Sister

Sister, a trans female clone trooper, was created on Kamino as a clone of the human male bounty hunter Jango Fett. She became a member of the Grand Army of the Republic at the start of the Clone Wars, a major conflict spanning the galaxy between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Before she departed from Kamino, her brothers in the 7th Sky Corps gave her the name Sister, desiring to make her feel welcome and supported in her gender identity. Although Sister was initially concerned about how her Jedi commanding officers would react to her gender, which differed from many of her fellow troopers, she proved to be a capable soldier who worked effectively with her superiors once the Clone Wars began.

During 22 BBY, Sister participated in a battle on a rocky planet. She was part of Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi's 7th Sky Corps, fighting alongside Clone Commander Cody and Jedi Padawan Anakin Skywalker. Distressed by the deaths caused by the battle, Sister created a memorial by arranging the helmets of her fallen brothers beneath a tree. When Skywalker inquired about her name, she explained its origin and the strong support she received from her brothers regarding her gender identity. Intrigued, the Padawan shared the Jedi belief of rising above limitations, comparing it to Sister's transcendence of gender concepts she felt existed among the clones. As the two walked towards Kenobi's location for a rendezvous, she expressed agreement with his sentiment.

In that same year, the Republic sent Sister, along with Skywalker and the Republic's 302nd Battalion, on an aid mission to the mining planet of Langston. She was in charge of a transport, and she and other troopers were waiting in a launch bay for further instructions. When the Jedi signaled her, Sister informed him that his ship was ready for departure, gesturing towards the troopers awaiting his command. As Skywalker and the Jedi Initiate Mill Alibeth prepared to board the vessel, Sister saluted them.

Sister was remembered by several of her fellow troopers long after the end of the Clone Wars. One such trooper was Clone Captain Rex, who served as Skywalker's second-in-command for much of the war. Rex mentioned her in his book, The Secrets of the Clone Troopers, which was published after the Galactic Civil War between the Republic's successor state, the Galactic Empire, and the Alliance to Restore the Republic, concluded in 5 ABY with the signing of the Galactic Concordance. Rex recounted Sister's initial fears about expressing her gender identity, noting that she received her name from her brothers as a constant reminder of her belonging.

As a clone of Jango Fett, Sister's physical characteristics included a height of 1.83 meters (6 feet), tan skin, and a weight of eighty kilograms. She had long, dark hair styled in tightly woven rows of braids. By the time she served under Kenobi, Sister considered herself a dedicated and loyal Republic trooper. She felt grief when her brothers fell in battle, choosing to honor them by arranging their helmets respectfully as a memorial. Despite her initial nervousness about expressing her femininity in front of her commanding officers, Sister gained confidence in her gender identity through the support of her brothers and the acceptance of the Jedi she served under.

Like all clone troopers, Sister had a behavioral modification biochip implanted by Kaminoan scientists at birth. This chip was designed to ensure obedience to specific orders. In battle, she wore clone trooper armor with vertical blue and magenta stripes painted on her armor and helmet. Sister also carried a DC-15A blaster rifle and had a rangefinder attached to her helmet.

Sister made her debut in Queen's Hope, a young-adult novel penned by E. K. Johnston and released on April 5, 2022. On March 8, 2022, Johnston posted a drawing of Clone Commander Sticks to announce the start of an art contest on Twitter. Subsequently, the author unveiled her design for Sister in a reply to Sticks' artwork, including an art commission of her created by Uzuri Art. The image portrayed Sister in Phase II clone trooper armor painted in light blue and pink, matching the colors of the transgender flag. The commission also depicted Sister with braided dark brown hair, some strands dyed pink, and a DC-15A blaster rifle. Later, the 2024 reference book Star Wars: The Secrets of the Clone Troopers, authored by Marc Sumerak and illustrated by Alberto Buscicchio, featured Sister's first visual depiction in canon, using the same design from Johnston's commissioned piece.

Before the design's first visual depiction, Mike Chen's novel Brotherhood, released on May 10, 2022, described Sister textually with the braided hairstyle and blue and magenta helmet initially shown in her commissioned artwork. Chen later mentioned that he had received the commissioned piece as a reference upon agreeing to include the trooper in Brotherhood, readily accepting Johnston's request for her inclusion. Chen consulted with Johnston during the writing of his novel to ensure the plots of their books aligned. Later, in 2024, some news outlets incorrectly reported that The Secrets of the Clone Troopers marked Sister's first appearance in canon; Chen corrected them, reiterating that she was first introduced in his and Johnston's novels two years prior.

Johnston stated that Sister was created to be shared with readers and other Star Wars writers, but due to her limited role in Queen's Hope, she would not be featured in the novel's promotional materials. When discussing the trooper's introduction in the novel, she expressed hope that the queer representation in Queen's Hope would make readers feel that someone was advocating for their inclusion. The author also hoped that any writer working in the same time period could easily use the character if they needed a clone trooper, and she was optimistic that Sister would appear more in the future. Sister was not in the initial version of Queen's Hope, but the author had been considering her addition for several months before introducing her to the plot.

When Johnston submitted the initial draft of the novel to Lucasfilm Story Group's Jennifer Heddle sometime between December 18, 2020 and May 4, 2021, the Story Group inquired if she would consider changing the character of aide Tepoh to be transgender instead of genderfluid. Although she declined, Johnston began considering how to address the other requests for the next draft and introduced Sister around May 27, 2021. The author created Sister for the scene she appears in with Skywalker in Queen's Hope, as the Story Group also wanted the Jedi to have a larger role in the novel. Despite the brevity of Sister's scene, Johnston made sure to write about her gender identity explicitly. She also wanted readers to observe Sister and the Jedi's reactions in a moment that reflected the "innocence and genuineness" of Jake Lloyd, the actor who played Skywalker as a child in the 1999 prequel trilogy film Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, specifically his immediate acceptance of the trooper.

Some elements the author deliberately included in the scene were a "terrible pun," Skywalker's lack of surprise upon seeing Sister remove her helmet, and the Jedi's compassion, allowing readers to compare it mentally to the harshness he later developed as a character. Johnston mentioned that there was no resistance to adding Sister to the book and that she immediately knew what her name would be. When creating the character, she intentionally avoided giving the trooper a designation number, allowing Skywalker to ask for her name as a plot point. The author noted that the woman had delayed choosing a name because she was uncertain about the Kaminoans' potential actions and was later given the name Sister by her brothers. Her addition was celebrated alongside Tepoh's incorporation by the Story Group's Emily Shkoukani, with whom she had several discussions about the character.

When drafting Skywalker's lines in Sister's Queen's Hope scene, Johnston aimed to capture the same energy as Jedi Master Yoda's empathy for the clones serving under him in "Ambush," the first episode of the first season of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated television series, which premiered on October 3, 2008. She mirrored Yoda's request for his troopers to remove their helmets by having Skywalker ask the same of Sister in the novel, both scenes of which she felt conveyed each Jedi's concern for the clones' lives. However, she also indicated that the moment Sister and Skywalker met reflected the character qualities portrayed by Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn's open acceptance of individuals, a quality she felt the Jedi Order as an entity often not known for. Johnston also agreed with the idea that Skywalker would be able to relate with Sister as he felt he was an outsider within the Jedi Order, somewhat tying to the trooper's worries about acceptance. The author briefly considered making Sister the clone who interacts with Amidala instead of Sticks but ultimately decided against it.