In addition to making the timeline even more confusing, the Visual Dictionary for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has some valuable information about the just-released film in it, too. Including the location for a key scene early in the film, which remains unidentified in the movie itself.
As reported by Entertainment Weekly, the book, written by Pablo Hidalgo, reveals that the planet in the opening scene of The Rise of Skywalker, where Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) finds the Wayfinder that leads him to ol’ gramps Palpatine, is actually Mustafar, home of Darth Vader’s castle and also Darth Vader’s Really Unfortunate Bad Jedi Dueling Time. And it’s that castle that Kylo Ren actually invades.
Here’s the relevant quote, again via EW:
Kylo soon outpaces his stormtrooper escorts as he cuts a swath of destruction through the Alazmec who attempt to block his path to Vader’s castle — or rather, its crumbling ruins. Kylo enters the castle grounds with purpose, and finds an ark containing an artefact that will lead him to answers.
The Alazmec are the creatures he’s fighting, by the way, which is, again, not explained in the movies. Hm. But, yes: they’re “cult colonists” who have come to Mustafar “in pilgrimage seeking to tap into the powers that supposedly fuelled him.” The him being, presumably, Darth Vader, and the power being the resonant source of Dark Side energy upon which Vader built his castle.
Vader’s castle, and Mustafar in general, has been a major setting of the Star Wars canon since Disney took over, with the comics exploring the construction of the castle and Vader’s purposes in building it at the site of his greatest defeat. The recent VR story Vader Immortal delves even deeper into the castle, and the history and future of Mustafar. Knowing now that it plays a role in The Rise of Skywalker, the importance of those little bits of canon seems even more substantial. Seeing some honest-to-God Dark Side cultists like the ones discussed in the novels is neat, too.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Visual Dictionary is on sale now, and The Rise of Skywalker is in theatres.