Star Wars storytelling has always benefited from revealing bits of information out of order. In the original trilogy, we knew Darth Vader used to be Anakin Skywalker, Luke’s father. We didn’t know exactly how he fell to the dark side until George Lucas filled in the gaps with the prequels.
This often happens with Star Wars books too, both novels and reference material published after the release of different movies and shows. Over the years, we’ve gotten more and more info about kyber crystals, how they work, and where they come from. Fans have long suspected that crystals from the planet Illum were used specifically to power the Death Star. Thanks to a book released last month, this theory is now canon.
It’s now officially been confirmed that Starkiller Base was not the first weapon that used Illum’s kyber cyrstals as a resource to power it, which was still technically only.a theory even after Jedi: Fallen Order.
The game and visual dictionary for The Rise of Skywalker both confirmed that Starkiller Base basically took over the planet, which was formerly used by Jedi to obtain the crystals for their lightsabers (as seen in season 5 of The Clone Wars).
We knew the base was powered by the planet’s kyber stores, but had no official confirmation that Palpatine had used the crystals from Illum before that – until now.
Star Wars: The Secrets of the Sith details the emperor’s use of these specific crystals for both Death Stars, however. We’d seen crystals being transported for use in the first Death Star in Star Wars: Rebels, but their origins remained unknown.
Now we know that Palpatine really did have a whole decades-long plan to not only wipe out the Jedi, but also prevent them from rising up again. Too bad he never considered that his own granddaughter might be the one to overthrow him in the end.
Star Wars: The Secrets of the Sith is available now wherever you get your Star Wars books.