Karina

"My empire is forever! My empire cannot end!"

- Queen Karina

Karina the Great was a Geonosian queen, one of at least two who bore the title of Karina the Great, who was born during the reign of the Galactic Empire. She was the last known Geonosian queen, and the egg from which she hatched survived the Empire's genocide on Geonosis. Prior to her birth, her egg was protected by a Geonosian known as Klik-Klak, who kept it safe from both the Empire and the rebel extremist Saw Gerrera. Klik-Klak hoped Karina would be able to repopulate the Geonosian species, but she was sterile and instead attached a mechanical womb to her body. From that womb, she produced B1 battle droids that she regarded as children and the future of her planet.

During the Galactic Civil War, Karina's existence was discovered by the Sith Lord Darth Vader, who traveled to Geonosis to steal her battle droids factory and use it to build an army to regain the power and prestige he lost after being blamed for the destruction of the Empire's Death Star battle station during the Battle of Yavin. Karina attempted to thwart Vader's plot with her army of droids, but Vader and his companions&mdash;rogue archaeologist Chelli Lona Aphra and the assassin droids BT-1 and 0-0-0&mdash;severed and stole her mechanical womb to produce an army.

Last of her kind
"If that egg is the last chance to save his people, then we have to help him protect it."

- Ezra Bridger

Before the Clone Wars, the weapons builders of the planet Geonosis were tasked by the Confederacy of Independent Systems, secretly controlled by the Sith, to build a planet-killer superweapon known as the Death Star. The project was ultimately co-opted by the Galactic Republic, led by the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, who operated in public as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and later the Galactic Empire that supplanted the Republic at the end of the war. The Geonosians successfully built the structure of the battle station in orbit of their homeworld, but they could not devise a way to generate the massive amounts of power needed to destroy an entire world. The Empire moved the battle station away from Geonosis, and, to protect the secrets of the project, wiped out the Geonosian people using poison gas. The planet was left a barren wasteland.

Only one Geonosian survived the genocide. That Geonosian, later known as Klik-Klak, held in his possession the last known egg containing a Geonosian queen. Klik-Klak knew that the safe hatching of this egg was the only way to repopulate Geonosis, so he fiercely protected it in the hopes of giving his people another chance at life. Around 2 BBY, Klik-Klak felt forced to defend the egg when resistance fighter Saw Gerrera led a team of rebels to investigate intelligence reports pointing to suspicious Imperial activity on the planet&mdash;which, though unknown to the rebellion, was the remnants of the Death Star project. Gerrera's team investigated an energy reading near where Klik-Klak was hiding the egg, so he ambushed the rebels and killed all but Gerrera.

Another rebel team, the Spectres, traveled Geonosis to look for Gerrera and his soldiers, and they encountered Klik-Klak while investigating the energy readings on the planet. They discovered that Klik-Klak was protecting the egg, which Gerrera&mdash;known in the rebellion for his extremist tactics&mdash;threatened to destroy if Klik-Klak refused to reveal all he knew about the Empire's activities on Geonosis. The rebels, particularly the young Jedi Ezra Bridger, convinced Gerrera to back down. After helping the rebels discover the poison gas that was used to wipe out the planet's population, Klik-Klak retreated deeper beneath the planet's surface where, one day, he hoped the egg would hatch safely. The egg ultimately did hatch, and the queen who was born from it took on the royal title of Karina the Great.

Encounter with Darth Vader
"Interesting tweaks on the standard droid design, too. I suspect she doesn't see these as droids. I suppose that it does make sense. Immortal queens, sterilized. The urge to continue the species by any means necessary. When biology fails, she turns to science. They aren't droids to her. They're children."

- Chelli Lona Aphra

Klik-Klak's hopes of repopulating his species were ultimately dashed. Karina, who took shelter in a subterranean lair, lost her biological womb and was left sterilized. Unable to repopulate her species, Karina replaced her womb with a portable droid factory acting as a mechanical womb&mdash;biology failed her, so she turned to science to repopulate her species by any means necessary. Rather than Geonosians, she produced many B1 battle droids, altered to look like her people. She considered the droids her children and was fiercely protective of them, seeing them as a means to rebuild an empire on Geonosis. The Droid Gotra discovered her existence and took a keen interest in her and her droid children.

During the Battle of Yavin, the Alliance to Restore the Republic scored a major victory against the Empire by destroying the Death Star. The Sith Lord Darth Vader was the sole Imperial survivor of the catastrophe, so he was held responsible for the failure by the Emperor, Darth Sidious. With a limited base of power, and facing competition from others in the Imperial circle who sought to replace him, Vader traveled to Geonosis after learning of the existence of Karina's droid factory from the rogue archaeologist Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra, who was hired by the Droid Gotra to find the factory before she joined Vader. It was Vader's hope to use the droid factory to build an army that would allow him to rebuild his base of power.

Vader and Aphra, along with her assassin droids BT-1 and 0-0-0, made their way into the Geonosian catacombs, where Karina's droid children tried and failed to stop them from proceeding to her lair. Vader found Karina and used his lightsaber to sever the droid factory from her body. Injured but alive, Karina unleashed her battle droids against the Sith Lord, refusing to allow the future of her reign and all of Geonosis to be taken by an Empire that had already stolen so much from them. Vader and his companions dispatched the droids and escaped on Vader's starship, with the droid factory in tow. Karina survived the encounter, all while proclaiming that her empire cannot end.

Personality and traits
"Stop them! They've ruined our past. They can't destroy our future!"

- Karina the Great to her battle droid children, when Darth Vader attacked them

Karina the Great was a Geonosian female with black eyes and gray and tan skin. She was the last known Geonosian queen. Her successful hatching from an egg some time prior to the Battle of Yavin signified the potential to repopulate the Geonosian species after it was wiped out by the Galactic Empire. That potential was dashed, as Karina was sterile and could not produce offspring by the time Darth Vader encountered her. Instead, she was fitted with a mechanical womb so she could produce battle droid offspring. She was fiercely protective of these droids and considered them her children, her one and only way of restoring an empire on Geonosis. Doctor Aphra remarked that, when biology failed, Karina turned to science to ensure that Geonosis could live on.

Behind the scenes
"Again: long game."

- Pablo Hidalgo, on the story of Karina the Great being told across transmedia

This Karina the Great was introduced in the comic book Darth Vader 4: Vader, Part IV. The comic was released on April 8, 2015 and was written by Kieron Gillen, with art by Salvador Larroca. She was the second such character introduced in the Star Wars canon; another Karina the Great was introduced in "Legacy of Terror," a second season episode of the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Both characters hold the title of Karina the Great, with Pablo Hidalgo of the Lucasfilm Story Group stating that "the Queen is always Karina the Great, so to speak."

This particular Karina's backstory was revealed in "Ghosts of Geonosis," the January 7, 2017 episode of the third season of the animated television series Star Wars Rebels. Though the character herself does not appear, the egg that contained her is a vital part of the episode, as is the idea of preserving the Geonosian race after the Empire carried out its genocide on the planet. On February 25, 2016, after the Star Wars Rebels episode "The Honorable Ones" suggested there were no signs of life on Geonosis, Hidalgo remarked on Twitter that it "Makes you wonder where that queen came from," in reference to this Karina. After the airing of "Ghosts of Geonosis," he confirmed that the egg did indeed contain this Karina, and that it represented the "long game" that Lucasfilm is playing in regards to transmedia storytelling.

Appearances

 * Darth Vader 3: Vader, Part III
 * Darth Vader 4: Vader, Part IV
 * Darth Vader 4: Vader, Part IV