Mara Jade

Template:SW Character Mara Jade Skywalker is a fictional character in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. She first appeared in Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy. She was a hidden character featured in the PlayStation fighting game Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi, and was also a playable character in the computer game Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith. Her most recent appearance was in the RTS game "Star Wars: Empire at War" in which she fought against the Rebels (notably including Kyle Katarn and Luke Skywalker) as an Emperor's Hand.

Once known as an "Emperor's Hand," Mara Jade functioned as one of Emperor Palpatine's elite personal assassins. She later became second-in-command to smuggling chief Talon Karrde, and afterwards married Luke Skywalker, a union through which she eventually received the rank of Jedi Master. Mara is not featured in any of the Star Wars movies (except for a brief cameo in Return of the Jedi: Special Edition at Jabba's palace as a dancer), but she is portrayed by the model Shannon McRandle in the Star Wars Customizable Card Game.

Mara is a strong woman of many talents, with red-gold hair, deep green eyes, and the figure of a dancer. She is said to be similar in character to Princess Leia, her husband's twin sister.

Prior to gaining her own ship, Mara used a Z-95 Headhunter when circumstances required her to go off on her own. Mara lost her first ship, a craft known as the Jade's Fire, when she used a beacon call to direct it straight into a Chiss fortress. This was a sacrifice necessary both to her's and Luke's mission and to her Jedi training. She later owned two other ships, the Jade Sabre, (which was a custom built ship given to her by her husband), and the Jade Shadow.

History

Emperor's Hand

Main article: Emperor's Hand

The Emperor's Hands were a group of assassins handpicked by Emperor Palpatine to carry out his will. Palpatine's Hands were disposable, and were usually unaware of the existence of any Hands other than themselves. Some of the Hands were able to hear the Emperor's voice from across the galaxy, and respond to him in kind. Mara was one of the few who could hear his commands. In Timothy Zahn's book Allegiance, Mara is the Emperor's Hand, working to expose the embezzlement of funds, tracking a pirate group in the Shelsha sector, and in conjunction with the rogue stormtrooper unit "Hand of Judgement", succeeds in preventing the rebellion and secession of Shellonokwa from the Empire. While a lethal and precise warrior, Mara's compassion and sense of justice are apparent; she is not dark like her master in either actions or allegiance.

Early abduction and training

Jade was introduced in Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn. Emperor Palpatine took her from her parents when she was a small child. She has no memories of her previous life, except that she thinks that her parents didn't want her to go. He trained her to use her strength in the Force, and gave her the position of a Hand. When Palpatine began to worry about the threat Luke Skywalker posed to the Empire, he sent Mara to infiltrate Jabba the Hutt's Palace disguised as a dancer for Jabba to await and kill him. In the end, Jabba would not allow her to leave the palace to view the proposed execution of Luke by the Sarlaac, so her mission was a failure. Luke once had a dream where he was on the plank to jump into the Sarlaac pit and he called his lightsaber from R2-D2, it was pulled from the air and into the hands of Mara (instead of Luke's) who was on the deck of the sail barge. If she would have really done that he might have been killed.

Mara subsequently saw scenes from the Emperor's death through the Force. Vader and Skywalker were there, and it seemed that they both killed Palpatine together. While her hatred for Skywalker burned deep within her, Palpatine's last message to her was "you will kill Luke Skywalker". Meanwhile, her life was a shambles: the resources she had once had access to were all dependent on the Emperor, meaning her life of luxury, privilege and purpose was over. She made her way through the galaxy, doing odd jobs and manual labor to make ends meet. Even worse, her Force skills went into remission, only to return at inconvenient times, generally necessitating a change of employment. Fortune finally struck when she saved smuggler baron Talon Karrde from an ambush. Karrde was so impressed that he hired her on the spot; over the following six months, she rose within his organization at an astonishing rate.

Into this promising future crashed Luke Skywalker, the man she was compelled to kill. At Karrde's base on Myrkr, where Skywalker lacked his Force talents (inhibited by native ysalamiri), Mara was intent on following through; but a series of circumstances (and some unknown hesitation) resulted in her helping him escape instead. Karrde and his organization fled soon after, a massive Imperial bounty on their collective heads.

Luke came to understand that it wasn't truly she who desired to kill him, but Palpatine, whose voice Mara could hear in her head anywhere in the galaxy, even after he was long dead. Furthermore, Mara came to understand that Palpatine didn't want Skywalker dead for his own sake, but rather as a final act of vengeance against Anakin Skywalker. Luke for his part, resolved to free her from this curse, regardless of the danger she posed to him. Mara was both confused and impressed that her hated enemy would do such a thing for her. The golden opportunity came when the two found themselves battling Luuke Skywalker, the original's clone. After a protracted battle, Mara killed the clone, silencing Palpatine's voice and any ill will towards the real Skywalker. From then on the tension between the two ceased and eventually they married and had a child, Ben Skywalker.

A few years later, Palpatine, reborn in a clone body and in hiding on his Deep Core throneworld of Byss, labeled her a traitor and sent one of his loyal Hands, the former Prophet of the Dark Side "Blackhole," to dispose of her. Mara was kidnapped by Blackhole in the Senex Sector, but she was eventually rescued by maverick Jedi Kyle Katarn. When Palpatine died a final death on Onderon, Mara was released from his shadow at last, and allowed to begin her life anew. Curiously, during a mission to Nirauan with Luke, she said she didn't believe that the "reborn Emperor" was indeed a reincarnated Palpatine, though she did not elaborate the reason for her skepticism.

After Grand Admiral Thrawn's war against the New Republic ended with his defeat, Luke gave Mara her first lightsaber, which was actually his father's, a weapon long thought lost when Darth Vader severed Luke's hand on Bespin. In addition to Luke's old blue lightsaber, Mara's other weapon of choice is her magenta lightsaber.[1]

Talon Karrde

According to Tales from the Empire, Mara Jade, aimless after Palpatine's death, met Talon Karrde on the planet Varonat. She soon met Karrde, who dropped in to look for business opportunities. But Karrde soon got in over his head when he realized that the safaris were killing intelligent entities. After finding this out, Gamgalon confronted Karrde and planned to kill him, but Mara saved him. She then joined Karrde's smuggling company and quickly excelled to be his second-in-command. She also saved Karrade's crew while he was away one time. The merchant Badrin took her and the crew of the Wild Karrade hostage and forced Mara to go to the planet Torpis to rescue his daughter from the evil clutches of the human-female slaver Chay Praysh (he is a Drach'nam). Mara gets the daughter back and the crew was rescued, although later on she and Karrade got their revenge on Badrin for taking the crew hostage.

Jedi

Mara Jade holding her and Luke's son, Ben Skywalker.

In the computer game Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith, Mara is seen under the tutelage of Kyle Katarn for a time. Eventually, the first person perspective switches from Kyle to Mara, and the user experiences the game through Mara's eyes for the rest of the game. She is eventually able to bring Kyle back to the light after he briefly falls to the dark side of the Force.

Over the years, Mara and Luke continued to work together in many important situations in the aftermath of the Galactic Civil War that followed the Battle of Endor. Initially, Mara declined to attend the Jedi Academy on Yavin IV because of her concerns about Luke and the way he structured the school. On their mission to investigate the Hand of Thrawn, they developed a close Force bond, prompting Luke to make an unexpected marriage proposal, which she accepted. They married on Coruscant, soon after the signing of the peace treaty with the Empire. Mara would later continue her training and become a Jedi Master. She took on her niece Jaina Solo as her apprentice.

In the New Jedi Order series, Mara and Luke fought together against a new threat, the extragalactic Yuuzhan Vong, who infected Mara with a deadly disease. Through the use of the Force, and tears from the Jedi Vergere, she enjoyed a brief remission. During her recovery, she found she was pregnant. She carried the baby to term, and nearly died while giving birth. The bond she and her family shared bolstered her abilities with the Force, and healed her.

They named their son Ben, after Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi's nickname.

During the Force Heretic novels, she played a major role in finding the planet Zonama Sekot in the Unknown Regions, along with a small team of Jedi and an Imperial escort. Despite a trap set up by the Yuuzhan Vong, they succeeded in finding the planet. After this, the planet's guiding consciousness Sekot made the discovery that the reason the Yuuzhan Vong were "invisible" in the Force was because it had been stripped from them because of their bloodlust. Harrar, the Yuuzan Vong priest, was present and instrumental in enabling Sekot to make this discovery. Mara fought in the battle to retake Coruscant (or Yuuzhan'tar, as the Vong called it) as part of the Jedi strike team composed of Luke, herself, Jacen and Jaina Solo, Tahiri Veila, and Kenth Hamner. She went with Tahiri and Kenth to aid the Shamed Ones in their fight, but broke off from her partners to chase Nom Anor through the overgrown maze of Coruscant. She captured him after defeating him in hand-to-hand combat, but restrained from killing him. She brought him back to Kenth and Tahiri at the site of the victorious Shamed Ones just in time to see Supreme Overlord Onimi's escape ship prepping. She, Tahiri, Kenth and Anor raced up the secret passageway into the citadel. She arrived moments after Luke killed Shimmra and Jacen and Jaina had dashed after Onimi. Despite the feat of killing the supposed Supreme Overlord, Luke had been stabbed with Shimmra's huge amphistaph. The three Jedi carried Luke back to the square, meeting the Solos, and got Luke onboard the Millennium Falcon. Jacen healed Luke with the aid of the tears Mara wept over her dying husband, as well as his own. The Skywalkers were reunited with their son on Zonama Sekot.

During The Swarm War trilogy by Troy Denning, Mara fought in the huge battle against the Dark Nest. While she succeeded in killing countless Dark Killiks, she was wounded by Lomi Plo's apprentice with a huge gaping hole in her abdomen. During this time, Alema Rar turned into the Night Herald and goaded Luke into distrust of Mara with the tantalizing suggestion that his mother had been one of her targets. However, this was proved to be false when deeply encoded holograms R2-D2 had taken of Anakin and Padme were shown. Her son, Ben, also partially joined the hive-mind of the Dark Nest, and she fought with the Gorog that had stowed away on her ship and befriended her son. She relegated Ben to a loose apprenticeship with Jacen Solo, who was the only person Ben felt comfortable using his Force powers around. She failed, however, to see the darkness in Jacen, and believed his lies regarding their whereabouts. She supported Luke when he declared himself the Grand Jedi Master, seeing it as the only way to unite the fractured Jedi.

During the Second Correllian Insurrection, Mara continued to support Jacen Solo among the Jedi due to what she perceived as a positive influence he was having on Ben. However, after Jacen sent Ben on several missions of a questionable ethical nature, she began to doubt her previous viewpoints. After Ben returned from an assassination mission against Prime Minister Gejjin, he caught up with his mother to relate to her what happened, as well as the fact that Jacen was cooperating with the Sith Lumiya. Mara thereby decided to kill Jacen for his fall to the Sith. Mara confronted Jacen on the world of Kavan in the Hapes Cluster. Knowing she couldn't defeat him in open combat, she lured Jacen into a system of tunnels before collapsing them on his head. Despite that, Jacen managed to free himself before finally casting an illusion on Mara so that she saw Ben in Jacen's place. This caused her to hesitate long enough for Jacen to stab her with a poison dart, and she collapsed to the ground. Just before she died, Mara spoke to Jacen one last time.

You think...you've won, but Luke will crush you...and I refuse...to let you...destroy the future...for my Ben.

Having said this, Mara then died. Her death was felt by many Jedi throughout the Force in various ways. She also chose to leave her body behind after death rather than having it disappear into the Force as evidence for her son Ben Skywalker to discover. Although her body did not become one with the Force upon her death, she did disappear at her funeral. The body only faded away as Jacen Solo arrived, giving Luke and Ben a clue to the identity of her killer. This clue, unfortunately, was misunderstood by her husband, Luke.

Mara's ships

Prior to gaining her own ship, Mara used a personal Z-95 Headhunter when circumstances required her to go off on her own. During her first days as a Jedi, she used Shrike, loaned by Talon Karrde. Mara lost her first space ship, a craft known as the Jade's Fire, when she remotely steered it into a Chiss fortress on Nirauan. She later owned other ships: the Hunter's Luck, the Jade Sabre, and the Jade Shadow.

Fan reaction

Mara is one of the most popular Expanded Universe (EU) characters, and was the only EU character to make it in the Star Wars Insider list of the top 20 most popular Star Wars characters. She was portrayed on several cards in the Star Wars Customizable Card Game. Meeting her is also a mission objective in the massively multiplayer online game Star Wars Galaxies.

See also

• Skywalker family
• Solo family

Appearances

• Allegiance, by Timothy Zahn (1 ABY)
• Tales of the Empire, by Timothy Zahn
• Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand (Comic), by Timothy Zahn & Michael A. Stackpole
• Tales From Jabba's Palace, by various authors, editor Kevin J. Anderson (4 ABY)
• The Thrawn trilogy, by Timothy Zahn (9 ABY)
• I, Jedi, by Michael Stackpole (11 ABY)
• The Jedi Academy trilogy, by Kevin J. Anderson (11 ABY)
• Children of the Jedi, by Barbara Hambly (12-13 ABY)
• Darksaber, by Kevin J. Anderson (12-13 ABY)
• The New Rebellion, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (17 ABY)
• The Corellian Trilogy, by Roger MacBride Allen (18 ABY)
• The Hand of Thrawn Duology, by Timothy Zahn (19 ABY)
• Union (Comic), by Michael A. Stockpole (20 ABY)
• Survivor's Quest by Timothy Zahn (22 ABY)
• The New Jedi Order series (25-30 ABY)
• The Dark Nest trilogy, by Troy Denning (35-36 ABY)
• Legacy of the Force, by various authors (40-?? ABY)
• Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi, videogame made by [[[Lucasarts]]
• Star Wars: Empire at War, videogame made by Petroglyph and Lucasarts
• Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption, videogame made by Petroglyph and Lucasarts
• Star Wars Galaxies, videogame made by Sony Online Entertainment and Lucasarts

Fan Films

In 1999, Mara Jade was one of the Expanded Universe characters featured in the Aussie fan film "The Dark Redemption".

External links

• Mara Jade Skywalker on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki
• Mara Jade in the Star Wars Databank
• Bring Back Mara Jade YouTube Group