All New Backstory and Details on The Force Awakens from the Visual Dictionary.
The Visual Disctionary is a magnificent book that has tons of new information and backstory on The Force Awakens. It is written by Lucasfilm’s Pablo Hidalgo, who among other things is a member of the LFL Story Group, responsible for the new cohesive Star Wars canon. In this article we will try to cover the most interesting tidbits that the book offered, which were not addressed in the movie.
This book is more like a supplemental companion to the movie, instead of a standalone read. The book mainly tries to explain many things not addressed on the big screen, and it does a great job. Here are some of the most interesting entries. In some cases, I will be using direct quotes from the book and in others, I will offer some thoughts on certain topics. You can click on each highlighted name and you will be redirected to StarWars.com’s official databank.
So here we go…
The New Republic – After the Battle of Endor, the Alliance to Restore the Republic was reorganized into the New Republic. A peace treaty (The Galactic Concordance) was signed with the remnants of the Empire. Then, the New Republic turned its attention to galactic politics. The Old Empire withered away and after years of cold war and reparations broke away to rebuild in the Unknown Regions, under the name of The First Order.
Princess Leia Organa created The Resistance to watch over The First Order since the passive New Republic was too busy with politics. The New Republic tolerates The Resistance, though it’s wary of risking war with The First Order.
To show that The New Republic is different from the old, Chancellor Mon Mothma restored the Galactic Senate, where the Republic would define it’s very nature.
Poe – First confirmation that Poe is raised on Yavin IV (hinted in the comics), near to the Massassi ruins from A New Hope. Poe was first a squadron leader in the New Republic but was frustrated that The First Order was not considered a threat. He joins The Resistance, which better resembled the old Rebel Alliance.
Lor San Tekka – During the dark times of Emperor Palpatine’s rule, San Tekka was a follower of the Church of the Force. They worshiped the Jedi ideals and believed that one day, their light would return to the galaxy. In his travels, San Tekka uncovered much of the history of the Jedi Knights that the Empire tried to erase. Many seek him for his knowledge on Jedi secrets.
Kylo Ren – his birth name is never spoken by decree of the Supreme Leader. Snoke believes Ren is the perfect embodiment of the force, a focal point of both light and dark side ability. Ren uses his helmet to conceal his identity and add to his imposing demeanor. Ren commands from the Star Destroyer The Finalizer. The ship is 3km long, twice as big as a regular Star Destroyer.
Ren earns the nickname “Jedi Killer” after he betrays the other Jedi students taught by Luke and kills them all. His lightsaber has modern components but uses an ancient design, dating back thousands of years to the Great Scourge of Malachor. The stressed crystal inside it barely contains the power of the weapon, necessitating lateral plasma vents that become the crossguard quillons.
Captain Phasma – Phasma serves as the third partner in the unofficial triumvirate of the Starkiller operation, alongside with Kylo Ren and General Hux. We’ve seen in the movie that General Hux and Kylo Ren are rivals when they appear in front of Snoke. Now it appears that Phasma disagrees with Hux over what it takes to become a soldier. Hux has created automated training regimes that simulates battle situations. Phasma believes such programs don’t test the true heart and courage of the soldiers. Interestingly, Phasma is presented in a positive light in her page in the dictionary. Rather than focusing on her as a villain, she is shown to be one that places strong value in courage and duty. Kathleen Kennedy previously revealed that they have big plans for her in Episode VIII. Could we see Phasma switch camps?
Phasma’s armor is coated in salvaged chromium from a Naboo yacht once owned by Emperor Palpatine. It’s reflects harmful radiation but it serves primarily as a symbol of past power.
Rey – Rey learned multiple languages from the multiple interactions with offworlders, including Wookiee (Shyriiwook) and astromech binary. She is skillful with different short ranged melee weapons because of her skills with the staff.
What is the Awakening alluded to by the film’s title? – The adventures of Rey and Finn on Jakku coincide with a turbulence in the cosmic Force, a sudden ripple indicating the awakening of newfound ability.
History of Jakku – the planet was once a home to a secret Imperial research facility, and was the last rallying point of the Imperial fleet. The base was destroyed by Imperials before retreating to the Unknown Regions.
Niima Outpost was named after Niima the Hutt. She was the first scoundrel that sought to organize the collection efforts of scrap material, weapons and valuable metals from the scattered crash sites. She was killed by a Bounty Hunter, and the outpost she established was named after her.
The Niima Outpost militia consists of three Kyuzo warriors. One of them named Zuvio has a strong sense of justice and cannot be bribed. Too bad he was cut from the movie.
“Crusher” Roodown is a salvager whose arms were cut off by Unkar Plutt’s thugs over a misunderstanding.
General Hux‘s father was a highly placed official in the Imperial Academy of old. Hux’s experiences in warfare are entirely theoretical. He is considered a man of science and technology, skeptical on Kylo Ren’s mystics. Hux continues to use the stormtrooper training regimen pioneered by his father.
Han Solo – after the Galactic Civil War he became husband to an influential New Republic politician (Leia). He was also a racing pilot for a time. After a profound tragedy, Solo returned to his old life as a tramp freighter captain and a smuggler together with Chewie.
After the Battle of Endor, Chewbacca helped lead the New Republic effort to liberate Kashyyyk from Imperial rule. Once liberated, Chewie reconnected with his larger family on Kashyyyk.
The Guavian Death Gang soldiers are faceless killers who have sworn loyalty in exchange for cybernetic augmentation. A mechanical reservoir pump acts as a second heart, injecting a secret concoction, boosting their speed and aggression to deadly levels.
Kanjiklub hails from Nar Kanji, a Hutt colony world left in disarray following a gang war within the Hutt cartels. Formerly subjugated by the Hutts, the human colonists overthrew their overlords and struck out on their own.
C-3PO has upgraded his TranLang III communications package to increase his language fluency to over seven million forms of communication. He is uncharacteristically quiet when it comes to discussing his salvaged arm; it’s a memento of another droid’s sacrifice.
R2-D2 was a constant companion to Luke during his journeys across the galaxy following the Battle of Endor. He has never had his memory wiped.
Korr Sella is sent by Leia to the Senate in hope of securing military assistance from the New Republic and to take direct actions against the First Order.
Maz Kanata has only felt comfortable openly acknowledging her affinity for the Force since the death of the Emperor. Though she has known Jedi, she never walked that path herself, instead relying on her strong connection to the Force to keep her out of danger.
Maz’s castle is thousands of years old standing on land that was an ancient battleground between the Jedi and the Sith.
The Visual Dictionary also mentions the snow speeder which Rey controls easily and the snowtroopers inspecting the Falcon after it lands on Starkiller base. This could mean that the speeder chase, which happens just before the climatic meeting between Han and Ben, was dropped from the movie at the last moment. This probably means that they already did the VFX work on these shots and we will see them as deleted scenes in full glory on the Blu-ray.
These are just a small portion of the interesting info the book offers. I definitely recommend buying the book for much more interesting details and tidbits (HERE).
Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.
Born on April 24, 1980.
Pablo Hidalgo is the best. That small book has enough information for 10,000 wookieepedia pages
It’s a very good book! I’ve bought it along with the ep.VII cross sections book. Worth every penny!
“Ren earns the nickname “Jedi Killer” after he betrays the other Jedi students taught by Luke and kills them all.”
Does this confirm Rey was never a student of Luke?
I believe so. It also confirms why she was able to understand Chewie, and BB8, and how she is so good with close range weapons.
I guess that whole mind wipe thing isn’t what we thought it was. She probably is just some random girl and not the daughter of Luke.
I think Rey was supposed to be trained by Luke once she got a little older. Believe her parents knew the Skywalkers, and when the Jedi Academy massacre happened her parents panicked, abandoning her on Jakku with Plutt, after taking the advice of Lor San Tekka.
That’s some really solid speculation. What made you guess that?
Know I’m going against the grain here, but the Rey is Luke’s daughter just seems too obvious, like right in your face obvious. If it’s so obvious then why wait until Episode VIII to reveal?
The Millennium Falcon as well, think somehow it was used in part payment for Plutt to look after Rey. Perhaps whoever stole it from Han, had it stolen from them for that purpose.
I dunno, most likely wrong, but that’s my belief.
I agree, but I’ve heard some people say the reason it isn’t stated in the movie is to build suspense for the next movie. However, it is extremely obvious that it appears to be his daughter.
I like where you’re going with your speculation though..I’d be happy if that turned out to be true. It would tie up a lot of lose ends the film left.
Perhaps the surprise is preserved to not only build anticipation, but to have an emotional moment where Luke learns his daughter is still alive. Though I’m not sure that works either, as you’d think Luke would know that he hadn’t felt her death. Leia felt Han’s death, but then again, I think empathy is her strength in the Force.
That would be cool. Snoke could be like,
“Rey, Luke is your father.”
“NOOOOOOOO!”
Don´t forget for the perfect timing – he says this right after he kills Luke 🙂
That’s a very good point, Luke must know Rey is still alive, whether he’s her father or not. These next 16 months are going to be a killer.
If Kylo made it look like she was dead when he killed all the students, then perhaps just the overwhelming amount of force sensitive deaths lead Luke to believe she was part of it all and he couldnt feel her individually but as part of the whole group?
I agree.
That makes sense to me. I like the idea Rey was perhaps encased in carbonite as a young girl, freed by people who looked after her, then for some reason had to leave her on Jakku. If she was ever encased in carbonite, it could be she was so important perhaps over a century ago.
the entire second trilogy felt so obvious that Palpatine is the Sith Lord……and ant the end – he was 🙂
I like your speculation. What if Rey is a descendant of Revan? Now that would be killer.
Rey – Short for “Reyvan Shan”, descendant of the Revanchist…yes…my excited fanboy meter is off the charts at the moment…simmer down…simmer down…aaaaaand…I’m good.
This would be so killer if she was indeed a descendant of Revan. As far as we know, Revan isn’t canon as they have said, I think, that Knights of the Old Republic isn’t. Though I think Revan can be introduced somehow if Disney chooses to explore the time periods before Episode 1. If you read this article, it says that Maz’s castle is on top of a battleground of Jedi vs Sith. I hope it’s true. This opens up a lot of history about these two sides of the force. Though I believe that we’ll eventually see light side users (Jedis) vs dark side users (Knights of Ren) fight at some point, maybe they’ll show history of a time when the Sith had numbers before the rule of two. I hope this happens. I would love to see a time when a ton of Sith and Jedi fought against each other. I’m crossing my fingers for a Star Wars film in which Disney explores the time period before Episode 1.
Revan was related to the Shans? I didn’t know that, never got that far into the Old Republic continuity. Pretty cool.
Revan and Bastila were married, which – though unorthodox and looked down on – was overlooked at the time due to their invaluable service to the Order. Check out the link below. It gives a family tree of the Shans, which all have blood ties to Revan (save Bastila’s parents). I think Rey being related is a pipe dream, but I’d love to see it happen.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Shan_family
Ugh…just no.
if she isn’t, who is the skywalker hero of this trilogy then? there has to be at least one.
Luke.
Maybe it’s more about Ben Solo’s redemption and how he is saved by Rey and eventually they pair up by the 3rd movie to defeat the first order?
I’m not sure
oh good theory. i think rey is important, but ben will be redeemed.
after killing his father ? I see Ben dying in the dark side. He has gone a lot more far than Anakin
Rey could be an honorary Skywalker. Adopted family still counts as family, you know.
if adopted, the aunt would know it.
don’t get me wrong, rey not being another skywalker opens up alot more story points then if she is. i’m just going with what kennedy and JJ said about these films being about the skywalker lineage. so process of elimination leads me to rey carrying the torch.
What about Luke? Why couldn´t be he the Skywalker of this trilogy?
i have a hunch luke isn’t going to be seeing much action going forward(besides a death scene).
There is nothing in the book that says she was student of Luke, you are assuming.
There is nothing in the book that says she was student of Luke, you are assuming.
I guess you don’t understand that this entire conversation is assumption…
Mostly, yes.
There is no confirmation that Rey was a student of Luke in this book.
Maybe this is over technical, but if they were students, were they actually Jedi?
Jedi students.
I’ll go with that!
That would explain why Phasma took down the shields so easily. Maybe she was already having her doubts about the First Order and wasn’t willing to risk her life for it anymore.
That would be cool. Before the Awakening states that Finn was one of her favorite students, so maybe he rubbed off on her.
so the empire retreated into the unknown regions to rebuild. this makes me wonder if it was either thrawn’s idea or that was when they met thrawn.
I’m about 99% certain after reading Aftermath that Thrawn will be a part of the new canon. Why else would they leave the bad guy Admiral at the end unnamed? It’s not Snoke, as he doesn’t strike me as the military officer type. He’s more the mystical figurehead, puppeteer type. This unnamed character also has art and artifacts in his quarters, IIRC. Very Thrawn-like, if you ask me. The Story Group isn’t stupid, and leaving Thrawn out of the new canon would be stupid.
totally agree. i would put it at 90% that benicio del toro is playing thrawn(or thrawn lite) in episode VIII. and to go off of your points, it would be very smart for them to use the one SW character who stands a chance to beat the rebels/resistance without using another superweapon.
I read Aftermath as well recently and I got that vibe when I read that about the mysterious Admiral. I also believe that Thrawn will show up somehow. I don’t know much about him, but I’ve read articles that state that he’s a fan favorite of the EU. I also have seen pictures of him that show him off as purple. I’m not sure how big a role Thrawn played, but if he is indeed coming to this new canon of Star Wars, it will be for the fan service of the EU fans. If he does play a big role in the EU, and because of his popularity, Benicio Del Toro is a big enough name to play him. I know he’ll be playing a villain so Thrawn would be ideal though I also think he might be another dark side user. Whichever turns out to be true, we all win. So excited. These are new stories after Episode 6. Stories that have only been explored in the EU up to this point but that’s no longer canon so this is unthreaded and uncharted waters and I’m ready for it all.
yeah it would be some what fan service, but as i said he is one of the very few non force users that is actually a legit threat(something we don’t get nearly enough of in the movies). i very much recommend you read heir to the empire and see why thrawn is so popular, the dude is the real deal and would add so much to the new films. 🙂
I would love to see some version of Thrawn on the big screen.
That was exactly what I thought as well after reading Aftermath
I thought Zuvio looked a lot like Embo. It’s too bad he was cut from the movie.
They are the same species, called kyuzo
https://41.media.tumblr.com/515611b714b2caaffb923e714b0f00bd/tumblr_nzsnzy27EW1u5lefuo1_500.jpg
Do not forget about Poe’s hair.
That space right there is too empty…we need to fill it with something…I got it! Poe’s tousled hair!
For real.
I recall Lando got “Winning smile.”
Finn sure won’t forget it 😉
So nothing about the most mysterious character huh?
Let it Snoke let it Snoke let it Snoke.
Neither Snoke nor Luke even have a page in the book sadly.
*peace treaty
In 5 years the Cross canon with books and films will be a freaking mess.
But it will be a beautiful mess.
Not necessarily. It won’t be perfect, but I don’t think it’ll be a complete catastrophe.
I love that book. It’s a exactly the kind of Details you want as a fan of those things in the background (plus some you would have never thought about ^^). But man, I was a bit shocked of how much actual important information I got in there, that I would have loved to know ahead of watching the film…
So many answers. Now we need a proper connection of episode 6 and 7. I think the anthology movies should have one that gives us a solid background of those 30+ years
Personally I think we’re going to get an animated series where before Ben Solo turned with Luke training young Jedi. Similar to the Clone Wars or Rebels.
And Pablo Hidalgo (author of this) has been known to answer tweets, he has some of mine. 🙂
Though his answers cannot be considered ‘canon’ 😉 He is really good on the re-tweet.
Not neccesarily, but he usually won’t answer things he’s not allowed to answer.
True. It says in his bio not to treat his word as canonical. Ultimate SW fan, with the ultimate SW fan job
Bought this the day the fucker came out hey. These books plus the cross-sections are always the best for backstory!
Am I the only person here who is intrigued / cautiously excited about the ‘Scourge of Malachor’? KOTOR 2 = canon, confirmed? 😛 Seriously though, I’m really curious whether this is a deliberate nod to the Old Republic EU or just a coincidence…
It’s really intruiging, hey 🙂
I’m not too familiar with the KOTOR game series, but I know of some characters that have come out of that like Revan, Malak among others. What is the ‘Scourge of Malachor if you don’t mind explaining and how does this tie into KOTOR game series?
No you aren’t. I think it was a nice nod to the Old Republic, and maybe just MAYBE it’s canon now and they’re implying Kylo Ren even knows about Revan and all of that cool stuff. Would be amazing to me personally.
I think making the movie a bit longer in order to establish some things that were never established in the movie might have been a very good idea.
The film was made to make shit loads of money (which it’s doing right now) and having a longer film would have affected the box office numbers due to being able to show it less times in the theaters adding to the fact that most fans thought the PT ones were long enough as is.
Any film that lands in a major theater aims to make money. Making a film to tell a story and making a film to make some dough need not be mutually exclusive.
Still, I’m glad the movie was not lengthened for the sole purpose of including more backstory. Including scenes that are meant to do that come off as…well…scenes that are included to do that. Part of what I liked about TFA is that as viewers, we’re sort of dropped back into this galaxy after 30+ years away and we quickly get the sense that things have been moving and shaking along without us. We have questions. We don’t really know how things got the way they are. I’m fine with that.
And it’s not like we didn’t get this backstory. It’s just given to us through avenues other than the movie screen.
I’m not advocating a bloated AOTC run time either which is part of why that’s still my least favorite Star Wars film but I would have cut some things out to put in other scenes they cut out.
I also thought that it would’ve been awesome to see Phasma go to the good side. That is still up there on my “likely to happen list” but I’m still not sure if it will come to pass. It seems that they may be introducing more new characters in Episode 8, which if done right will be great. They need to stay away from the temptation of having too many main characters, though. Too many well done main characters and there won’t be enough time to explore them all on the big screen.
Excellent book. I got it from family for Christmas.
On a side note, is it just me or do others think that it is possible for Phasma to be a droid? She sounds quite a bit different and nearly sounds soulless when speaking. I know it is not the actor or direction, and I think it is intentional. Also, the way she stomps around when walking. I know she’s bigger, but she’s not that much bigger. Anybody else?
That won!d be a really cool reveal, but it’s unlikely.
I think they could have her with cybernetic parts. Maybe past battle damage, or even use some of the cybernetic stuff from the concept art for her…
Just finished it. Don’t expect anything about Snoke and Luke though who are glaringly omitted from the book in all but one or two throwaway lines.
So Maz Kanata is indeed an actual force-sensitive, to the degree that being a Jedi was a serious option. Interesting.
I wonder if she’ll be taking up a new hobby what with the destruction of her joint?
Anything on Snoke in there?
Not a single pic. He is referred to once or twice but nothing really reveletory,
I like that its finally been confirmed that the awakening was for Rey AND Finn.
“Jedi Killer…” — lol yeah ok. Yet he couldnt kill an untrained scavenger girl. Some Jedi killer. Way to drop the ball Disney.
Did you pay attention to the movie? because Snoke specifically said to Kylo to bring her to him, he wasn’t even trying to kill her.
Is it just me, or do you think Culture Club every time you hear Kanjiklub?!?
Cool!
So I need to buy these books and comics to fill in all the plot holes in the film!
Awesome! I’m gonna buy them all!
I prefer that to stupidly simple plots that other movies take, everyday.