One of the most mysterious scenes in the entire Star Wars saga is when Luke Skywalker entered the Cave of Evil on Dagobah and faced a dark version of himself clad in Darth Vader’s armor.
Fans always assumed that the experience was part of a Jedi’s trials, but besides just The Empire Strikes Back, the cave has a lot of significance to the lore of that galaxy far, far away. As we learned in Star Wars: Age of Resistance – Supreme Leader Snoke, a comic that depicted Ben Solo’s fall to the dark side, the sinister leader of the First Order once brought Kylo to the Cave of Evil, where he destroyed it after giving in to hate and duelling an illusion of his uncle Luke.
Now, a new tie-in book that celebrates the 40th anniversary of Episode V, titled From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back, provides further explanation about the mysterious place and a dark “entity” that resides in it. As you know, the publication retells the events of the Original Trilogy from the perspective of other characters. One of these chapters revolves around the formless creature that’s inhabited the cave for “a millennium,” interacting with many Force users throughout history. Over the years, the entity learned concepts such as time, fear, thoughts and memories, allowing it to read the mind of whoever sets foot inside and project their deepest fears.
Interestingly enough, the passage makes it seem like Yoda is the only one who’s visited the Cave of Evil multiple times. And despite the evil entity’s inclination to terrify its visitors, it eventually realized that as opposed to others, Yoda “relied on” the darkness to conquer his fears and learn from them.
Fans don’t know for sure if other such places exist in the world of Star Wars, but Rey also had a similar experience in The Last Jedi with the Mirror Cave, so there must be more to them and their mystical powers than we’re currently aware of.