Doctor Aphra Review

 

Doctor Aphra is the new Audio Drama written Sarah Kuhn and performed by a full cast. It focuses on adapting and expanding the comic appearances of Chelli Lona Aphra before the start of her own main series. It shows Aphra's initial relationship with Vader, as well as the introduction of 000 and Betee and it expands the relationship between Doctor Aphra and Sana Starros. Given that this is an adaptation of a comic series from 2015, I won't worry about spoilers, but I won't spoil any of the expanded material from the book.

Doctor Aphra is one of my favorite characters of the new canon, and this book does her plenty of justice. Her voice actress, Emily Woo Zeller, is a fantastic choice to bring Doctor Aphra off the page and into the voiced realm (other then her short appearance in the From a Certain Point of View Audiobook, but still). She perfectly captures Aphra's flippancy, but also her depth. The choice to cast an Asian American woman as Aphra as well was critical in my opinion. Part of what makes Aphra so engaging is that she is one of the most prominent racial and sexual minorities in Star Wars today, being both an Asian American Woman (roughly, Star Wars is weird in that its not earth, but still has earth ethnicities as part of being portrayed by humans) as well as a lesbian. There was some fear, from both me and people I know, that as Aphra became more publically consumable rather then just contained in obscure comics, Disney/Lucasfilm would put less emphasis on these aspects of her character, which in my opinion would heavily cheapen her. But with Aphra played by an asian american woman, and with the stories emphasis on Aphra's relationship with another woman, those fears have been assuaged.

This book definitely feels like an attempt by Disney/Lucasfilm to place Aphra more in the public eye. One of the biggest flaws with Aphra is that she was introduced and developed as a side character in two different comic books, and her main series is heavily dependent on lore from her previous intros. This meant getting into Aphra as a character required reading both the Darth Vader and Star Wars marvel runs. This book consolidates her appearences and provides a singular jumping on point for the character. This is especially useful as it seems Aphra is primed to enter the wider universe with rumors of a TV Series in the works.

Overall, the most important part of adapting Aphra is staying true to her character, and this book more then does that. The emotional complexity and trauma, the complex interpersonal relationships with Vader and Sana and Triple Zero, as well as the thrilling and comedic tone of her personality are all there just as they should be. This audiobook is the ideal entry point into Doctor Aphra as a character, and I look forward to seeing what they do with the character going forward


Now I just need my favorite character Magna Tolvan to appear in a show or an audiobook and then I will be complete.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Black Series Review Knight of Ren (Vicrul)

Image
Yesterday I purchased the Star Wars Black Series: Knight of Ren figure, which depicts the Knight of Ren identified as Vicrul. The figure overall is great, with only a few small issues. Since I like to end on a positive note, let's start with the Negatives. Probably my biggest complaint is with the arm joints. One big issue is that the design of the sleeve on the upper arm somewhat constricts movement and prevents the arm from extending all the way, but this is a minor complaint, and frankly I'm glad they were unwilling to sacrifice Screen Accuracy. The Elbow joints are also a little stiff, but thats hardly a major issue. Far bigger then the elbow is the wrist joints, which have a very small connection point compared to the overall figure. The joints on mine are also a little looser then normal. The right hand is sculpted to hold the gun, although the gun is very loose in his hands, and moves vertically on a hinge, and the left hand is sculpted to hold the sickle. ...
Read more

A Brief Cultural History of the Mandalorians

 Hello and good to see you all again, its been a while. I've been a bit busy what with, well, *gestures broadly at everything*. I probably won't be hitting anywhere near what had been my intention of weekly posts, as I've found that that sort of pressure is difficult. So for now I'll just post when I have something interesting to say or I'm inspired to write. But today, I'm very inspired, and in my excitement for season 2 of the Mandalorian, I figured I would share a brief overview of the history of the Mandalorians in canon. What we know, what puzzle pieces have yet to be provided, and what the narrative I think our limited amount of information might point to. I'll try to keep a solid division between what we know to be true from canon about Mandalorian History and Culture, and the overarching historical narrative that those individual snippets point to. A lot of this will be conjecture, but if I'm doing my job it's well substantiated conjecture. W...
Read more

All Sith Lords in Star Wars Canon: A Currently Complete List

There have been a variety of Sith Lords, in both Canon and Legends Star Wars. Though they're all different, we all have our favorites. Here's complete (currently) list of all Sith Lords that have been mentioned or reference in the Star Wars canon. Holders of the Darth Title:  Darth Sidious Born Sheev Palpatine on the planet Naboo. Taught by Darth Plagueis. Taught Darth Maul, Darth Tyrannus, and Darth Vader. The last of the Banite sith, Palpatine brought the Sith’s grand plan to fruition by executing the Jedi and establishing the Galactic Empire. After 23 years of rule, Sidious was betrayed and defeated by Darth Vader. He returned through the use of cloning, but was finally defeated on the Sith planet of Exegol by his Granddaughter Rey. The Emperor was first mentioned in 1977s A New Hope , first seen in 1983s Return of the Jedi, and first identified as Darth Sidious in 1999’s The Phantom Menace Darth Maul Born on the planet Dathomir, Maul was taken from the N...
Read more