Kelly Marie Tran’s character in The Last Jedi, Rose Tico, was a welcome addition to the Star Wars canon. She offered up a refreshing breath of humanity and indomitable moral spirit, and I was genuinely excited to see where Rose would go in The Rise Of Skywalker.
So you can imagine my disappointment when Rose Tico was essentially given the Jar Jar Binks treatment in Rise of Skywalker. After what was a co-leading role in The Last Jedi, she was given nothing more than a glorified cameo in the Sequel trilogy’s final instalment.
Hell, Rise of Skywalker even had a brand new character played by Dominic Monaghan who got more lines than Rose Tico. Of the many things wrong with the final Star Wars Sequel trilogy instalment, sidelining Rose was the worst.
Rose Tico was a character who embodied hope while also giving a voice to the marginalised in The Last Jedi. To have a woman of colour be at the forefront in Star Wars was empowering (and super rare) and to see her represent what was left of the Rebellion offered up much in the way of future storytelling and character development.
To see her be reduced to background filler in Rise of Skywalker was not only a failure in storytelling and character building – she could’ve easily joined Rey, Finn and Poe on their adventure with no problems which is why her diminished role is so jarring – it feels like a big step backwards in terms of inclusivity for Asians and women of colour in the vast Star Wars universe.
By having J.J. Abrams and whoever’s behind the Star Wars films sideline Rose Tico, they’re also effectively letting the trolls who harassed Kelly Marie Tran win.
What’s even sadder is that the amount of vitriol is only coming from a small yet loud group of puffy-chested bros who claim to be Star Wars fans and are easily triggered by fictional character who wasn’t a tall white dude with bulging muscles.
It really puts J.J. Abrams’ pre-release praise of Rose Tico in a bad light and it’s hard not to feel like the brains behind Star Wars are doing nothing more than caving in to fan demands out of fear of reprisal rather than sticking up for Kelly.
Rise of Skywalker brings the whole Rose Tico saga to an unfortunate end while also setting a bad precedent for the franchise – and other franchises with passionate fanbases – going forward.
Trolls will see the Kelly Marie Tran’s greatly diminished screentime as vindication for their awful actions. They’ll be empowered to kick up a stink whenever they don’t like something and expect to have things fall their way because they now know that the powers that be are too intimidated to do anything.
There are many things wrong with Rise of Skywalker, but what they did to Rose Tico was inexcusable.
Kelly Marie Tran deserved far better from Star Wars.
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