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Iden Versio: The Collapse of the Family Business 

How a video game character took her rightful place in Star Wars

Star Wars Battlefront II

Writers: Walt Williams & Mitch Dyer

The classic Star Wars arcade game was my first experience with a video game set inside this world. Dropping quarter after quarter into the machine, I, like so many others of that generation, would look past the simple wire framed graphics and let my imagination take me into Death Star trench run. I was there. In the movie. Helping Luke Skywalker take down the Empire. Since then, the games have only gotten bigger and better and the wide variety of Star Wars video games throughout the ages have brought us all great stories and characters. Your first memories might be the eight-bit Atari version of The Empire Strikes Back or the groundbreaking Shadows of the Empire on the Nintendo 64, but the appeal and promise of that first arcade game remained. We all want to feel like we’re part of the Star Wars story.

In 2015, the Star Wars Battlefront video game franchise was rebooted and, oddly enough, despite being absolutely gorgeous and making you feel like you were actually being IN battles, it wasn’t enough for the fans. The demands of video game audiences have grown and matured since my friends and I spent most of our allowance flying the technological equivalent of a stick figure into a space battle. Fans wanted a fully functional story mode. However, when word came that the sequel, Battlefront II, was going to have a story mode and that story was going to be a part of official Star Wars canon, there were some raised eyebrows. In this new age of canon, with more emphasis put on the who, the why, and the where of Star Wars storytelling, you had to wonder if a video game could truly find its place in the Star Wars saga.

I mean, seriously, can we all just stop for a second and acknowledge how hard it is to make us Star Wars fans happy sometimes?

It’s understandable, though. In this modern age of Star Wars, the word canon means…well…everything to a lot of fans. (Or some fans. Let’s not wag too wide of a finger here.) Perhaps too much. While canon should never come before the importance of a good story, you can’t deny that part of the fun of being a Star Wars fan is knowing where the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. The danger is that too many pieces get tossed onto the table. That was the big challenge for Star Wars Battlefront II and the writers of the story, Walt Williams and Mitch Dyer. Could they create a story and main character that perfectly fit into the Star Wars universe?

Simple.

No problem.

Then we met Iden Versio as played by Janina Gavankar, leader of the Inferno Squad, an elite Imperial strike force. Dressed in imposing black and entering the Battle of Endor, she was front and center at a major moment in Star Wars. While the gears in your fan brain are churning, trying to figure out if you really like the concept of previously unknown elite Imperials running around your precious Battle of Endor, it happens. The second Death Star explodes. A watershed moment in Star Wars…except, this time, we are watching it from the eyes of Iden Versio. As the Empire’s vaunted second superweapon explodes above the planet, there is a perspective-shattering grimace on Iden’s face, a deep realization followed by a denial of this new truth. Iden can’t help but look at the Empire in a new light. They weren’t supposed to lose, but they did, and, before it was all said and done, Iden would help finish the job.

She was born into the Empire on the planet Vardos. Her father, Garrick, was an important Imperial officer. Her artist mother used her immense talent to create Imperial propaganda. She was raised to believe in what the Empire stood for on the surface, but she grew to learn the truth and joined the Rebellion. She did everything in her power to take down the Empire and, in a way, helped tear down the family business.

As the story of Iden evolves—meaning as you play through the adventure in the comfort of your own home—we get to deal with some big concepts. Iden doesn’t just “believe” in the Empire. It is a literal way of life. Her only existence. Though her mother has passed away, her connection to her strict and distant father comes through her service to their Empire. While the father-son dynamic is often explored in Star Wars to great success, it’s nice to spend more time with the father-daughter dynamic. (For more on Iden’s mother, check out Christie Golden’s tie-in novel Star Wars: Battlefront II: Inferno Squad.) Iden’s relationship with the Empire crumbles just as she learns the sad truth of her father. He’s ordered an attack on their home world in keeping with the Emperor’s last orders. She turns. Now in open rebellion to the Empire as well as her father and family history. It also represents a valuable lesson for all of us: Can you change when a lifetime of beliefs leads you to unforeseen revelations? Can you grow?

Like Luke Skywalker before her, Iden’s journey seems like vengeance against her own father, but it turns into a mission of redemption. Her last moments with her father happen aboard his Star Destroyer. She’s there to rescue him. Wanting to save him from the moment, yes, but also to bring him with her into a new way of thinking. He refuses. Not just out of loyalty to a fast fading regime, but because he knows he doesn’t deserve it. Iden had once looked up at an exploding Death Star and realized not everything was as she thought. As he says, “You saw the Empire’s weakness and refused to let it consume you.” It made her stronger. Iden’s reaction comes from the gut, believing her father deserves better than this. Garrick flatly disagrees. She deserves to live and sends his daughter on her way. Garrick Versio is not to be redeemed, but, today, Iden Versio is. His final words to her are, “Go. Survive. Live.”

This is a cutscene in a video game. Something that plays while you wait for your next mission or level. But it has emerged as one of the better emotional moments in Star Wars. All of Star Wars. We’re a long way from the arcades of the past, plunking in all your change, so you can just feel like you’re part of the Star Wars story. Now, you are the story.