Mara Jade Skywalker

"She is, shall we say, an experiment."

- Palpatine

Mara Jade Skywalker (18 BBY&mdash;) was a human woman of many talents. She was, during different times in her life, an Emperor's Hand, a smuggler and a Jedi Master.She was the daughter of Quinlan Vos and Khaleen Hentz. She was also the wife of Luke Skywalker and the mother of Ben Skywalker.

Emperor's Hand


Mara Jade was once known as an "Emperor's Hand," that is to say, one of the Emperor's personal assassins. (Jade was unaware of the existence of the other Hands.) She could hear Palpatine's voice anywhere in the Galaxy via a telepathic link.

Emperor Palpatine took her from her parents when she was an infant. Although officially she was one of the Imperial Palace's dancers, Palpatine trained her in the use of the Force. When Palpatine began to worry about the threat of Luke Skywalker, Mara was sent (disguised as the dancing girl Arica) to infiltrate Jabba's Palace and await him. Melina Carliss, a member of Jabba's secret security detail, suspected her of being out to assassinate the Hutt, and had her imprisoned. She was thus unable to follow Luke to the execution grounds. She made her way back to Imperial Center and a displeased Palpatine. Had she been present at the Great Pit of Carkoon, she would have prevented Luke's escape, as revealed to Skywalker in a Force vision years later.

Mara saw the Emperor's death through the Force. Vader and Skywalker were there, and it seemed that they both killed Palpatine together. Anticipating that she might be detained by those jostling to assume control of the Empire, she attempted to flee, but was arrested by Imperial Intelligence on the order of Director Ysanne Isard. She managed to escape, disguised as a refugee.

Her hatred for Skywalker burned deep within her, and she vowed to destroy the Jedi. She was unaware that the Emperor's telepathic command was at the core of this rage, making it stronger than any normal wish for vengeance would be. In the meanwhile, her life was a shambles: the resources she had once had access to were all dependent on the Emperor, and 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. Her Force abilities faded, returning in ill-timed bursts.

All the while, she was still haunted by the Emperor's last command: "You will kill Luke Skywalker."

Smuggler


Fortune finally struck when Mara managed to save the smuggler baron Talon Karrde from an ambush that took the life of Karrde's second-in-command, Quelev Tapper, and almost killed Karrde as well. Karrde was so impressed with Mara that he hired her on the spot. Over the following six months, Jade rose within the ranks of Karrde's smuggling organization at an astonishing rate, on account of her skills, insight, and abilities.

Into this promising future crashed Luke Skywalker, the man she had sworn to kill. They met at Karrde's base on Myrkr, where the planet's Force nullifying Ysalamiri creatures blocked Skywalker's Force abilities. Jade was at first intent on killing Skywalker, but a series of circumstances and some unexplained hesitation resulted in her helping him escape instead. Karrde and his organization fled Myrkr soon after because of a massive Imperial bounty placed upon them.

Skywalker gradually realized that Jade was acting not so much of her own volition as she was following Palpatine's telepathic command. Jade also came to gradually realize this, that she was being used to inflict a last bit of revenge upon the dead Darth Vader. Skywalker promised to help her remove the command, even though being near her obviously jeopardized his life. This great altruism made a deep impression.

Eventually, the solution was found when the two confronted Joruus C'baoth, an insane clone of a long dead Jedi Master. Luke was forced to face off against a clone of himself, created using DNA from the arm he lost on Cloud City and armed with the very lightsaber he lost on Bespin. As Luke was overwhelmed by the clone Luuke Skywalker Mara leapt to his aid, striking down the clone. Finally she had fulfilled the Emperor's last command and was left at peace. Alongside Luke she faced the terrifying C'baoth and, as he attempted to bring the roof down on the pair, she leapt forward and impaled C'baoth with Luke's blade. In a twist of fate Luke then saved Mara's life, pulling her away as C'baoth exploded in a spectacular lightning storm.

Jedi Knight


Ten years after the fall of the Empire, Mara was found briefly under the tutelage of Kyle Katarn on the battlefront of Altyr 5. Her first missions serving as a Jedi under the New Republic involved negotiating with Ka'Pa the Hutt, repelling Kaerobani's pirates from a Republic Corvette, and reclaiming from them a stolen Jedi Holocron. Finally she was able to travel to Dromund Kaas and bring her Master, Kyle, back to the light after he fell to the dark side.

Over the years, Mara and Luke would continue to work together in many important situations in the aftermath of the Galactic Civil War that essentially 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 academy. On their mission to investigate the Hand of Thrawn, Mara and Luke finally realized that they had fallen deeply in love with each other. They married on Coruscant, soon after the signing of the peace treaty with the Empire. Mara would later continue her training in the Force and even one day become a Jedi Master. She took on young Jedi Jaina Solo as her apprentice.

Jedi Master


During a diplomatic ceremony on Monor II, Mara acted as a bodyguard for one of the diplomats. Nom Anor was also in attendance and secretly infected all those present with coomb spores, a deadly Yuuzhan Vong bioagent. Almost all of those infected died. Mara was able to hold back the disease through the Force, but no lasting cure could be found.

When a distress call came from ExGal-4 on Belkadan, Luke and Mara decided to investigate together. On Belkadan the Skywalkers discover that the planet suffered from an ecological disaster, a result of Yuuzhan Vong terraforming. Mara sensed that her disease was somehow related to the planet's devastation. She was the first Jedi to engage a Yuuzhan Vong when Yomin Carr attacked her. She was able to defeat the infiltrator and kill him.

The Jedi Vergere, who possessed the unusual ability to control the molecular composition of her "tears," gave Han Solo a dose to deliver to Jade, who upon ingesting them was almost totally cured of her disease. Ten months into the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, Mara realized that she was pregnant, though she had feared that the spores would render her barren.

As the Jedi's relationship with the New Republic government deteriorated, Mara and Luke were issued warrants of arrests. They went into hiding aboard the Errant Venture. During this time Mara's condition worsened as the disease started to gain ground. She nearly died when she went into labor but with the help of her husband - and perhaps the spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi - she was able to give birth to a son, Ben. Through the ordeal her disease was completely purged from her system. Borsk Fey'lya eventually rescinded the arrest warrants and the Skywalkers moved in to Eclipse, a safeworld that acted as a Jedi base.

In an effort to end the war, Luke and Mara joined several other Jedi on a mission to the Unknown Regions. There, they sought to enlist the help of the Imperial Remnant and possibly the Chiss, and to search for the living planet Zonama Sekot. During the final battle of the war, Mara was part of the strike team that was sent to kill Supreme Overlord Shimrra. After the victory of the Galactic Alliance, the Jedi set up a new Jedi Praxeum on Ossus where the Skywalkers lived.

The Dark Nest Crisis
Despite surviving the Yuuzhan Vong War, the New Jedi Order would still face trouble. Her infant son Ben also cut himself from the Force as a result of the pain and suffering he had sensed during that time. Because of this she found it difficult to locate Ben through the force. Even five years on, Ben refused to use the Force, a disturbing development his parents did not know how to overcome. The Jedi started to change as a result of the war. Internal struggle and the Galactic Alliance proved to be a constant source of discontent within the Order. Nowhere was this more evident than on the Master's Council.

She and Kyp Durron also led one faction that believed that the Jedi were not responsible for the protection of the Galactic Alliance by mandate, rather, that the Jedi had to take a larger view of Galactic affairs to avoid getting tangled in the internal politics of the Alliance, as was what happened in the Old Republic. They would be opposed by another faction under Kenth Hamner and Corran Horn that believed that the Jedi Order owed the Galactic Alliance their full and unwavering attention, due to the fact that it was the Galactic Alliance that financed the Order, and was also responsible for giving the Order a new Jedi Temple. They and many of the Master's Council, believed that because of the Alliance-Jedi High Council, which was the ruling body of the Alliance, the Jedi are irrevocably tied to the Galactic Alliance.

These tensions were nominally smoothed by the leader of the Jedi and Mara's husband, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. Under his leadership, he tamed the tempers of even the brashest and loudest of the Jedi, but, as he would later reflect, he made the almost fatal error of not providing a power structure within the order. All these things would manifest themselves in the Dark Nest Crisis and the Swarm War.

In 35 ABY, a cry for help emanating from the Unknown Regions and through the Force was heard by all of the survivors of the ill-fated Myrkr Strike Team, and all save Queen Mother Tenel Ka responded by immediately going to investigate. The information gleamed would be astounding. During the Mission to Myrkr, Jedi Knight Raynar Thul was incapacitated by two Dark Jedi, Lomi Plo and Welk. They took him and escaped on a transport called the Tachyon Flier, fleeing into the Unknown Regions, where it was thought all three of them had died: this was not true. The Tachyon Flier had crashed onto a Killik Yoggoy nest, and made all the Force-wielders into Joiners. Raynar Thul was integrated into the Yoggoy nest while Lomi Plo and Welk were integrated into the Gorog nest.

All became leaders of their respective nests, Raynar even becoming the Killik's Prime Unu. The Killik nests took on the persona of the people they integrated, or Joined into their nests. The Yoggoy nests, and all the nest except for Gorog, gained Raynar's sense of compassion and value for life, whereas the Gorog nest retreated into secrecy, due to the want of Lomi Plo and Welk to hide. The Gorog became the Dark Nest, and secretly controlled the other nests, without their even knowing.

They instituted a build-up of nests along the Chiss border, with the help of the newly arrived Jedi who thought they were helping the Yoggoy defend themselves against the unjustified attacks by the Chiss Ascendancy. Upon hearing this information, the irate Chiss went immediately to speak with Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance Cal Omas, who in turn spoke with Master Skywalker. Concerned, Skywalker, Mara and their son, and the Solo couple went searching for the renegade Jedi. When they caught up with the aberrant Jedi, they were attacked by mysterious blue-black Killiks that UnuThul, Raynar Thul's new Killik persona, seemed to know nothing about.

Worse, the young Jedi seemed to be well on their way to being Joined, with the notable exception of Jacen, who was an enigma, acting rather strangely throughout the entire experience. And one of the members of the expedition to find the missing Jedi, Jedi Master and High Council member Saba Sebatyne, was grievously injured by the Gorog Night Herald, Welk. On another occasion, her son Ben befriended a Gorog, thinking of the creature as his pet. Secretly, Gorog attempted to brainwash the child to join the Dark Nest, but the plot was uncovered by Ben's mother, who was forced to kill the Killik.

After refusing to leave the Yoggoy, Saba stayed behind while the rest of the team went home to think on what to do next. Now, enter the tensions in the Master's Council. It was Luke Skywalker's deepest wish that the young Jedi heed his request and advice to return, but he thought that the Jedi should not be bound by the word of the Council. However, the return of the team had one positive effect since one of them Jacen took on her son Ben as an informal apprentice. Ben felt comfortable around Solo, and even began to open himself up to the Force. However, the time and distance away from Gorog had done nothing to weaken his connection to the Dark Nest. Ben was with Jacen when Tenel Ka presented her child to him, and was able to figure out the Gorog were planning to kill Jacen and Tenel Ka's baby. Ben tried to convince them not to, but his connection proved overwhelming, and he instinctively applied a Force push against Tenel Ka. Jacen decided that he could not trust Ben with the knowledge he had, and erased Ben's memory of the visit.

Also all this was happening under the pressure of Chief of State Omas, who was very worried that the Jedi would sink relations with the Chiss, and the issue of whether or not the Jedi were tools of the Galactic Alliance came to the fore of many heated discussions.

Full-scale war between the Killiks and the Chiss was averted with the signing of the Qoribu Truce, but peace would not last long. For a year, the Killiks were virtually unheard of in the Galaxy, but really, they were gathering for war. The nests were still under the sway of the Dark Nest, Lomi Plo having survived the battle a year before. UnuThul, under the influence of the Dark Nest, was enraged at a natural calamity he blamed the Galactic Alliance for. The "Fizz", a deadly white substance that eats anything not naturally occurring in the planets that the Killiks were given, was killing hundreds of Killiks each day. Because of this, the Killiks, under the influence of the Gorog, were again expanding their nests against the space of the Chiss Ascendancy.

Mara and her husband Luke were again brought before UnuThul, this time as presumed enemies. Leia, now a Jedi Knight, was able to calm down UnuThul, but he still did not trust him. This mistrust would eventually lead him to hold Skywalker and Han Solo captive, in attempts to get them to join into the Killik nest, hence being able to learn all their secrets. A rescue mission was hatched by Organa Solo and several Jedi, but before they could get to him the nests fled the Utegetu Nebula in massive Hive ships. Some escaped a blockade set up by the Alliance, but the Gorog Hive ship was caught. After fierce fighting, Luke was caught by Lomi Plo herself. Plo eventually gained the upper hand in the battle, and managed to escape. Luke however, was almost killed. The Killik fleets escaped, and engaged the Chiss. The Swarm War had finally fully begun.

The Swarm War
Luke Skywalker immediately returned to the Jedi Academy on Ossus. He granted himself the title of Jedi Grand Master and assumed full control of the Jedi Order, in hopes of uniting the Masters against him and overcome their differences. He told his Jedi Order that if they did not place the Jedi first in their lives, they should leave the Order. Some Jedi that resigned their post as Jedi were Danni Quee (because she wanted to travel with Zonama Sekot) and Queen Mother Tenel Ka (because of her daughter Allana and her responsibilities as Queen Mother). Luke knew she wanted to remain a Jedi, so let her keep her lightsaber and told her her place in the Jedi Order will always be open. Soon after, though, it became clear that his plan failed, and he then made up his mind that he had to take control for real.

After his speech, Luke finally discovered how his mother died when he made R2-D2 show him the hologram of his father Force-choking her. Luke, shocked at that revelation, later went with Jacen, Mara, Kyle Katarn, and others to the Gorog nest ship in the Utegetu Nebula to find and kill Lomi Plo. Luke almost succeeded in killing Lomi Plo, but Lomi got away just before they severely damaged the nest ship. During the aforementioned battle, Jacen Solo and Mara were severely injured by Lomi Plo. During their recovery, Jacen made Luke confront his doubt about his mother's death. Only when he can remove any doubt from his mind could he defeat Lomi Plo. Later, Luke fought Lomi Plo and Raynar alone, against the wishes of his Mara and Jacen. Luke killed Lomi PLo and brought Raynar back to the Galactic Alliance, albeit under heavy sedation. After the Swarm War ended, he dissolved the Jedi's role in the Galactic Alliance Advisory Council on Coruscant, in favor of a new ruling Jedi Council, whose opinions and advice would be relayed to the Chief of State. Also, the Potentium view of the Force also seemed to be losing strength and the more orthodox view of Light and Dark started to take hold once more.

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. Mara lost her first space ship, a craft known as the Jade's Fire, when she remotely steered it into Chiss fortress. She later owned three other ships, the Jade Sabre, the Shrike and the Jade Shadow.

Behind the scenes

 * In the Return of the Jedi radio drama, C-3PO speaks with "Arica", voiced by Samantha Bennett.
 * Mara Jade was portrayed by Shannon McRandle (formerly Shannon Baksa), in the Star Wars Customizable Card Game. Since then her likeness has been on several products that depict Mara.
 * Mari Amithest, a character from Attack of the Clones, was so named as an homage to Mara Jade. ("Amithest" being derived from "amethyst", a translucent violet gemstone, as "Jade" is a translucent green gemstone).
 * In Hebrew, Mara means "bitter," though alternately "myrrh" or "fragrance." In the Biblical tradition, Ruth's beleaguered mother, Naomi, declared that "Mara" would be a better name, for she had been treated "bitterly" by fate.  However, perhaps like Mara Jade, Naomi's fortunes later improved.  The name may also have been inspired by "Kama-Mara", the Buddhist deity of love and death.
 * Fans expected that Shannon Baksa was to appear in the DVD remade version of Return of the Jedi portraying Mara Jade as 'Arica' on her visit to Tatooine, according to the radio drama.
 * Jade was voiced by Heidi Shannon in Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith and Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds.
 * Fan theories abound as to Mara's background and ancestry. The four most common are:
 * She is the daughter of Siri Tachi (with some fans believing Obi-Wan Kenobi to be the father, thus the reason Emperor Palpatine sent her to kill Luke). Siri Tachi died in 20 BBY, which according to some accounts predates Mara's birth.
 * She is the youngling Aris-Del Wari, although this would conflict with her established birth date, as Aris-Del was born in 23 BBY, five years before Mara.
 * She is another descendant of Vima Sunrider, thus explaining her Force powers, long-lasting youthfulness, and red hair.
 * She is the daughter of Quinlan Vos and Khaleen Hentz.

Appearances

 * Empire at War
 * Galactic Battlegrounds
 * Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand
 * Darth Vader: Extinction
 * Masters of Teräs Käsi
 * Allegiance
 * Mara Jade: A Night on the Town
 * Heir to the Empire
 * Dark Force Rising
 * The Last Command
 * Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith
 * I, Jedi
 * Champions of the Force
 * Specter of the Past
 * Vision of the Future
 * Union
 * Judge's Call
 * Survivor's Quest
 * Vector Prime
 * Dark Tide I: Onslaught
 * Dark Tide II: Ruin
 * Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial
 * Balance Point
 * Edge of Victory I: Conquest
 * Edge of Victory II: Rebirth
 * Star by Star
 * Dark Journey
 * Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream
 * Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand
 * Destiny's Way
 * Force Heretic I: Remnant
 * Force Heretic II: Refugee
 * Force Heretic III: Reunion
 * The Final Prophecy
 * The Unifying Force
 * The Joiner King
 * The Unseen Queen
 * The Swarm War
 * Betrayal
 * Star Wars: Return of the Jedi radio drama as Arica (retroactively)