The amazing women of Star Wars

Photo Credit: Lucasfilm

Jyn Erso

Felicity Jones helped to bring Jyn Erso to life for movie goers. Jyn was essentially engaged in opposition to the Empire for her entire life.

Her father, Galen, was the key engineer who was instrumental in the construction (and destruction) of the first Death Star and when Jyn was a young child, her mother Lyra was shot and killed by a death trooper during an attempted abduction of her entire family from Director Orson Krennic. Krennic planned to take the whole Erso family into Imperial custody in order to force Galen into completing his work on the Death Star superweapon but after Lyra’s death, and Jyn’s narrow escape, Galen was the only member of his family who was taken.

Jyn was taken in by family friend and Rebel extremist, Saw Gerrera, and she was raised up and trained in military tactics as a part of Gerrera’s underground militia.

After breaking from Saw’s militia, Jyn went into a life of crime and compiled a lengthy rap sheet that included several crimes against the Empire. Erso was ultimately captured and arrested (under the alias of Liana Hallik) by Imperial forces and while being transported to a prison labor camp on the planet of Wobani, she was rescued by the freedom fighters of the Rebellion whose leadership had hoped to use Jyn’s prior relationship with Saw Gerrera in their favor.

Rebel leaders were aware of a message sent by Galen Erso, via a former Imperial pilot who was convinced by Galen to desert his position (Bodhi Rook), to Saw that contained vital information on a weakness that could be exploited within the Empire’s new devastating superweapon. Jyn was tasked with retrieving the message from Saw and use it to hopefully find a way to locate her father (who was still being held against his will in order to work on the Death Star).

Jyn did manage to reconnect with Saw and had the opportunity to actually see the hologram message sent by her father, but the moon that they were occupying, Jedha, was targeted by the Empire for destruction in the very first test of the Death Star’s weapons system. The moon was destroyed along with Galen’s hologram and Jyn only barely escaped on a ship along with her newfound companions Rebellion captain Cassian Andor (and his droid K-2SO), Bodhi Rook, Baze Malbus, and Chirrut Îmwe.

Even though the Rebel command was initially hesitant to support Jyn’s mission to steal the Death Star plans, her aforementioned crew along with a small contingent of Rebel forces made their way to Scarif and did just that.

Jyn, Cassian, K-2SO, Bodhi, Chirrut, and Baze all paid the ultimate sacrifice in order to provide the galaxy with something that it had lacked for a long time…hope.