How should Mara Jade died?

I have notice on here many people are upset with Mara Jades death. So I would like to know how do you think she should of died? Personally I see no problem with her death, but I love a good star wars discussion so please join.

 

In bed surrounded by several generations of her progeny.

 

This.

 

Her death should have been meaningful and honorable, not used to fit into a plot device that never made sense.

 

I agree with Striker and madman

 

She shouldn't have died.

 

In some meaningful way and not by Jacen's hand, that's for sure. She went to the Republic side to save HIM! And his sister, when they were days old. It's just bitterly wrong to have Jacen have done it. Not even Anakin Skywalker would have done such a thing and he had more reason to go to the Dark Side than Jacen ever did. This is why SW ended with TUF in my personal canon. And Mara was way OOC. Everyone's been way OOC since DNT.

 

Heroes always die, you know, being heroic. So preferably something that has nothing to do with her getting any kind of personal benefit.

 

She died the way she died, deal with it...mourn...accept it...get over it.

Death rarely happens in a way that is considered heroic or in a blaze of glory, most of the time it is unfair and tragic and pointless. I like that her death happened the way it happened, I like that people are having a hard time accepting it. That is exactly the way it should be.

It would really suck to me if 99.9% of SW reading fans thought her death was cool and heroic and befitting of a Jedi. It makes so much more sense that SW fans should have to go through a mourning process over a character who many loved and died suddenly and needlessly...because that is usually the way death happens.

 

In real life.

this is not real life.

 

Thank you, RK. Was going to say something similar. What you said was true, Dinkus - if you're watching CNN or MSN. Star Wars is not reality. To my knowledge, it never was. It used to be an escapism from reality, which unfortunately, it is no longer anymore. I used to read the Star Wars books for the story. Mara's death made zero sense in a story that went nowhere and now DR authors are too busy retconning now what they screwed up in LOTF (and NJO according to RK)

 

I agree with you guys. The more I'm reading FotJ the more I feel like it is justifying LotF. It might be doing a good job of it, but that what it seems like. I'm still not convinced that Abeloth could make Jacen "mad," so there still is that to explain. Jacen's story still bothers me. Even worse Darth Caedus didn't make it to the after life. Oh what a waste.

 

How about dead in child birth delivering the fourth kid (who lives)?

 

This may not be real life, but the idea is to make the story as realistic as possible so that you can connect with the characters. Or despise them, in this case. Mara Jade's death turned Jacen into a true villain. You weep for the tragedy and demand blood in return. Pretty good story-telling, imo.

 

Uh...he was reduced to using a cheap Force illusion of Ben that the real Mara would have seen through and had to use an anti-Jedi poison on her that in most (good) stories, a Jedi would have beaten (like Mara already proved she could in NJO).

And why did we root for Luke Skywalker in Star Wars (ANH for you youngins)? Because he was so realistically written that we connected with him? No, we cheered him because he won. In DR's Star Wars, nobody "wins". That's not Star Wars to me.

And I don't weep at the tragedy; I laugh at it in it's absurdity. I don't demand anything anymore out of profic SW. I write my own.

If Caedus is who you call a "true" villain, you haven't read many good villains. First try Iago in Shakespeare's Othello.

 

If SW was as 'realistic' as it is now, Luke would've killed Vader on DS II. And it would've been the 'right' thing to do.

Like Madman, I laugh at their attempts. Then weep for what's been lost.

 

Amen.

Mara's death brings about many emotions to readers, is that now what a great story should do? It should move you, and not always in the direction the reader wants to be moved.

Does Mara's death suck? To some. Others will see it exactly as Nick stated, it gives motivation to really despise Jacen...it also gives a huge opportunity for writters to help Luke grow more as a character. The greatest opportunity for growth is often times found through tragedy.

Real life or not, a story should seek to move a reader and bring to the surface emotions that are sometimes fun...sometimes difficult. If not for that element it wouldn't be worth reading. I for one think that too often SW caters to the audience that only wants happiness and heroic endings, there is something very refreshing about tragic loss and greiving....I felt the same about Chewbacca's death.

 

It should also not move us into stopping purchasing the product. It should also not come off as half-assed at best. Mara's death was character derailment of a high order. It made little sense. Moving us to, "Oh, come on!" is not a good thing!

 

I do agree with you on some points. Yes, the death of a major character brings out many emotions (with Mara's, mine was anger and disgust). And yes, the reader can be moved into directions they dont want to.

My problem with the way Mara's death was handled was that it was done at the cost of her character. Over the course of Sacrifice, Mara's actions were actually written well in character. Then the death scene came. That was when the Mara Jade Skywalker I knew and loved over the years had vanished. That is not good story telling if you have to change a character to fit them into a certain plot. IMO, this is what happens when you have multiple authors writing one series.

Thus, this gets us back to the original question - and my original answer still stands. I don't mind stories where hereos die. Just have the decency and honor to leave their characterization intact.

I for one think that too often SW caters to the audience that only wants happiness and heroic endings. You sound like there's something wrong with that. With all that's going on in the world, can't some of us have a happy ending?

there is something very refreshing about tragic loss and greiving. I fear you!

 

1. I still buy Star Wars products, books included, so define "us".
2. by character derailment, do you mean that she wouldn't lose to Jacen? But if one were to read the books as is, and think of the character as Jacen instead of JINO, then one probably would come to the conclusion that Jacen has great POWER!
3. See number 1.

 

Mara died exactly as she should have. If you think about it, she died how she lived... fighting for something she believed in, and acting like an assassin. If anyone besides me remembers, Mara WAS an assassin for the better part of her life. Working for Palps, she killed indiscriminately. There were signs of her assassin roots in NJO. Her training and temperament have ALWAYS been there, she just suppressed them. She was trained from a small child to be an assassin. She lived as a force user, and a warrior, but always underneath, the assassin was there waiting. Just so happens, she hadn't been an assassin in a long time, and so she was a bit rusty. Also mentioning that she "defeated" the Yuuzhan Vong disease in NJO, that took her, Luke AND infant Ben to defeat. She did not do it on her own.

Mara's mind was clouded with hatred and anger when she went after Jacen. I posted it before on these boards and got flamed like crazy, but at the end, Mara had gone back to her roots. She lied to Luke, went after someone with anger and hatred in her heart.. at the end, Mara died on the Dark Side.

 

What Darth Kuriboh said.

The only thing I disliked about her last moment was how she claimed to hate Palpatine.

IMO, She should still treat him as a teacher, and give him the respect and platonic love he deserves for his station.

 

I'm not even going to elaborate how sad I believe the last two entries were.

If you two truly believe all of that, then you really don't know the character of Mara Jade.

 

i loved mara jade, and i was sad when she died, but i like the idea that she died in battle kicking but. i like the idea that a mighty force user could not handle her, and that he had to trick her to survive himself. that said i rather have had that happen later in her life though.

 

you know she's like 60+ years old right?