Ever since images of Kylo Ren first started emerging on official teaser trailers, a question has been on every “Star Wars” geek's mind: How did he end up with Darth Vader's mask? A new "Star Wars" short story shows just how.
Although the new film certainly lays down the groundwork for how much Ren idolizes his grandfather and wants to be as powerful as the fallen Sith Lord, it does next to nothing to explain how the infamous helmet from a funeral pyre on the forest moon of Endor ended up on his little shrine.
“The Perfect Weapon” by Delilah S. Dawson, is part of the "Journey To The Force Awakens" collection that was written to bridge the 30-year gap between the events in “Return of The Jedi” and “The Force Awakens.” This short story also answers the question perfectly.
Spoilers ahead for both the movie and the book. Read on to finally solve the answer to this mystery.
As you may recall, a certain female alien was highlighted in the scene when Han Solo, Finn, Rey, and BB-8 first entered Maz Kanata's cantina. She was hanging around a sizable brute of a patron when she spots the galaxy's most wanted and sends a message to the First Order on where to find them.
Turns out that this alien is a mercenary named Bazine Netal and she has quite a history with the First Order. And one of her jobs was to run a secret errand, most likely for Kylo Ren, before the events in “The Force Awakens.”
In “The Perfect Weapon,” a “mysterious figure” hired Netal on a secret task to pick up a package. The message was even delivered by a droid set to self-destruct after she received it – very "Mission Impossible"-esque.
The mission takes Netal to a galactic psychiatric institute, located on a far-flung planet called Vashka, where retired Storm Troopers were sent to spend the last of their days.
The package she needs is on the corpse of former Storm Trooper Captain Jor Tribulus – who happened to be present during the events at the battle of Endor. Before the successful retrieval and delivery of the package to the mysterious client, Netal's quest was filled with betrayals and some run-ins with giant insects that have overrun the defunct retirement home.
“As she traced her fingers over the silver metal, her black lips finally gave a real, true, wide smile. This was it. The case. After all that had gone wrong, she had the loot,” the moment when Netal gets her hands on her bounty is described.
Although she never actually opens the case to see what she is risking life and limb for to retrieve, “The Perfect Weapon” certainly sheds light, not only on one of the biggest questions in the “Star Wars” universe, but also helps to introduce a really bad-ass character.
Some theories also suggest that the package she retrieved might have contained Luke's light saber and not Darth Vader's helmet. And the mysterious client might have been Maz Kanata and not Kylo Ren. However, even though we are never explicitly told what is in the package, we feel that there are enough clues that it is the helmet and not the blue light saber.
So the mystery of how Kylo Ren got his hands on Darth Vader's helmet can finally be laid to rest, thanks to the exploits of whom we hope will be a soon-to-be famous figure, at least in the new expanded universe, named Bazine Netal.
