Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Doctor Aphra
Chelli Lona Aphra, or simply Doctor Aphra, is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. Created by writer Kieron Gillen, artist Salvador Larroca, and editors Jordan D. White and Heather Antos, she first appeared in Marvel Comics' 2015 Darth Vader comic book series. Aphra became a breakout character, and began appearing in her own ongoing spin-off comic series, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, from 2016 to 2019, before relaunching in 2020. Aphra is the first original Star Wars character not from the films to lead a canon comic series.
Aphra is a morally questionable, criminal archaeologist initially employed by Darth Vader in his efforts to replace Palpatine as leader of the Galactic Empire, who later goes into hiding from the former after betraying him to the latter and faking her death, briefly establishing a love–hate relationship with Imperial officer Magna Tolvan. Supported by droids 0-0-0 and BT-1, and later by her former romantic partner Sana Starros, she is considered a war criminal by the Rebel Alliance. Aphra is notable as one of the first and most prominent and well known LGBTQ Star Wars characters.
Doctor Aphra is a criminal archaeologist with an expert knowledge of droid and weapons technologies, with a particular interest in ancient weapons and Jedi artifacts. She travels in a unique starship called the Ark Angel, which features a custom white-and-blue paint job. StarWars.com describes Aphra as "a (mostly) morally bankrupt, in-over-her-head archaeologist" with an Asian appearance. Slate calls her "driven, selfish, decisive, and wildly unpredictable". SyFy Wire calls the character an anti-hero who "shares the snark of Han Solo and sexual charisma of Lando Calrissian, but toes the line between right and wrong far more regularly than these two characters—and more often than not steps over it into the downright naughty." IGN explains, "Aphra has all of Han's swaggery, scoundrel-y charm, but little of his noble streak." Creator Kieron Gillen notes that the character's main interest is "this weird obsession she has with uncovering old stuff".
Noting that "Aphra's sarcasm and the careful way she codes her words are a vital part of her character", StarWars.com also explains that though she is somewhat of a genius, Aphra's ability to think on her toes is what has kept her alive in situations where her genius fails her. Gillen notes that readers can never be sure what the character will or will not do. Doctor Aphra writer Si Spurrier explains that despite the expectation that Star Wars characters "will always do the right thing", Aphra makes mistakes and sometimes chooses the unexpected. Sarah Kuhn, the author of Doctor Aphra: An Audiobook Original, agreed that "[Aphra] is the definition of chaos ... You never really know exactly what she's going to do, which means that, personally, I think she's having the most fun of anyone in the Star Wars galaxy."
In creating the character, Gillen wrote: "The core idea came when walking around the Lucasfilm offices. We passed a large Indiana Jones display and I just thought, 'gender and ethically-switched Indiana Jones. That'd work well in Star Wars.'" Gillen added that Aphra falls somewhere between a hero and a villain in that "You do see her do good things and bad things... she's kind of fun but at the same time, there's a really dark heart to her." He added:
Aphra ... was designed to be Darth Vader's foil ... she has to do a lot of the talking when Darth Vader doesn't. Darth Vader will not make jokes. To be even a fun book to read, you need her to lighten it. But when you introduce her as a lead, that kind of changes the dynamic entirely. A) she becomes slightly more serious, and B) everyone else around her becomes a lot more deadly.
Spurrier states that Aphra "knows that Vader is probably not a nice person. She's aware that space fascism is not necessarily a good thing but it may be the right thing for a chaotic universe." Gillen compares Aphra to Darth Vader in that fans root for both as anti-heroes, but explains that while Aphra is a "bad person in many ways", Vader is on another level as "one of the greatest villains of all time." Gillen further explains, "you can root [for her], because she makes really bad life decisions and sort of rolls with them ... She doesn't like killing people. She's not like a random murderer." He noted that Aphra is complex in that she is "adamantly pro-Empire" but tends not to obey its rules.
SyFy Wire describes Aphra as a "queer woman of color". Slate notes, "She aches for two different women who have claims to her heart—two women whom, inevitably, she must betray to survive." Gillen has confirmed Aphra's sexuality, saying he has written her primarily romantically interested in women (and as flirting with Luke Skywalker), but noted that real-world attitudes towards homosexuality "[don't] really exist in the Star Wars universe". Of Aphra's doomed relationship with female Imperial captain Magna Tolvan, Gillen said he imagined "This hard-bitten, kind of very serious kind of person chasing down this more whimsical person and the sexual tension ... the flip of it is, Aphra's the person who's also pursuing Tolvan."
Hub AI
Doctor Aphra AI simulator
(@Doctor Aphra_simulator)
Doctor Aphra
Chelli Lona Aphra, or simply Doctor Aphra, is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. Created by writer Kieron Gillen, artist Salvador Larroca, and editors Jordan D. White and Heather Antos, she first appeared in Marvel Comics' 2015 Darth Vader comic book series. Aphra became a breakout character, and began appearing in her own ongoing spin-off comic series, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, from 2016 to 2019, before relaunching in 2020. Aphra is the first original Star Wars character not from the films to lead a canon comic series.
Aphra is a morally questionable, criminal archaeologist initially employed by Darth Vader in his efforts to replace Palpatine as leader of the Galactic Empire, who later goes into hiding from the former after betraying him to the latter and faking her death, briefly establishing a love–hate relationship with Imperial officer Magna Tolvan. Supported by droids 0-0-0 and BT-1, and later by her former romantic partner Sana Starros, she is considered a war criminal by the Rebel Alliance. Aphra is notable as one of the first and most prominent and well known LGBTQ Star Wars characters.
Doctor Aphra is a criminal archaeologist with an expert knowledge of droid and weapons technologies, with a particular interest in ancient weapons and Jedi artifacts. She travels in a unique starship called the Ark Angel, which features a custom white-and-blue paint job. StarWars.com describes Aphra as "a (mostly) morally bankrupt, in-over-her-head archaeologist" with an Asian appearance. Slate calls her "driven, selfish, decisive, and wildly unpredictable". SyFy Wire calls the character an anti-hero who "shares the snark of Han Solo and sexual charisma of Lando Calrissian, but toes the line between right and wrong far more regularly than these two characters—and more often than not steps over it into the downright naughty." IGN explains, "Aphra has all of Han's swaggery, scoundrel-y charm, but little of his noble streak." Creator Kieron Gillen notes that the character's main interest is "this weird obsession she has with uncovering old stuff".
Noting that "Aphra's sarcasm and the careful way she codes her words are a vital part of her character", StarWars.com also explains that though she is somewhat of a genius, Aphra's ability to think on her toes is what has kept her alive in situations where her genius fails her. Gillen notes that readers can never be sure what the character will or will not do. Doctor Aphra writer Si Spurrier explains that despite the expectation that Star Wars characters "will always do the right thing", Aphra makes mistakes and sometimes chooses the unexpected. Sarah Kuhn, the author of Doctor Aphra: An Audiobook Original, agreed that "[Aphra] is the definition of chaos ... You never really know exactly what she's going to do, which means that, personally, I think she's having the most fun of anyone in the Star Wars galaxy."
In creating the character, Gillen wrote: "The core idea came when walking around the Lucasfilm offices. We passed a large Indiana Jones display and I just thought, 'gender and ethically-switched Indiana Jones. That'd work well in Star Wars.'" Gillen added that Aphra falls somewhere between a hero and a villain in that "You do see her do good things and bad things... she's kind of fun but at the same time, there's a really dark heart to her." He added:
Aphra ... was designed to be Darth Vader's foil ... she has to do a lot of the talking when Darth Vader doesn't. Darth Vader will not make jokes. To be even a fun book to read, you need her to lighten it. But when you introduce her as a lead, that kind of changes the dynamic entirely. A) she becomes slightly more serious, and B) everyone else around her becomes a lot more deadly.
Spurrier states that Aphra "knows that Vader is probably not a nice person. She's aware that space fascism is not necessarily a good thing but it may be the right thing for a chaotic universe." Gillen compares Aphra to Darth Vader in that fans root for both as anti-heroes, but explains that while Aphra is a "bad person in many ways", Vader is on another level as "one of the greatest villains of all time." Gillen further explains, "you can root [for her], because she makes really bad life decisions and sort of rolls with them ... She doesn't like killing people. She's not like a random murderer." He noted that Aphra is complex in that she is "adamantly pro-Empire" but tends not to obey its rules.
SyFy Wire describes Aphra as a "queer woman of color". Slate notes, "She aches for two different women who have claims to her heart—two women whom, inevitably, she must betray to survive." Gillen has confirmed Aphra's sexuality, saying he has written her primarily romantically interested in women (and as flirting with Luke Skywalker), but noted that real-world attitudes towards homosexuality "[don't] really exist in the Star Wars universe". Of Aphra's doomed relationship with female Imperial captain Magna Tolvan, Gillen said he imagined "This hard-bitten, kind of very serious kind of person chasing down this more whimsical person and the sexual tension ... the flip of it is, Aphra's the person who's also pursuing Tolvan."