The Battlefront 2 campaign features a key tie-in to The Last Jedi

Star Wars: Battlefront 2 was released last week, and it has been in the news a lot for all the wrong reasons as fans have revolted against stupid and ridiculous ploys by EA.  But while there’s a lot of concern regarding the rest of the game, the campaign mode has been well-received.

It’s a canon story set immediately preceding the Battle of Endor and then covers the aftermath of the Rebellion’s victory, following it through the Battle of Jakku.  Though the main character of the campaign is Iden Versio and her Inferno Squad, the player also encounters several classic and beloved characters along the way.  There’s a lot to like about the campaign and we’ll have a review of the canon story at a later point, but there’s one moment in particular that seems to be a significant tie-in to The Last Jedi.

Spoilers are obviously ahead for the Battlefront 2 campaign, and probably for The Last Jedi too, so be warned.

One of the levels sees Del Meeko of Inferno Squad travel to Pillio to blow up one of the Emperor’s secret Observatories, but Luke Skywalker and R2-D2 are already on the planet for the same reason.  Luke defeats Meeko’s stormtroopers but rescues Del and keeps him alive, instead working with him to infiltrate the observatory – which is only opened with a key: the force.  Del is confused why the Emperor would have an observatory that can only be opened with the force, leading him to wrestle with the shocking reality that his beloved Emperor was a force wielder.  Once inside, Luke is clearly looking for something – and finds it in one of the cases.  Del says that, “There’s nothing dangerous in here.  The Emperor’s protecting… junk…. This is all worthless.” But upon opening the case and picking up a compass, Luke says, “Not all of it.”  He then proceeds to ask Del if he can keep the compass, and the soldier obliges.  Luke and Del walk out (with Del having not blown up the Observatory) and Luke says that Del has a choice to be better, not to be stuck serving the Empire.

It’s a cool story that once again shows Luke’s post-ROTJ efforts to unearth artifacts and knowledge related to the Jedi and the force.  It’s cool to see Luke, but what’s the significance in regards to The Last Jedi?  The compass.

Back in May, Jason Ward at Making Star Wars reported on Luke Skywalker’s gear in The Last Jedi, writing about a compass they were told is “significant.”  Here’s part of how he described it:

In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Luke Skywalker has a compass that guides his way. The compass is a box with a blue marble-like orb on the top. I believe Luke Skywalker moves his hand over the blue orb and the box opens up to reveal the compass inside the box. The interior of the box has metallic dials with Aurebesh writing inside denoting some “space” version of North, South, East, and West with a needle to point the way. The prop is probably the most beautiful piece of craftsmanship I can think of for a Star Wars film. It has a very old look to it but the inside is almost steampunk or like something mystical from Naboo.

That description lines up really well with the compass seen in Battlefront 2, and Jason’s speculation that it’s something from Naboo makes more sense too given that it was Sheev Palpatine’s.

Additionally, there was a recent promo image shown on Reddit of Luke Skywalker from The Last Jedi holding his compass.

So basically, Battlefront 2 just showed us how Luke Skywalker came across this compass, and the background of it: it belonged to Palpatine and was stored in one of his observatories, and Luke went searching for it shortly after the destruction of the second Death Star.  So what’s the significance of the compass?  That’s what we don’t know.  But it has led to a lot of speculation, perhaps most prominently that the compass is what led Luke to the location of the first Jedi Temple on Ahch-To.  But whatever the compass is used for, it seems to be significant, and the Battlefront 2 campaign showed us how Luke got it.