Lit Should Mara Jade exist in the nu Continuity?

Is it a versus? It doesn't really matter either way does it?

The only thing which has changed was the Legends series is now just "Star Wars Tales" writ large.

Which was still an awesome series.

What did Alan Moore say? "The movies can't ruin my comics. They're right there on the shelf." ?

 

It's simple when it's thought of as two layers, one of which was and is ongoing:

There was George Lucas canon, which was driven by George alone, and Licencing Canon, which was always secondary, but drove all the tie-in fiction.

Licencing Canon is what was renamed Legends, and, while still useful ,as it always was, as an official repository for narrative worldbuilding and character concepts, the 'official public sandboxing' tier now has (for the most part) a moratorium on new narrative content.

George Lucas canon, however, is now managed by Lucasfilm Story Group, and continues uninterrupted as it always has. The difference is that is now driven by a brain trust rather than just one brain, and also has spread into all narrative media.

Licencing Canon was never de-canonized. It remains, as it always has, but now conveniently renamed Legends, as a separate body of licenced product inspired by George Lucas' canon (and striving to remain consistent with it), and at some unique times serving as inspiration for some elements of GL's expanding canonical narrative of films and television.

What has changed is that content in this licencing-only narrative wing was halted, with all further content now going directly to the George Lucas/Story Group level. Nothing was downgraded - all new material going forward has just been upgraded.

Which of course is a bummer for those invested and interested in the story developed in the licencing sandbox over decades who really wanted it to continue. But the idea that it was downgraded or de-canonized isn't really accurate.

 

As it's officially explained, it sounds more like a canon split than a difference in departments. The original properties timeline INCLUDING the old EU, and the new one excluding it.


However, that doesn't deny the fact that the old EU was not canon. It had always been canon. Lucas can think whatever he likes, to him it was all a sandbox in his backyard and he let other play in it. In reality, it was, but that analogy also ignores the complex relationship that LFL had with EU material. It was so integrated into SW that the production of further EU content required the acknowledgement of previous works. That in and of itself meant that LFL implied a level of canonicity to these stories. LFL even had a rulebook (which I cannot find the article about) that all EU writers were required to follow in order for their content to be published as SW material. This included things like not overwriting the films, requiring following the timeline, no "biggest bad evar!" superweapons, etc. I doubt LFL would have instilled rules if the EU never mattered in the first place.

 

GL and Lucasfilm didn't want to put out a product that would sully its name. It's makes sense that, even if it is a sandbox, standards and rules were set in place, and the decision to make everything be consistent is a fun and crazy story in and of itself. (Hi Heir to the Empire and Dark Empire getting different memos). Licencing set in place specific rules, some of them handed down by GL, others instituted for logistics.

They definitely structured a canon within Licencing, that often had to scramble whenever GL put out something new in his own body of work. It's clear there wasn't fluid two-way communication, and poor Licencing often was the LAST to know something going into one of George's new movies.

("Hi. Remember that whole multi-issue comic story line about that Jedi Knight on the Council who was polygamous? Just got out of Attack of the Clones, and it turns out Jedi aren't even allowed to be married to ONE spouse! Gonna need to fix this! And the Clone Wars are about something TOTALLY DIFFERENT than we thought. Good luck! Oh, but it turns out George likes the Blue Twi'lek Jedi Girl, and she's in the movie. SYNERGY ROCKS!")

("So, good job making that story about the polygamous knight on the Council somehow work out! Just so you know, we just got out of a screening of Revenge of the Sith, and it turns out Knights aren't ever, ever on the Council at all either, and its sort of a big plot point. I'm sure you'll do great explaining that away! Oh, and George liked Quinlan Vos, who is in the comic with the Blue Twi'lek Girl, so he gets namechecked once in the movie. SYNERGY ROCKS!")

 

If everything was this simple, then the Ewok films and the holiday special, pure George brainchildren, would be part of the new canon. And they're not. Dark Empire was George's idea, and that's not canon. George was heavily involved with Terry Brooks when he wrote the Phantom Menace novelization, and that's not canon. He was the executive producer of the Droids cartoon, the Ewoks cartoon, and the 2D Clone Wars cartoon, and those aren't canon. He developed the filmed part of the Star Tours ride, and that's not canon. He wrote treatments for the sequel trilogy, and they were ignored. Et cetera.

Canon ain't about respecting George.

 

Didn't say anything about respect. It had to do with what was understood and desired by George as binding at the time.

 

Yep.

This is a guy who not only wanted Greedo to shoot first, but insists with a straight face that Greedo always shot first and that the later retcons were just about "clarifying" that.

 

If the next star wars series is post-RoTJ and in the early days about Luke Skywalker, a nu Mara Jade should also star in it.

While he should be the only Jedi of the show, he should encounter a few other force users, and Mara Jade could be a former Inquisitor that becomes an uneasy ally against a common foe and later turns into a anti-hero (but not become a Jedi).

I think having an Inquisitor background is the better route to take because not only would it explain her skills in the force/saber without resorting to creating another imperial dark side group, but she would become a window into exploring more of the Inquisitor faction and their fate beyond Vader comics and Rebels.

A post-RoTJ version of her is one who should be broken. Hiding out from the Empire and New Republic. A relic from another time and one of the last few survivors of her organization (in a way, paralleling the fate of the jedi order). Her world collapsed when the Sith decided to get rid of the Inquisitors. Or if the Sith never did that, the Inquisitors world still fell apart when their Sith masters died and the Empire began to crumble and break.

But we could also see a tale of two Mara's if flashbacks ever become a thing in a future series (they showed up a few times in new films, I think a new series would benefit with flashbacks back to the OT and dark times) or comic series explored her past dark times self. A young Inquisitor in training, loyal to the Empire and Sith.

By making her an ex-Inquisitor who later walks the path of ceasing to be a villain, the writers can borrow elements from Ventress's arc (without the whole killing the lady off this time so soon) while giving us an image that has very rarely been seen before. A lightsaber wielder who isn't evil, but still carries a red blade and still uses some Inquisitor armor.

Though if she was an Inquisitor, her blade in a post-RoTJ world should be modified to be a single blade (for concealment purposes). The normal Inquisitor blades are large and fit on the back, which would make someone who has that, a walking target in a world where the rebellion won.

 

Late in the EU, The Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide, said that the Hands were typically recruited from within the ranks of the Inquisitors.

 

Not while Dave Filoni is around.

 

Fair enough - Gar Saxon, who calls himself an "Emperor's Hand" does not act like an ex-Inquisitor.

 

“Jango Fett was a common bounty hunter. How he acquired that armor is beyond me.” - Almec
"Gar Saxon was a common thug. Where he got the idea he was an Emperor's Hand is beyond me." - Mara Jade, probably.

 

"Roganda Ismaren and Lumiya were common Dark Side Adepts. Where they got the idea that they were Emperor's Hands is beyond me" (Zahn's headcanon, possibly)


Much as I like Zahn, his proprietary attitude in interviews, over the Hands, did eventually rub me up the wrong way a bit.

 

Hmmm...I like the idea of young "Mara" being in training as an Inquisitor around the time of Rebels, and then sometime around RO/ANH she is selected to be a Hand. I think I'll add that into my story idea.

 

Well, the original design of Dathomir was that 90% of the planet wasn't explored. The various clans all lived in fairly close proximity.

 

I might have to go back and look at the Inquisitors again, because I made a habit of ignoring them while skimming Rebels. But what I do recall is...well, for lack of a better word, dorky. I suppose that I'm a bit protective of Mara and would want her past alias to be something a bit cooler (all is subjective).

The current mystery of what exactly Luke was up to, where he went and what he accomplished between trilogies makes it hard to picture how Mara could fit into the new continuity. (And I'll just say this, canon shmanon, whatever we debate, it's the continuity that has changed for the purposes of these discussions.)

A series that loosely adapted stories from the Bantam Spectra-era EU could be a huge thrill, but I just don't know how many of them would be compatible, or to what extent.

 

Mara Jade was taken from her family and raised by the Empire so that's basically the Inquisitor origin.

 

The timelines aren't compatible period. In Legends the galactic civil war went on for over twenty years. In the Disney timeline the Empire apparently surrendered a year after Endor.

There was no Vong war, no Mykr, and no Ben Skywalker.

 

How about Mara being a Sovereign Protector* prior to becoming a hand? I'd say that's a high bar for cool.

It would be so cool to see Mara a little more combat oriented with that awesome black armor! But honestly I would prefer Mara to have been a Hand her whole life. It just makes her seem way more dedicated.
*I know, I know.

 

I mean they brought Thrawn back and did a pretty good job in Rebels.

I'd be down to have her back.

 

Yeah, anything contingent on the Empire still existing as some recognizable form of itself wouldn't fit. But anything else...who knows? I haven't read all of the books, but it's my understanding that maybe the door was left open for 'warlordism' to still have been a thing? The Jedi Academy stuff might be able to be re-interpreted somehow...

The Vong would certainly have to be rolled back to after the current films, if the New Jedi Order was ever even loosely adapted.

 

Interestingly we know that the First Order essentially took kids from their families at a very young age and trained/brainwashed them into the First Order. Likewise, the Inquisitors did the same thing. Even the Jedi did it. It seems to be a theme in SW.

So, a young girl is taken from her family at a very young age. In the EU, we never knew who her parents were. My story idea changes that, and makes it significant. The young girl is in training as an Inquisitor, learning how to fight, use her force sensitivity, and use a lightsaber, but never "graduates" to the position before she is, yet again, taken to be further trained as a Hand for the Emperor. I would bet that not all Hand "candidates" make it through the training alive, so there are several "candidates" in her group. So, a new canon "Mara" (still not going to commit to using the name Mara Jade) can have a similar background as the EU one. The differences would be in her origin and what happens during and after RotJ. While not very detailed, I think I give a plausible solution to mixing the EU Mara with a new canon one.

Until proven otherwise, I'm still convinced that Laura Dern (red hair or not) is playing Luke's wife and/or Rey's mother in The Last Jedi. I'm hoping that she is still alive, but she could also just have a brief scene as part of a force vision (where either Luke or Rey, or both, see Rey's parents through the force).

 

About the Vong, don't forget that Dave Filoni said at one of the Celebrations (I think it was the last one in Europe) that he had planned on introducing the Vong in TCW. He even had some concept art for them. So, I really think we'll see them in the new canon at some point, but they may have a different origin/story from the EU.

 

They would have trashed the Vong horribly.

 

Chill out, ner vod. I don't want to see another war in this thread