If I were to make this list before the release of the sequel trilogy, I would have had a hard time narrowing it down. After all, who would win in a fight, General Rieekan or Admiral Piett? Do I root for Corran Horn or Myn Donos as my favorite X-wing pilot? In this list, I'm just looking at the ten characters from the Disney era who have become my favorites.
Here are 10 of the best Star Wars characters from the last 10 years.
1. Doctor Aphra
We first met this morally complex character in the 2016 Vader Down comic as a foil for Darth Vader, but she eventually gained her own spin-off series. Creator Kieron Gillen said in an interview with StarWars.com, "My description originally was, imagine Indiana Jones, how he goes about problems in that ramshackle kind of , but with his ethics inverted." An archaeologist, she carried out missions for Darth Vader himself but also had a very different response than many to the destruction of Alderaan. Informed of the calamity, she eagerly asked for details from General Cassio Tagge.
She loves things that aren't strictly right or wrong, saying that "what being an archaeologist is about" is "being able to see the fullness of the history of the entire galaxy."
2. Chopper
I love droids. The sassier, the better. It saddened me that Emtrey and Squeaky from the X-wing books were relegated to Legends status. Enter C1-10P, or "Chopper" from Star Wars Rebels. As much a part of the Spectres as Ezra Bridger, he reminded me of R2-D2 for his tendency to do things with a little too much of his own initiative, but which often saved the Rebels' collective backsides.
Getting to see him brought back for the Ahsoka series was a delight, since too often series end without some kind of closure for our characters.
3. Nubs
I didn't realize until after I'd fallen for the growly little blue guy in Young Jedi Adventures that he was voiced by every clone in the Grand Army of the Republic.
Too often, children's show characters excel at everything they put their minds to or have an unrealistically good attitude about everything. None of the Jedi on Tenoo are that one-note, but Nubs is the character who most often gets through the day after a few tries.
He gets impatient, makes short-sighted mistakes, and is sometimes a remarkably klutzy Jedi youngling. But he always works through these things. I grew up with a disorder that made me the school's klutziest kid, and I would have loved having a Nubs to make me feel seen. As it is, I'm inspired by him, and he is the reason I introduced two nieces and a nephew to his series.
4. Amilyn Holdo
There's no denying that Laura Dern is a queen and I loved seeing her being a leader in the style of Leia Organa in The Last Jedi. Her "Holdo Maneuver" in The Last Jedi is iconic.
Actually, that's not the version of Amilyn Holdo I want to talk about. In Claudia Gray's Leia, Princess of Alderaan, we meet a fellow apprentice legislator who is obsessed with astrology and willing to go on an adventure. She gets Princess Leia interested in "skyfaring" as a meditation practice and attends her friend's investiture as the crown princess with sparkly blue hair.
But what I like best about her is the empathy and sensitivity that Amilyn keeps displaying. When Leia loses Kier Domadi, Amilyn helps her grieve by taking her skyfaring again. She is aware of and responsive to Leia's complicated emotions. When her grown counterpart hears Leia say that she "can't take any more" of personal loss, Amilyn responds, "Sure you can. You taught me how."
5. Finn
One of the most striking moments of The Force Awakens trailer was the appearance of a panicked stormtrooper on a desert planet, played by a person of color. The sequel trilogy was more diverse than any of the previous installments of Star Wars. From the start, we knew that one of the stories would belong to a character played by John Boyega.
It's not just the casting choice that makes Finn interesting. His journey from fearful subservience to strong leadership makes Finn worth watching. His decision to free a Resistance pilot because it's the right thing to do is a great approach for a stormtrooper, but some of his best moments are when he is caught off-guard by others being more cunning than him. Rey subduing him and Rose stunning him both come to mind.
He's part of the sweetest bromance with Poe Dameron to grace the galaxy since Han and Luke, but his friendship with various female characters is fraternal to the hilt. And he does it all based on the ethics that awakened from his first battle.
6. Tai
In the 2019 comic series The Rise of Kylo Ren, three students survive the destruction of Luke's Jedi Temple simply by not being on-site when Ben Solo destroys it. Their names are Hennix, Tai, and Voe. Lacking context for what happened while they were away, they decide to seek Ben out.
What makes Tai a part of this list is that, of the three students, Tai is most like a young Luke Skywalker. He has faith that Luke is not responsible for the calamity but also sees into Ben's heart. After saying that his fellow Jedi students don't know "what Ben's had to deal with," he asserts that "Ben doesn't need to be hunted. He needs our help."
Tai persists in trying to reach Ben, reminding us of the Luke who turned himself in to Darth Vader because "there is still good in him."
7. Grogu
I went into The Mandalorian fully prepared to like the bad guys best. In fact, until the last scene of the first episode, I was rooting for IG-11 to have a long and morally grey life. Then, the first appearance of outsized pointy ears appeared, and I suddenly couldn't stand the idea of anyone being on the little guy's bad side.
It took some time to figure out why I loved Grogu. Yes, Yoda is my favorite character. That means I automatically want to know more about someone who resembles him, but that was merely an introduction. There's a balance between his trust and dependence on his father figure and the moments in which he takes a little too much initiative. While he has yet to speak a line of dialogue, he has grown and adapted. I want an entire book about his training with Luke and a series of comics just about his years between Order 66 and the fall of the Empire.
8. Qimir
There are many reasons why The Acolyte's cancellation rankles some fans, and among them are the great unknowns of the storyline. Spin-off novels are coming for some characters, but as of this article's writing, there is no further chance to know what became of The Stranger, AKA Qimir, and his unexpected apprentice with Osha.
Qimir started out great as the generic helpful contact for a more powerful being, a kind of bumbling goof. He then began steering things more directly, and speculation arose about how he was connected to the dark Force user behind Mae's murderous missions. By the time Jecki forced him to reveal his identity, many of the audience saw it coming, and his path from there could have become phenomenally evil.
But it didn't. Sort of. Instead, we saw a man who looked for a different path, whose philosophies were both manipulative and disturbingly logical. I wrote very passionately about the ways to free Mae from her abusive apprenticeship, but wanted to see what was possible when Osha joined him in the finale. Qimir was very complicated and had a fascinating character arc.
9. Avar Kriss
The introduction of more media from the High Republic era is a way to tap into brave new worlds and unexplored potential. After seeing the rebuilding of the Jedi in the original trilogy, the fall of the Jedi in the prequels, and a very fractured Jedi presence in the entire trilogy, the High Republic shows us a Jedi Order that is almost in diaspora. There are a variety of temples, relationships between apprentices, knights, and masters are unfamiliar at times, and they contend with some insurmountable obstacles that simply would not have happened in later epochs.
Master Avar Kriss is a Jedi in both books and comics who has explored intimacy within the Order and how it affects lasting friendships with the person she connects with. She is a frontier-defending Jedi who served aboard and later commanded the Starlight Beacon station. She also showed a wonderfully intuitive side in dealing with the aftermath of the Great Hyperspace Disaster and the conflict with the Nihil.
Kriss is a Jedi Master with a strong will to preserve life and right wrongs, but one gets the feeling that she would be friends with Qui-Gon Jinn for her tendency towards independent thought.
10. General Hux
Hold your jeering, please. General Armitage Hux is really no one's idea of a "big bad." He is self-serving, fanatical, and a little too sarcastic for his own good. While he holds the rank of General, he is no evil overlord. As a Harry Potter fan, I first had trouble separating Domhnall Gleeson from his lovable older brother role in that franchise.
What makes a good villain for me is evolution and internal conflict, and that comes through for General Hux. One of the best scenes in The Force Awakens is his uninterrupted speech about all star systems being designed to bow before the First Order. He is the patriot who scares his colleagues a little with his zealotry, and that is exactly who is needed in the first movie. But he's humiliated at Starkiller Base, and there's this resentment-filled decline as Kylo Ren rises. He slinks into less power. When he announced himself as the spy in the First Order, his explanation that "I don't care if you win. I need Kylo Ren to lose" absolutely tracks with the hatred festering inside the once-powerful man that he has become.
So, who are your favorites? Who on this list should have been wiped from memory? Maybe it's time to revisit your favorite media to decide.