Mara Jade and Shira Brie: Ripoff or Coincidence?

I have been meaing to start this thread for awhile but am just now getting around to it. The point of this thread is trying to discover whether or not Mara Jade is an outright ripoff of Shira Brie, or just one of those weird EU coincidences.

So here's what I know for sure about the topic *(everything I know about Shira is from TOS, Timetales, and The New Essentail guide to characters)*

Info I know for certain:
1. Both have been Emperor's Hand
2. Both are good-looking red-heads
3. Both have had strange relationships with Luke Skywalker and were instructed to kill him
All of this points to Mara being a ripoff.

Info I have read somewhere, but can't remember the source so may not be totally valid:
1. I've heard somewhere (like I said can't remember where) that Zahn did not read any of the prior EU before writing his trilogy. Not the Marvel Comics, the Lando and Han novels, nor the daily strips. Does anyone have a source for this info?, because if this were true, this would really point the whole affair to being one of those weird coincidences of the EU.

I would like to see all of your thoughts on this.

 

Just ask Gengis

 

Both have green eyes too, I think.

I personally don't know what to think on this matter. We know that Shira Brie came first, but is this a coincidence on Mr. Zahn's part, or did he mean to rip her off? Perhaps he thought that he could create a better Emperor's Hand using the same formula or something.

Or maybe the in-universe explanation, as many have suggested, is that the Emperor had a fetish for red heads with green eyes.

I think it's safe to say...

Unleash the Genghis!

 

Love when people say that




I doubt she is a ripoff, but there are SO many similarities it does make you think

 

Mara Jade=Poison ivy, ?

[image=http://www.batmantas.com/img/ivy.gif]

 

LOL, Valiento.




:::Waits patiently for the Genghis to be unleashed:::

 

Actually, it could be a good thing in this fashion. I have three fanfic characters I've created. All have very strong similarities to each other (maybe not as much as Shira & Mara). All three came to a point in their lives where they made a choice about their futures. The differences in those choices made them an interesting study in alternate futures - one was an NRI agent turned Republic ace pilot, another a Storm Commando turned Sith Lord, another a Rebel pilot turned mysterious Dark Jedi/bounty hunter. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of the moral spectrum.

Mara and Shira are similar in appearance and behavior up to a point - the acceptance that the galaxy has changed and that they must change with it. Shira/Lumiya chose to retain her previous convictions about the Force and how the galaxy should be run, becoming a Sith Lord with a lifelong vendetta against Skywalker. Mara Jade made a different choice and not only made peace with Luke and grudgingly supported the NR, but became Skywalker's wife and a Jedi Master. A post-NJO faceoff between the two would be . . . interesting . . . to say the least - a mirror-image type duel.

 

A cat fight??

Maybe after fighting hand to hand, they'll realize their feelings for each other



I better stop, this is a PG forum after all

 

Mara Jade=Mary Jane?

[image=http://www.cinecon.com/movies/images/spiderman/dunstjane1.jpg]

 

DarthSikle : now that would be an interesting sight...

 

Even more disturbing, they look so much alike that they might as well be twins...

But I've just got to wondering how many friggan red-haired, green-eyed impossibly hot women are their getting tto be in Star Wars.
1. Mara Jade
2. Shira Bria
3. Bria Theron
4. Admiral Daala
5. Nomi Sunrider (Eyes are blue green but thats pretty close)
6. Ta'a Chume
7. Teninial Djo

I'm sure I'm forgeting a few, add in all you can think of.

Am I the only one who seees this trend as a little disturbing? But a somewhat pleasent kind of disturbing...

 

Trell, I never noticed that there was such a huge list!

 

Ah yes:

8. Vima Sunrider

Sure shes a little young, but so was I when I read Redemtion

 

9. Mirith Sinn

 

I thought Dalla had "copper" colored hair.

 

PrinceXizor: Thanks. I knew their was at least one comic one that I was forgeting.

Wedge 88: Nitpicker!

 

Well we know that they're physically similar, but how close are their personalities? I've never read any of the Marvel comics so all I know about Shira Brie (aka Darth Lumyia) comes from the fifth issue of SW Gamer. If she is an annoying, self-righteous, know-it-all then I'd say it is a ripoff.

 

Red Hair Green eyes is common. Yes, there are a lot, but there's also a lot of Brown haired brown eyed people


Bria wasnt a former asassin, good pilot, Imperial alligned at one point woman who at some stage was with Luke

 

Both Mara and Shira being Emperor's Hands is sort of a retcon too, remember. Although Shira's function seems the same as a Hand, it was not stated so until much after Mara was introduced. This should not count as a similarity. Besides, it had never been (in my opinion) fully explained to my satisfaction why Shira is Palpatine's Hand, and not Vader's.

 

Vader originally trained her to kill Palpatine, then decided to hide her right under Palpatine's nose. She made like she was loyal to Palpatine, but in reality, she was loyal to Vader.

 

Darth_Kevin : Vader keeps losing his hands. That's why he can't have a 'Vader's hand'. Thus Shira had to be an Emperor's Hand.

 

Too many coincidences for my liking, so I'm going to say rip off. The only real difference between the two was Shira wasn't a Mary Sue.

 

It's a coincidence. Really, the only similarities between the two are the fact that they both have red hair, and that they both were Imperial agents. The characters are totally different. Lumiya was evil, Mara was redeemable. Lumiya never really had any feelings for Luke, Mara did. The fact that they are both Emperor's Hands is a total ret-con. Zahn made up the post, and the Gamer people tossed every assorted Darksider they could find (Jerec, Blackhole, etc) into it. They're just two different characters that happen to look the same, which is not at all an uncommon occurrence, as Trell points out.

TC

 

Kier...

Too many coincidences for my liking, so I'm going to say rip off.

Then you must think Kyle Katarn is a rip-off of Corran Horn? They share eight to ten similiarities as well.

 

Then you must think Kyle Katarn is a rip-off of Corran Horn? They share eight to ten similiarities as well.

Wasn't Kyle Katarn created before Corran Horn?