Star Wars: The Force Awakenshas been in theaters for just over two weeks, and, by now, many fans have surely visited their local theater multiple times to watch this big screen adventure over and over again. One reason for multiple viewings could be to find hidden answers for the severalunanswered questionsin directorJ.J. Abrams' blockbuster. As it turns out, one of those questions may have already been answered, in one of the Journey toStar Wars: The Force Awakensbook series. Be warned, if you haven’t seenStar Wars: The Force Awakensquite yet, there will be MASSIVE SPOILERS below, so read on at your own risk.
The unanswered question we’re referring to revolves around the presence ofDarth Vader’s burnt helmet, which Kylo Ren is seen talking to inStar Wars: The Force Awakens. The new villain, who we learn later is in fact the grandson of Darth Vader and the son of Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), is seemingly obsessed with the Sith lord, claiming he’ll finish what Vader started. What remains unclear is how Kylo Ren even came into the possession of Darth’s helmet. According toStar Wars Minute, the answer lies within a short story released in November, as part of the Journey toStar Wars: The Force Awakensseries.
The story, entitledThe Perfect WeaponbyDelilah S. Dawson, centers on Bazine Netal, played by Anna Brewster inStar Wars: The Force Awakens, a character seen in Maz Kanata’s bar who tells theFirst Orderabout Finn and Rey’s whereabouts. In the short story, Bazine is hired by a mysterious person to retrieve a package from an old psychiatric ward, that used to house former Stormtroopers. She finds the package in the room that used to belong to Jor Tribulus, who was a captain at the Battle of Endor shown inStar Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi. The theory is that this package was actually Darth Vader’s helmet, and that Bazine’s mysterious client is in fact Kylo Ren.
The Perfect Weaponstory doesn’t explicitly state what’s inside the package, or that Kylo Ren is Bazine’s mystery client, butStar Wars Minutespeculates that Jor Tribulus “stumbled upon” Darth Vader’s funeral pyre after the Battle of Endor, and decided to take his helmet as a souvenir. It was confirmed before the Journey toStar Wars: The Force Awakensbooks were released that they would all be part of the officialStar Warscanon. Now thatStar Wars: The Force Awakenshas hit theaters, and we have just over a year and a half untilStar Wars: Episode VIIIarrives in May 2017, perhaps another short story will be released that confirms this theory.
We know that anotherStar Wars: The Force Awakensmystery will be answered in an upcoming Marvel comic book that is also part of this canonical series. Marvel’sC-3POone-shot comic will be released on February 24, and will reveal the story of why this beloved protocol droid has a mismatched red arm. A passage from the upcoming companion book was released over the weekend, revealing that C-3PO’s red arm was a “memento of another droid’s sacrifice.” While we wait to hear anything official about Kylo Ren’s connection to Darth Vader’s helmet, take a look at the video below that breaks down this theory in depth.
