Merrin

It's all about supporting women's rights and women's wrongs. A powerful magic-wielding member of the Mantis Crew, Merrin spent most of her life in Dathomir after escaping the massacre of her coven. She became an ally to Cal Kestis, leading her to leave Dathomir and pursue her own path. In spite (or perhaps because) of simply being "Soulsborne, but Star Wars," Jedi: Fallen Order was a huge hit, and the breakout character was not (main character) Cal Kestis or even his little droid buddy BD-1, but rather the foe-turned-friend Merrin. If that mention of "Dathomir" in her bio didn't immediately strike something in your brain, that's the planet the Nightsisters come from - yes, she'd be part of the same clan as Mother Talzin and Asajj Ventress. The massacre was the one carried out by General Grievous, and is how Cal got her on his side: by pointing out the Jedi had similarly been betrayed by Palpatine, he made her realize they had too much in common to continue being enemies. Of course, she's also an insanely cute goth girl, and who wouldn't like that? She was played by Tina Ivlev, who made you care enough about the character to want her to turn her life around and stop chasing blind vengeance, so it was hardly surprising Merrin would be back for the sequel. But the narrative jumped forward, so a big chunk of Jedi: Survivor was "getting the band back together," so it took like half the game before we saw her again. Merrin left the group because she felt alone - but since she'd spent years alone on Dathomir, she was ready for it. Like when covid lockdowns hit, and the weak-spirited went stir crazy while introverts barely noticed any difference. Anyway, she went off and found her joy, murdering the crap out of Imperial forces and protecting the helpless. In the process, she started dressing much more casually, ditching her Nightsister robes in favor of an outfit that looks like a regular shirt and jeans. She's got some sort of layered wrap thing on her chest, and wears a pretty normal hooded jacket. Simple cosplay design incoming! She does keep the familiar Nightsister colorscheme, though: red and black (or at least brick and dark grey). It's impressive how detailed Hasbro got with the paint, too - like, her jacket is grey, but it has brown panels on the inside of the arms, which would have been easy to omit, and yet here they are. Her skin is the traditional pale gray, and her short hair is a bit darker. She's sculpted wearing the necklace her first girlfriend gave her, and the gold paint that picks it out is applied cleanly. Black Series figures continue to have mostly good articulation - like we've said before, where the Marvel team chose to cut out shin joints in order to comply with their bosses' mandate that they cheat you out of value, the Star Wars team chose to remove thigh joints. They compensated for the loss by doing swivel/hinge knees, which does do its part to maintain the same range of motion, but it also means we get those instead of double-hinged knees, and so we're still losing some of the poseability. Like, my dudes: if your boss tells you to do something that makes the product worse? Tell him no. Or tell him yes and then just don't do it. The money saved isn't going to you, and you owe the company nothing, do your job right! History looks kinder upon those who refuse to halfass things than those who "yessir/nosir" their way through life. Whoever's in charge of okaying the articulation for the toys is doing the best they can, under restrictions, but at some point ya gotta go rogue and start subverting those instructions. "Robin Hood" that stuff! Like we said, Merrin spent her time apart from her friends haunting Imperials, terrifying them and using her Nightsister powers to terrify and destroy them: like, the games may be Star Wars Soulsbornes, but they could do a Merrin Arkham City spin-off. She's armed with a spear, and has a small knife that fits in the sheath on the back of her belt. (Technically those are the same weapon - her magic lets her change it between forms.) They even found a way to display her Force powers by giving her a translucent green energy effect that can fit onto her left hand. It's got a big flare at the base and a long jet spiking forward, and gives her a little more visual personality than the scores of Force users we've gotten before. At first I thought this was a recolored version of one of the GI Joe muzzle flares, but nope, new. The story of Jedi: Survivor was fine, with Dagan Gera and whatnot, but the best part was getting to see the growing relationship between Cal and Merrin, both of them trying to overcome the things they'd been raised all their lives to believe. It's a very sweet romance, so it's nice Merrin actually warranted an action figure this time around. And while we may have gotten all purposely hyperbolic about the knee joints, Hasbro is still unmatched when it comes to creating mass market 6" toys, so even if she's not quite as poseable as she could have been, she's still good. -- 09/06/25 Who is Star Wars' best girl? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.