Star Wars’ worst mistake is fixed by one character

According to Chris Snellgrove
| Published 26 seconds ago

If you asked the average jaded Star Wars fan what’s wrong with the Sequel Trilogy, they’d probably respond with a longer blurb than every initial run through of the entire series combined. If you asked them what worst however, the thing was, they would probably point out that Luke Skywalker was reduced to a grumpy old man who gave up his life and protecting the galaxy from evil. It’s hard to explain how or why Luke could have fallen so far from the heights of heroism, but Disney could provide an easy explanation and retroactively correct their mistake with one bold step: officially adding Mara Jade to the canon.

Mara Jade is the key to everything

Mara Jade was of course the Hand of the Emperor, someone trained to do Palpatine’s bidding from a very early age. She lost her cushy Imperial job and became a smuggler after the Emperor died, which she blamed Luke Skywalker for. She eventually learns the truth and becomes Luke’s ally and later wife, with the two having a child before being tragically killed by Jacen Solo, a fallen son of the Jedi. Han Solo and Leia Organa.

Now, all these Mara Jade details are from the Star Wars Expanded Universe and Disney ruled that all such stories (now reprinted under the Legends heading) were no longer canon. However, Jade was introduced in the Thrawn trilogy by prolific author Timothy Zahn and Grand Admiral Thrawn he himself was re-introduced into canon thanks Star Wars Rebels and Ahsoka. Similarly, Mara Jade could be reintroduced, but how the hell would that solve the problem with Luke Skywalker’s portrayal in The Last Jedi?

How Mara Jade fixes Luke

In the old EU stories, Mara Jade was the love of Luke Skywalker’s life, and he was understandably traumatized by her death… so traumatized that he went on a journey of revenge and ended up killing the wrong person. As with Luke Skywalker The Last JediThese actions (mostly all hunting and brutally killing someone for revenge) seemed out of character for the Luke we know and love, but were motivated by grief and loss. And if Disney were willing to bring Mara Jade into current canon and mostly mirror her EU storyline, then her eventual death would help explain why Luke becomes a grumpy sad sack later on.

That would take some finesse. Mara Jade would have to be inducted into the post-Return of the Jedi era The Mandalorian and other shows to reasonably explain how she would have time to meet Luke, fall in love, and die before the events The Last Jedi. And Disney would have to either recast a younger actor for Luke for a live action show or create an animated series. Mark Hamill just Luke’s voice. They will finally have to accept (like the EU writers before them) that the Jedi of this new era can fall in love and marry without falling to the dark side.

Disney obviously has a lot of conditions to meet to do Mara Jade’s story justice, but at this point the studio giant has almost nothing to lose. A Mara Jade-centric show would appeal to old-school fans who were turned off by shows like Acolyte though it softens the much-hated portrayal of Luke Skywalker in the sequel trilogy. And with Disney canceling projects left and right and dropping the ball on projects that have finally seen the light of day, bringing back Mara Jade might be the one thing that can bring back something else: our shared passion for Star Wars.