Karina

Karina, known as "Karina the Great," was a Geonosian queen. The last of her kind, she was born during the reign of the Galactic Empire, 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 modified B1-series battle droids with Geonosian features known as droid workers, which 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 droid 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 the Sith Lord and his companions—rogue archaeologist Chelli Lona Aphra and the assassin droids BT-1 and 0-0-0—severed and stole her mechanical womb to build battle droids of his own.
==Biography==
===Last of her kind===
During the Imperial Era, the Galactic Empire moved construction of the Death Star superweapon away from Geonosis, where it had been under construction by Geonosian weapons builders.Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel To protect the secret of the Death Star, the Empire wiped out the Geonosian people using poison gas and left the planet a barren wasteland. Only one Geonosian, he 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. 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—which, though unknown to the fledgling Rebel Alliance, 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 everyone 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—known in the wider rebellion for his extremist tactics—threatened to destroy if Klik-Klak refused to reveal all he knew about the Empire's activities on Geonosis. The Spectres, 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,Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition and the queen who was born from it took on the name Karina.
===Encounter with Darth Vader===
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 sterile. Unable to repopulate her species, Karina replaced her womb with a portable droid factory acting as a mechanical womb—biology had failed her, so she turned to science to repopulate her species by any means necessary. Rather than Geonosians, she produced many B1 droid workers, 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.Darth Vader (2015) 3
After the Battle of Yavin and the destruction of the Death Star, the Sith Lord Darth Vader sought to build a new base of power after being blamed for the loss of the Death Star.Darth Vader (2015) 1 After learning of Karina's droid factory, Vader traveled to Geonosis with the rogue archaeologist Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra and her assassin droids, BT-1 and 0-0-0. Once they arrived, they 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 would not end.
==Personality and traits==
Karina 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==
Karina was introduced in the comic book Darth Vader (2015) 4. The comic was released on April 8, 2015 and was written by Kieron Gillen, with art by Salvador Larroca.
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 she later hatches from 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. Hidalgo later revealed in the "Rebels Recon" episode for "Warhead" that the idea was that the egg did indeed contain Karina.
==Appearances==
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*Doctor Aphra: An Audiobook Original
*Darth Vader (2015) 3 
*Darth Vader (2015) 4 
==Sources==
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*Star Wars: Galactic Atlas 
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*Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know, Updated and Expanded
*Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition
*The Star Wars Book
*Star Wars: Dawn of Rebellion: The Visual Guide 
*Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy
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==Notes and references==
Category:Geonosians
Category:Queens