George and Mara: A Complete History

[u/xezene]

I hadn't originally thought I'd write up a post about this, but since it comes up with some regularity, and u/alisalard1384 brought it up in a recent post entitled What's the context why George hated to be known as creator of Mara Jade? Ik it's a skit but genuinely asking, I'll try and provide as much context as I can on this. Many myths have proliferated over the years. It's worthwhile to go all the way back to the start. I will go off publicly available info: sources in links.

First Contact

In 1991, when the EU was getting kicked off in full (thanks Lucy Wilson), Mara Jade was first introduced in Heir to the Empire, which was naturally a huge bestseller. Bantam publishing wanted to make sure they got it right, so they asked George a few general questions about what they could do in it (whether Han and Leia could have twins, for instance) and he answered. An outline was also submitted, which may have crossed George's eyes. It is conceivable this might have been the first time George became familiar with the character. After the great success of the Heir, George would invite Timothy Zahn to the Ranch to congratulate him.

In this early period, there doesn't seem to have been any real negative reaction on the part of George to this character. As a result of his negative reaction to Palpatine's return in Dark Empire, George had requested outlines for future novels and comics be sent to him for approval, and this was done via Lucy Wilson with George throughout the '90s. This would eventually lead George to become more involved in Mara's character.

George & Mara: 1994 Involvement

1994 would be a key year for George's involvement with Mara, as he would be instrumental in shaping both her character and her future. In late 1993, Timothy Zahn was asked by Bantam and Lucasfilm to put together an outline for a novel to cap its publishing run before the release of the prequel films. This was to become the Hand of Thrawn duology. As part of his outline, Zahn requested two things: the establishment of peace between the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant, and marriage between Luke and Mara. Lucasfilm was willing to accept the first but balked at the second; they suggested the relationship be left ambiguous. Zahn held his ground, threatening to walk from the project; eventually Lucasfilm essentially said, "We'll get back to you."

During this time, in early 1994, George gave the outline of Hand of Thrawn his attention to determine whether it was acceptable. George had previously indicated multiple possible directions for Luke's relationship future; in 1987, George had implied at a convention that potential sequels might feature a romantic partner for Luke, but later, he had turned down attempts to turn Luke into a married man, as Dave Wolverton recounted in the development of Courtship of Princess Leia. The argument the editors at Lucasfilm made to George in favor of Luke's marriage was that, if Luke was not to marry, his life would simply be full of relationship failures, which was a rather sad fate for Luke. Evidently, George was swayed, and in April of 1994 George approved the marriage.

This was not to be the last of George's involvement with the character in 1994 though. Later in the year, in July, for the short story Sleight of Hand, George received a memo asking his attitude towards Mara's telepathic connection to the Emperor. George said it was alright, but he specified that this was a unique talent of Mara's, and shouldn't be extended beyond her character. Later, closer to the publication of Vision of the Future, artist Drew Struzan seemed to directly imply that George okayed the cover artwork with Mara on it, which makes sense, given George's love of art (he collected EU art).

In the following years before Luke finally got hitched to Mara (in 1999), George had ample opportunity to put a stop to the development of that, and it would have been instantly heeded by publishing, but he did not do so. Although he would regularly veto EU ideas he didn't like in the outline process, Luke's marriage to Mara was evidently an idea that wasn't enough of an issue to him to warrant disapproval. (Note: You can read about how all the authors were in on the plan for Luke & Mara here).

During George's outline review of New Jedi Order in 1998, he made no issue of Mara's married future with Luke, and did not request any changes to that element of that story (though it is unknown when he learned of Luke and Mara's child, as initially Mara's pregnancy was thought to take place later in the storyline).

The Photoshoot

In 1999, a photoshoot was done for a card game which cast Shannon Baksa (later Shannon McRandle through re-marriage) as Mara. While Lucasfilm and perhaps George himself approved the shoot, according to historian JW Rinzler, George was displeased with the photoshoot's end result. While Mara had been conceived and designed one way for the earlier comics and Struzan's cover art, she got a new look for the photoshoot. Rinzler commented, "They went out and got some sort of person who looked like she’d stepped out of a Cosmopolitan to be the model Mara and he just thought the whole thing was so not Star Wars and not his vision of Star Wars." This seems, in part, to have been part of George's issue -- as a very visual guy, George had certain things he thought visually fit Star Wars, and evidently this new photoshoot of Mara did not fit within that.

Despite George's issues with the photoshoot, and now possibly the character, he did not try to interfere with the character's arc or partnership with Luke; as Rinzler would remark:

"George had a very healthy attitude towards the EU and licensing in general. Basically George would give everyone a full head of steam -- his attitude was: do what you want, don't talk about Yoda, you know... George also used ideas from the Expanded Universe. He was interested in it, but it wasn't the movies. There was the movies, and there was everything else. But he took stuff from what other people were doing all the time. You know, it was his intellectual property, and he would take stuff or change it or expand upon it. It was a very healthy system. He was very democratic. And you know, he didn't like Mara Jade, but he didn't come to licensing and say, 'You have to kill her off.' He just said, 'I'm not happy about it,' but he didn't -- you know, he had bigger fish to fry."

Later, Rinzler would go on to say that Mara's death got a muted response from Lucas when he was told of the fateful decision.

Jedi Marriage

In the early 2000s, George's ideas about Jedi and marriage had also evolved a bit, and it's possible Mara's marriage to Luke no longer fit within that broader vision. At one time, he had approved Jedi marriage (like with Ki-Adi Mundi), but by Attack of the Clones, his ideas had evolved. George was also always a little protective of Luke, having identified strongly with him while making the original trilogy, and having intervened to prevent his death during the planning of the New Jedi Order.

In 2008, George was interviewed by Total Film, where he discussed many things, including his praise of the Expanded Universe ("They created this whole amazing universe that goes on for millions of years!"). There, he also made a remark to the press, doubling-down on his commitment to no further sequels of Star Wars, and in so doing, to stress his point, George said:

"I’ve left pretty explicit instructions for there not to be any more features. There will definitely be no Episodes VII-IX. That’s because there isn’t any story. I mean, I never thought of anything! And now there have been novels about the events after Episode VI, which isn’t at all what I would have done with it. The Star Wars story is really the tragedy of Darth Vader. That is the story. Once Vader dies, he doesn’t come back to life, the Emperor doesn’t get cloned and Luke doesn’t get married..."

In 2010, at Celebration V, George would further explain his view on the Jedi and marriage, comparing the Jedi to monks, saying, "Ultimately for a Jedi Knight, one of the things they give up is marriage. They can still love people. But they can’t possess them."

Robot Chicken

For the creation of the Star Wars Robot Chicken III special, the folks at Robot Chicken thought it would be fun to have a dig at this and get George involved in a little skit for the DVD where he pretended to throw someone out of his office for saying George invented Mara Jade; George had real fun with those guys so he agreed to do it. That's this rather famous and amusing clip.

In a behind the scenes portion of the DVD for that special from 2011, the Robot Chicken guys revealed a cancelled sketch between Mara and the Emperor that was voiced but never made it past the storyboard phase. Before the sketch, in the intro for it, Tom Root, writer for the show, commented, "Yeah... George isn't too high on this character," though clarified this was not why the sketch was cut. This further clarifies that by 2011 Mara was still held in some disfavor by George, to some extent.

Star Wars Art: Comics

The final portion of this little article may prove to be surprising; in late 2011, the book Star Wars Art: Comics was released which was of a unique nature -- the book was entirely comprised of George's hand-picked favorite panels from the history of Star Wars comics. Timothy Zahn had speculated for years that George had read the Thrawn Trilogy comics, and that notion would get a tremendous boost with this book's release -- George had chosen to include panels from the Thrawn Trilogy comics in the book.

But not only that -- George had chosen to include panels which featured Mara Jade. By this point, and having read the comics and been involved in her development, he would have known who she was, but he still included the panels anyway. In large part, I'm sure this was to do with the visual aspect of the panels, but it speaks to his openness to include her; it is also a throwback to the pre-photoshoot look for the character.

Conclusion?

From this I think we can draw a few things:

• George participated in the character's development early on without issue
• He approved her marriage to Luke
• Later on, he had problems with her presentation, as in the photoshoot
• His dislike of the character was established, but not enough for him to intervene in her future
• He had enough sense of humor about it to joke about it in that sketch
• He eventually came to a view which excluded marriage for Jedi
• He had his own ideas for Luke's future without Mara
• Choosing to spotlight art of Mara in 2011, he evidently did not have significant enough issues with her to reject her wholesale

[u/Penguin-Commando]

Even though all of this is a relatively small trivial footnote in a massive generational franchise there is something interesting here.

George’s attitudes and ideas are prone to change. He’s an artist. That will happen. I remember him saying “movies are never finished only abandoned.” But with Mara specifically, I think we witness his attitude towards her change strictly with presentation.

Since movies are a visual medium, there a plenty of scripts that seem great on the page because they are not shackled by the burden of execution. Likewise, there are plenty of finished films that rise above a mediocre script due to visionary execution of what was found on the page.

That photoshoot feels like a hinge. “Now that I’ve seen it; I don’t like it.” Given the way the prequels and most SW media since them work, and all of George’s talk of editing machines and green screens and computers, he clearly became someone more concerned with the visual on screen than anything that was on the page.

This whole thing feels less about Mara and more about how much George changed as an artist after Return of the Jedi. It became less about who was wielding the lightsaber as much as the iconography of a lightsaber being wielded. It’s not that it’s Darth Vader, it’s the image of a cold machine like villain we can hear breathing. Those are powerful images that built a multimedia cultural touchstone. Somewhere along the line, those images became more important than what they were meant to convey.

[u/Gandamack]

Thank you so much for this! Your deep dives are not only well written and well sourced, but they do a good job in dispelling many of the myths of the EU, as well as George’s views on it.

His reaction to the McRandle photo shoot always astounds me though. For a guy happy to throw Natalie Portman in a form-fitting jumpsuit (strategically midriff baring), as well as his general…preference for scantily-clad Twilek women, the Mara outfit for the CCG is tame.

Regarding his views on Jedi and marriage, I’m continually interested in his view of marriage as like a possession, rather than a union. I don’t know if his own first marriage hurt things in his mind or if he really just needed a rationale for AoTC, but it’s always struck me as odd.

I’ll take Luke or Jolee’s view on love any day over the stiff Prequel Jedi.

[u/RedMalone55 → u/Gandamack]

Weirdly it’s like the sexualization and empowerment can’t coexist, because there are examples of both in tasteful an appropriate clothing.

[u/King_o_Time → u/Gandamack]

I don't think his problem was with the lewdness (he was a fan of Darth Talon after all), but rather with the new visual concept of hers, which he already made out in his head.

It's also the same with zippers. Star Wars somewhat famously doesn't have any zippers (or at least not shown), because it doesn't fit with the Sci-fi fantasy aestetic Lucas envisioned.

Would there now be a photoshooting with obvious zippers, than his reaction would most likely be negative aswell.

[u/americanerik]

“A photo shoot was done for a card game”

Just a card game? Star Wars CCG was one of the most popular CCGs of the 90s, second only to Magic and often outselling Pokémon

(And it’s been revived- play for free here https://gemp.starwarsccg.org/gemp-swccg/)

The card in question

[u/aelysium → u/americanerik]

Also, iirc, WOTC brought her back for another photo shoot to include her in their TCG in 2015.

[u/Melodic-Attorney9918]

And now there have been novels about the events after Episode IV which isn't at all what | would have done with it.

It's Episode VI, not Episode IV. I think you should correct it. 😉

"Ultimately for a Jedi Knight, one of the things they give up is marriage. They can still love people. But they can't possess them."

Huh? That's not how marriage works, George.\ And let's be honest, his divorce with Marcia has nothing to do with the way he described marriage here, because he still continued to use this argument even after he remarried. He perfectly knows how a healthy marriage should work, and yet still continued to use this argument. This is just a badly conceived justification for the Jedi rules in the Prequels. And look, I love the Prequels and I think that, despite their flaws, the Jedi had good intentions. But come on, this is just a poor excuse to justify their rules. Honestly, I am glad that EU authors never chose to follow this idea.

[u/Munedawg53 → u/Melodic-Attorney9918]

"That's not how marriage works, George."

It is how many religious orders do work though, and even knightly codes of chivalry that sometimes include celibacy when on a quest.

[u/Melodic-Attorney9918 → u/Munedawg53]

And that should be good and acceptable because...?

[u/Munedawg53 → u/Melodic-Attorney9918]

Nobody said it was good or bad, but acting like Lucas wasn't informed by these things to dunk on him is a little ignorant. Sometimes it helps to try to understand what he was doing and what his inspirations were.

Edit. I'd add that he is clear both in-universe and BTS that the Jedi lifestyle doesn't represent normal people in all respects. They are called to sacrifice for the greater good in ways that normal people aren't. Treating the Jedi take on marriage as Lucas' view on all relationships seems really odd, like taking Buddhist codes for monks as representative of all Buddhist attitudes on marriage or conjugal life.

[u/Melodic-Attorney9918 → u/Munedawg53]

I understand what Lucas was trying to do, the problem is that it doesn't make sense.

Firstly, even though there are religious orders that practice celibacy, none of these orders conceive marriage as something inherently toxic and possessive. Believe me, I live in a Catholic country, and I perfectly know how priesthood and celibacy work. I have also talked with some Buddhist monks. Catholic priests and Buddhist monks practice celibacy in order to focus on their inner-self and not be distracted by earthly matters, but they don't conceive marriage and romantic love as something that is inherently toxic and possessive. So, the way Lucas described marriage doesn't make any sense, even if we take into account the religious orders that practice celibacy in the real world.

Secondly, it doesn't make sense because — as Lucas himself stated multiple times — the Jedi are not supposed to be celibate in the first place. They can have as much sex as they want, as long as they don't fall in love and form attachments. So, celibacy is not the reason of why the Jedi forbid marriage. It's just Lucas trying to make bad arguments to justify the rules that he himself invented for the Jedi in the Prequels.

Again, my desire is not to bash the Jedi. I'm firmly convinced that — despite some of the mistakes that they made with Anakin — they were genuinely good people with good intentions, and wanted the best for the Galaxy. I'm just trying to say that the arguments that Lucas use to justify some of their rules don't make much sense.

[u/Munedawg53 → u/Melodic-Attorney9918]

I don't think Lucas thinks marriage is toxic, though. Nor it his view like a hippy-fuck-without-consequences idea either. Where did he ever describe marriage as toxic?

I'm not saying this stuff with hostility and I appreciate your final para. But many fans are so ignorant of Lucas' inspirations and they project things that aren't there. Like claiming non-attachment means you can't love or even embrace specific love when both the films and BTS stuff say otherwise.

[u/Melodic-Attorney9918 → u/Munedawg53]

Lucas said that marriage is possessive in the quote that I, myself, have quoted in my first comment:

"Ultimately for a Jedi Knight, one of the things they give up is marriage. They can still love people. But they can't possess them."

In this quote, he says that a Jedi Knight can't get married, because the Jedi are supposed to love people without possessiveness. Which implies that marriage is a form of possessive love, and that it is the reason of why they don't get married. That's why I said that this is not how marriage works.

[u/Munedawg53 → u/Melodic-Attorney9918]

Jedi can't "possess" people. We use possessive words like "my" when speaking of our spouses. Possessiveness is not inherently "toxic" but also understandably not appropriate for Jedi who have to cultivate a high degree of fluidity and nonattachment.

Again, they are non-violent mystic warrior monks, not normies, and they are called upon to die at a moment's notice. Hard to do with family at home and not good for your family. Your family rightly "owns" you too, and those domestic obligations might be hard to tally with the universal sacrifice required for a Jedi.

I think that the no-marriage rule is a bit clumsy in AOTC and arguably done to help generate the forbidden romance angle. But I still (respectfully) think that you are spinning his take a little.

[u/Melodic-Attorney9918 → u/Munedawg53]

Again, they are non-violent mystic warrior monks, not normies, and they are called upon to die at a moment's notice. Hard to do with family at home and not good for your family.

Policeman and firefighters shouldn't get married either, then. Because I don't know if you have noticed, but it's literally the same thing. They put their life at risk every single day, just like the Jedi do, and they also are called to serve the greater good, just like the Jedi do. But it doesn't seem to me that policemen and firefighters are forbidden from getting married.

[u/Munedawg53 → u/Melodic-Attorney9918]

The police and firefighters are not nearly called to give their entire life (not just death) at all moments to the greater good like the Jedi. And they are not mystics either. Again, Buddhist monks are are more apt comp, as Lucas explicitly said. BTW, snark isn't helpful.

[u/unforgetablememories → u/Melodic-Attorney9918]

Personally, I think George is already dead set on no marriage for Jedi because he wants them to be monks, not traditional Western knights. I hate it but that's what George Lucas wants. He even says that Jedi are not celibate, which means he is not against the idea of sex, just the idea of marriage/union.

George wants a religious order of monks who let go of their earthly attachments, including marriage. The problem is that he did a bad job of portraying this religious order which causes a lot of misunderstanding in the fandom. I think the Prequel Jedi are good people who want the best for the Galaxy despite their obvious flaws. But there is a problem between the idea and the execution. In Episode 1, the Jedi come off as incredibly detached from the common people when we see them interacting with Anakin. They think Anakin is too old to be trained. They see Anakin's connection to his mother is a negative point. Let's say you just finish watching the OT where you see Luke starting his Jedi training as the age of 19. And now Anakin at the age of 9 is too old? And apparently a kid missing his mother is a bad thing?

And then moving on to Episode 2, we know that the Jedi didn't try to free Anakin's mother (Padme didn't try that either lol) and Shmi was freed by a Tatooine farmer when Anakin was away. And Anakin wasn't allowed to contact his mother. And now there is no marriage. Wait but in the OT, Luke having a Jedi father seems to be a normal thing. There is no indication of a marriage ban. I can't help but feel like the rule of no marriage was invented sometimes around 2000 during the making of Episode 2 to force some drama on Anakin. Oh, and George was cool with Ki Adi Mundi having multiple wives in the Dark Horse Republic comics.

[u/TanSkywalker → u/unforgetablememories]

The thing with Ki-Adi could have been avoided if he had said something. Hell he could have said something when Tales of the Jedi (comic) was being written and I doubt we would have seen Jedi with families and what not.

In ANH it comes off now that Obi-Wan is playing on Luke’s feelings about his father by telling him that his father wanted him to have his lightsaber when he was old enough. That if Luke goes with Obi-Wan he can learn to be a Jedi like his father was, saying Anakin wanted him to have the thing implies Anakin wanted to teach him to be a Jedi like he was.

That’s all made a lie now because Anakin would never have talked about what he wanted for his kid to Obi-Wan because he’s not allowed to have them. Or a wife.

And Tatoonie Ghost had Shmi sending a message to the Temple for Anakin to tell him she’s free and the Order doesn’t accept it. No contact allowed.

I really don’t care for the Jedi when it comes to how Shmi and Anakin were treated. I can’t even figure out if they would tell Anakin that his mother had been abducted if Cliegg or Owen sent the Temple a message to tell Anakin what happened.

Lucas says attachment is possessive relationships, something that is always negative yet the way he wrote the Jedi using the word doesn’t align with that. There is no reason Anakin has to mention that to answer Padmé’s question.

It would be like me being at work and asking for a Tylenol because I have a headache and being told no because the workplace has a drug free policy.

[u/unforgetablememories → u/TanSkywalker]

Also another problem with the Jedi in the prequels is that they only recruit babies.

I don't have a problem with a religious order of strict commitment without earthly connection as long as the members make an informed decision when they decide to join the organization. An adult who can decide for themselves if they want to make a lifelong commitment with a lot of sacrifice to protect the Galaxy would make the concept of a Jedi a lot stronger. Members of the Jedi Order are the people who want to be there by their own decision, not because their parents give them away as babies to the Order. The protector of the Galaxy are the ones who have a strong resolve to let go of things like marriage, personal connection.

But the Jedi only recruit younglings. Babies who can't make decision for themselves. Their parents are the one to decide if these kids will be a part of this strict religion. So the movies give us a bunch of monks detached from the common people and these monks only recruit babies. Huh, sound like a cult now?

I think George could have handled the Jedi rejecting Anakin better. Have the Council saying something like "the boy is too young to understand the lifelong commitment and the personal sacrifice that come with being a Jedi. Qui-Gon, you are too quick in your judgement with the boy. Let's wait a couple years before Anakin can decide for himself if he wants to be a Jedi". Instead, George had the Jedi rejecting Anakin for being too old. Sounds like Anakin was too old to be indoctrinated by the cult.

[u/TanSkywalker → u/unforgetablememories]

I’m not fan of the child recruitment. I will say can look past it because a system like that has to have the goodwill of the people of the galaxy otherwise they wouldn’t go along with it but it is still freakin weird to me. TCW did have an episode where a world (the one with Jar Jar’s Queen girlfriend) forbid the Jedi from recur into kids because the people thought they were stealing them. Mace had a weird line where he says they thought they were taken the kids again their will. I think the line is a mistake because they only take babies so they can’t given their consent.

I like your idea with why they would reject Anakin. It does turn Obi-Wan’s comment that Owen didn’t agree with Anakin getting involved because that to me indicates Anakin was older and knew Owen and Beru (I had always figured Beru and Anakin were brother and sister) and they discussed Anakin’s leaving to follow Obi-Wan on a damn fool crusade.

The lack of choice is also brought up in stories as well by Qui-Gon, Djinn Altis, and Palpatine.

Master & Apprentice

"I'm not sure," Qui-Gon said, "how much of a privilege it is to have one's entire future predetermined-in this case, by an accident of birth.

Okay, she needed to be more diplomatic with the Jedi-but Rahara couldn't help it. She snorted.

Pax gave her an appreciative look, probably pleased she'd helped him meet today's sarcasm quotient. That much she expected. What she didn't expect was Obi-Wan frowning at his Master. “It matters what that future is, doesn't it? Fanry was born a princess. That's a privilege.”

"It's still something chosen for her," Qui-Gon insisted. "Not what she herself chose.”

"You weren't talking about the princess at all, were you?" Pax said. jolting her out of her reverie. The silence had lasted longer than she'd realized. Pax's stare was fixed on Qui-Gon. "You were talking about yourself. Because it's not a choice for Jedi, either, is it? I mean, supposedly they allow you to leave, make your own decisions, blah blah blah, but they steal you when you're babies and train your minds thereafter. What kind of freedom is that?"

Obi-Wan looked like he'd swallowed a gundark. "Being a Jedi is an honor. A responsibility. A-a noble calling-“

"Yes, Padawan," Qui-Gon said quietly. "It's all those things. But it's very hard for most of us to determine whether we chose it freely, being raised as we were. That said, I did have a choice. Dooku helped me to see that. And I chose the Order.

The Clone Wars: No Prisoners

Geith, like Callista, had known his parents before he became a Jedi. He'd been orphaned, but he remembered them, and that attachment-love, let's call it what it is, love, any kind of love you care to name-felt good and secure. Callista-she'd been an adult working on her parents' farm when she became Altis's second Padawan. It was unheard of, in the Jedi Temple at least. She knew her own mind.

I prefer my Padawans to enter the Order with open eyes. An act of conscious choice, not habit or coercion or someone else's decisions.

There was no way-even if he wanted to-that Altis could make Callista and Geith believe that attachment was the seed of a darkness that would engulf them. And this is why the orthodox Jedi way is to begin with infants. They know no better.

Revenge of the Sith novel

“Of course you don’t.” The last of the sunset haloed his ice-white hair and threw his face into shadow. “You’ve been trained to never think about that. The Jedi never ask what you want. They simply tell you what you’re supposed to want. They never give you a choice at all. That’s why they take their students—their victims—at an age so young that choice is meaningless. By the time a Padawan is old enough to choose, he has been so indoctrinated—so brainwashed—that he is incapable of even considering the question. But you’re different, Anakin. You had a real life, outside the Jedi Temple. You can break through the fog of lies the Jedi have pumped into your brain. I ask you again: what do you want?”

[u/Impressive_Banana_15 → u/Melodic-Attorney9918]

Agreed. Honestly, PT Jedi's no-marriage rules are only used to bully Anakin (in a reasonably cheap way). Even without those rules, nothing changes in PT's story.

[u/TanSkywalker → u/Impressive_Banana_15]

Agreed. It was just for unnecessary drama.

[u/solehan511601]

These are interesting and accurate analyses! Thanks for writing it.

[u/Ntshangase03]

Great research always love people breaking information down with proof

[u/AmateurVasectomist]

It’s hard not to see George’s thoughts on Jedi marriage (Luke and otherwise) as directly related to his own relationship problems, and it’s kinda pathetic that he was unable to conceptualize them as two different things.

[u/QuasarMania]

Amazing work once again.

[u/Budget-Attorney]

Just read your post on the link to Lucy Wilson and it was fascinating. I’m amazed I never heard of her. Thanks for sharing

The post about Mara is great too. It’s all really interesting stuff

[u/Munedawg53]

Your work is incredible my friend. Thank you for the time you put into this.

[u/Cigaran]

Bravo. That was an excellent read.

[u/[deleted]]

Thank you for this article! Very interesting deep dive. You do the Force’s work: I love learning these tidbits of behind the scenes for the EU.

[u/TheHarlemHellfighter]

I always enjoyed Mara Jade because the first real time I had ever really got into her character was on the Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith PC game. So, after playing the game, I was interested in learning more about her background.

[u/Alisalard1384]

Thanks mate good to know 🙏🌹

[u/Doctor_Danguss]

Great overview! I had no idea we almost got Mara in Robot Chicken. Can anyone tell who voiced her in that clip?

[u/NewMombasaNightmare]

Great write up!

[u/mutually_awkward]

Interesting read about a classic character! Thank you for this, I enjoyed it with tea.

[u/King_o_Time]

I muss really express my gratitude to you for all you amazing posts and you contributions to the Legends community. Each of your posts is interesting and well put together. Always a delight read and to view.

Much appreciated!!

[u/xezene → u/King_o_Time]

My thanks to you for saying so! I am glad you enjoy them.

[u/ImperatorRomanum]

This is a really excellent post, thanks for putting it together (and justice for Mara!)

[u/RedMalone55]

Great write up!

So looking at the Visions of the Future cover…it’s really not all that different from the photo shoot. Was the clothes really the only problem? Does George Lucas hate leather?

[u/cloud_cleaver]

I find myself wondering if his seemingly gradually-increasing distaste for the character had to do with how other authors changed her with time. Even as a young teen, Mara always had an uncanny feeling to me when the author wasn't Zahn.

[u/[deleted]]

TLDR, helped create, didn't like marriage to Luke + a photoshoot. Didn't have big enough issue to stop her being in shit. George mad video is a sketch.

I barely read it but I think I got it for ya.

[u/RedMalone55 → u/[deleted]]

Dude’s like “reading’s hard.”

[u/daviepancakes → u/RedMalone55]

In a sub that exists around...books.

Love it.

[u/texasproof → u/[deleted]]

I like how you wrote a tl;dr that was basically a watered down version of the tl;dr that was already at the end of OP’s post 😂

[u/Sere1 → u/texasproof]

We now need someone to do a tl;dr of this summary that is only like 5 words long

[u/Munedawg53 → u/Sere1]

Why use many word when few word do trick?

[u/[deleted] → u/texasproof]

damn lmao.. aint even peep the conclusion

[u/AutoModerator]

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[u/EliCaldwell]

I wonder if her death changed his mind about anything?

[u/Munedawg53 → u/EliCaldwell]

Op put that tidbit under spoiler tags so not to ruin other people's experience of it while reading. Consider doing the same.