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Star Wars Adventures: Ghost of Vader’s Castle brings the Sith’s answer to a classic DC villain’s weapon to the far edge of the galaxy.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers from Star Wars Adventures: Ghost of Vader’s Castle #5, on sale now from IDW Publishing.
There are a lot of things to be scared of in the Star Wars galaxy, from Giant Space Slugs to wampas, gundarks and many more creatures. However, Star Wars Adventures: Ghost of Vader’s Castle #5 (by Cavan Scott, Francesco Francavilla, Shawn Lee, Riley Farmer and Heather Antos) proves that Darth Vader might be the most terrifying thing in the whole Star Wars galaxy. As if his myth wasn’t already imposing enough, the comic reveals that Vader’s Castle sits over a store of a gas that makes whoever breathes it see their worst fears.
In the final issue of the Ghost of Vader’s Castle miniseries, Lena Graff finally has her crew assembled and is ready to enter Vader’s Mustafarian castle in an attempt to rescue her brother Milo from the clutches of the late Vader’s disciple, Vaneé.
This appearance of Vader, though, is nothing to fear. Hudd throws Skritt into the Sith lord, and “Vader” falls into a heap. His head, which breaks off, is revealed to be the droid Crater, now freed from Vaneé’s evil machinations. He apologizes to Lena for kidnaping Milo and bringing him to Mustafar, but promises to help rescue his master.
Crater takes them all to where Milo is being held in some kind of a bacta tank, but when they get there, Vaneé unleashes an electrical charge which incapacitates everyone. When Lena wakes up, she is strapped in a chair with wires running out of it.
It’s at this point that the horrific visions and nightmares that this series has featured come together. Vaneé confesses that he has been the one planting the dreams in everyone’s minds to draw them together and back to the castle. His purpose is to raise Darth Vader from the dead using Sith rituals and technology. Specifically, Vaneé wants to use Lena’s body as a vessel for his master’s spirit. She participated at the Battle of Endor when Vader died and is accordingly the perfect person to help in his resurrection. This plot echoes Emperor Palpatine’s attempts to transfer his consciousness from a resurrected clone body into her body and underscores the Sith obsession with prolonging their own lives at any cost.
Ready to begin the ritual, Vaneé releases gases from the volcanic depths below the castle. The effect is similar to Scarecrow’s Fear Gas from the Batman franchise. Each character in the group sees what they feared most, the things that they saw in their nightmares from the previous issues.
Vaneé believes that the ritual is working because he can hear his master talking, and he lets Lena free when he thinks that he sees Vader’s spirit enter her. However, Lena is faking. It works since Vaneé had never taken his own worst fear into account. Vader was never there, but because he feared his master more than anything, the gas made him see the armor-clad Sith Lord. When Vaneé frees her, she soon frees all of her friends. Confused and unable to move, Vaneé is shoved into the chair where Lena had been and is trapped there with the fear gas swarming around him. Thus, the miniseries ends with Milo and Lean safe and Vaneé trapped in the chair to forever experience the effects of the gas and his fear of Vader.
Throughout Star Wars lore, Darth Vader built his legacy on fear, with the very mention of his name being enough to send a shiver down the spines of his enemies. And as this issue reveals, Vader’s castle was essentially built on a more tangible form of fear as well. Despite Vader’s last-second redemption in the final moments of his life, the fact that this castle still stands and exudes fear is a testament to how scary Darth Vader could really be.
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