Yesterday saw the release of the highly anticipated book “Star Wars The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary” by Pablo Hidalgo. Judging by the fact that I got the last copy at my local bookstore, this tome appears to be one of the hot ticket items for Star Wars fans this Christmas. Here are five examples of the important questions that are answered in the book. Heavy spoilers contained hereafter – if you haven’t seen the movie, you’d do well to bail now.
What’s up with Kylo Ren’s lightsaber?
The negative nellies went ballistic when the first teaser trailer was released for “The Force Awakens” and featured a then-unnamed baddie aggressively igniting his sputtering lightsaber and having two crossguards come jetting out the sides of the handle. “You’d cut your hand off,” they cried, as if losing a limb in the Star Wars universe was some barrier to carrying the elegant weapon. Some blamed director JJ Abrams’ kinetic, jet-fueled film style for the lightsaber looking like it had ADHD rather than the clean, smooth look of the previous films’ sabers. So what is up with Ren’s lightsaber?
The dictionary reveals that it all comes down to a broken khyber crystal, the Force-imbued element near the top of the hilt of a lightsaber which focuses the energy of the blade. Kylo Ren’s crystal is cracked, which explains the unfocused, ragged look of the blade. The visual dictionary also describes the blade as being “serrated,” which bolsters the theory that the design aesthetic that inspired the choice could be old Dungeons & Dragons illustrations of nasty-looking serrated sword blades.
And the crossguards or quillons? The cracked crystal is the reason for them as well. Because the crystal is not as effective at focusing the energy of a lightsaber blade into a coherent shaft, the crossguards are a necessary addition, acting as vents and giving the unfocused energy of the weapon a place to escape. And, as an answer to the critics, the dictionary says that two crossguard vent shrouds protect the wielder’s hand from harm by the quillons.
So why would Ren carry around a weapon where the primary functional element is cracked? The dictionary doesn’t say directly, but given the collection of Vader-related items that he has, including the melted mask of his grandfather, it seems a decent guess that this crystal has a tie to Vader. In past books, the red blade of a dark side Jedi was explained as coming from the red crystal used in the weapon being made synthetically. One wonders if Ren isn’t using a crystal made by Vader himself out of his drive to be more like the Sith Lord.
If the Rebellion won and established a New Republic, why is the Resistance necessary?
When we last saw the Star Wars Universe at the end of the “Return of the Jedi”, the evil Emperor had been toppled and good had triumphed. So what happened in the intervening 30 years that led to parade grounds full of Stormtroopers and entirely new fleet of TIE Fighters and Star Destroyers? The dictionary gives some insight into the key moments.
After the events of ROTJ, the Rebel Alliance morphed into the New Republic, which continued the war against the fractured Empire until a truce was signed. A peace treaty referred to as the Galactic Concordance was signed between the New Republic and the weakened Empire. The Senate, which moved from the politically corrupt and calcified capitol of Coruscant to convene on the various system capitols on a rotating basis, passed a Military Disarmament Act in the belief that war was over.
Unbeknownst to them, the remnants of the Empire had gathered in the Unknown Regions of space, consolidated their power structure, and renamed themselves the First Order. When word of the reborn military began to make its way back to the New Republic, many politicians dismissed the threat as unimportant. Princess Leia Organa, however, saw the threat as significant and organized a private army called the Resistance. They establish their base on D’Qar, a planet discovered by a pilot introduced in the novel “Lost Stars,” Thane Kyrell, prior to the Battle of Endor.
So why was creating the Resistance necessary? In the minds of the Galactic Senate, it wasn’t. The New Republic still had a significant army left over from the days of the Rebel Alliance but choose not to engage the First Order, probably out of war weariness. They likely maintained that view right up until the moment that the sky of Hosnian Prime, the current host planet of the Senate, turned red and Starkiller Base converted the planet into a binary system, completely obliterating all life in the entire Hosnian system and the nearby Republic fleet as well.
It makes some sense that Leia, both Force sensitive and familiar with planet-devastating super weapons, would know better and create an answer to the First Order’s aggression.
What does Captain Phasma’s armor have to do with Queen Amidala?
Chromium.
Ok, so maybe the interesting part isn’t what makes it shiny but where the shine comes from.
The visual dictionary reveals that the chromium used to create the intimidating Stormtrooper armor worn by Captain Phasma was salvaged from a yacht owned by Emperor Palpatine. Before he took over the Republic and executed the Jedi, Palpatine was a Senator from the planet of Naboo, and a look at the royal starships such as those used by Queen Amidala shows a design aesthetic which favors the use of chromium.
It would follow that a man from Naboo would choose to have his own pleasure craft reflect the fashion of planetary royalty. So the sleek royal craft begets the politician’s craft, which in turn becomes a symbol of power and a statement of connection to the same politician who seized control and crafted an evil Galactic Empire.
What did R2 do during his very long nap?
We find out during “The Force Awakens” that R2-D2 has been mostly non-functional for a very long time, much to the dismay of his counterpart, C-3PO. So what is going on during his low-power nap?
It turns out, R2 is not only a skilled hacker but also a pack rat. He has saved most of the data from the many systems we see R2 plug into during the six Saga movies, over 70 years’ worth of data. His time in low power mode, the visual dictionary reveals, is spent categorizing all of the contents of those computer networks that he’s stored, as well as defragmenting “millions of exanodes” in his memory.
This provides another possible explanation for why R2 turns on when he does. It’s possible, though the dictionary doesn’t say anything directly, that he’s recently put together enough information from all the many systems, including the Imperial ones that Kylo Ren mentions were the source of the First Order’s copy of the map, to recreate the parts of the map leading to Luke.
Hey, what’s that thing called?
In the tradition of all Star Wars movies, “The Force Awakens” is filled with new alien races and exotic creatures. Not only can you find out more details about the deadly rathtars that Han Solo and Chewbacca were hauling to King Prana, you can find out the names of many of the creatures and characters on Jakku and, more exciting, you get a decoder ring for the quick visual tour the movie provides of Maz Kanata’s castle.
There is more to some of the names than meets the eye. Some favorites:
- The Dengue Sisters, the pink insectoid trio with long, mosquito-like probosces, a reference to dengue fever, a flu-like infection spread by mosquito bites
- RP-GO, a red astromech droid, has a component labeled as Burtt acoustic signaler, a reference to long-time Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt
- Kanjiklub, the second gang who boards Han and Chewie’s freighter looking to recover money they lent to the rathtar-hauling scheme, a reference to the logographic Japanese writing kanji
- A list of maneuvers the current crop of Resistance fighter pilots are schooled in include the Skywalker Swoop, the Antilles Intercept, and the Porkins Belly Run, the last of which being a reference to the departed Jek Porkins, notable for losing his life at the Battle of Yavin as well as being somewhat portly.
There is far more than $19.99 worth of information in this book, and this barely scratches the surface of the coolness contained herein. It’s available at bookstores everywhere and on Amazon.