'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' Details We Learned From The Visual Dictionary

Written by the Lucasfilm Story Group's own Pablo Hidalgo, Star Wars: The Last Jedi The Visual Dictionary is a fun book showcasing many of the characters, props, locations, and vehicles from the film. The great thing about these Visual Dictionaries is that they give us new Star Wars canon information and explanations for things that might not have been clear in the film itself. Let's take a look at interesting details we learned from this book that you'll want to store in your arsenal of Star Wars knowledge.

Spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi follow. Also, note that some of this information might spoil some of the extended Star Wars books, which may further explore the concepts and ideas presented here.star wars galaxy map

The Location of Ahch-To

Now that Luke Skywalker is dead, the only non-droid people in the galaxy who know the location of Ahch-To are Rey and Chewbacca. Of course, we all know Ahch-To's location now thanks to a new and updated map of the galaxy. The galaxy chart also includes the route Luke Skywalker took to get to Ahch-to and the path of the Resistance fleet in this film.

Ahch-To is located in-between the outer rim and the unknown regions. When it comes to instantly recognizable neighbors, it's closest to Endor and Jakku. I'm surprised that Jedha, the Jedi mecca seen in Rogue One, is not closer, as I would have assumed that the first Jedi at the first Jedi Temple on Ach-To migrated to Jedha soon after.

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Bacta to the Rescue Again

The Force Awakens left John Boyega's Finn in a coma. When we first see him in The Last Jedi, he is in an emergency flexpoly bacta medical suit, which is filled with synthetic bacta, the same thick, gelatinous substance with healing properties which also helped Luke Skywalker recover after being attacked by a wampa on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back. The emergency suit used by Finn is apparently "past its expiration date," which may explain why it begins falling apart as Finn runs from the ship's medical bay.Raddus

Rogue One Connections

General Organa's flagship The Raddus is named after the Mon Calamari Rebellion Admiral Raddus from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Apparently, the late Admiral Ackbar was the one who petitioned for the cruiser to carry Raddus' name.

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Kaydel Connix Got a Promotion

Carrie Fisher's daughter and actress Billie Lourd again appears in the film as Kaydel Connix. Since we last saw her in The Force Awakens, she has been promoted to lieutenant for her "admirable service as an operations controller during the Starkiller crisis." I'm sure she will be given another promotion in the Resistance ranks after Crait.Shara Bey

Relics From the Comic Books

The necklace Poe wears is his mother's wedding ring. We saw the story of Poe's parents, who were in the rebel alliance, in the comic book miniseries Star Wars: Shattered Empire. Shara Bey's ring is made from a brushed steel washer from old rebel tech. Poe hopes to someday share the ring with "the right partner."

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Gravity in Space? No. Magnets!

Some fans were annoyed that the Resistance bombs seemed to drop as if there were gravity, but gravity doesn't exist in space. There seems to be an explanation for this in the book. The proton bombs used by the Cobalt and Crimson Squadrons have magnetic attraction plates and are impelled from their racks by sequenced electromagnetic plates and then magnetically drawn to their targets.

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General Hux Had Phasma Kill His Dad

Domhnall Gleeson's General Hux has the first name Armitage and he's from the Hosnian system. We know from other books that he is the illegitimate son of General Brendol Hux, which granted him a childhood of privilege. But Hux "quietly eliminated" his own father, which was originally revealed in the canon Phasma novel. Armitage Hux tasked Captain Phasma with untraceably assassinating Brendol and she went on to kill him with the toxin from the bite of a Parnassos beetle.Last Jedi Phasma

Phasma's Origins

Captain Phasma originates from the harsh world of Parnassos. She was raised by a tribe who lived in "the jagged rocks of the Scyre" in a kill or be killed existence. The First Order came to that world allowing her to abandon her people escape that life. In her former life, she gained her battle skills with a tribal spear made of quicksilver.

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Captain Phasma's Armor is Made From Hux's Dead Father's Yacht

Captain Phasma machined her chromium-plated armor from Brendol Hux's (General Hux's dad) salvaged Imperial yacht, a ship once owned by Emperor Palpatine.

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Kylo Ren Left Darth Vader's Helmet Behind

Adam Driver's Kylo Ren was seen in The Force Awakens seeking advice from the remains of the helmet of his infamous grandfather. He naturally went to great lengths to find the helmet, but apparently, he is putting that part of the past behind him as well. The book reveals that Kylo didn't take Darth Vader's charred mask with him when he changed quarters from the Finalizer to Snoke's flagship, Supremacy. The book theorizes that Kylo is "perhaps not ready to face that visage until he recovers from his failure."The Supremacy

Snoke's Ship is the Home World of the First Order

Snoke's ship The Supremacy is the only mega-class Star Destroyer in existence. The giant wing is 60 kilometers wide, which edges on the side of a mobile space station rather than a capital ship. Unlike the Imperial army that came before them, the First Order has no homeworld, and instead, Snoke chooses to rule from the safety of his colossal spacecraft. The ship was kept a secret from the resistance, hiding in the unknown regions, masking its immense sensor signature by hiding it nearby from highly energetic stars.

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The Dreadnought's Red Lighting

The filmmakers came up with a story reason for the red lighting we see throughout the Dreadnought class ship, The Fulminatrix. Apparently, it is to help the gunnery crews' night vision as they switch back and forth between targeting scopes and visual scans of the surrounding regions of space.

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You Probably Haven't Seen What Snoke Really Looks Like, So... Is He Really Dead?

Despite what you may believe, Supreme Leader Snoke (played via performance capture by Andy Serkis) is not a Sith. In fact, not many people have ever met this being (he isn't even human). He obscures himself from a distance and makes himself unreachable to only a select few such as Hux and Kylo Ren.

The book hints that the Snoke we see in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi might not even be his real body. The book states that "whatever frailties have broken his body are dwarfed by the immense size at which he typically projects his form." Let the new Snoke theories begin! Is he actually dead? Could Snoke have been be force projecting himself from elsewhere into this being?

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Snoke's Connection to Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader

Snoke's ring is etched with glyphs of Dwartii. You might recall a statue in Senator Palpatine's quarters on Coruscant in the Star Wars prequels that had these same kinds of glyphs on it. The ring features a piece of obsidian from the mines below Darth Vader's castle on Mustafar, as seen in Rogue One. This doesn't necessarily mean that Snoke had a personal connection to Darth Vader or Emperor Palpatine, but we do know he has existed since before the rise of the Emperor, and not many people have ever left Mustafar alive.

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Who are the Praetorian Guard? Could They be the Knights of Ren?

The Praetorian Guard consists of eight elite sentinels who never leave Supreme Leader Snoke's presence. Four pairs of guards use the same weapon and were added to Snoke's security as the last line of defense. The origins and identities of the Praetorian Guards are completely unknown, hidden beneath the all-encompassing uniforms. Their name dates back to the 14th Artisan Emperor of Kitel Phard.

Is it possible that the other students that were trained by Luke Skywalker and defected, known as the Knights of Ren, were turned into this elite security force? It does seem as if this group of warriors were able to hold their own against Rey and Kylo, although if they were Ren's childhood buddies, maybe we would have seen some more emotion in the battle.

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How the Praetorian Guard Uniforms Deflect Lightsabers

The Praetorian Gaurd wear a layered armor that have a high-tech onion-skin of laminate, impregnated with conductive wirepaths that, once powered, create an intense magnetic field which can deflect blaster fire and even lightsaber hits.

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Rose's Necklace Represents Home

Kelly Maire Tran's character Rose Tico and her sister Paige wear necklaces which are a stylized ensign of the Otamok system, representing Hays Minor. As DJ mentions in the film, the jewelry is made of Haysian smelt, a transition metal that is highly conductive.

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Rose's Rebellion Ring

There is even a story behind Rose Tico's secret decoder ring. According to the book, it is an antique from the Galactic Civil War, where it was once used to show support for the Rebellion in the corridors of the Imperial Senate.

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The Creature That Luke Milks

The creatures that Luke milks on Ahch-to are called Thala-Sirens. They are large flippered marine mammals, often found sunning themselves along the rocks of Temple Island on Ahch-To. They produce a nutritious green milk that we see Luke harvest in the film.

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Everything We Learned About The Caretakers

The fish-looking creatures in nun outfits are called Lanais. They are distant relatives of Porgs, the other beings on the planet of Ahch-To. For thousands of years, an enclave of female caretakers have lived on a northern inlet of the temple island and are devoted to the upkeep and care of the ancient structures. They don't appear to have powers of the Force, although they do possess the "uncanny ability to read the intentions of newcomers to the island."

The male Lanais are hunters and gatherers, spending most of their time on the sea on handcrafted boats. The females are described as more spiritual and empathetic. Males and females interact only on a monthly basis when the men return from the sea with ships filled with enough fish to feed the village until the next gathering. The multi-day reunion becomes a festival with music, dance, food, and romance. A scene was cut from the film that featured one of these festivals.

Alcida-Auka is the caretaker matron, a position she inherited from an untold number of generations.

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Luke's X-Wing

The door of Luke's hut on temple island on Ahch-to is actually made from a salvaged S-foil from his submerged X-Wing. As discussed in the Art of The Last Jedi book, Luke Skywalker's submerged X-Wing was a visual idea initially conceived by Doug Chiang in 2013 for The Force Awakens. The idea was reexplored in the development of The Last Jedi, initially with Rey finding it while exploring the island, seeing it was rusted and rotting away in the water in a cave. The image represents Luke's commitment to his exile, as the destroyed T-65 means he wanted never to have a means to leave the planet. This is one of the reasons he uses astral projection in the climax of the film.

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Luke Asked Leia to be His First Student

When Luke Skywalker opened his Jedi Academy, he wanted his sister Leia to be the first student. She turned down the offer, deciding her family and the future of the New Republic were more important than extended Jedi training. While Leia spent her time on politics and family, she still seems to have learned some Force abilities.

Carrie Fisher's General Leia is sporting a new hairstyle which apparently contains an Alderaanian mourning braid, which we must assume is due to the loss of Han Solo at the end of The Force Awakens.IMG_2288

Prime Jedi

The mosaic pool is an image of the Prime Jedi, the very first in the Order, in a state of meditation and balance. The pool was initially a clear representation of the rebel icon symbol, but later evolved into a more Buddhist-inspired image showing the first Jedi, referred to as Jedi Prime, holding a lightsaber and meditating, with one side of the saber representing the light side of the Force and the other the dark side.

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A Brick/Looper Reunion on Canto Bight

Joseph Gordon Levitt, star of Rian Johnson's directorial debut Brick and his science fiction film Looper, plays a character on Canto Bight named Slowen Lo. He is the tall Canto Bight alien who complains about Finn and Rose parking their ship on the beach. Apparently, the alien's backstory is that he is a well-known driftwood sculpture artist.IMG_1181

The Master Codebreaker

Finn and Rose go to the Canto Bight casino to find the Master Codebreaker, but instead, they are arrested and find DJ. I confirmed with Rian Johnson that DJ was not the person that Maz Kanata sent them to find. Played by Justin Theroux, the Master Codebreaker's identity is not known by anyone, and he has posted all of his personal data in a public network node wrapped in quantum-spread biohexacrypt code. It's presented as an open invitation: "Anyone who can crack his code is welcome to take over the mantle of Master Codebreaker." No one has so far. The casino allows him to play dice games, but he is restricted from playing any of the electronic games.

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More on the Fathiers

The Fathiers stand 3 meters high at the shoulder and can reach speeds of up to 75 kilometers per hour. These majestic animals and are bred specially for racing at Canto Bight. Their long, wing-like ears help dissipate excess body heat and act as air-steering rudders.

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The Kids on Canto Bight

How did those kids end up working in the stables on Canto Bight? Apparently, they were abandoned by losing gamblers who couldn't afford them any longer. The book reveals that they learned of the Luke Skywalker AT-M6 standoff as part of fragmented tales from travelers from distant worlds.

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Why Poe Wasn't Told the Plan

One of the plot criticisms for The Last Jedi is that there is no given reason why Poe Dameron wasn't told Holdo's plan in the final third of the story. I had been told that, initially, the idea was that after the First Order began tracking them through Hyperspace, the Resistance couldn't be sure there wasn't a mole within their ranks, so they locked down the information. But according to this book, that might not be the canon explanation. The book claims that the location of planet Crait had fallen off the star charts and was a closely guarded secret that only Leia and Holdo knew. Which is probably why only those who needed to know were let in on the plan.

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The Superlaser Siege Canon

The superlaser siege cannon that the First Order uses to break into the Resistance base on Crait is 200 meters long and is basically a "miniaturized" version of the laser inside the Death Star. The laser is powered by composite kyber crystal reactions.