(Note: This post contains light spoilers for some of the plot of “Star Wars: Battlefront II.”)
With the new trilogy of “Star Wars” movies, Lucasfilm and Disney have spread out a lot of backstory and side material into an ever-growing group of novels, comics, and now, video games. “Star Wars: Battlefront II” launched earlier this year, and included a new “Star Wars” story that included a few tidbits that explained some of what happened after “Return of the Jedi.”
One of the most interesting moments of the story that included Luke Skywalker and developed his character in relationship to the remnants of the Empire still operating around the galaxy. The scene also gave some hints of his activities leading up to “The Force Awakens.” “Battlefront II” slipped a bit of information in about how Luke wound up on an island on Ahch-To.
Fans who were paying close attention might have caught a reference to that story in “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” directly linking the two together.
When Rey goes into Luke’s hut on Ahch-To, she takes a look around and sees several objects scattered across a table. Among them is a round silver object. That object is known as the “compass,” a Jedi artifact that probably led Luke to Ahch-To and the original Jedi temple in the first place.
Luke first locates the compass in “Battlefront II.” The game is about Inferno Squad, a group of Imperial commandos dispatched on special orders after “Return of the Jedi,” which were left behind by Emperor Palpatine in the event of his death. One of their missions is to destroy a classified “observatory,” a place where Palpatine has stored a number of Jedi artifacts. The idea is, apparently, to keep them out of the hands of people like Luke.
While the Empire is on the planet where the observatory is located, known as Pillio, Luke arrives, having been called to the place by a feeling in the Force for an unknown reason. After fighting through the stormtroopers that try to shoot him on sight, Luke encounters Del Meeko, one of Inferno Squad’s members. Del is trapped and Luke helps him, and the pair decide to work together to find the observatory. Luke winds up saving Del’s life, and when they finally find the observatory, Luke finds the compass and Del allows him to take it.
The compass, it’s implied, is what leads Luke to find Ahch-To, and that’s fairly well reinforced by the fact that years later, Luke still has it on that very planet. There are the references to the films in “Battlefront II,” but it’s interesting to see Lucasfilm throw a reference back in the other direction.