If you’ve been on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, you might just be a bonafide galactic hero…
That’s not an exaggeration. We’ve known from the beginning that Disney’s plans for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland and Walt Disney World weren’t merely to build a “Star Wars Land”. Imagineers set out to build an ultra-immersive land that would tell a unique story within the Star Wars universe—one actually considered canon for the most part, where guest choices would affect the course of Star Wars history. They successfully did this with the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, but in truth, the story behind the land has remained a little muddy, even after opening day came and passed.
We know that within the Star Wars timeline, your visit to the Black Spire Outpost on Batuu takes place on a specific day some time in between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, and it turns out it’s a much more important day than we may have originally realized. Indeed, it’s a day that may have changed the course of the war between the First Order and The Resistance, making the events in The Rise of Skywalker possible.
We now know that these aren’t just events that guests got to witness as spectators—it turns out your visit actually has a genuine effect on the timeline, particularly if you’ve braved unprecedented crowds (who have all but broken standard Disney crowd calendars) to ride Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. Thanks both to The Rise of Skywalker and new information found in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – The Visual Dictionary as well as comics and novels like Delilah S. Dawson’s Black Spire, we now know the full story of how you helped save the galaxy with a mere visit to Disneyland or Walt Disney World…
How does a theme park land affect the Star Wars timeline?
We have to go meta for a moment to clarify something about how Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is different from just about any other theme park land out there. Disney’s goal from the beginning with Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was for guests to not just be invisible spectators to a Star Wars experience—instead, they wanted to put guests right in the center of a Star Wars story where you play an active part. It’s the reason why they chose to set the land in a new world filled with original stories like Batuu (rather than somewhere more familiar but allowing less creative freedom like Tatooine, Coruscant, or Endor), and it’s why almost everything you do in Galaxy’s Edge ties into that story.
In way, you become an actual character in the Star Wars universe. Whether you dive in head first to dress up and play pretend with cast members or if you’ll just be taking in spectacle, snapping pictures in your Bermuda shorts and Mickey ears, you become part of something like a role-playing experience where you are one of many travelers who have been drawn to Batuu.
You have your choice of a number of roles you can play during your visit to the Black Spire Outpost, and all of them have effects on the larger Star Wars story. For one thing, when you play the Star Wars Datapad game on the Play Disney app, you can make choices of allegiances by aiding the Resistance, the First Order, or just make loads of credits for yourself by acting the scoundrel. There are also some subtle “hidden stories” guests can participate in via interactions with cast members and characters. The biggest story moments, however, come into play via the land’s major attractions: Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. Both attractions play a significant role in Star Wars history apparently.
It goes without saying, but if you haven’t seen The Last Jedi or The Rise of Skywalker, proceed with caution—spoilers will follow below.
The worst day ever for the Resistance…
By the end of The Last Jedi, the Resistance is not in a good place. The New Republic is dead, destroyed when Starkiller Base obliterated the Hosnian system. After a short-lived victory destroying the superweapon and a long chase, the Resistance ultimately ended up trapped on the ultra-salty world of Crait, cornered in a doomed base with the vengeful fist of the First Order bashing at the door (an event you can sometimes witness on Star Tours). Rey failed to turn Kylo Ren back to the light side, and he declared himself Supreme Leader (after skewering the half-baked former leader, Snoke). While the interventions of Rey and Luke Skywalker give the Resistance just enough time to escape, the Battle of Crait proves a catastrophic loss. By all appearances, the First Order has won the war. Even worse, Luke’s appearance on Crait required so much Force power that it ultimately took his life, leaving Rey as the supposed maybe-a-last-Jedi. Overall, things were looking pretty bad.
Here is where Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge comes in: through The Rise of Skywalker – The Visual Dictionary and Black Spire, we learn that the hobbled Resistance needs two things fast: a place to hide and new recruits to replenish their dwindling forces. General Leia sets Vi Moradi, her top spy, on the task, and Vi suggests Batuu as a potential location for the new Resistance base.
We know from other Star Wars comics and novels that Batuu was way, way off the grid. It’s about as far from the center of galactic power in Coruscant as Tatooine or Endor, wedged snug on the edge of the Outer Rim before both Wild Space and the Unknown Regions. The world has a rich and mysterious history and had once been quite popular before hyperspace technology became commonplace. Once most travelers gained the ability to “punch it” to lightspeed, no one really had any reason to stop at Batuu anymore, and the planet faded into obscurity. Over the years, it eventually became a popular haven for smugglers and even gangsters like Oga Garra—proprietor of a certain important cantina. The enigmatic collector, Dok Ondar, also set up his Den of Antiquities in The Black Spire Outpost. Other than this, Batuu didn’t see much action other than two brief visits from Grand Admiral Thrawn and Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader.
That is, until Vi showed up…
A spark isn’t always easy to kindle…
Vi’s initial efforts on Batuu start off pretty rough. She crash lands on the planet and ends up losing parts of her ship to scavengers. She gets a job sorting scrap with Savi (yup, the same one with whom you’ll end up building a lightsaber), but her initial recruitment efforts fall flat. The Batuuans don’t care about the war, and they are fully aware that no one cares about Batuu. Most feel the First Order isn’t a threat because Batuu has nothing of value. On top of this, Vi is barely on the planet two weeks before a company of First Order stormtroopers start poking around, even threatening Dok Ondar himself in search of Resistance spies.
Vi ultimately ends up working an extremely dangerous job for Oga to explore booby-trapped ruins outside of Black Spire Outpost—a risky deal to get her stolen stuff back. The job almost kills her, but ultimately it results in her first recruits, the return of her lost parts, and the establishment of the new Resistance base you find yourself in when you enter Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge (via the main entrance by Grand Avenue).
Somewhere around this same time (the timeline is fuzzy here), Chewbacca lands a badly-bashed up Millennium Falcon on Batuu with no means to repair it. Fortunately, it turns out an old acquaintance happens to be in Black Spire Outpost at the same time: Hondo Ohnaka, aka Star Wars’ very own Most-Interesting-Man-in-the-World. After a long, complicated life of shifting allegiances, wanton piracy, and frequent entanglements with Jedi, Sith, Rebels, Imperial spies, gangsters, and bounty hunters (he dated Aurra Sing—oof), Hondo is trying to settle down and start a sort-of-legitimate business. Chewie isn’t stupid— “Ohnaka Transport Solutions” is clearly a flagrant smuggling front. Out of options, in a moment of questionable judgment Chewie agrees to a shifty deal: Hondo can use the Millennium Falcon for his smuggling operation, so long as he repairs the ship and uses his pirate-skills to get the Resistance a shipment of hyperdrive fuel (coaxium).
Hondo does the most reasonable thing possible: he invites every smuggler, pirate, space jockey, and derelict on Batuu to take a crack at flying the Millennium Falcon to milk every credit he can get from the fastest-hunk-of-junk-in-the-galaxy. Chewbacca is less than pleased, but Hondo holds all the cards while the ship is under repair.
This is where you come in…
“Bright Suns, travelers…”
While you can ultimately play whatever role you want during your visit to Batuu (even as an oblivious tourist enjoying your vacation), you enter the story of the Black Spire Outpost at a critical moment. Facing great peril, Vi and her growing team of recruits succeeded in stopping the company of First Order stormtroopers who were poking around Batuu. Unfortunately, the Resistance was immediately betrayed by a traitor in the ranks (my money is on that sketchy “photographer” always talking into his wrist) who tips off the First Order’s main forces, drawing the attention of Kylo Ren himself.
This kickso a rapid series of events that start the day you arrive on Batuu. With the opening of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, we now know this isn’t just an average day in the Black Spire Outpost—it’s the last day the Resistance can remain on Batuu. They are out of time and have to go on the run again.
The first order of business is getting the Millennium Falcon back. The impression we get is that Chewbacca calls Hondo to make good on his deal, both by completing diagnostics on the ship (which you do in the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run queue via the Play Disney app) as well as providing the coaxium the Resistance needs to escape. Our beloved heroes are dead under the spires without it. You happen to be part of the butterfingered, slipshod crew Hondo chooses to take on this important job—congratulations! Basically, if you’ve ridden Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, your first accolade into hero-dom is that you provided The Resistance the means to get off-planet.
As the day ticks on, Rey continues gathering recruits, Chewie aids hasty repairs on Resistance ships, and Vi the Spy continues gathering both recruits and intelligence on the First Order. Unfortunately, time runs out quickly when Kylo Ren lands on the planet and starts searching the Black Spire Outpost himself.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this…”
After learning of Kylo Ren’s arrival on Batuu, General Organa gives the order that the Black Spire Outpost is no longer safe for the Resistance recruits and calls for an immediate evacuation. If the cause of freedom is to survive, the rebels must relocate to Leia’s secret base on the nearby world of Bakura (a planet that ironically had an important role in the old Legends timeline). General Leia wasn’t sitting idly by waiting for the First Order to catch up—she’s proactively sent Finn and a small covert team to infiltrate Kylo Ren’s own Star Destroyer, The Finalizer. Unfortunately, they couldn’t stop the ship from getting to Batuu, but they’re hard at work setting up what looks like a sabotage operation when the evacuation order is given.
This is where the events of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance begin (spoilers for the ride to follow). Remember how we mentioned the Resistance was nearly dead after the Battle of Crait? Thanks to Vi, Chewie, and Rey’s work on Batuu, the cause now has a fighting chance, but you are among the recruits who have to escape Batuu to survive. Divided into boarding groups for transport, you’re ushered into a quick briefing with Rey who fills you in on the situation and emphasizes that the First Order must not learn of the new base location under any circumstances. You’re quickly hurried onto a transport with Nien Nunb and Lieutenant Beck, only for things to quickly turn insane. The beginnings of a skirmish break out as The Finalizer spots the transports trying to flee and catches you in a tractor beam. Poe Dameron is unable to save your transport, and you’re captured by General Hux and a legion of stormtroopers on the Star Destroyer.
It’s not looking good as your band of fresh-faced recruits are transferred to a cell for interrogation. You even merit a visit from the Supreme Leader himself, who plans to personally oversee your mind-flaying. Fortunately, it turns out this is the very Star Destroyer where Finn’s mission was taking place. His team shows up to rescue you! This is where the main chunk of the Rise of the Resistance ride occurs.
Kylo Ren quickly becomes aware of your escape and chases you through The Finalizer with the full might of the ship’s military forces. Things are looking a bit grim when BAM! The Resistance fleet shows up, and a full-scale Battle of Batuu begins. During the battle, The Finalizer is badly damaged, nearly sucking Kylo Ren into space and leaving his flagship in near ruins. You and the Resistance recruits narrowly escape, ironically crash landing back on Batuu (which explains why you’re still able to hang out in the outpost a little longer—so much for an immediate evacuation).
The recruits that changed galactic history…
“Wait a minute—we end up back on Batuu? How do I save the galaxy if I end up back on Batuu?”
We don’t know exactly how your story on Batuu ends—perhaps that’s up to you—but we do know that your mission, the Battle of Batuu, and the Black Spire recruits end up playing a key role in the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
For one thing, Kylo Ren is definitely not happy about his Star Destroyer being destroyed. Blame for the incident ultimately falls on General Hux, who already incurred the Supreme Leader’s disfavor too many times before. Ren transfers to The Steadfast, ultimately giving much of General Hux’s power over to his biggest rival, General Pryde. Fed up with Kylo Ren, the petulant Hux pulls a Hondo and decides to change his allegiances, leaking information about Kylo Ren’s quest to find the resurrected Emperor on Exogol to the Resistance. This kicks off the main plot of The Rise of Skywalker.
According to the Visual Dictionary, several famous Batuu recruits (including Pattros Navesh and Wipolo Nagg) go on to fight in battles during the film, including the Battle of Exogol. In theory, your “character” is possibly one of these recruits. On an even more interesting note, Hondo’s personal ship can be spotted among the massive fleet that shows up at Exogol to aid Resistance forces, and it seems likely that he brought some of his droves of Batuuan pilots just like you with him. This fleet of free folk standing up to tyranny ultimately proves instrumental in the final battle. Time to commemorate your victory with a trip to the Oga’s!
Overall, we deeply appreciate the effort Disney Imagineers and the Star Wars creative team put into Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. The story behind The Black Spire Outpost just keeps getting richer and richer, and we can safely say that there is no other theme park land where a simple visit can change the course of galactic history. Pretty cool!
Have you been on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance yet? If you enjoyed this piece, let us know in the comments or on Facebook! Bright Suns, travelers…
