Star Wars: The Force Awakens Visual Dictionary, Written by Pablo Hidalgo, “Special Fabrications” by John Goodson. DK Publishing, 2015. Hardcover, 80 pages. $19.99
“The Force Awakens” was released about six weeks ago now, and I still love it. I still don’t think it’s a perfect movie, but man. It’s fun. I’ve seen it four times in theaters, and I can see myself catching it at least one more time. Like…maybe calling in “sick” to work tomorrow. That’s actually sounding better the more I think about it. Anyway. One of the things I love about Star Wars in general is the richness of the worlds that have been created. And that, if I really want to, I can learn much more about them. So books like DK Publishing’s series of “Visual Dictionaries” that tell me more about characters, vehicles, monsters, and planets than the movies ever would or could–I love these things. Instead of a traditional review of this particular one, here are five things I learned from “Star Wars: The Force Awakens Visual Dictionary.”
Names of Characters
I’m the kind of person who needs to know the names of characters. Droids, aliens, bounty hunters, creatures in the background that you see for one fraction of one second — I want to know these things. The Visual Dictionary tells us about these characters. Especially the residents of Maz Kanata’s castle and Niima Outpost on Jakku. We get a longer look at them, their costumes, accessories, maybe a little bit of a biography telling us what they’re doing there in the first place. Some of the characters have novellas written about them and available as e-books, others are featured in the young adult tie-in novels, but here we get a good look at them. Some particular favorites are the pink mosquito-oid Dengue Sisters, the black-and-white clad First Order spy Bazine Netal, and the red-helmeted Captain Ithano at Maz’s place. Seriously, I could have spent another ten minutes there. I want to know these characters as well as I know Hammerhead, Walrus Man and Snaggletooth (and yessss I know their real names but I still call them that because I am also a product of the seventies).
Kylo Ren’s Lightsaber
Controversial from the very first trailer, this look at (and inside) Kylo Ren’s lightsaber gives us some insight into Kylo as a character. It’s “an ancient design, dating back thousands of years to the Great Scourge of Malachor.” …I don’t know what that is, but is Kylo — are the “Knights of Ren” an order dating back before the Sith? I don’t know. But he cares about these ancient ways, probably taught them by Snoke. The “crossguard” is actually energy venting from the cracked “kyber crystal” that focuses the power of the lightsaber into a…lightsaber. I like the idea that the crystal, like Kylo himself, is cracked and flawed and has a weird face.
Captain Phasma’s Armor
We all agree that her armor is badass. We all agree she needed more to do. We all agree that she didn’t die on Starkiller Base, and there was plenty of time for her to escape the trash compactor and get off the station before it blew. We all agree about all these things. The Visual Dictionary doesn’t give us much more about her, but it does tell us that her armor is “coated in salvaged chromium from a Naboo yacht once owned by Emperor Palpatine. Its polished finish helps reflect harmful radiation, but it severs primarily as a symbol of past power.” On the one hand, who cares? On the other hand, ZOMG that’s awesome.
Deleted Scenes
Remember when the First Order Snowtroopers boarded the Millennium Falcon on Starkiller Base, looking for Han, Chewie, and Finn? Or when Rey piloted their stolen Snowspeeder back to the base so the team could use their explosives to blow that place to hell? Or the significance of Constable Zuvio? Yeah, nobody does. Because they got cut from the final edit of the movie. The First Order Snowspeeder has Hasbro toys, it has LEGO toys, I think it has a die-cast toy…but you don’t see it in the movie. There are a few weird things like that, and the Visual Dictionary includes them, where the movie did not. Even in the book it seems like they’re a tiny part of the story, but it’s a tantalizing hint of what could have been. Also, I think the Snowspeeder looks stupid. So there’s that.
Hosnian Prime
This last part, to me, is the most important. George Lucas got lambasted for the amount of politics in the prequels, but “The Force Awakens” could have used a little bit more, just to make something make sense. In the movie (oh yeah, spoilers for this entire article in case you haven’t seen a huge movie that came out six weeks ago and why are you even reading this if you care about spoilers go see the movie you colossal nerd) Starkiller Base’s superweapon is used to destroy a planet and its moons and a fleet of ships, all in one huge blast. And it’s awesome. But we have no idea what was destroyed. General Hux’ Super Very Nazi-ish speech, complete with spittle, tells us they’re striking “at the heart of the Republic,” and it’s a very Coruscant-ey looking planet that’s destroyed, but it’s not Coruscant. It’s “Hosnian Prime.” It’s devastating, but until reading The Visual Dictionary, even after seeing the movie four times, I wasn’t exactly sure what had happened. Welp. Turns out instead of political power being headquartered at Coruscant, as it had been for centuries, now the Galactic Senate moves among member worlds. It would be like Washington DC moving from state to state periodically. I kind of like the idea of that. Buuuuut that’s where the senate was being held this time around, Hosnian Prime. So the First Order striking there was an enormous victory. Like ISIS dropping a nuke on DC. Which…I hope that sentence doesn’t put me on some kind of list. This little piece of information, possibly a single line of dialogue, isn’t in the movie. And for people paying attention–I want to know that. It would be like watching “A New Hope” and not knowing that Alderaan was Princess Leia’s homeworld, or that it supported the Rebellion. I mean, we should know this.
Anyway. If you’re the kind of nerd I am, and love knowing these things, you’ll enjoy reading DK’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens Visual Dictionary.” There’s also the map of the galaxy, and BB-8 schematics, and that old man who gives Poe the map to Luke Skywalker, and Rey’s doll (there are four pages on Rey), and First Order officers, and a good look at Han’s new freighter, and the Guavian Death Gang, and….
