New Star Wars Comic Reveals Why Darth Vader Built His Castle
During his minutes of screen time in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, we learned two things about Darth Vader. One, the cybernetic Sith Lord can slaughter a team of Rebels without breaking a sweat. Two, when he's not carrying out Emperor Palpatine's wishes, he spends time at the menacing castle he built on Mustafar. Now we've learned that the reason Vader's fortress is located on the planet where he lost most of his limbs and was burned beyond recognition was because he was trying to communicate with his late wife, Padme Amidala.
As Star Wars fans know, Padme, former queen of Naboo-turned-senator for her homeworld, died at the end of Revenge of the Sith after giving birth to Luke and Leia. With her dead, there was nothing left for the man once known as Anakin Skywalker to do but to continue serving Palpatine. However, in the latest issue of Marvel's Darth Vader comic book series (via Comic Book Resources), it was revealed that by tapping into the dark side energy within Mustafar's core, Vader believed he could contact Padme's spirit.
When we first saw Darth Vader's castle in Rogue One, it was generally assumed that this was just a home away from home for the villain. A place he can unwind when not Force choking Imperial underlings and leading stormtroopers into battle. Not so. After having been gifted Mustafar by Palpatine, Vader used schematics created by the ancient Sith Lord Momin, who has long been dead, but whose spirit still lingers inside his mask, to design his castle.
Speaking with Darth Vader from beyond the grave, Momin informed him that the castle is shaped like a tuning fork because it is one. Specifically, it's a giant tuning fork designed to read mystical pitches, various frequencies of life and, if done properly, even break through the veil of death. This would allow Vader to reunite with Padme despite her being long dead.
We'll have to wait and see if Darth Vader can successfully communicate with Padme in his castle, but I suspect his efforts will be for naught. Nevertheless, it's understandable that Vader is so desperate to try to pull this off. Charles Soule's Darth Vader comic book series takes place right after Revenge of the Sith, so the pain of losing Padme is still fresh. That lingering part of him that's still Anakin Skywalker would do whatever it takes to see his wife again, even going so far as to build a giant tuning fork castle to get the job done.
This also provides another reason for why Darth Vader felt the need to go back to Mustafar, the place where his old life essentially died. Previously in the Darth Vader comic book series, Vader went to the lava planet to bleed some kyber crystals (that he killed an Order 66 survivor for) red to power his new lightsaber. However this arc (and the series) wraps up, at least Vader comes out of this with some fancy digs.
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Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.