“Star Wars” is about to give us a relationship we’ve never seen before: Sisters
Having a sibling is nothing new to the Star Wars universe — don’t forget for a second that a lot of turning points in the galaxy can be traced back to Luke and Leia’s birth, and Luke and Leia being separated, and Luke and Leia coming back together. But while that is a brother-sister relationship, and even brotherly camaraderie has been explored between the likes of Han and Chewie, we’ve yet to have a strong female relationship, let alone one between sisters. That’s all about to change when The Last Jedi hits theaters, and introduces us to Rose and Paige Tico.
These two characters will both play an important part in the fight against the First Order, and yes, they’re sisters. But, don’t expect these sisters to be doing typical sister things, like fighting over time in the bathroom before heading out for the day. They’ve got bigger, more important things to do — you know, like help the Resistance. Then again, as Kelly Marie Tran, who plays Rose in Last Jedi, points out, there is no such thing as a “typical sister relationship” — and if you have a sister yourself you know this is true.
“Paige [played by Vietnamese actressVeronica Ngo] is Rose’s older sister,” Tran explained to HelloGiggles at the Last Jedi press day. “[Rose] works in the Resistance, but as a gunner. She’s in the forefront of the action. She fights alongside Poe, and Paige is kind of like Finn and Poe and Rey — they’re all in the front [line]. They’re all fighters.”
“Rose is the younger sister who’s in the background with tools and providing them with what they need in order to fight,” Tran, a middle child herself with an older and younger sister, continues. “She’s never been someone that had to be, or I don’t think even wanted to be, in the front of the action.”
Not only will we be getting sisters in Star Wars, but this relationship touches on something else entirely. Last Jedi will very much deal with the war between the Resistance and The First Order, and with that, watching loved ones off to fight in that war — and what it’s like to watch that happen. If that’s not difficult enough, now imagine being in the shadow of your Resistance gunner older sister and watching her go off to war, while you’re been left behind at home on the base.
“I think that Rose has always looked up to Paige in ways,” Tran explains. “But, I think that too, there’s always that sort of, you’re sisters, you love each other. But, there’s a little bit of, ‘Man, I wish I was doing this or I wish I was like you.’ [For Paige and Rose], I think it’s sort of like a very well thought out sort of complicated sister relationship, much like most sister relationships…I think that they have a very special bond.”
You can see Rose and Paige in all their resistance glory when Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits theaters on December 15th.
