When Disney bought the rights to Star Wars, the Extended Universe was no longer considered canon. Over the nine years since Disney’s acquisition, more and more EU characters have returned to canon, but one character whose story may never be told by Disney is Mara Jade Skywalker. The former hand of Emperor Palpatine, who would later become the wife of Luke Skywalker, has a history that is virtually impossible to recreate after the events of The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. While the character herself may not appear, this did not stop Star Wars from incorporating themes from her story into events that transpired in the sequel trilogy.
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Mara Jade’s story begins when she was taken from her parents and brought to Coruscant by Palpatine to train in the ways of the Force. Star Wars: Mara Jade – By the Emperor’s Hand by Timothy Zahn, Michael A. Stackpole and Carlos Ezquerra revealed that Mara Jade became the Hand of the Emperor by proving herself in a series of trials. She officially gained the title after breaking into Grand Moff Tarkin’s private quarters and retrieving a sack of equipment. She continued to go on missions for the Emperor, which included spying on Vader, until she was called up to apprehend Luke Skywalker.
In Zahn’s short story, “Sleight of Hand: The Tale of Mara Jade,” it is revealed that Palpatine sent Jade to Jabba’s Palace to intercept Skywalker. While she was unsuccessful in capturing the Jedi, she did witness his power as he defeated the Rancor. After Palpatine’s demise, Jade swore revenge on Skywalker and sought his destruction. Jade became a smuggler, bouncing around random jobs until securing a line of work with Talon Karrde in Zahn’s Heir to the Empire novel. This resulted in her working side by side with Luke and her eventual turn to the light side. Zahn’s Visions of the Future novel tells how Luke and Mara, much like Rey and Ben, joined minds. This joining of the minds would develop into love between the two which resulted in their marriage in Star Wars: Union by Stackpole, Robert Teranishi, and Christopher Chuckry.
The pair would go on to have a child of their own named Ben after Obi-Wan Kenobi. This is where the parallels begin to mount up. In the Star Wars Legends canon, Han and Leia married and had three children; twins Jacen and Jaina, and their younger brother Anakin. Jacen became an apprentice to Luke Skywalker and trained under him. After the death of his younger brother, Jacen became inactive in the Jedi and instead turned his attention towards other Force-related groups throughout the universe. After multiple visions and deceptions during his journey, Jacen was led down a darker path. He eventually became an apprentice to a Sith named Lumiya. Jacen had been training Ben Skywalker in the ways of the force before turning to the Dark Side.
Jacen revealed to Ben that he had switched sides. Ben told his mother and she tracked Jacen down, thinking that Lumiya was after her son. In Karen Traviss’ novel Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice, Jade tracks Jacen down for a final battle. After failing to coerce Jacen to return to the Light Side, Jade plans an attack. The two get into a space dogfight resulting in her ship crashing into the planet below. Their battle continues on the surface where Jade is able to corner Solo. There, she accuses him of being as evil as Palpatine. Jacen stares into his aunt’s eyes and creates an illusion of her son’s face over his own. This causes a lapse in focus that the Sith apprentice jumps on. Jacen kills Mara Jade with a jab from a poison dart. Her death would lead Jacen to become Darth Caedus.
The sequel trilogy borrowed many aspects from the Legends canon, including Palpatine’s clone and the turn to the Dark Side by a son of Han Solo. While Mara Jade’s story is impossible to develop in the current Star Wars universe, some rendition of the character may still appear in The Mandalorian or one of the many other upcoming Disney+ Star Wars projects.
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