Star Wars needs to give us a queer Witches of Dathomir spin-off
Most Star Wars fans are still debating what the end of The Book of Boba Fett meant and what it means for the upcoming season of The Mandalorian, but not me. I could care less. Instead, I need to know more about Danny Trejo’s casual reference to the Witches of Dathomir, ASAP.
As someone who has never cared about the war in Star Wars yet has a deep, deep fandom of all things kyber crystals, galactic nature energy and the Jedi aesthetic, I screamed when the Force-wielding space witches were mentioned in the third episode.
Maybe it’s because I’m a salty Harry Potter fan looking for magic elsewhere, or maybe it’s because these humanoids sound super sapphic – either way, I wanted to know more. So I went down a Wookieepedia rabbit hole that led me to some of the coolest queer Star Wars fans on the planet who agree: The witches? So gay.
Here’s everything you should know about these rancor-riding badass women who live in a morally grey area between Jedi and Sith, plus solid proof/desperate musings that these characters are amazingly sapphic and would make the best queer TV show of all time.
If you’ve played Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order or happen to be a Darth Maul stan, you know the witches by a different name: The Nightsisters. But that’s only one kind of witch. And the backstory is a lot deeper. So, who are the Witches of Dathomir? Like a lot of Star Wars lore, that question has two answers: canon vs. legend. Back in 2014, Lucasfilm decided to KonMari Method the entire vault of content–books, comics, you name it–to clean up messy storylines and character backstories to better align with new franchises on the big screen. That meant much of the Star Wars Expanded Universe–almost everything from the 90s and 00s–was recategorized as space myths and fairytales.
The official debut of the witches and their origin story don’t really count anymore. Though, I encourage everyone to read the 1994 novel The Courtship of Princess Leia because it is a trip. If it didn’t have the Disney logo on the back cover, I’d think it was Reddit fan fiction. There’s everything from ageist nudity (a “shrivelled breast” and a non-shrivelled breast) to fatphobic language and a confirmation (which no one asked for) that male strippers exist in Star Wars. There are also some interesting passages from Han Solo’s point of view where he describes the tanned physique of another man and it is high-key homoerotic. But back to the witches.
In the novel, Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, R2-D2 and C-3PO (the gang’s all here!) find themselves on the forgotten outer rim planet, Dathomir. And on Dathomir, they meet–you guessed it–witches, who live in clans with crunchy names like Singing Mountain Clan and Frenzied River Clan. It all sounds like a Lilith Fair lineup until you get to the–wait for it–Scissorfists Clan. Yes, Scissor. Fists.
Luke is quick to observe that these women are extremely Force-sensitive and that the planet Dathomir gives him the same Dark Side energy creeps he felt from Yoda’s bog bungalow on Dagobah. He’s not wrong. Dathomir is hardcore. There are giant carnivorous bats, fire lichen, glowing green magical water and, of course, rancors. Like Jedi and Sith, the witches draw on the Force. But their magic is more country mouse. No fancy lightsabers here. They live in rural huts, sleep on straw beds and their magical training is more like an oral history passed down via spells that they must recite to activate.
According to (Star Wars) legend, the clans are the descendants of Allya, a Jedi who was sent to Dathomir on a forced sabbatical to meditate after flirting with the Dark Side. Except she didn’t atone. She became critical of the Jedi Order, went rogue and started training other women on the planet in the ways of the Force with a new perspective. The Witches of Dathomir aren’t Light Side or Dark Side. They never “concede to evil” and follow a strict honor code, but they also own male slaves used to sire children so it’s a mixed bag.
The Nightsisters, the only clan of witches still considered canon, are total Darkside. They came together after being exiled from their other clans for using “night spells,” or drawing on the Darkside for some pretty sinister stuff like space necromancy (which they do a lot) and a bunch of other evil stuff so wicked that even Emperor Palpatine was scared of them. Their official canon debut is now considered the animated series “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” which sets up Merrin’s timeline and her backstory for Fallen Order. So, why am I, a woman with a Jedi crest Popsocket on her phone, a fan of The Nightsisters? Because they have some of the most obvious queer breadcrumbs in the Star Wars universe. And aren’t we always trying to find ourselves in stories–our queer selves in stories?
“When magic, or the Force, or the magic side of the Force, is involved–and when it’s all women–how can it not be queer?” asks Tracy Brown.
Brown, a reporter for The Los Angeles Times who covers the Star Wars universe on screen, says Star Wars is inherently queer and the galaxy is packed with clues–especially the emotional intimacy of characters that are women.
“It’s a world of people that can wield magic forces and powers,” they told us. “There are so many different alien cultures. There’s no need for heteronormativity to exist when your best friend is a robot.”
So, where are the clues? If anyone knows it’s Catrina Dennis.
Dennis, an entertainment journalist and assistant producer of the documentary Looking for Leia, has poured through Star Wars novels, comics, TV shows, video games and even mobile games, always looking for evidence of queer characters. They’re a big fan of the Nightsisters and say the witches give off tons of “kiss girl” vibes.
“There is this whole colony of women who are ultimately thriving,” they said. “They raise each other together, which means there are mother teams and I’m sure there are lovers among them because they don’t live with the men. It’s a society that’s primarily one gender so it would be very normal for them to see that type of relationship as normal.”
As for Merrin, Dennis says she’s got some queer undertones that could be explored. Never forget: Merrin did say she loved a woman in Fallen Order: “We used to sneak out to the swamps and make potions together.” Sure, the witches do make potions, but it kind of sounds like a kinky euphemism here, no? Merrin goes on to say, “We were so close. I thought when we were older, we would be together.” And if that’s not concrete proof I don’t know what is. The witches already lived in a communal coven. How much more togetherness does Merrin want, unless we’re talking about making potions in the swamps?
Do you know who else likes to make potions in the swamps? Death Stick. No, not deathsticks, the designer street drug on Coruscant. The half Nightsister and assassin-for-hire Death Stick, who sounds like a fire-hot masc leather daddy. She first appeared in the mobile game Star Wars: Uprising, but has since gone on to appear in the Star Wars: Bounty Hunters comics and Dennis says she’s definitely a lesbian. “Death Stick gives me a lot of kiss-girls undertones, too.”
Of course, this is all rainbow red tape, fun musings and wishes. We rarely get an actual confirmation of queer characters in the Star Wars universe. But this month we did get a new transgender character. Author EK Johnston officially confirmed that Sister, the female clone of Jango Fett in the new Padme novel Queen’s Hope, is trans and even better she’s accepted by her brothers and it’s a non-issue. Yay for avoiding queer tropes!
The more characters Star Wars officially says are LGBTQ+, the more hope I have for the witches. There’s so much potential in Dathomir because Dathomir rejects the patriarchal society. And that opens the door for sapphic power, trans power and more authenticity in the galaxy – something this franchise desperately needs.
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