Lit What's the point to let Mara Jade be a dancer to the public?

She was the hand of the Emperor, shouldn't her identity and appearance be kept as a secret rather than let many people know her as a imperial and someone close to the Emperor?

 

It's a "cover identity". Exactly the sort of thing a spy and agent needs. Especially if it's one that causes them to be underestimated.

 

Not much for cover, people would know
1. She's an imperial
2. She's close to the Emperor

Neither of these information are good to be known.

 

Mara Jade needed to be able to move about at court and in upper level imperial functions in order to gather the intelligence necessary to do her job. That's why she had a cover identity. It was essential that it be known she was of some importance to the Emperor so people didn't randomly try to murder her and/or use her as a puppet (this being the Imperial court). In fact Palpatine's personal stamp of protection was utterly necessary for her projection of the relatively airheaded dilettante identity she was using. It would never have passed muster otherwise.

Mara was never designed to be some completely unknown entity who struck in total silence and anonymity to deliver the Emperor's message. Insofar as that specific purpose was necessary, Palpatine had other tools available.

 

Mara Jade was never a "dancer to the public." Her cover identity was. We are speaking about her time in Jabba's Palace, correct?

 

Her job is the personal assassin and spy of Palpatine, this require her alignment and superior to be unknown. Palpatine could just keep her as a secret if he wants to ensure he safety.

Like the Emperor's Wrath in SWTOR, his/her identity was unknown to most of the others beside a few high rank Sith and Moffs.

 

Before that, she was one of the Imperial Court dancers.

 

Being a dancer in the Imperial Court didn't necessarily mean she was close to Palpatine.

 

She said to others about the Emperor favors her.

 

She said her dancing pleases the Emperor. Just like every other dancer there.

Also, she's talking to other Imperials at court. Random Imperials and pirates wouldn't necessarily know who she is.

 

That means she is close the Emperor, she would not even dance for others privately, her most possible superior is the Emperor. She performs in the Court a lot, so there is a big chance that people would know her.

 

Would they? Or would she be just one of several relatively anonymous dancers- whose faces no-one's looking at, and whose personalities are relatively generic?

 

People do notice pretty dancers' face for sure. They are to be seen to please people, so I don't understand it. A spy's face and alignment should be kept as secretly as possible. It would not be hard for Palpatine to keep her as a secret, just like Vader kept Starkiller.

 

She's incredibly hot and hanging out at highfalutin Imperial functions, gal needs a better cover ID than "You want a frozen shrimp?" or "I'm just hanging out in the background trying to fix the air filtration system, don't mind me."

 

I'm a dancer to the public, YOU HAVE A ******* PROBLEM WITH IT?

I'm sorry, I'm just tired of dancers not getting respect.

 

Yes, because they could know she's an imperial and close to Palpatine. As a spy/assassin, the alignment and the superior should not be known.

 

lol

You should make more threads.

 

"Investigator" more than "assassin" seemed to be her main role in the Zahn books. Frequently using her high level clearance code to get the assistance she needed.

 

Palpatine ordered her to kill Luke, she's used to do the killing job when other could not or it would not be nice to let the public know the Empire is behind it.

 

The thing is, she was supposed to be one of many Dancers. I always got the impression there were a lot of them used as mobile decor. As for her face, you'd be surprised how different makeup can make someone look, pretty or not.

 

It's still quite possible to recognize her since that's her "ordinary job".

The thing is, to keep her totally secret is much safer and would bring no problem, but use her as a dancer bring no benefit but the chance to let others recognize her, which is quite harmful to her job.

I play SWTOR, my agent never has this kind of public "cover" because it's dangerous.

 

Yeah, but the Imperial Court is small, the rest of the galaxy is big. The whole "dancer" thing is to let her come and go and be seen around the palace without anyone really asking too many question. Gara Petothel was a much better done "spy/assassin type".

Plus you people are assuming those in the Imperial court or visiting it would try to put 2 and 2 together. They are big, arrogant "important" people. They aren't going to look at the servants, guards or mobile decorations the same way with the same awareness they would look at say a Moff or some other kind of official.