Warning: spoilers ahead for Doctor Aphra #5!
In the latest issue of Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, the cunning Chelli Aphra and her crew have finally come face to face with the ruthless Ronen Tagge. While Ronen believes himself to be untouchable due to the influence of his powerful Imperial family, Aphra quickly proves the opposite to be the case, setting a trap that severely wounds the twisted collector, allowing for her and her crew to escape his penthouse on Canto Bight with as many of his artifacts as they can carry. However, before all this happens, Tagge explains his reasoning for seeking rare art and valuable objects just to destroy them, and one of his comments in particular will no doubt catch the attention of Star Wars fans, as it can be construed as a strong critique of the Skywalker Saga films.
Thus far in this latest Doctor Aphra series, both Tagge and Aphra have been after the Lost Rings of Vaale, a pair of ancient rings from the High Republic era, rumored in myths to grant powerful abilities to whoever wears them both. While Aphra’s crew found one of them in the Lost City of Vaale, they were quickly betrayed by Tagge’s agents and the ring was taken from them. However, Aphra always has a plan, and she and her crew quickly travel to Tagge’s residence on Canto Bight, allowing themselves to become prisoners in order to get close to him.
Once inside his penthouse in Doctor Aphra #5 from Alyssa Wong with art by Marika Cresta, Ronen reveals that he’s always had the second ring in his possession for years, as it’s long been a Tagge Family heriloom. Now that he has both rings, he’s ready to destroy them as he does with the most rare artifacts he collects, finding enjoyment in being the last one to see and touch them, ending their legacies with quick incineration. It’s with this reveal that Ronen shares the eye-catching comment.
It’s not hard to see this line as an almost meta commentary by Wong on the way the Skywalker Saga ended. It’s no secret that many fans believe that the Sequel Trilogy of films did not stick the landing with the saga’s ending. While there are certainly plenty of amazing elements to enjoy from each of the episodes in the Sequel Trilogy, there are just as many sequences and sections of the narrative that have been widely viewed as unnecessary, dissatisfying, and problematic for the Skywalker Saga as a whole.
Furthermore, if fans do choose to to take Tagge’s line as a meta commentary on the films, it could be subscribing to the idea that the first six films of the Original and Prequel Trilogies were fine on their own without the Sequel Trilogy produced by Disney. They do have their own solid beginning, middle, and end, which still holds true with or without the addition of Episodes 7-9, despite the fact that they continue to develop several characters as well as the overall narrative of the galaxy at large. In any case, Star Wars fans will no doubt stick to the opinions they’ve already formed before this recent issue of Doctor Aphra, but it’s still pretty interesting to view this line as Star Wars comics throwing shade at the films, regardless of whether that was Wong’s original intention or not.
