She’s also significant in that she is more down to Earth than classic Star Wars women.
Jyn rebels against both sides, and contributes to the Rebellion’s ultimate victory. She also felt that she didn’t have “the luxury of political opinions.” After her father is killed, she feels a renewed spark – she wants to fight the Empire, and she’ll go against the will of the Rebel Alliance council in order to do it. Like her father, she wanted to join neither side of the war. Jyn led a life of crime before she was picked up by the Rebellion. She also isn’t sexualized, wearing the same type of drab uniform as the rest of the crew.
Although she’s the only woman in her squad, she isn’t portrayed as different or less interesting because of her gender – Jyn has to make important decisions about how to deal with her relationship with the Rebellion and her father. Her biological relation to the Death Star designer is a source of some angst for the younger Erso, who sees Saw Gerrera as more of a father figure than she does Galen. The fulcrum for all of the Rogue One squad’s activities is Jyn Erso, daughter of Galen Erso. In order to appreciate the female characters on screen – and look forward to future lists like this one being longer – here’s a look at the women of Rogue One: Rogue One made an effort, but it’s still taking baby steps, presenting Jyn and Mon Mothma as outliers in a world primarily populated by men. Adding more women in crowd scenes and as background characters, even a small percentage, is an easy way to add diversity. However, in fiction, this kind of progress doesn’t have to be incremental.
The number of white women in the Star Wars films still vastly outnumber the women of color, though, and adding more women of color to the team would have contributed to Rogue One‘s quiet but integral message of the strength of a diverse team.Īdding more racial diversity and putting women in positions of power, as Rogue One has done with Jyn Erso and Mon Mothma, and as The Force Awakens did with Rey, is important in order to help more fans see themselves in the characters on screen. Watch the scene in the below video.The film does a good job of showing racial diversity among its characters, including Diego Luna with his natural accent as Cassian Andor and Donnie Yen as Chirrut Imwe. An Imperial ship can be seen flying over the black sand beach and landing near the inselberg. The location features prominently in the opening scene of Rogue One. Hjörleifur’s grave is located on the inselberg and is marked by a wood sign that says “here lies the Viking, Hjörleifur the second settler of Iceland Killed circa 873 A.D.” and his brother-in-law Ingólfr hunted down the slaves and killed them. Hjörleifur was killed on the inselberg by his Irish slaves in about 873 A.D. The inselberg is named after the Nordic Viking Hjörleifur Hróðmarsson, the brother-in-law of Ingólfr Arnarson, the first settler in Iceland. Local legend says that Hjörleifshöfði is haunted, and that is no surprise judging by the mysterious appearance. I will surely hit this location next time I’m in the area. Unfortunately the tour did not stop at Hjörleifshöfði, though that is certainly an option for travelers. I shot these photos from an Extreme Iceland minibus on a two-day tour with the company. (An inselberg is an “isolated hill or mountain abruptly rising from a plain.”) Hjörleifshöfði looms mysteriously over the Ring Road when headed east in Iceland from Vik, the location of several famous black sand beaches.
The opening scene of the Star Wars movie Rogue One (on the planet Eadu) was shot near Vik, Iceland on the black sand beach of Mýrdalssandur and the nearby plateau (technically an inselberg) of Hjörleifshöfði (seen in the accompanying photos).