Lit Should Mara Jade exist in the nu Continuity?

Verbally.

She doesn't shoot him in the head. If she's really Palpatine's most devoted servant and she's got the man who killed him (her mistaken belief) in her sights, there's no reason for her not to pull the trigger. She never even tries. She waves the holdout blaster around a lot, but Mara Jade never actually tries to kill Luke Skywalker. Not that the Mara we saw in HTTE would even have a chance against Luke at that point. This is the woman that got put in a chokehold by a lone Noghri.

 

It does reach a sort of fatigue. It did come to a point where it got tiresome and I had to roll my eyes and think, "just shoot him already". Of course that wasn't going to happen, but then don't put me in the position to think that so often, so early.

There is an excuse for not doing it right away, and there's development that discourages her over time. But she had a ton of time to just shoot him before that development, and not enough motivation to hold her back, imo.

 

I think it's probably best if Mara Jade stays legends...alongside other figures. It'll be hard to reconcile the Legends backstory with canon and for those of us who grew up on Legends, having Mara return as something else would likely fall far short of expectations.

Let her thrive in the old EU.

 

It didn't help that Zahn changed her whole backstory the Mara Prequels. No longer is she an Assassin but she is actually Judge Dredd and is a Policeman who only goes after bad people who deserve it. Which makes me wonder why would Palpatine send a Policeman to do an Assassins job in the first place

It gets even murkier in the Tales From Jabbas Palace story when she wants to go on the barge and Jabba says no and tells her to leave and that's that. She simply does as she's told and leaves. Sneaking on board or following would be to much hard work I guess.

 

It's established right from Heir to the Empire that Jabba told her no.

“What went wrong?” Luke forced himself to ask.
Her lip twisted. “Jabba wouldn’t let me go with the execution party. That was it—pure and simple. I tried begging, cajoling, bargaining—I couldn’t change his mind.”
“No,” Luke said soberly. “Jabba was highly resistant to the mind-controlling aspects of the Force.”
But if she had been on the Sail Barge …
Luke shivered, seeing in his mind’s eye that terrifying vision in the dark cave on Dagobah. The mysterious silhouetted woman standing there on the Sail Barge’s upper deck, laughing at him as she held his captured lightsaber high.
The first time, years ago, the cave had spun him an image of a possible future. This time, he knew now, it had shown him a possible past. “You would have succeeded,” he said quietly.
Mara looked sharply at him. “I’m not asking for understanding or sympathy,” she bit out. “You wanted to know. Fine; now you know.”


Presumably they were within seconds of leaving when Jabba warns her off. Luke's skiff had already left.


Wherever Skywalker was in all that—assuming he was there at all—Mara couldn’t spot him.
But she could see Jabba. He was on his float, surrounded by guards and lackeys, being maneuvered toward the sail barge’s lift.
Pushing through the crowd, she hurried toward him.
The guards were watching as she approached, but she couldn’t read anything but normal caution in their faces and stances. Apparently, word of her alleged involvement with this Lady Valarian hadn’t gotten to them yet. “Your Exaltedness?” she called, stopping just short of the warning ring of weapons.
“Your Exaltedness? Please?”
Jabba turned his head toward her. “I’m Arica, Your Exaltedness,” she called. “One of your dancers. Could I please come along with you?”
The Hutt rumbled something and gestured to one of the guards, who in turn prodded the C-3PO protocol droid. “Oh—ah—the great Jabba the Hutt says no,” the droid translated distractedly, not even looking at Mara. She followed his gaze to one of the skiffs Just in time to catch a fleeting glimpse of Skywalker, standing proud and straight, as the skiff took off through the hangar door.
And he was getting away. “Please, Your Exaltedness?” Mara begged, putting all the strength of her most powerful Force mind-control technique behind the words.
She might as well have spat at a stone wall. The Hutt chuckled, his eyes swiveling to face her, and spoke again. “The great Jabba the Hutt says you are to leave him now,” the protocol droid said, still gazing forlornly after the departing skiff. “He says a landspeeder will be placed at your disposal, and that you are not to be seen here again.”
For a moment Mara locked eyes with the Hutt, trying futilely to read that impenetrable alien mind. Did he have some idea of who she was, perhaps even of why she was here? Or did he merely suspect, as Melina had, that she was part of a conspiracy and was hoping she would lead him to his enemies?
It didn’t really matter. She couldn’t catch Skywalker’s skiff with a landspeeder, and she couldn’t fight all of them. One way or the other, it was time to go. “I thank Your Exaltedness for his kindness,” she said, matching ambiguity with ambiguity. “May you live forever.”

So you have failed, the Emperor’s thoughts said, the chill of his anger sending a shiver through Mara despite the blazing heat of Tatooine’s twin suns. I am disappointed, Mara Jade. Disappointed, indeed.
I know, Mara answered, the bitter taste of defeat mixing with the grit of sand in her mouth as the landspeeder skimmed across the desert. But perhaps Jabba can deal.with him.
His anger had made her shiver. His contempt now made her ache.Do you seriously believe that?
She sighed. No.
For a moment he was silent, and Mara could sense him reaching deeply into the Force. Searching into the future … Skywalker is of no immediate importance, he said at last. Continue on to Svivren.We will discuss this when you return.
The image and sense faded, and he was gone.

 

Absolutely. They can make her work in the new canon. She doesn't have to have the same relationship to Luke that she had in the EU, but they can work something out. Maybe Mara Jade and Luke could get married and she got killed or captured by the First Order at some point.

 

Well, based on the Rebels season 4 trailer, I don't know if my idea will work as is. Bo-Katan returns, still wearing her Nite Owls armor...which leads to several possibilities. According to how the Siege of Mandalore was supposed to end, Bo-Katan was left in charge by Ahsoka and the Republic forces. At some point, Gar Saxon became the defacto leader of Mandalore bringing Imperial rule to the system. So, Bo-Katan either stepped aside peacefully, or was chased out. With her, in the trailer, raising the dark saber (presumably taking leadership of the Mandalorians) with Sabine and Ursa Wren behind her, it looks like she will take her rightful place as their leader. I'm gonna speculate that Ursa, Sabine's mother, was either married to a male Kryze sibling (but kept her surname of Wren), or that she was a Kryze and married a Wren. Either way, I believe that Sabine is related to Bo-Katan.

All of that said, my idea of Bo-Katan being chased from Mandalore, while still a possibility, is looking less likely. Plus, it would be a lot harder to have her have her daughter taken from her and her give up looking for the child. It's not beyond possible though.

The reason that I used Bo-Katan in the first place was that there was already a connection between her and OB1. To really work, a Kenobi daughter must be born sometime from 2-5 years after RotS.

 

Well the biggest question there is her Force-prowess. The Emperor really has no Force-wielding servants aside from Vader. The Inquisitors exist solely to hunt the Jedi and answer to Vader.

Sidious doesn't seem to even want powerful Force-wielding assassins or agents. The Force-sensitive children are only supposed to be seers or tools Sidious uses to enhance his own foresight.

I don't think there's room for a Force-wielder like Mara Jade in the Emperor's employ. Plus, Canon Sidious would never tolerate a "neutral" Force-user in his service. Mara would have to be an utterly ruthless, cold-blooded and hateful killer like Darth Maul.

 

This bugged me for some time too. Then one day I was watching Revenge of the Sith and these parts stood out for a different reason than the usual because they're the some of the best scenes in the movie

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Now Mara Jade was born in Legends about 2 years after Revenge of the Sith ended. Plenty of time to become Sidious's first attempt to copy his masters achievement. Early enough to make sense, yet not born right away either because obviously Palpatine's first goal would be cementing his power base. Only after its secure could he devote time to other matters.

Though I'd like the twist of her not being powerful enough to appease him. Strong in the force, but no replacement for Vader. I personally feel she'd be around Obi-Wan or Ahsoka levels. Palpatine would obviously consider her a failure, but something to study so he could improve upon his attempt next time and a tool to use while he studied her.

Obviously Sidious would keep her around to study her, after all the guy definitely wants immortality. I think Aftermath: Empire's End made that very clear, either he rules it forever or it burns. As far as Palpatine knows, manipulating midichlorians and creating life is the key to that. So he'd tolerate her being "neutral" in the force to study her (at least until she got older, then he'd slowly manipulate her into going dark going from "judge dredd" as another implied above to making her want to always rule guilty), further this would prevent Vader from feeling threatened enough to kill her regardless of the possible benifit of healing all his injuries once he learns all the secrets from observing Palpatine and Mara too.

The only thing that would change from Legends is now we'd know she was created, not discovered as a small girl. The Emperor would still have plans for her, Mara could still think they're plans she'd like, and Vader would always be tempted to kill her but holding back for some odd reason. Heck, the Emperor might even keep Mara alive just to treat her like a Cave miners proverbial canary, if Vader kills her one day that means he's about to come after him. If Vader is dumb and doesn't kill her first he risks Mara gaining up on him with the Emperor if he comes after him alone, and if Vader comes after him with an apprentice in tow than he has Mara to at least delay the apprentice. If Vader dies one day, than he has a temporary replacement who's much easier to manipulate and less of a threat. For the Emperor, having someone like Mara is advantageous on almost every level.

As to why he didn't take her to Endor, because he was setting up Vader to die and Luke to take his place. If Mara was there then Vader would sense the trap. Palpatine just gambled and lost.

Mara could still have been tempted to kill Luke, though the Empire's fall after Palpatine's death implies it didn't happen like The Thrawn Trilogy. Still though, some how Luke convinced her it was really a last mental command and she broke free of it.

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Now just a thought exercise to see if I could "include Mara very close to her legends self, and make her Rey's mom [and Luke the father]". More just to see if I could than anything.

If they make her the mother of Rey, it'd explain why she wasn't around too. Mara broke free of the last command and has a slow build romance that leads to Rey. Luke and Mara either don't get married or do and keep it very quite. Rey has nearly no contact with Luke her early life as Luke and Mara know of Mara's origin and sense danger if anyone else finds out.

Of course either Snoke or New Republic personal found out Mara was Palpatine's "daughter" and thus Rey was at risk. So Mara went into Exile, and just to not be one of those that hided away from the possiblity that it was Luke placed Rey on Jakku, the where not know to her but the hiding of Rey was at her request/begging to keep their daughter safe... how about on Jakku because the planet was a lightside Nexus and told Umkar Plutt how to get the Falcon as payment to keep her alive with promise of far more once he returns for her (better as hidden as possible and safe, near enough to LST to watch from afar too or at least Umkar was to believe such in truth he was simply given clues so one day Rey could seek him out when/if the force called on her to do so) and Luke went back to pretending nothing happened having just lost his love and daughter. Maybe Luke knows she'll turn out a good person if he does this but it breaks his heart. Later Ben betraying the order is just the proverbial straw that finally crushes him. Ben had prior sensed Luke's pain of abandoning a girl, and suspects he has a cousin but wasn't sure until Rey force gripped the saber from him.

Do I suspect that last part to be true? Not really. Was more of a thought exercise to see if I could think of a way to do it because others said it was impossible. I kinda now like the idea though, awaiting on others to inevitably explain why I'm wrong though. Lol. I kept Mara alive here because Rey was placed on Jakku before Ben betrayed the order, obviously Mara could have died after. I was just trying to write her into the story, not sell a direction to take her afterwards. Snoke or Ben or the Knights of Ren could easily have killed her, or now with Carrie's passing they'll want to add in a strong female matriarchal character and the mother (Mara in this thought exercise) fills that role in ep 9.

 

I suspect she won't, as the new LFL creative team seems to have someone else in mind as Luke's wife.

But a similar character archetype? Sure, why not? It worked for Rogue One, after all.

 

Oh god. I want Mara to be in both universes, but I figure she might be safer going unreferenced in the NuCanon. Why? None of the OT heroes are getting happy endings. I doubt Mara will get treated any better. I would rather imagine Mara fading into the masses as the Civil War wound down than seeing her get slaughtered by that brat, Kylo Ren. Just my opinion.

 

I'm quite torn on bringing her in as a love interest for Luke, only to be doomed to death at the hands of the Knights of Ren, the First Order, or someone else.

 

Mara did quit Luke's academy in Legends because she disagreed with how he was doing his first attempt. So it's very slimly possible she's alive and well if they borrow that aspect. Snoke did say if Skywalker returns the New Jedi will rise... just maybe he meant Mara, Kyle, Corran and/or a few others who weren't present at the time crosses fingers, knocks on wood, and preys to the Whills to make Mara get added to continuity and survive the trilogy to have her happy later years with Luke (and Rey)

 

Yes. Seems like Inferno squad's Iden Versio is becoming that similar character with a similar story. In fact I think the name Iden Versio, using Esperanto and Japanese, could be translated as "Different or adapted, version of Legends"

Edit. I forgot to mention. If you google Iden Jade you will see the wikipedia page for The Jade Trilogy. The second book is called Hakuchou Iden (Swan's Strange Legend). Coincidence??

 

Are you trying to imply the possibility that this new character from the Battlefront book and game ends up being Luke's wife and Rey's mom? Sorry but I don't see that happening at all as it is looking like the game is going to cover a large portion of the 30 year time gap to Ep. VII and this new character winds up leaving to the Unknown Regions where the First Order begins to form.

 

Mara didn't hunt down Luke though, more like the force kept making their paths cross and every time that happened the Emperor's last command started driving her bonkers but she resisted.

This just seems a dumb games plot line. Iden is a one and done for Battlefront 2 plot & tie-ins character. If she's our Mara replacement they're not doing a good job of it, further if they get too blatant with it all the EU fans will castrate them. Just look at all the hate the book Revan got for its poor characterizations or Salvator got for "killing chewie"... and fans will still beg for Mara. Captain Pellaeon has already been kinda replace by Vanto, yet everyone still asks for Pellaeon. Nothing changes and all Lucasfilm does is alienate fans, theres too little to gain here and she doesn't even look like Rey (skin tone for one seems wrong).

As to Jade Trilogy, yeah, seems like a coincidence. The brief synapses seems nothing like Mara or the manga's artwork doesnt look like her. Heck, the books even out of print... so who cares.

 

Am pretty sure Mara Jade, who was raised and trained by the Emperor to be his personal assassin(she was one of many Dark Jedi in his service), was driven by need and order to destroy Luke . As one of the Emperor's hands, she could hear his thoughts and had that Force psychic connection to Sidious . She was under orders to kill Luke Skywalker, and Sidious' death did not mean the death of that oder. The idea was also that her will was not hers anymore since she was a servant of the Emperor's and an agent of evil(not all that unlike Ventress on TCW). She did end up killing the clone of Luke called Luuke, and that dampened the call to kill her mark and quenched the insatiable hunger to kill Luke, as she kinda did accomplish that mission in a sense. I think she even killed Joruus C'baoth.

 

No, I am not trying to imply that, that would be stupid. I am only saying that the character is very similar to Mara jade at the beginning. An elite soldier, devoted to the empire, hunts rebels, devastated by the death of the Emperor, seeks revenge on the ones that killed him. It's just like Jyn Erso taking a similar role to Kyle Katarn steeling DS plans, she didn't have to completely follow katarns whole story and become a jedi.

 

I should note that Mara Jade is an interesting character aside from being Luke's wife and a potential mother of his children.

The only person who cared about Jaina being the Empress of the Remnant was Jello.

 

Well as we know, Jello has some... interesting perspectives.

 

No I would not want her brought in under any circumstances.

 

The Marvel Comics were the black sheep of Expanded Universe for many years. While some authors who were familiar included references to them, there wasn't any systematic attempt by Lucasfilm to include them in continuity until after Episode I. While Zahn was made aware of things like West End Game's roleplaying materials, he probably had no idea that Shira Brie even existed until years after the Thrawn Trilogy was on bookshelves.

I don't think it's puzzling at all. As much as Mara thinks she wants to kill Luke, she just plain doesn't, and finds excuses not to at every opportunity, even though she feels its her duty, and even though she knows the voice saying YOU WILL KILL LUKE SKYWALKER will echo even more loudly if she doesn't.

 

I always thought Jaina was a cold, heartless shrew for striking down her brother the way she did. She would've made a good Empress.

 

I've heard a lot of people say that Mara couldn't show up as a Hand because the title of Emperor's Hand has been used differently in Rebels. In the EU, "Emperor's Hand" applied to a wide variety of individuals reporting to Palpatine; Not just assassins and spies. Blackhole, the Director of Intelligence was a Hand. Jerec, an Inquisitor was a Hand. This new character from Rebels sounds like he could be a Hand too. For Mara Jade to return as a Hand, the authors would simply have to acknowledge that "Emperor's Hand" is a broad title.