- "She died the same way she lived…as a hero."
- ―Rose Tico about her sister, Paige Tico
Paige Tico, nicknamed Pae-Pae by her sister, was a human female who served as a gunner on a MG-100 StarFortress SF-17 in the Resistance during their conflict with the First Order. She was the sister of Rose Tico, a Resistance maintenance worker. During the evacuation of the Resistance base on D'Qar, Tico's bomber flew against the First Order Mandator IV-class Siege Dreadnought Fulminatrix and successfully destroyed it with the bomber's payload. However, the resulting explosion engulfed the bomber and took Tico's life. Her final actions allowed the Resistance's fleet to escape D'Qar's system.
Biography
Early life
Paige Tico had at least one sibling, a younger sister named Rose Tico. After witnessing firsthand the brutality of the First Order on their homeworld in the Otomok system, both Paige and Rose fled from the Otomok system and joined the Resistance.[7]
The First Order had come to their world, Hays Minor, to mine its ores, regardless of the effect it had on the people. Seeing how it devastated the planet, she and Rose sabotaged First Order ships, but their action did little to stop the strip mining. Their parents told both sisters to join the Resistance, which they did. Later they would learn in horror that the First Order had blockaded and torn apart the planet. Vowing vengeance, they decided to strike against them, but were persuaded against it by Leia Organa, who told them staying with the Resistance would be more effective than a personal crusade.[8]
As a Resistance soldier, Paige became an exceptional gunner and pilot. She survived several missions, leading her to become superstitious, occasionally wrapping her snowgrape-shaped Haysian smelt medallion[1] around the struts of her cannons for good luck. During their downtime between bombing runs, the two sisters always discussed their chance to see the galaxy.[9]
Evacuation of D'Qar

Paige climbing out the Cobalt Hammer's hold
In 34 ABY,[3] during the evacuation of D'Qar, Paige's bomber, the Cobalt Hammer, flew against the First Order's Mandator IV-class Siege Dreadnought Fulminatrix, commanded by Captain Moden Canady. When Paige was ordered to release the proton bombs of her bomber, she hurriedly climbed out of her bomber's hold to the bombardier station, where she took the control to release the bombs, but the laser cannon of a First Order TIE Fighter hit the Hammer, causing her to fall off the ladder and lose consciousness.[4]
When Paige regained consciousness, she discovered that the Resistance was in trouble. Unfortunately, the control to release the proton bombs had been left at the top of the ladder. Knowing that she would not have enough time to get back into the cockpit and activate the bombs with the control, Paige kicked the ladder so that the control could fall into her hands. After several kicks, the control fell into the abyss, but Paige managed to catch it. Then, Paige released the proton bombs, which fell on the Fulminatrix, destroying the ship and killing Captain Canady and his crew.[4] As it was too late for escape and knowing her sacrifice would keep the Resistance safe,[10] Paige closed her eyes and accepted her death, as the fire engulfed the Hammer.[4]
Legacy
Eventually, Paige's sacrifice allowed the Resistance's fleet to escape D'Qar's system for good, although the First Order would eventually follow them.[4] Paige's sister, Rose, took her death very hard. Writing a brief epitaph at the end of the journal Paige had kept, Rose described her part in the battle, commending her older sister as having died a hero and swearing that she wouldn't let the First Order destroy the Resistance and would find a way to defeat them.[5]
When Rose saw Finn trying to "escape" from the Raddus, she stunned him and attempted to bring him to the Resistance as a coward because her sister was killed during the battle, but she was ultimately convinced that Finn was not trying to escape.[4]
One year after the Battle of Crait, as part of her new work leading the Engineering Corps of the Resistance to counter any new advancements the First Order might come up with, Rose developed a custom proton bomb named the "Paiger" in honor of Paige's sacrifice.[11]
Personality and traits
- "There's one part of my life you absolutely need to understand: nothing is more important to me than my little sister Rose."
- ―Paige Tico

Tico sitting in the gunnery turret of a Resistance Bomber.
Paige was extremely close to her younger sister, Rose, since childhood, feeling incomplete when they were separated. When they joined the Resistance, Paige insisted that she and Rose be assigned to the same ship.[5] The two sisters frequently sat together at Paige's gunner station while traveling to and from missions.[1] Paige thought that Rose underestimated herself and her importance in the Resistance[5] and often provided moral support.[5]
While Paige hated the First Order's leadership for the destruction of her homeworld and their other atrocities, she didn't hold the same vitriol for the First Order soldiers and pilots. She felt that many of them were people like her, thrown into a situation that some would have wanted to escape, a belief she found vindicated by the stormtrooper Finn, who defected from the First Order and helped the Resistance destroy Starkiller Base.[5]
Paige had a fascination for fathiers, deciding that they were the one creature above all else she wanted to see in person.[5] On her suggestion, the crew of the Hammer used imaginary stables of fathiers as markers in the crew's card games.[1] Paige also wanted to see a live fathier race.[5] While she never got to see a fathier or a race, her sister Rose got to see and ride one on her mission with Finn to Canto Bight.[4]
Behind the scenes

Paige Tico in the Behind The Scenes video for Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi
Paige Tico was portrayed by Vietnamese actress Veronica Ngo in Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi.[4] Tico was first shown in the Behind The Scenes video for The Last Jedi, which was released on July 15, 2017 for the D23 Expo. Director Rian Johnson confirmed Paige's appearance in the footage on Twitter.[12]
In one of the film's early drafts, featuring a different version of the evacuation of D'Qar, Paige was going to die after releasing the proton bombs over the Fulminatrix in the arms of Finn, who would have been the gunner of the Cobalt Hammer instead of being hospitalized aboard the Raddus. Concept art for the planned scene showed Paige's last moments in which she would have left a bloody handprint on Finn's heart, echoing FN-2003's bloody handprint scene of Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens, including how Finn pulled her lifeless body from the bomber inside the Resistance hangar, but director Rian Johnson cut the scene in a later revision of the script, because he ultimately found that "he couldn't pay it off."[13]
Appearances

Paige Tico's helmet
- Age of Resistance - Rose Tico 1
- Star Wars: Forces of Destiny—Rose & Paige
- The Last Jedi: Cobalt Squadron
- The Last Jedi: Cobalt Squadron audiobook
- "Rose and Paige Fight for the Resistance"—Galactic Adventures Storybook Collection
"Rose Knows"—Star Wars Adventures (2017) 6
- Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi (First appearance)
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Expanded Edition
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Expanded Edition audiobook
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi: A Junior Novel
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi: A Junior Novel audiobook
- The Last Jedi: Rose and Finn's Secret Mission (Mentioned only)
- The Last Jedi Adaptation 1
- The Last Jedi Adaptation 2 (Mentioned only)
- The Last Jedi Adaptation 3 (Mentioned only)
- Resistance Reborn (Mentioned only)
- Resistance Reborn audiobook (Mentioned only)
- Spark of the Resistance (Mentioned only)
- Spark of the Resistance audiobook (Mentioned only)
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: A Junior Novel (Mentioned only)
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: A Junior Novel audiobook (Mentioned only)
- Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes (Indirect mention only)
Non-canon appearances
Sources
Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi (Set: 75188 Resistance Bomber)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi Behind The Scenes on the official Star Wars YouTube channel (backup link)
- Star Wars: Look and Find
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Pack: Resistance Gunner Paige) (backup link)
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi: The Visual Dictionary
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Incredible Cross-Sections
- The Last Jedi: Bomber Command
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Ultimate Sticker Collection
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Heroes of the Galaxy
- The Last Jedi: Rose Tico: Resistance Fighter
- Star Wars: Resistance Bomber Book and 3D Wood Model
- Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy
Star Wars: X-Wing Second Edition – Resistance Conversion Kit (Card: Paige Tico)
- Star Wars Character Encyclopedia, New Edition
Star Wars: X-Wing Second Edition – Hotshots and Aces Reinforcements Pack (Card: Paige Tico)
Star Wars: Card Trader (Card: Paige Tico - Topps' Women of Star Wars)
Star Wars: Card Trader (Card: Paige Tico - 2020 Base Series 2)
Star Wars: Card Trader (Card: Rose Tico - 2020 Base Series 2)
"Republic, Rebel, and Resistance Starfighters" – Star Wars Encyclopedia
Star Wars: Build Your Own X-Wing 95 (Starfighter Aces: Paige Tico – Sacrifice for the Resistance)
- Star Wars: Battles that Changed the Galaxy
Cobalt Squadron in the Databank (backup link)
Otomok Medallion in the Databank (backup link)
Paige Tico in the Databank (backup link)
Rebel insignia ring in the Databank (backup link)
Rose Tico in the Databank (backup link)
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 The Last Jedi: Cobalt Squadron
- ↑ According to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary, Rose Tico was 24 years old one year after the "Starkiller Incident." Since Star Wars: Galactic Atlas dates the Starkiller Incident to 34 ABY, Tico was born in 11 ABY. Since The Last Jedi: Bomber Command states that Paige Tico was five years older than her sister, she was born in 6 ABY.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Star Wars: Galactic Atlas places the events of the film Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens in 34 ABY. As Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi carries on immediately from the events of The Force Awakens, it can be assumed to take place in the same year.
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 The Last Jedi: Bomber Command
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Star Wars: Look and Find
- ↑
Paige Tico in the Databank (backup link)
- ↑ Age of Resistance - Rose Tico 1
- ↑ Star Wars: The Last Jedi: The Visual Dictionary
- ↑ The Last Jedi storybook
- ↑ Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary
- ↑
Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) on Twitter: "@lazawaza It is! Thanks. :-)" (content obsolete and backup link not available)
- ↑ The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi