Please do not share the details of this article openly on social media and spoil Star Wars: The Last Jedi for those that want to remain spoiler free. Please respect everyone’s wishes and not spoil those that do not appreciate spoilers. Be cool! 

This is a story with more questions than answers. Some time back we saw photos of what looked like a Jedi Temple exterior and a giant tree fans have dubbed the “Force tree” or the “Force-sensitive tree.”  The photos of the tree had us wondering if it was just an elaborate set piece or if the tree had any special purpose to the plot of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. We’ve seen a somewhat similar tree in an episode of The Clone Wars at the Jedi Temple and in Shattered Empire where Poe Dameron’s parents were given one to plant on Yavin IV after they left the military to raise Poe.

An image of the tree in front of the Falcon that turned up on an image sharing site last year:

I’ve now seen this tree on fire. The tree is entirely engulfed in flames. The fire really looks cool because the pronged shaped of the tree allows for the flames to flow in a pretty cool way. If there’s a metal band in the Star Wars galaxy, they’re totally putting it on their shirts.

The question I have after seeing the tree on fire is did Kylo Ren burn it down? Is it bait to get Luke to respond to him by attempting to save the tree? Is it part of a vision? Is this basically the Star Wars equivalent of the burning bush for Rey? Right now we have a Jedi Temple looking structure, The Falcon, and a tree. Eventually the tree is burning. I have to say, I don’t think Chewbacca, Artoo, Rey, or Luke would burn the tree obviously. The most obvious bet is on the bad guys doing it or it’s part of a vision or mystical encounter of some sort. If the tree is burnt to ash or just damaged is unknown but it doesn’t look good for the Force tree.