Rose Tico: Resistance Fighter by Jason Fry
Rose Tico: Resistance Fighter written by Jason Fry, illustrated by Cyril Nouvel and Sam Gilbey
This junior reader replica journal delves deep into Rose's past and then catapults through The Last Jedi from her point of view. Being a replica journal, it was simply fun to read and the foldout graphics were informative and engaging. I read through this one super quickly and enjoyed every minute of it.
A little about Rose that you wouldn't know if you hadn't read Cobalt Squadron, a junior reader detailing an immediately pre-Force Awakens mission with Rose and Paige:
-She's from Hays Minor, a frozen planet in the Otomok system that shares an orbit with Hays Major and has very little in the way of breathable air. Hays Minor also has no animal populations to speak of.
-Her parents are Hue and Thanya.
-Paige (her sister) and her mom flew for the Central Ridge Mining company on Hays Minor. They flew stripped down StarFortresses so flying these ships for the Resistance was a piece of cake for Paige.
-Rose built bafflers which made small ships difficult to detect by enemy sensors. These bafflers were used on the transports the Resistance took to get down to Crait which is why it required DJ selling them out for the First Order to even notice the ships at all.
-Cobalt Squadron runs a mission to Atterra Bravo which, similar to Hays Minor and Major, shares an orbit around its sun with Atterra Alpha.
Throughout Rose Tico: Resistance Fighter, Rose goes on a thorough journey of character development, starting out angry and chomping at the bit for revenge and slowly learning to think of saving the people she loves above all. Her character development journey in this book truly deepens her layers and brings her out as a more full person. One scene in particular between Rose and Holdo stood out to me. Rose writes, "[Holdo] told me that Paige would want me to live, not to grieve. I told her I planned to live and that I also planned to honor my sister by striking back against the First Order. By making them hurt...hurt like I was hurting. Holdo shook her head. She said that was grieving not living. Then she said that if I did that, I would make the mistake of not having anything to live for except my sister." Then at the end of the journal, Rose writes, "I realized I was happy. […] I finally knew what I was fighting for, and I believed in it with my whole heart. […] I still wanted to stop the First Order, but now I wasn't thinking about revenge […] Instead, I was thinking about the lives we'd save by stopping them." I love how much more depth this provides to her line in the movie about how the Resistance will win--"not fighting what we hate, saving what we love." She really did have a ton of growth throughout the movie and that wasn't a throw away, awkward line if you know her backstory and had ventured with her on her emotional journey.
She and Paige joined the Resistance because their parents wanted them to fight back but knew it was not safe for the two of them to stand alone on Hays Minor. Can you imagine parents willingly sending their still young children off to fight the big fight?? Seems Paige and Rose were wary of the idea but their parents pushed until the two young girls went. They met a Resistance agent on Botajef (a planet discussed in Thrawn) and joined from there.
In Rose's earlier interactions with Finn, she consistently gets incredibly tired of him talking about Rey all the time purely from a standpoint of annoyance. She also grows to understand that Finn loves Rey above the Resistance and that's why he's fighting--not for freedom from the First Order but to protect his friend (something that is delved into in the Last Jedi novelization). Later, her frustration turns into one of jealousy for him not thinking of her in the same way. Again, another bit of slow but steady character development.
You can see Finn's growth throughout this book as well, as stated so eloquently here: "He insisted we had allies, and they'd get our message and help us. Anyway, what were we going to do? Not fight? This was the same Finn that I'd found running away, who'd thought about his one friend instead of all the other people in danger." So you can see how he goes from caring about only Rey's survival to the survival of everybody. Really intriguing to experience such growth.
We get lovely foldouts of both the Raddus (an MC-85 Star Cruiser) and the Ninka (a Virgillia-Class Bunkerbuster) as well as Rose's Neuro-X A3 Stunstop (the device she stuns Finn with). There is also a foldout detailing several games of chance written by Kaljach Sonmi from the Canto Bight collection of novellas (see below)! We even get a description of the First Order's Laundry and Valet Services! And there's a planetary file on Crait, digging into the mining history of the planet, and a profile on Vulptices (the crystal foxes). Fantastic extra material!!
Discrepancy alert!! "I had no idea that DJ had sold us out to Captain Phasma and the First Order before we ever left Cantonica." DJ doesn't know about the Resistance transports headed to Crait until after they have left Cantonica and are on their way to the Supremacy. He wouldn't have had anything to bargain with while they were still on Cantonica. Maybe Rose is just confused or got bad information?
Trivia:
-Fossil, the head of the bomber squadrons, gave Rose her Rebel ring in memory of her sister's sacrifice.
-The Ninka's first officer was a Sullustan named Gibs Nibbet.
-Scientist-Engineers are called boffins.
-Fasca Tirade is a Zilkin boffin (same diminutive species as Meebur Gascon from The Clone Wars).
-Rose had to look up what a Red Plom Bloom was. She was not familiar with the flower.
-BB-8 stowed away on their shuttle--it was not in the plan to take him.
-Rose and Finn decide which way to go in the sewer after escaping jail by playing a game of "wonga winga cingee wooze."
-The name DJ comes from the words "Don't Join" on the man's hat.
So all in all, a fantastic quick read with some great little extras and wonderful insights into Rose's growing character. If you like Rose or maybe especially if you thought her character was awkward or confusing, you should absolutely check this out to watch her character grow in so many ways. This book truly links together her threads in The Last Jedi into a coherent, cohesive whole. Look out soon for a review on Paige's replica journal called Bomber Command.
A little about Rose that you wouldn't know if you hadn't read Cobalt Squadron, a junior reader detailing an immediately pre-Force Awakens mission with Rose and Paige:
-She's from Hays Minor, a frozen planet in the Otomok system that shares an orbit with Hays Major and has very little in the way of breathable air. Hays Minor also has no animal populations to speak of.
-Her parents are Hue and Thanya.
-Paige (her sister) and her mom flew for the Central Ridge Mining company on Hays Minor. They flew stripped down StarFortresses so flying these ships for the Resistance was a piece of cake for Paige.
-Rose built bafflers which made small ships difficult to detect by enemy sensors. These bafflers were used on the transports the Resistance took to get down to Crait which is why it required DJ selling them out for the First Order to even notice the ships at all.
-Cobalt Squadron runs a mission to Atterra Bravo which, similar to Hays Minor and Major, shares an orbit around its sun with Atterra Alpha.
Throughout Rose Tico: Resistance Fighter, Rose goes on a thorough journey of character development, starting out angry and chomping at the bit for revenge and slowly learning to think of saving the people she loves above all. Her character development journey in this book truly deepens her layers and brings her out as a more full person. One scene in particular between Rose and Holdo stood out to me. Rose writes, "[Holdo] told me that Paige would want me to live, not to grieve. I told her I planned to live and that I also planned to honor my sister by striking back against the First Order. By making them hurt...hurt like I was hurting. Holdo shook her head. She said that was grieving not living. Then she said that if I did that, I would make the mistake of not having anything to live for except my sister." Then at the end of the journal, Rose writes, "I realized I was happy. […] I finally knew what I was fighting for, and I believed in it with my whole heart. […] I still wanted to stop the First Order, but now I wasn't thinking about revenge […] Instead, I was thinking about the lives we'd save by stopping them." I love how much more depth this provides to her line in the movie about how the Resistance will win--"not fighting what we hate, saving what we love." She really did have a ton of growth throughout the movie and that wasn't a throw away, awkward line if you know her backstory and had ventured with her on her emotional journey.
She and Paige joined the Resistance because their parents wanted them to fight back but knew it was not safe for the two of them to stand alone on Hays Minor. Can you imagine parents willingly sending their still young children off to fight the big fight?? Seems Paige and Rose were wary of the idea but their parents pushed until the two young girls went. They met a Resistance agent on Botajef (a planet discussed in Thrawn) and joined from there.
In Rose's earlier interactions with Finn, she consistently gets incredibly tired of him talking about Rey all the time purely from a standpoint of annoyance. She also grows to understand that Finn loves Rey above the Resistance and that's why he's fighting--not for freedom from the First Order but to protect his friend (something that is delved into in the Last Jedi novelization). Later, her frustration turns into one of jealousy for him not thinking of her in the same way. Again, another bit of slow but steady character development.
You can see Finn's growth throughout this book as well, as stated so eloquently here: "He insisted we had allies, and they'd get our message and help us. Anyway, what were we going to do? Not fight? This was the same Finn that I'd found running away, who'd thought about his one friend instead of all the other people in danger." So you can see how he goes from caring about only Rey's survival to the survival of everybody. Really intriguing to experience such growth.
We get lovely foldouts of both the Raddus (an MC-85 Star Cruiser) and the Ninka (a Virgillia-Class Bunkerbuster) as well as Rose's Neuro-X A3 Stunstop (the device she stuns Finn with). There is also a foldout detailing several games of chance written by Kaljach Sonmi from the Canto Bight collection of novellas (see below)! We even get a description of the First Order's Laundry and Valet Services! And there's a planetary file on Crait, digging into the mining history of the planet, and a profile on Vulptices (the crystal foxes). Fantastic extra material!!
Trivia:
-Fossil, the head of the bomber squadrons, gave Rose her Rebel ring in memory of her sister's sacrifice.
-The Ninka's first officer was a Sullustan named Gibs Nibbet.
-Scientist-Engineers are called boffins.
-Fasca Tirade is a Zilkin boffin (same diminutive species as Meebur Gascon from The Clone Wars).
-Rose had to look up what a Red Plom Bloom was. She was not familiar with the flower.
-BB-8 stowed away on their shuttle--it was not in the plan to take him.
-Rose and Finn decide which way to go in the sewer after escaping jail by playing a game of "wonga winga cingee wooze."
-The name DJ comes from the words "Don't Join" on the man's hat.
So all in all, a fantastic quick read with some great little extras and wonderful insights into Rose's growing character. If you like Rose or maybe especially if you thought her character was awkward or confusing, you should absolutely check this out to watch her character grow in so many ways. This book truly links together her threads in The Last Jedi into a coherent, cohesive whole. Look out soon for a review on Paige's replica journal called Bomber Command.
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