Characters / Star Wars – Dr. Aphra and Crew

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Dr. Aphra's Crew

After working with Darth Vader, Aphra retains possession of Triple-Zero and BT-1, who assist her on her dangerous and illegal archaeological work. Joined by the Wookiee bounty hunter Black Krrsantan, to whom she owes a rather large amount of credits, and by her father, to whom she owes a large amount of hatred, Aphra begins investigating the Ordu Aspectu while avoiding Imperial attention. Throughout her subsequent adventures, Aphra gains and loses several crewmembers and associates, unable to keep herself from driving them away, killing them, or turning them against her due to her manipulative and destructive nature.

Current Crew

Chelli Lona Aphra

Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra

"Get rich. Save own skin. Damn everyone else."

Species: Human

Appearances: From a Certain Point of View | Sana Starros^note Flashback | Darth Vader | Vader Down | Star Wars (Marvel 2015) | Doctor Aphra (audiobook) | Doctor Aphra (comic book) | The Screaming Citadel | War of the Bounty Hunters | Dark Droids

"Archaeology is just grave robbing with fancy paperwork. And I've got debts to pay."

A renegade archaeologist, droid expert, and arms dealer recruited by Darth Vader to provide him with droid soldiers. Aphra continues to serve under Vader as his personal secret agent, hunting for information on the Rebellion and Vader's rivals within the Empire. After managing to extract herself from Vader's employ, Aphra returns to her work as an archaeologist only to discover her credentials are being (rightfully) questioned.

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• Adventurer Archaeologist: She styles herself a renegade archaeologist concerned with recovering abandoned high-powered weaponry and battle/assassin droids.
• Affably Evil:
  • While she may be very upbeat and friendly, it is important to remember that Aphra likes to reactivate extremely homicidal droids for very dangerous people and is a supporter of the Empire and Darth Vader.
  • She had Padmé's mortician tortured to learn whether or not she had a child before she died. After she learns what she wants to know, she has the man killed, not wanting to be seen as a sadist by torturing the man for more details that he may not have.
  • Aphra generally murders most of the people she works with, ranging from programming a cyborg to get himself killed so his boyfriend will go berserk to shooting one of her allies to death to protect her Imperial spy quasi-girlfriend.
  • She also uses adorable cloned tooka-cats as living grenades (apparently because she thinks it's funny). She has tens of the things, all programmed to detonate violently if she says a specific cutesy code phrase.
• Affectionate Nickname: Her dad used to call her "boop". He's the only one still allowed to before she stops him after the second time.
  Triple Zero: Who are the Ordu Aspectu?
  Aphra: [...] I'll explain later. You're going to set him—
  Aphra Senior: Oh, listen brave droid! Ignore little boop! [...]
  [after explaining the Doom of the Ordu Aspectu]
  Triple Zero: Firstly, they sound twee. Secondly, "boop"?
  Aphra: Pet name. You tell anyone, and I'll do to you what you want to do to everyone else, Triple-Zero. I'm not joking.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys:
  • Well, with the guy she's platonically fangirling on, it's hard to get much more "bad boy" than Darth Vader. And the gender flipped variant with Tolvan.
  • Tolvan talks of how some people crave order just so they can break the rules. "Hypocrites with a secret crush on the jackboot." Aphra can only say, "Busted."
• Ambiguously Brown: Though the artwork can be ambiguous at times, the majority of the time, Aphra looks Asian, which Kieron Gillen has stated she is. Further drilled in with art from Force Arena depicting what Aphra may look like in real life.
• Ascended Fangirl: A fan of Darth Vader, she is hired by him for her engineering expertise. The fangirl part doesn't last.
• Being Evil Sucks: For all her talk about how her brutal ways are her way of life with zero remorse or regret, her actions come back to haunt/hurt/torment her in various ways and often leave her a sobbing mess, knowing full well she has no one to blame but herself.
• Black Shirt: She is a supporter of the fascist ideals of the Empire and an admirer of Vader. At first.
• Boxed Crook: She ends up in Vader's employ and doesn't really have a choice about it. That being said, Aphra is extremely happy to be working with him even though she knows that it will inevitably end up getting her killed.
• Breakout Character: She became an incredibly popular character almost the moment she was introduced in the Darth Vader comics and it only increased. Her popularity eventually led to her getting her own solo series in 2017.
• Brain/Computer Interface: She modifies Rexa Go's cyborg implant to serve as one without the surgery usually required, although it's clearly not a pleasant process as evidenced by her eyes rolling up in her head as she uses it.
• Briar Patching: From the start, Aphra tells Vader (more than once) exactly the way she prefers that he eventually kill her, and adds the way she doesn't want to be killed and why. In the end, it goes just as she hoped it would, and with her still alive.
• Broken Pedestal: The destruction of Alderaan and then working closely with Darth Vader broke a lot of her faith in the Empire as a force of might that stopped larger wars from breaking out and getting people killed. Past that, though, while she didn’t like the Empire she still thought of them as better than the alternative of rampant anarchy. What truly destroyed her last glimmers of faith in them was the discovery that the raiders that killed her mother were sent by the Empire’s propaganda unit, in order to seem like they were bringing peace to the galaxy.
• Butch Lesbian: She's short-haired, often dirty, mechanically minded, feisty, dressed in a rather masculine style and she loves the ladies. It's confirmed that she was involved with Sana Starros in the past. Later she and Magna Tolvan become an item as well. Then she has sex with Domina Tagge.
• Character Development: Aphra goes through significant character changes across all the series she appears in, with most of her development going in the direction of Aphra slowly dropping aspects of her immorality and self-destructive behavior.
  • After the ending of Darth Vader, she doesn't really care all that much about the Empire anymore since Vader trying to kill her sort of ruined it for her and she also doesn't want Vader knowing she's alive.
  • By the end of the first arc of her own series, Aphra's relationship with her father is mending and is on much better terms (though still some ways to go) than it was at the beginning.
  • At the end of her first series, Aphra's come around to supporting the Rebellion, taking a major risk to buy them time to prepare their defenses on Hoth.
  • In the end of her second ongoing series, Aphra is tired of driving everyone away from her and admits to both Sana and Magna that she loves them and nothing she does means anything if she doesn't have someone to share it with, inviting them to join her in a life of crime and a relationship.
  Aphra: Take what you can. Save your own skin. Damn everyone else. That's the only way to be free. When did that stop being enough?
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: If she has to betray someone in order to survive, she'll do it, even if it's someone she genuinely cares about and she feels terribly about it later. Vuulada sums up her philosophy best: "Better alive and guilty than dead and anything." After her friends save her from possession by the Spark Eternal, Aphra's entire conviction in this, which was already on shaky ground, is utterly destroyed and she embarks on a path of self-destructive behavior to avoid admitting she wants to love and trust the people she cares about without ultimately betraying them.
• Cool Starship: Her personal ship, the Ark Angel, looks like somebody crossed Boba Fett's Slave I with a CR90 corvette.
• Dating Catwoman: As of issue 16 of her own series she and Tolvan seem to be heading towards this after sharing their first kiss. However since Aphra is at best Morally Ambiguous and Tolvan is an Imperial officer YMMV on who the "Catwoman" of the relationship actually is.
• Demonic Possession: In Issue 20 of her second series, Aphra is mortally wounded attempting to claim the Spark Eternal for herself, which then attaches itself to Aphra, heals the wound, and takes over her body, leaving Aphra's mind trapped within.
• Depending on the Artist: It's very hard to discern what her ethnicity is, because every artist has drawn her differently, solely limited by the unchangeable fact that she's a young Asian female.
• Disney Death: Her final appearance in Darth Vader has Vader shoot her out an air-lock in an attempt to kill her, but luckily Aphra had prepared for such an eventuality.
• The Dragon: To Darth Vader. She becomes his personal agent, helping to carry out his secret agenda to secure his position in the Empire and move against the Emperor.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • She's appalled to learn that the Empire destroyed Alderaan, killing far more civilians in one stroke than entire wars do.
  • She finds that she cannot bring herself to allow Triple-Zero to torture her own father despite her hatred and contempt for him.
  • She also gets angry with her father for dismissing the Death Star and destruction of Alderaan as rumors not worth his time, and when he expresses his horror that the Rebels almost got an ancient temple destroyed by making it their base.
  • She cites this after Rexa and her men destroy an Imperial base and kill most of the garrison despite the mission having already been accomplished when they retrieved the intel.
  • The first issue of her second series has her stating that she refuses to work with Ronen Tagge as he is too unsavory even for her.
• Evil Counterpart: To Han Solo. She's modeled on Harrison Ford's second most famous character, she becomes one of Vader's chief companions after he hires her for a one-off job, and her dynamic with Vader — as an enthusiastic young adventurer paired with an older, quieter, stoic veteran — clearly parallels Luke's dynamic with Han. She even has the requisite low-slung pistol.
• Expy:
  • She looks and acts like a female (Asian) version of Indiana Jones, albeit one who is pretty morally ambiguous. She also has a strained relationship with her Married to the Job father.
  • She also bears some resemblance to Padmé Amidala and Ahsoka Tano at times, a factor that probably is the main reason why Vader isn't playing the Bad Boss card on her.
• Fangirl: She's one of Darth Vader, which she admits while welcoming him aboard her ship.
  Aphra: Welcome aboard the Ark Angel, sir Darth Vader. Big fan. Huge!
• Freudian Excuse: She grew up during the Clone Wars and her father abandoned her family when she was young. Her mother moved them to a homestead to make a new start for themselves, but they were attacked by raiders. Aphra escaped, but her mother was killed, and Aphra sees her idealism as leading to it. This led her to have a Might Makes Right mentality.
• Gadgeteer Genius: She specializes in recovering and upgrading abandoned war droids. Her work managed to impress Vader enough for him to seek her out and recruit her.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: By the end of Darth Vader, she has less willingness to work for the Empire (especially Vader), and takes to Faking the Dead to avoid him coming after her, but she's still not exactly moral herself. See Heel Realization below for details.
• Heel Realization: Downplayed. At the end of Darth Vader, she's not as much of the fangirl she was of the Empire anymore and has lost taste due to their lack of morality — particularly Vader's, and she goes back to minding her own business and being a neutral party. That being said, she still does things like threaten her father at gunpoint (at the beginning of her comic series anyway), kill a guy for backstabbing her (which is at least pretty justified), lets Triple-Zero, Beetee, and Krrsantan do their thing, and so on.
  Aphra: If I was interested in moral instruction from an emotionless killer, I'd have kept working for Darth Vader.
  • At the end of Remastered, Triple-Zero accuses Aphra of being just like him, pointing out how many of her own allies she's backstabbed and killed as well as her numerous Kick the Dog moments in the arc. She tries to defend herself, but then realizes he's right.
  Aphra: I'm not sick! I...I get things wrong, I use people, I'm a bad person but....I don't expect to sleep well. Ever.
• Horrible Judge of Character:
  • After her mother died, Imperials found her and brought her back to her home. If these Imperials really did mean it out of genuine kindness, then their impression was enough to help convince Aphra that the Empire was a force of good. It is later revealed that her mother was killed in an Imperial False Flag Operation meant to make the Empire look like saviors.
  • There's also her crush on Magna Tolvan, an Imperial, which her father even lampshades as having "terrible taste in women". Sure, Tolvan is genuinely attracted to her, possibly even in love, but as Aphra finds out in issue 19 when Tolvan uses her to destroy the syndicate she works for and then has her thrown into a Hellhole Prison, Tolvan's career comes first, and she's still holding a grudge over Aphra getting her demoted in the first place.
• Hypocritical Humor: During a shootout with Han, she laughed and called him an idiot for taking cover under a nest of wasp-snakes. Cut to Han taking aim at the hive she's covering under.
• Informed Attribute: She calls herself an archaeologist but none of the items she procures are more than a couple decades old. In her own series, she actually gets around to investigating some ancient ruins and artifacts.
• Jerkass Has a Point/Villain Has a Point: When she was younger, she called out her dad for being less concerned about people and more concerned about things like temples, which continues in the present day.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's genuinely touched when Luke defends her from Leia and Sana's accusations, calling her "his friend", despite having been his enemy in the past (specifically, The Dragon to the man who supposedly killed his father).
• Karma Houdini: Zigzagged. Aphra tends to avoid much in the way of physical repercussions for her repeated acts of betrayal and general unpleasantness, but isn't as fortunate when it comes to the emotional consequences both in the form of destroyed relationships and her own guilt. A good example is the Screaming Citadel arc where, even after selling Luke to the Queen and stabbing him in the back, she gets off with nothing more than a "The Reason You Suck" Speech from him, but she's left feeling awful from his condemnation.
• Kick the Dog: Repeatedly in the Remastered arc. She leaves at least two of her crew members to die, takes over a rebel ship nearly killing everyone onboard and injuring many, programs another crewmember to make a suicide run, and uses tookas as bombs because It Amused Me. Turns out to have been invoked by Triple-Zero, who gave her the mission so she'd realize she and him weren't so different. Aphra actually seems kind of appalled by her own actions when she realizes it.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The universe just loves putting the people she betrayed or screwed over back in her way. Catastrophe Con in particular is a long parade of this, and nearly every time she schemes or calculates it comes back to bite her in some way.
• Lovable Rogue: A deconstruction. Aphra has all the halmarks of a Lovable Rogue. She's a badass Adventurer Archaeologist who's always one step ahead of those who would try to catch and control her, whether it's Imperials, Rebels, or criminal syndicates. However, the constant law-breaking and backstabbing does real damage to her relationships and gives her a tortured conscience. Many of her antagonists are people she hurt in the past.
• Lovable Traitor: Working with Aphra means there is a 100% chance that she will betray you in some form, and a 50/50 shot of her coming back to help after said betrayal, although there is a good chance for another betrayal after that.
• Love Confession: Drops this on Sana in Doctor Aphra #39 when it appears that Aphra is about to sacrifice her life. She ends up surviving it and enters into a happy relationship with both Sana and Tolvan.
• Love Makes You Dumb: Not that Aphra can't make terrible decisions all on her own, but her crush on Magna Tolvan leads to her making some pretty stupid ones, such as repeatedly letting her live even though she knows she'll be a problem in future, or giving her a commlink to flirt with which Tolvan immediately uses to reveal Aphra to the base she's trying to infiltrate.
• Meaningful Name: "Doctor Aphra" sounds an awful lot like a shortened form of "Doctor Aphrodite", like the famous true crime writer "Aphrodite Jones" — hinting at Aphra's status as an Expy of Indiana Jones, who was regularly called "Doctor Jones" by his companions.
• Might Makes Right: Why she (initially) believes the atrocities the Empire commits are justified, as only strength can keep the galaxy from descending into chaos. She continues to believe this even after being disillusioned with the Empire itself.
• Morality Pet: Through interactions with her, Anakin's old personality really shines though, at least until she does finally outlive her usefulness to him.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Aphra is willing to lie, steal, and kill to get artifacts to sell. At the end of her own first issue, her doctorate is suspended as it was discovered that she cheated in school. This leaves her unable to sell any archaeological artifacts she discovers.
• Motor Mouth: Darth Vader tells her she is this after a couple of pages of dialogue. Aphra responds that she gets chatty when she's nervous and Vader really makes her nervous.
• Nemesis Magnet: Given her manipulative nature, Aphra ends up gaining a large number of people and ex-girlfriends who would love nothing more than to kill her. That list includes at various points Triple-Zero and BT-1, Sana Starros (although they later patch things up), Magna Tolvan (who she also patches things up with), Ronen Tagge, and Kho Phon Farrus. Oh, and Darth Vader.
• Nightmare Fetishist:
  • She has quite the fascination with superweapons and other ways to quickly kill off planetary populations. However, it is the science and technology that fascinates her, and Aphra is at least somewhat disturbed by the actual deaths.
  • After learning about the destruction of Alderaan, she begins theorizing about several ways it was accomplished before General Tagge spells it out for her.
  • Upon landing on Geonosis, Aphra observes that the planet was sterilized by the Empire, killing off most of the species. She then wonders what weapons were used and states that she would love to get her hands on it.
  • When she arrives on Hivebase-1 she immediately gets distracted cooing over all the horrific things the Empire has cooked up (rathtars crossed with interrogation droids, a Wookiee with a railgun for a head, things like that). She also calls the Decraniated "awesome". Hera's pretty disgusted by it.
  • And, of course, there's the part about her being a self-described fangirl for Darth Vader.
• Noodle Incident: She apparently knows Sana Starros and asks her for help breaking out of a Rebel prison for "old times' sake." The next issue reveals a little more about their shared past, which seems to imply they were in a relationship. Her audio novel establishes that the two attended university together and Aphra's breakup with her was very bitter.
• Off with Her Head!: Assuming that Vader will kill her once she no longer has any use to him, she asks that he cut her head off from behind with no warning. While also asking that if she gets a veto to please not shoot her into space, since it scares her. Unfortunately, Vader tries to use the airlock one to kill her, but she anticipated it being a possibility and makes her way out of it.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • When she realizes she's lost the legitimacy of her doctorate because her dad wants to get back into her life.
  • A subdued one when Susina decides to dedicate her life to Aphra's supposed discovery of the Abersyn symbiotes on Boothi XII.
  • Gets a massive one when she sees Vader at the gathering of the bounty hunters, almost seeming like a panic attack or post traumatic stress disorder, which wouldn't be surprising, given that the last time they met, Vader believed he'd killed her.
  • Has a brief moment after realizing the woman she slept with the previous night on Galator III stole an important data stick from her.
• Parental Abandonment: Her father left her and her mother, and her mother would later be killed.
• Phony Degree: Her degree is from a legitimate school but she cheated to get it. Still, she's genuinely good at what she does.
• Preacher's Kid: Her father is a devoutly spiritual archaeologist determined to lead her down a more moral path.
• Perky Female Minion: Her generally rather upbeat attitude and Motor Mouth tendencies creates a great contrast to Vader's silently threatening presence. Especially, when she's fangirling over him in her first appearances.
• Polyamory: Ends up in a happy outlaw relationship with both Tolvan and Sanna.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: She puts her hair in a bun and uses the lightsaber she looted earlier to kick Rur's droid butt.
  Rur: You return to bask in my presence, mortal!
  Aphra: Well, not really. I'm an archaeologist. I'm all about the careful extraction of ancient artifacts.
  [ignites lightsaber]
  Aphra: Mostly.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • In "The Trigger", she guilt-trips a Stormtrooper already somewhat disturbed by the destruction of Alderaan and her enthusiasm over the Death Star (and he's only a teenager) over how easy it is to not feel guilty about killing when your target doesn't have a face (in both reference to Rebels against Stormtroopers and the Empire against Alderaan), having multiple triggers provides anonymous sense of culpability, and how the trooper is about to directly execute an obviously human woman himself.
  • Gives these a couple of times to her dad for his Skewed Priorities. She genuinely means part of it out of wanting him to become a better husband, father, and man in general.
    Aphra: What did you miss? Where to start, dad?! Your wife falling out of love with you until she thought running away to the Outer Rim was a good idea. If you loved living people half as much as you love dead things, you'd probably be the best dad in the world.
    Aphra Senior: Miss Chelli Lona Aphra! It wasn't like that!
    Aphra: Yes, it was. That was another of the things you missed. And all for nothing...
  • She's on the receiving end of one from Luke Skywalker at the end of The Screaming Citadel, in which he calls her out for her self-serving and callous actions and makes it clear in no uncertain terms that she's not to get in touch with him ever again. Which clearly cuts her to the bone since she was genuinely beginning to like him.
• Redemption Equals Life: Well, not quite redemption, but the principle is there. The one time she decides to do something selfless and take the bullet for someone else (since she was dying anyway and had nothing to lose by it) is the one time the universe gives her a break, as the bomb deactivates and the girl she saved later saves her in turn, with the act finally convincing Triple Zero and Beetee to leave her alone as she's gotten "boring".
• Sanity Slippage: After returning to her home to set it on fire and being confronted by her father, she screams at him about how he doesn't seem to be concerned about where her mother is and why she's alone and also mentions that while she was with Imperials, she was given therapy sessions and was told that she "might have some issues".
• She Cleans Up Nicely: She wears a dress in Issue #9. She pulls it off quite well.
• Shock and Awe: Her electro-tattoos give her minor electricity-manipulation abilities. She can short out droids and read the thoughts of someone who has similar tattoos.
• Sleeping with the Boss: While working for her, she sleeps with Domina Tagge. Though Domina makes it clear that there are no romantic feelings involved, and Aphra mostly does it as part of the destructive cycle she was in post-possession by the Spark Eternal.
• The Snark Knight: Every sentence out of her mouth is all pure snark.
• Start of Darkness: When her mother dies and she blows up the people that killed her, then sets her own house on fire when she confronts her father about it.
• Tattooed Crook: Aphra has "electro-tattoos" on her right arm which look like circuitry-they're rather cool. The Catastrophe Con reveals they interfere with probes, although whether that's intentional or just a side effect is unknown.
• Taking the Bullet: In issue 31, she instinctively does this for Vulaada.
• Technopath: After Domina Tagge upgrades her electro-tattoos.
• Trauma Button: Unsurprisingly, Vader is this to her, having nearly killed her by doing the very thing she repeatedly asked him not to do- she nearly loses all composure and flees from the auction she's in upon spotting him. As it turns out, he's had a very lasting effect on her psyche, and she's absolutely terrified of him finding her, despite acknowledging they may cross paths again.
• Undying Loyalty: A subversion. She certainly tries to come off as this, but it's ultimately shown that her "loyalty" is simply the understanding that Vader is an unstoppable badass with a tendency to kill people who displease him or he doesn't need. So she suggests Vader kill her for being a loose end not because she cares about his plans, but because she assumes he's going to kill her, knows she has no way of stopping him, and is trying to make it a quick death. When Vader does want her dead for being a loose end and she has a way out of it, she's quick to blackmail him to keep herself alive.
• Unperson: Vader has all records of her expunged from the Imperial database to help cover up his association with her and plans to overthrow the Emperor. Whenever an Imperial officer encounters this curious gap in information and learns it was by Vader's hand, they quickly begin to panic.
• Utopia Justifies the Means:
  • She believes that the Empire subjugating the galaxy is preferable to the alternatives, viewing them as chaotic situations that would lead to war and death. The Death Star destroying Alderaan is the first thing to shake Aphra's faith in the Empire, as it caused far more casualties in a matter of seconds than most wars would.
  • Even after Vader turned against her, Aphra is still fairly neutral about the Empire and says to Luke that they're a force of good because they bring peace to the Galaxy. Luke argues that subjugating the masses is not the way to go, but she counters that he doesn't know what it's like to lose things like loved ones in subjugation and war, because she knows firsthand as her mother was killed by raiders during the Clone Wars and part of why her parents divorced is because they had different thoughts of how to keep her safe from war. Luke then shares that his uncle and aunt were killed by the Empire, an act of subjugation.
• Villain with Good Publicity: She manages to become this to the Empire briefly after broadcasting herself on the HoloNet foiling an attempted coup against the Emperor, making her too popular amongst loyal Imperial citizens to be executed, even by Darth Vader.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Gives these to her dad regularly for his Skewed Priorities, although she is just as often on the receiving end of them for her numerous crimes and betrayals.
• Wild Card: Even in the middle of the Rebellion, Aphra manages to be one of the most destructive forces of nature in the galaxy, being directly or indirectly responsible for thousands, if not millions, of deaths on both sides of the conflict and amongst the underworld. She will ally with whoever can keep her alive and get her a nice profit/archeological find and betray them at the drop of a hat, having done so to the Rebels, Imperials, crime lords, and even Darth Vader. Entire planets have been partially destroyed as a result of her actions, and Aphra's penchant for chaos has attracted the attention of Rebel, Imperial, and underworld leaders who all want her dead or aim to use her as a pawn in their own schemes.
• Working with the Ex: Very frequently finds herself in this situation, having so far been forced into working with Sana, Tolvan, and Eustacia, all of whom are severely tempted to kill her, with both Sana and Tolvan actually attempting to at some points.
• Wrench Wench: She's a droid mechanic and weapons technician. She's skilled enough in these two fields and her work so impressive that Darth Vader hired her.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Fully expected Vader to implement this trope, and is rather shocked to find out he has no plans that way. When he later does try to kill her, Aphra has an escape plan at the ready.

Former crew

Korin Aphra

Korin Aphra

Species: Human

Appearances: Doctor Aphra

Dr. Aphra's estranged father, who is also an archaeologist. He exposes her cheating in school, which leads to her doctorate being revoked and forces her to join him on a search for the Ordu Aspectu, an ancient sect of Jedi.

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• Absent-Minded Professor: He's so obsessed with his job that he often overlooks anything else, including his daughter being injured and the destruction of Alderaan.
• Adventurer Archaeologist: His job. Seems to be in the blood.
• Ambiguously Brown: He seems to be Space-Asian like his daughter.
• Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: His hypothesis about what happened to the Ordu Aspectu.
• Foil: To his daughter. They're both skilled archaeologists whose obsession with their work has given them strained relationships with their loved ones. However, Korin is more interested in the cultural and spiritual value of the artifacts he finds while Chelli is more interested in their monetary value or destructive power.
• Good Is Not Dumb:
  • He might be idealistic but he refuses to share any information with his daughter unless necessary.
  • In the last issue of Empire Ascendant, when Luke says that something Chelli had done is proof she's a good person, Tolvan points out once Luke is out of earshot that Chelli saved the Emperor's life once and Korin replies that it's probably for the better to not tell Luke that since someone as naive as him probably wouldn't take that news well.
• Good Shepherd: He is a very religious man, and hopes his search for the Ordu Aspectu will lead to a spiritual reawakening across the galaxy.
• Heel–Faith Turn: Hopes their shared search for the Ordu Aspectu will do this for his daughter.
• Hidden Depths: He left his family in hopes of saving them by bringing back the Ordu Aspectu. Now, he's trying to do it for Chelli.
• Lack of Empathy: When he learns of the destruction of Jedha City and the near-destruction of Yavin IV, he's more concerned about their temples than their people.
• Locked Out of the Loop: On account of being Married to the Job. He thought that the Death Star wasn't real and that the destruction of Jedha City and Alderaan were unfortunate accidents.
• Married to the Job: According to Chelli, he was so wrapped up in his work that his wife left him and fled to the Outer Rim where she was killed by raiders. Chelli blames him for her mother's death. Considering he didn't even know that the Death Star is real, was completely oblivious to the Battle of Yavin, and has the Lack of Empathy noted above, it's hard to argue against her point.
• No Name Given: He first appears in Issue #1 but is not named until Issue #32. Chelli just refers to him as "dad".
• Papa Wolf: However many Skewed Priorities he may have, when push comes to shove, he'll still protect his daughter. He strikes Tolvan In the Back with the lightsaber from the Citadel of Rur when she holds Chelli at gunpoint.
• Parents as People: He and Lona disagreed on how to raise Chelli. He worked hard on looking for the Ordu Aspectu because he believed it would be enough to protect his family and the Galaxy. Lona and Chelli saw it as him being Married to the Job.
• Someone Has to Die: After being captured by Darth Vader alongside his daughter, the Sith Lord decides he needs only one expert archeologist to aid in the hunt for the Rebels and orders BT-1 to execute one of the Aphra's. After telling his daughter how proud he is of her, he volunteers to be killed, but thankfully a team of Rebels captures the shuttle they were on and interrupts the execution.
• Single Tear: When the Citadel of Rur self-destructs.
• Token Good Teammate: He's the only member of Aphra's crew that isn't a criminal or murderer.
• Underestimating Badassery: When Chelli sends Krrsantan to lure away Imperial forces from the Massassi temple.
  Aphra Senior: The Wookiee versus whatever the Empire can throw at him? That doesn't seem fair.
  Chelli Aphra: No, it doesn't.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He's not in The Screaming Citadel, which takes place after the first Doctor Aphra arc. The arc's ending seems to be pointing at him leaving after Chelli turns in the Crystal of Rur to an archive since the point of the entire arc was him trying to get her to have a Heel–Faith Turn by finding Rur, but since that was a failure yet he and Chelli kind of make amends anyway, he possibly left to go back to doing whatever he usually does. Given that The Screaming Citadel and the next Doctor Aphra arc are about Chelli trying to find a way to sell the real Crystal of Rur, having put a duplicate in the archive, she probably didn't want him around to avoid getting in trouble with him. He returns for the final arc of the first run, continuing to chase old religious legends that unfortunately make him wind up in the crosshairs of the Empire's hunt for the Rebellion.

Dek-⟦Nil⟧

Dek-⟦Nil⟧

Model: Monster droid (includes parts of: droideka)

Appearances: Doctor Aphra

”The colors so beautiful can you hear them I can I can yes so soft ohh the music of the void it calls.”

A Clone Wars-era droideka repurposed by Doctor Aphra, now fitted with "probability tech".

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• Brainwashed and Crazy: After a Force spirit activates a restraining bolt, any semblance of his former personality is gone in favor of a ruthless, fanatical Imperial supporter. He willingly and enthusiastically helps with Aphra's torture at one point advising that they chop off her arm when her tattoos interfere with the probe.
• Cassandra Truth: Several of the things he says seem to predict future events, particularly his and Aphra's rescue by Tolvan.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Aphra admits that he might be a little overcooked. She tinkered with his "existential circuits", which results in him saying some weird stuff.
• Crazy-Prepared: Aphra put a special beskar plate so that he can't be controlled by a Restraining Bolt. Shame about that Force spirit shoving the bolt straight through it, though.
• Mix-and-Match Man: Robotic equivalent. He's a "monster" droid put together with parts from several different types of droids including a droideka and an astromech.
• Shout-Out: Its model design looks similar to that of the Tachikoma from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: He gets killed later on in the same arc he debuted in, having had little screen time. Subverted in that it turns out he survived... and then double subverted in that Aphra leaves him behind to die. Triple subverted in that it turns out Tolvan saved him.

Vulaada Klam

Vulaada Klam

Species: Human

Appearances: Doctor Aphra

A young girl living in the lower levels of Milvayne with her qaberworm, Gurtyl. A refugee of the Galactic Civil War, she, her parents, and Gurtyl sought out a new life on Milvayne, but her parents were killed when the family was pushed off of the upper levels.

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• A Girl and Her X: A girl and her qaberworm.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Another family got tired of Gurtyl's smell and ratted out Vulaada's parents to the local police due to their faulty falsified records. As a result, Vulaada and her family were literally pushed off of the upper levels to their deaths, but Vulaada and Gurtyl survived.
• Kid Sidekick: After their adventure on Milvayne, Aphra takes Vulaada as a "trainee minion".
• Little Stowaway: Vulaada stows away on the Ark Angel and threatens to self-destruct it if Aphra doesn't take her away from Milvayne.
• Shoo the Dog: Aphra abandons Vulaada in a set of abandoned ruins on Ash Moon 1 after they were captured and conscripted by the Empire but arranges for her to be found by her father and Magna. Aphra later sends them a message explaining that she knows how toxic she is and that being with her is too dangerous, but that she hopes by bringing all her loved ones together away from her they might look out for each other, knowing what it is like to be with Aphra.
• Shoot the Dog: Discussed. Aphra asks if Vulaada would kill her loyal qaberworm Gurtyl if it meant she could get out of Milvayne's lower levels and have everything she ever dreamed of. Vulaada answers that she's not sure what she would do.
• Street Urchin: She was orphaned when her family was cast down into the Under City of Milvayne. She was lucky enough to fall into a safety net. Her parents weren't.
• Tagalong Kid: She stowed away on Aphra's ship and threatened to self-destruct it so Aphra took her on as a "trainee minion."
• Welcome Back, Traitor: She sells out Aphra and Triple-Zero to Milvayne police but later offers them transportation on Gurtyl. Aphra accepts mainly because she's desperate and she understands Vulaada's decision, having Chronic Backstabbing Disorder herself.

Former crew on other pages

• Black Krrsantan on the Fett Gotra page.
• Triple-Zero on the Son-tuul Pride page.
• BT-1 on the Son-tuul Pride page.
• Eustacia Okka on the Criminals page under the Shadow University section.
• Detta Yao on the Criminals page under the Shadow University section.
• Just Lucky on the Criminals page under the Sixth Kin section.

Others

Lona Aphra

Lona Aphra

Species: Human

Appearances: Doctor Aphra (flashback only)

The late mother of Dr. Chelli Aphra and the former wife of Aphra. After splitting with Aphra, she took Chelli with her to an unidentified planet to escape from the Clone Wars, but were attacked by raiders. Lona lost her life while telling Chelli to flee.

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• The Ghost: We don't see what she looked like until Issue #32.
• Missing Mom: Because she's dead.
• Morality Chain: Her death causes Chelli's Start of Darkness. It's also possible that Chelli started to have a bit of her Sanity Slippage from her parents' divorce.
• Parents as People: She and her husband disagreed on how to raise Chelli. She wanted to take Chelli with her to the middle of nowhere in the Outer Rim to avoid the rest of the Galaxy's conflicts. Her husband believed it would be pointless and it would be better to improve the Galaxy rather than run from it.
• Posthumous Character: She died during the Clone Wars.
• You Killed My Mother: Her death by raiders and Chelli’s rescue by Imperials convinced the future archaeologist that the Empire was overall better for the galaxy. Until she learned her mother’s death was actually a False Flag Operation and the Empire was behind it all along, shattering her respect of them.

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