few details we may have missed in Rise of Skywalker — The Visual Dictionary… in fact, if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to go and read it again just to make sure.
Written by: Looper
