Lit Timothy Zahn talks about Mara Jade as the Emperors Hand

On Tim Zahns Face page Zahn is asked about Mara fighting the rebellion as the Emperors Hand and he responds "I see Mara as mostly concentrating on non-Rebel enemies of the Empire, and particularly the internal rot of corrupt officials. From the movies it looks like Vader has mostly taken over the Rebellion hunt, and I don't see Mara as challenging him for that job, especially since there's plenty of work for both of them".

Is anyone else annoyed by this. Leaving aside how boring an uninteresting that is anyway, (or how by ESB Vaders priority was Luke rather than the Rebellion) it just seems such an awful cop-out and wanting it both ways. He wants her to be an agent of the Empire and rated by the Emperor (In VotF its said she, Thrawn and Vader are all equals) but is not prepared to have her fight a single rebel cell or do 1 bad thing, I dunno why he even bothered to make her an agent of the Empire if that was the case.

Zahn also seems to be unaware of what made Mara great and interesting as a charachter (and what made her a perfect partner for Luke) which was her developing and learning as a charachter and becoming aware of herself and her past and what she thought was right was wrong etc, not super girl who just took down rogue officials.

Sorry for ranting but this just bothered me.

 

Although I've enjoyed Allegiance and Choices of One, I have to agree that I dislike how Mara is increasingly depicted as a goody two-shoes her whole life, rather than an individual who overcame the darkness of her youth and found redemption through Luke like his father did.

In retrospect, I suppose the writing was on the wall back in MJ:BTEH when she was described as a light side "experiment" or whatever it was, but I still always saw her as a pretty amoral assassin, and much preferred the idea that she was not a nice person until she meant Luke and he helped show her the error of her ways.

Yes it was always a bit cliché and stereotypically "guy saves girl" but her character's become a bit dull in recent years.

 

Zahn is blind when it comes to Mara. Nothing new here, imo.

To be fair, several other writers seem to have had the same problem.

 

On the contrary, I find it more interesting that she was taught to believe she was doing the right thing and sincerely believed that. It makes her character in The Thrawn Trilogy more compelling, IMO.

 

I agree 100%, but it does kinda make sense.

Her skill-set is not suited to hunting down and fighting rebels. That would be more for a dude with a few Star Destroyers and troops, rather than an assassin

 

I don't think anyone would have a problem with this, it's more that from an OOU perspective she's basically doing the "right thing" as well.

Compare this to Agent of the Empire, where Cross also sincerely believes he's doing the right thing by serving the Empire, but believes so while assassinating innocent people, rigging elections, etc. It would be far less interesting if instead he only concentrated on gangsters and corrupt officials and the like.

 

Yeah, Agent of the Empire works because Cross isn't doing nice things, even if he himself believes them to be.

But if all he was doing was things the reader could be cheering for, then we'd just be thinking "Rebel waiting to happen" rather than appreciating how effective the Empire had been at converting people to seeing it as the solution.

 

As early as Survivor's Quest- there was a point made that the Emperor made sure Mara wasn't involved in Imperial atrocities- since he was aware that they might cause her to have doubts.

 

As has already been said its not her thinking she is doing the right thing or that she was corrupted/manipulated etc but that all she is doing "is the right thing"
which is less interesting from both a readers perspective and a charachter standpoint.

Besides its also contradictory too the charachter, if she believes in the Empire so much then surely the rebellion trying to overthrow it all and bring back the republic would be a much greater threat.

 

Im not talking atrocoties but fighting the rebellion, which the Empire V Rebellion is pretty much what Starwars has been about and why would Palpatine go to so much trouble if all she is doing taking down a few corrupt officials

 

Speaking of: didn't Gamer #5 imply that said last command was actually the resurrected Emperor sending her telepathic orders? It's not a bad retcon and it makes Mara look stronger: she's not just rejecting some post-hypnotic suggestion, she's rejecting her master's direct command.

 

She could be using that excuse to find the strength to reject Palpatine's voice. Anything better than "waaah that was not my Palps".

 

Jade was supposedly captured by Blackhole during Operation Shadow Hand. Any thoughts?

 

Katarn and "some heroes" rescued her, and that's how Mara met her first lov-- master, just in time for Mysteries of the Sith.

 

"Reciprocal apprenticeship"

 

It's a shame Maarek Stele was never featured in a novel or a comic.

 

I actually kinda like that explanation. I'm sure that, while she didn't handle Rebel issues much, she still viewed it was an evil and something bad for the galaxy. I like her focusing more on corruption of the Imperial government.

 

Gotta agree with you both here. I'm basically fine with Zahn's argument taht there was plenty for her to do when it comes to bad guys. Also, we see her kill "traitors" and while she holds back once in CoO, it's also stated that she's killed so many that she's pretty tired of their last minute prayers - she must have killed many who's "crime" was simple deflection. Thats said, I had hoped CoO would dig a bit deeper than Allegiance, as I agree with Steve. I would like to see Mara 'get her hands dirty' in her past - and I would love to be able to follow her perspective when she does it! Then again, I know many readers would sigmatize her as a 'bad' person after it, so I can understand Zahn's hesitation to do it. ..

 

From the new card game:



Is that Mara versus a Rebel soldier?

 

You see thats the whole problem from a story angle right their. CoO cannot dig deeper as there is nothing deeper to dig. She takes out pirates and corrupt officials and thats its. It gets boring fast, with no tension whatsoever. Zahn could haver her take out a 1000 pirates in the next book the end result is the same. Besdies this is a galatic civil war. So despite being a top agent and assasin (So your saying she will not or should not be sent after a single Rebel leader not 1) she is going to miss every single battle or fight with the RA. Why have her as an Agent of the Empire (or even bother to write about) in the first place if he is not going to have her go up against the Empire's main opponent in a starwars book!


Its also the biggest strawman argument I have ever seen (and this goes back to VotF and not being on the darkside nonsense he made up). Where Zahn wants her powerful and doing cool things but does not want her suffereing any emtional consequences from it. Thats having it both ways which I think cheapens her (well written) redemptiove journey from the TTT and what made her an interesting charachter to begin with.

Its also highly contradictory.

She is an Assassin who with all her force powers which are enhanced bythe Emperor, but are not darkside powers and somehow she did not use it?
She works for an evil man but only goes after bad people?
She thinks the Empire is great so from her perspective surely the rebels trying to overthrow it would be her greatest enemy but again somehow ends up working with them more and has Imps try and kill her instead.

I also do not think either the charachter or author would be stigmatised by fans but thats just me and I could be wrong their.

 

Dunno whoever it is, but it has a nice tushy.

 

There's already one red-headed Emperor's Hand tasked with infiltrating the Rebellion and killing and/or discrediting key members. I'm okay with the idea that Mara got a different job. It was only after Shira Brie got (mostly) vaped that Mara was told YOU WILL KILL LUKE SKYWALKER.

 

Yeah... I hear what you're saying - and while your points are good, they could be at least partly countered - but there's more to what you're saying than your actual points. See, I have it this way with Zahn, that I absolutely love so MUCH about him and his books. And still - and maybe even more because of that - there's stuff that bothers me - and it can bother me a LOT - but I feel like a b... whenever I try to figure out anc explain exactly what it is. And then people come with counter arguments that are pretty valid often - but I STILL sit with this annoyment and no arguments in the world can make them go away.

I'm still fine with Mara not facing actual Rebels - we know Palps considered them a minor threat after all, at least until Luke powered up, and we also know how corrupt and impossible moff's and imp governors are, so there should be plenty for her to do. And once you've 'specialized' in a job, most bosses usually lets you repeat the same procedure as always. But on the other hand, I remember being extremely annoyed with Mara meeting f.ex. Madine and basicially doing nothing but barging with him (Mara Jade a Night on the Town) What she does is actually letting a defector (=traitor in her should-be- terminology) go away!!! Same storyline basically repeated in Handoff, if I remember correctly. And as I see it, it's the same vibes you're balking at. We are served a plot-story where we have a heroine (Mara) and some baddies and some greys. If we enjoy the basic plot and how it's solved, then we're fine. But if we want to know more about Mara, and we are focused on the fact (?) that she's not good - she should actually be one of the bad - and how that's going to be painted - then we're in for a disappointement. Because what we get is basically light shades of grey. The bad ones are still black - but Rebels and Imps are in no way defined where they stand anymore and Mara throws a very small shadow - actually, her only fault is her employee.

Now, I'm fine with the questioning of Imps = automatic evil, I think most of us are - but I'm not fine if everything gets same shade of gray. And I agree with you that Mara just being awesome in a time where she could be threedimensional in terms of good and evil, is, actually, selling her short. We have this potentially amazing heroine with this huge shadow of a past. In Allegiance and CoO we fianally get some light cast on that shadow - and wupti - it's not dark anymore. It's actually... disappointing.