Rose Tico
Rose Tico is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise, first appearing in the simultaneously released Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Cobalt Squadron. A mechanic with the Resistance, she befriends Finn and works with him to try to help Resistance forces escape from the First Order. Rose is portrayed by Kelly Marie Tran.
Rose was created by The Last Jedi writer and director Rian Johnson after he decided a subplot originally involving Finn and Poe Dameron needed a different dynamic. The Last Jedi marked Kelly Marie Tran's first film role, and she had never watched a Star Wars film before auditioning for the part. As a struggling actress who had contemplated quitting the profession, Tran underwent an intense five-month audition process, successfully competing against hundreds of other actresses for the role.
Rose's backstory is revealed in the novel Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Cobalt Squadron, where she is the protagonist alongside her sister Paige, a minor character in the film. The novel establishes that Rose and Paige joined the Resistance after their impoverished home planet was devastated by the First Order. The character of Rose serves as a relatable audience surrogate, an everywoman, a positive influence on Finn, and the personification of real-life Star Wars fandom. Johnson originally planned for Rose to be sarcastic and irritable, but the character was changed to match Tran's personality after she was cast, becoming more positive. Tran felt a connection between Rose's past experiences and those of her own family during the Vietnam War, and she researched the conflict and her family's past to help get into Rose's mindset.
The character and Tran's portrayal received largely positive reactions from critics, though fan reception was more divided, and she became the subject of racist and sexist attacks over the internet. Multiple fans and celebrities came to Tran's defense, and she directly responded to the harassment with an essay in The New York Times. For her performance in The Last Jedi, Tran was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Rose returned in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the final installment in the sequel trilogy, in which she has risen in the ranks of the Resistance and has taken on a greater leadership role. The character's reduced role in the film was a major point of criticism for many, who saw it as giving in to online racist and sexist attacks against Tran, though writer Chris Terrio and Tran herself dismissed those criticisms, with Terrio stating that her minor role was not deliberate, and Tran stating that she was proud of being a part of the film.
Appearances
''Cobalt Squadron''
Although Rose Tico was first conceived for the film Star Wars: The Last Jedi, her backstory is established in the mid-grade canon novel Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Cobalt Squadron, by Elizabeth E. Wein. The novel and film were both released on December 15, 2017, and Cobalt Squadron is set just before and during the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the first film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Dialogue that referred to parts of the novel's backstory was included in the original The Last Jedi script, but was cut from the final film. Rose is the primary protagonist of the novel along with her older sister, Paige Tico, who was portrayed by Veronica Ngo during a brief appearance in the film. Although their parents are not featured as characters in the novel, the reference book Star Wars: The Last Jedi: The Visual Dictionary establishes that the Tico sisters had a close relationship with their parents, Hue and Thanya, who raised them to have a strong sense of right and wrong. Rose and Paige were raised on the planet Hays Minor, the impoverished mining planet in the Otomok star system far beyond the policing efforts of the New Republic government. Hays Minor is one of the first places to be victimized by the First Order, an autocratic military dictatorship seeking to control the galaxy. The First Order used the planet to test its weapons and kidnap children to indoctrinate as stormtroopers. As a result, Rose developed a hatred of the First Order starting in her early childhood. The Tico sisters joined the Resistance, a paramilitary organization led by General Leia Organa fighting against the First Order. The two worked together on a bomber spacecraft called the Cobalt Hammer, where Paige was a gunner and Rose was a mechanical engineer. Despite her lack of formal training, Rose received the post due to her extensive mechanical knowledge. Rose and Paige each wear matching medallions resembling the insignia of their home system of Otomok.At the beginning of Cobalt Squadron, Rose and Paige are on a mission to test new stealth technology when they encounter and rescue a fugitive fleeing from First Order TIE fighters. They later learn the fugitives were from a planet in the Atterra System which, like Rose's and Paige's home planet, has been devastated by the First Order. Leia authorizes a team of bombers, including Rose and Paige aboard the Cobalt Hammer, to gather reconnaissance in the Atterra System and run supplies to the citizens there. Leia also asks Rose to devise a technique to allow the bombers to escape First Order detection, leading her to invent a device called a "baffler", which reduces the ship's ion emissions and makes its energy signature harder to detect, thus making the bombers more difficult for enemy sensors to locate. Though they sustain casualties from First Order defenders, Rose and the team successfully deliver the supplies, and then escape. Upon returning to the Resistance, they learn that the entire Hosnian star system, which had housed the capital of the New Republic, was destroyed by the First Order superweapon Starkiller Base, which itself was subsequently destroyed by the Resistance. Rose and Paige prepare to assist with the evacuation of the Resistance base on the planet D'Qar, which leads directly into the events in the first scene of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. As a result of the success of Rose's baffler system, Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo orders that it be adopted throughout the Resistance fleet.
''The Last Jedi''
In an early scene in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Paige Tico is killed during the evacuation of D'Qar, when the Cobalt Hammer is destroyed during an operation in which Paige helps destroy the First Order Dreadnought. Rose mourns her sister's death aboard the Raddus, a Resistance Mon Calamari cruiser. She is guarding the escape pods against potential Resistance deserters when she finds Finn, a Resistance hero she greatly admires, attempting to flee in one of the pods. After Rose stops him by stunning him with an electro-shock prod, Finn tells her the First Order had found a way to track the Resistance fleet through hyperspace. The two formulate a plan to disable the tracking device on Supreme Leader Snoke's flagship, the Supremacy, which will allow the Raddus to escape. With help from Resistance droid BB-8, Rose and Finn set off on an unauthorized mission to the casino city of Canto Bight to find a master codebreaker to assist them.Although Finn is impressed by the superficial beauty and debauchery of Canto Bight, Rose reveals to him the dark underpinnings of the lavish casino city, pointing out the fortunes of the city's rich inhabitants are supported by child slavery, weapons dealing, and other immoral activities that result in the suffering of others. Rose and Finn are arrested for their illegal entry into Canto Bight, and in prison they meet an unnamed slicer, who along with BB-8 helps them escape and agrees to assist them in disabling the Supremacys tracking device. The four escape Canto Bight with the help of some of the enslaved children there; Rose gives one of them Paige's Rebel Alliance ring to inspire his trust. Rose and the others return to the Supremacy and infiltrate the Mega-Destroyer disguised as First Order officers, but are captured by General Hux and Captain Phasma before they can disable the tracking device. The slicer betrays Rose and Finn, informing the First Order of their plan and providing information about the Resistance in exchange for his release and a monetary reward.
Phasma attempts to execute Rose and Finn, but BB-8 helps them escape and fight their way to freedom. Meanwhile, the surviving Resistance forces escape to an old Rebel Alliance base on the nearby planet Crait; according to The ''Last Jedi novelization, the baffler technology developed by Rose helps the Resistance ships in their escape. Rose, Finn, and BB-8 board a stolen First Order light shuttle and fly to Crait. Along with Finn and Poe, Rose pilots a ski speeder in a defensive battle against First Order forces, during which they try to destroy a super-laser siege cannon before it can destroy the door to the base. Finn attempts a suicide attack against the cannon, but Rose saves his life by crashing her speeder into his, knocking him off course and seriously injuring herself in the process. Rose tells Finn the only way they will defeat the First Order is by fighting for what they love, rather than fighting what they hate; she then kisses him before passing out. Finn brings Rose back to the base, and her unconscious body is taken aboard the Millennium Falcon'' along with the other Resistance survivors. Rose receives medical attention as they flee Crait and escape from the First Order.