Ekiya

This article is non-canon within the canon continuity. This article covers a subject from a Star Wars: Visions story that Lucasfilm declared is set in an alternate history within a reimagined galaxy.

Ekiya, occasionally nicknamed Kiya, was a female individual from the planet Rei'izu. When she was fourteen years old, the Sith conquered her homeworld and she was conscripted to serve as a trooper in the Sith rebellion; she would later say she must have looked strong enough to fight and smart enough not to fight the Sith. She was part of a group of ten conscripts that included Haba, Kabeji, Sae, Shogo, and Unsuke. One week after they had been shipped offworld, the leader of the rebellion—the Dark Lord of the Sith who would later be known as the Ronin—betrayed his fellow Sith. As the rebellion collapsed, Rei'izu was somehow taken with it, leaving empty space where the world had once been. The Sith commander giving orders to Ekiya and her group wanted them to make a last stand against the Jedi and the Empire. Instead, they conspired to kill the commander to free themselves. They were successful, but only six survived the uprising.^[1]

With Rei'izu missing, Ekiya and other beings from that world became refugees. Some time after the rebellion, Ekiya became the pilot of a starship named the Poor Crow. Over the years, she collected relics from fellow Rei'izu refugees. Within the relics were kyber crystals that were believed to contain the ghosts of the dead, and they were meant to be brought to a temple on Rei'izu; with their world missing, it became impossible to send the ghosts home. Ekiya was entrusted with delivering the relics someday if Rei'izu could be found.^[1]

As an adult, Ekiya had a round face, thick black hair, and many colorful floral tattoos on her muscular arms.^[1]

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Behind the scenes

Ekiya appeared in the 2021 non-canon novel Ronin: A Visions Novel, by Emma Mieko Candon.^[1] Like all names in the novel, Ekiya's name is comprised of phonemes used in the Japanese language.^[4] According to Candon, Ekiya was partially inspired by their own childhood experience as a gender-nonconforming Star Wars fan, drawn to pilot characters and ordinary individuals who held groups together through compassion. As an adult, Candon associated queerness with this archetype and further drew inspiration for Ekiya from queer friends who sought to provide safety, comfort, and happiness for their chosen communities. Candon described Ekiya as a "butch-of-center force for good" who prioritizes action over words and often forgets that she herself deserves care and happiness.^[5] Candon sees Ekiya having an "anachronistic aesthetic," thematically cyberpunk, with short hair and colorful tattoos. Inspiration for the character came from Edo period firefighters, popularized in the film Promare sometime before the book was written. The name "Ekiya" was created as a recombined version of a name^[6] of a friend Candon's, who she believes has a compassionate, Han Solo-like personality.^[7]

Candon also stated that Ekiya was intended from the beginning to serve as Kouru's primary point of connection to the other characters in the novel. She noted that while she did not initially anticipate the chemistry that developed between the two characters, Ekiya's grounded nature complemented Kouru's intense personality, and Kouru's willingness to devote herself to Ekiya provided a form of connection that Ekiya deserved at that point in her life.^[5] Their relationship has been described by the author as "pre-romantic," as she didn't feel it was a justified romantic arc by the end of the book.^[3]

Ekiya's emotional return to Rei'izu were based on the author's painful feeling of disconnect when visiting Kyoto in Japan for the first time with her mother,^[8] the author being a fourth-generation Japanese American,^[1] and her mother being the daughter of a Japanese teacher with a Japanese translator, but who wasn't able to learn the language due to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.^[8]

Appearances

• Ronin: A Visions Novel (and audiobook) (First appearance)

Notes and references