Is Mara Jade Older or Younger than Luke Skywalker?

Perhaps the planet she thinks of as her home planet has different years than Tatooine or Coruscant standard or whatever Luke uses. . .

 

(My own grandmother claimed to be 39 until the day she died, even when her daughter turned 40! She was still claiming that at her 50th wedding anniversary!)

Your grandmother was very eccentric then. Mine are/was too.

I do hope for some back-story to fix that continuity error with Mara's age. I am willing to bet that she is two years older and that Zahn just changed his mind.

 

My grandmother was 69 for two years, then became 68.

 

Mara is two years younger than Luke at the time of Dark Force Rising.

Mara is two years older than Luke at the time of Balance Point.

The only thing we don't know is why this is and how it is possible. There are numerous possible answers for this situation, but no official ones yet.

Women lie about their age, just like everyone else thinks.

I too think she is artificial. Her memories are implants.

Or the most likely reason: Fembot. Her programming skipped, after the Vong gave her that horrbile (computer) virus.

 

From this interview with Zahn and Stackpole:

TZ I set her about the same age...I don't know what has been established. Neither younger or older.

MS Yeah, I think it's two years older, actually.

TZ Older? Okay, that'd make more sense otherwise she'd be 16 when the Death Star blew up. And that wouldn't work very well.

My own comment: Well, the thing is, Mara (or anyone, for that matter) cannot know for sure how old she is since the Emperor most probably had her birth certificate (or the GFFA equivalent) destroyed. I think Palpy did everything to erase all evidence of her true identity and background, so that she would never find her real family (if that family was even still alive). As Zahn said in a different interview, "I don't know if Mara's parents are still alive. Certainly they don't know her as Mara Jade." (emphasis mine) So the point is, if there's anyone still alive who knows when the little girl that Mara once was was born, s/he doesn't know that that little girl became Mara Jade, the Emperor's Hand. So there's simply no way for Mara to get that information. She (or anyone in-universe) can only guess her age.

 

Mastadge : Perhaps the planet she thinks of as her home planet has different years than Tatooine or Coruscant standard or whatever Luke uses. . .

Finally, someone sees it as I do...

 

Timetales said that Mara was born 22 BBY, and that the date was locked by Lucasfilm. So I guess she must be older...

 

Ya, but that doesn't mean TimeTales has a complete of all the ages given for mara in the official works.

 

Might this be an incidence of sources tripping over themselves? Zahn *has* said that they're about the same age... and in either instance, the difference is two years... which is exactly the same as the difference between the two competing ages for Luke which have been kicking around since whatever...

And whatever LFL and TimeTales may say about 'locked' ages for continuity, the persistance of the disagreement is shown by the fact that in George's latest ad lib on the subject (on the Ep.II DVD) he makes Luke and Leia eighteen in ANH...

So, might the 'two-year' difference originate in the following circumstances:

• Zahn, writing T3, decides that Mara and Luke are 'the same age'


• Since there's always been an uncertainty as to whether Luke's age in ANH is '18' or '20', Mara's birth thus becomes pegged to both '18 years before ANH' and '20 years before ANH' within the bowells of LucasFilm...


• These ages become detached from their original linked contexts, and thus ages of '27' and '29' for Mara in T3 are floating around seperately for ages of '27' and '29' for Luke in T3


• The use of these 'decontextualized' ages can therefore give a Mara 'the same age as' Luke - the original, and FACPOV 'correct' age, whatever that means - or 'two years younger' than Luke - the age I think WEG used in their T3 material, which certainly enjoyed some currency for a while in the later Bantam stuff - or 'two years older' - an idea which doesn't get out much for a while.


• But at some point, thanks to someone in LFL, or maybe due to an influential fanboy resource, the idea gains currency that Luke is '27' in T3 and Mara is '29' - thus 'two years older'


• LFL then pegs Luke's age in ANH at '20', but when Kathy Tyers asks for Mara's age when she's writing Star by Star, they still tell her she is 'two years older'


• LFL thus pegs Mara's age in T3 at '31' - which is essentially a tertiary figure - and for what it's worth, looks distinctly wrong...

Any takers?

The Imperial Ewok

 

Kathy Tyers didn't write Star by Star.

 

You didn't know that "Troy Denning" is a pen name of Tyers?

I'm shocked!

At any rate, both Denning and Tyers are fictional characters created by Elaine Cunningham....

 

Mr44 - Ha, ha, ha.

My theory:

1) Mara's lying

or

2) Mara's a clone

or

3)Mara doesn't know.

I tend to believe one of the first two rather than the third.

Aunecah

 

Where in BP did it say that she was older than Luke?

 

This is an insane topic.

 

Indeed. I just go by the fact that a woman never reveals her age. It's all good.

 

Therefore, since Mara's age has been revealed, it must obviously mean she's not a woman.

 

Genghis - She's still beautiful enough to get everybody after her. Just imagine what would happen to the galaxy if said thing were different.

Aunecah

 

I've seen the Shira Brie action figure and with her particular "assets," I definately know she is a woman... ...


not that there is any connection between Shira Brie and Mara Jade <cough cough>

 

Well we know that she is close to Luke's age so that should be good enough... Does her exact age really matter?