The Reason Darth Vader Built His Fortress On Mustafar
Darth Vader is arguable one of the best villains in pop culture, which has been stated numerous times before. What would a dark, imposing, evil villain be without a dark and looming castle to abide in? Fortunately, Vader has one of the best and most sinister castles in pop culture as well. Built on the site of Vader’s greatest defeat and sinister planet in itself, Vader’s Castle, or Vader’s Fortress if you prefer, overlooks the lava-filled crevices of Mustafar. It is as dark, menacing, and evil as the person who inhabits it. However, the castle actually has a deeper connection and purpose for the Sith than just appearance.
After Vader successfully handled the rogue Inquisitor chase, Palpatine rewarded Vader by giving him the opportunity to build his own castle. Vader chose to build his castle on Mustafar, which seems like an odd choice considering that was the place where his former friend cut off his limbs and left him to burn in lava. However, there was a method to his madness. Mustafar has an unusually high connection to the Dark Side of the Force, and the Sith have long used the planet to gain a deeper connection to the Dark Side. Vader actually chose to build the castle atop an ancient Sith cave which he believed would allow him to open a deeper connection to the Dark Side. Sidious approved this plan and sent Vader to Mustafar along with two of his top Imperial architects and the mask of Darth Momin.
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This may seem odd, but Darth Momin, despite being dead for a long time, had a lot to do with the creation of Vader’s castle. Darth Momin was once a great Sith Lord, but he had since become known as a heretic among the Sith. This was due to his use of the Force to create large destructive machines, and his lax attitude towards the Rule of Two. This culminated in his death when his attempt to destroy a city with one of his machines backfired thanks to Jedi interference. While his physical body may have been destroyed, his spirit lived on in the mask.
How does this relate to Vader and his fortress? Well, as mentioned above, Sidious sent Momin’s mask with Vader to Mustafar. Once there, Momin’s spirit possessed one of the Imperial architects through the mask. Vader then had Momin work on designing and building the castle, which would channel the Dark Side energies on Mustafar.
This was where things got crazy. The Castle Vader we know is not actually the first version of the castle. It is not even the second or third. Vader wanted to use the fortress to open a portal to the Dark Side of the Force with the castle acting as a sort of totem and hub for that portal. The first time he tried this in the fortress, it failed, and the castle was wrecked. They tried this four more times, and they all failed! The fifth construction attempt was swarmed by lava fleas and failed. As punishment for the fifth failure, Vader killed Momin’s body and forced him to possess a stormtrooper. The failure repeated with the sixth, seventh, and eighth construction attempts. After the eighth attempt, Vader once again killed Momin’s stormtrooper body and forced him to possess an Imperial construction worker. However, this time Vader said he would not tolerate another failure. I am not sure why he did not do this after the first attempt as that would have saved a lot of time and Imperial assets, but I digress.
The ninth attempt appeared to be working, but Vader was alerted to an attack on the fortress by Mustafarians which had to be dealt with. Vader handled the attack, and Momin successfully opened the portal, allowing him to reform and return to his once dead body. In true Sith fashion, Momin turned on Vader. Of course, Vader quickly killed him and crushed both his body and mask with a giant stone, destroying him for good. Vader then used the portal to separate his spirit from his body, and entered the portal searching for Padmé. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful. Disappointed, he returned to his body and closed the portal for good.
Vader’s castle has way more story to it than you would expect. The story of Darth Momin and all the lore associated with Mustafar create an extremely large rabbit hole to dive down. Personally, I would not expect anything less from Star Wars. The rich lore of seemingly every minute thing in the universe is part of what makes it so alluring and amazing. Vader’s castle is just the tip of the iceberg of all there is to know about Mustafar, the Sith, and Star Wars in general.
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Source(s): Wookieepedia