jamail77 said:
So, Mara Jade fans what makes her such a great character? If you've played the game I'm referring to does it misrepresent her? As a fan of the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight video game series I felt left down enough at this subpar installment let alone a character I liked, Kyle Katarn, being replaced by someone as hollow as who I got. So, knowing she's misrepresented would be comforting.
I never played the MotS expansion tho I did love the Jedi Knight game series. My knowledge of Mara Jade is from the EU books that I read for many years, ending with the end of the New Jedi Order series. My memory is quite rusty but I think I remember enough. There's probably a wiki out there with more, and more accurate information if it should interest.
In the mid 90s, Timothy Zahn wrote a new SW trilogy of books starting with Heir to the Empire. He introduced many new characters, the most important of which were Grand Admiral Thrawn (a Chiss, who became leader of the Empire), Jorus C'baoth (a clone of a Jedi Master created by the Emperor at the same time as his clone army (whose creation was canonically changed in Episode 2), Captain Gilad Pellaeon (Thrawn's second and much later in the EU, the leader of the Empire), Talon Kardde (an information broker) and Mara Jade.
IIRC, Mara Jade was the former Emperor's Hand. While Darth Vader was Palpatine's second, Mara Jade was his covert operative. She would gather intelligence, perform assassinations, subertfuge, etc. Whatever was needed to keep the empire running from behind the scenes. When the Emperor died with the second Death Star's destruction, she found herself out of a job. I don't remember what happened in this interim but she ended up working for Talon Kardde as his best agent. The events of Heir to the Empire brought Luke Skywalker to Kardde who assigned Mara Jade to join him on a mission. All this time, she hated Luke for both his role in the Emperor's death and because she had been mind-controlled/brain-programmed to hate him by the Emperor. I don't believe she was trained as a Jedi at this point, tho she was always "force sensitive".
The status quo between her and Luke was maintained for quite a while. She was a somewhat ambiguous character and absolutely not a part of the New Republic. She was involved in many storylines tho and we, the readers, got to know her very well. While she was a "frenemy" for a long time, she eventually was able to break her "programming" to hate Luke and in Timothy Zahn's more recent Hand of Thrawn duology, it was just her and him on a mission by themselves. I believe this duology is where cortosis came to be also (a metal that resists lightsabers). Towards the end, Luke and Mara were fighting for their lives against overwhelming odds. They had a sorta "back-to-back" fight scene where both melded with each other thru the force, in a sense sharing everything about themselves...their senses, memories, innermost beings, etc. After the dust was settled, Luke proposed to her and they were married in a 4 part Dark Horse comic book series.
By the time of NJO, they were married and they eventually had a son called Ben Skywalker. Luke was on Yavin most of the time as the Jedi leader with her heavily involved in running the Jedi order as well. She is a great character overall and certainly one of, if not the most developed one who only existed in the EU. Starting as a villain, turning quite grey and eventually a heel-face turn. She also went from force sensitive to full fledged Jedi, from hating Luke to loving him, to being a mother. She's had so much character development and is thus one of the fans' favourites.
One cool thing about the EU, was the different authors that contributed each created and developed their own characters, often as protagonists to their novels. Zahn gave us Kardde, Jade, C'Baoth and we also got Corran Horn (I believe from Kevin Anderson) and Kyp Durron. We got to see many interactions by these characters thru the books (in a similar way to the MCU with seperate hero movies and then bringing them together). I think NJO was it for me due to the sheer size (17 books I believe), the scope and impact it had on the galaxy. I did buy some post-NJO books but never read them and haven't been back to the EU since.
I must say tho, Zahn's books are spectacular. Heir to the Empire was the sole reason a 16-year old me, back in 1996, became a fan of Star Wars. At the time, I remember going to a mainstream bookstore to find more SW books, but the sales person advised Star Wars was such a niche/cult thing, I'd *never* find it in a mainstream store. I had to go to Forbidden Planet near Tottenham Ct. Road to find more (a big mistake since I'd just been directed to the equivalent of geek nirvana). Then Episode I happened and somehow SW became so immensely popular that it became the mainstream phenomenon it is now. HttE trilogy is not just a great SW story, but a great book trilogy period. I personally think Zahn is singularly responsible for the success and growth of the EU because of those three books. And Mara Jade is an important part of that success
PS. Kyle Katarn himself makes an appearance in the books also. There may have been others but I remember him being at a meeting of the Jedi Masters during the NJO. I really liked seeing him in the books, albeit not in a significant role.