Mara Jade Skywalker is my favorite female character in all of Star Wars. She went on a phenomenal character journey across multiple eras. She started out being a loyal servant of Palpatine ever since she was a child and she believed he was a righteous leader. Mara was exceptional skilled in undercover work, fighting with numerous kinds of weaponry, and infiltration. Palpatine gave her some rudimentary training so she would be something like a Dark Jedi but she wasn’t considering to be fully immersed in the dark side. Her job was carrying out Palpatine’s will which often involved her murdering corrupt people in the empire. The only real force skill she had thoroughly developed was a force bond with Palpatine that allowed her to hear his voice and his commands from anywhere in the galaxy.
However upon his death, she was basically an assassin with no one aware of her role and no idea what to do with her life. Her connection to the force was also dwindling due to Palpatine’s passing. All she had left of Palpatine was an incorrect vision of Luke and Vader double teaming Palpatine. Palpatine was Mara’s reason for living and without him, she didn’t really know what to do with herself. She’s never been put in a situation where she’s had to decide what her life would be like or figure out who she is outside of Palpatine’s rule. She was held prisoner by Isard mainly because she didn’t trust Mara even though Palpatine assured Isard that Mara was not a threat to her. With Palpatine dead, there was also no one else who knew of Mara’s special status within the empire. She was forced to use her dwindling force abilities as well as her exceptional ability to improvise in order to escape. She fled for years while trying to scratch out a living throughout the galaxy until she got a job in a smuggling organization.
From here she met Luke Skywalker, who she had been mind controlled by Palpatine to kill. He helped her overcome these compulsions in a very understanding and respectful way. Mara would go on to embrace the light side of the force and she would aid the New Republic as a smuggler. She even drew on her own experiences to save Kyle Katarn from the dark side.
During a battle with some sentinels in the Hand of Thrawn duology, Luke and Mara had a force mind meld where they fully realized their feelings for each other and how much they cared for one another. Mara sensed Luke’s deep concern for her and she also experienced an emotional rapport with him that’s she’s never experienced before in her life. It was in this moment that she fully understood who Luke Skywalker is. She knew his hopes, his fears, his successes and his failures, his greatest joys and his deepest sorrows. She even saw into the depths of his heart, and the very core of his being. Mara had never felt this close to anyone in her life and she never had anyone in her life that understood her completely. Mara had never realized how much she wanted such a relationship until now. Luke asked marry if she will marry him and Mara, thinking to herself that there was no need for defensive maneuvers, said “I will”.
Luke had received a vision of Mara bobbing unconscious in a river next a rock, and he held a fear of this vision coming true. It wasn’t until he found Mara in this exact position at the end of “Vision of the Future”, that his fear nearly got the best of him. It wasn’t until he said aloud “I love you, Mara”, that she awoke from her unconscious. She then stated that they were together again. Forever. Mara reflected on how much of a real life she was missing out on because she was emotionally closed off for her entire life and she expressed her desire to learn from Luke’s emotional openness. As their wedding day approached, Mara reflected on how she never would’ve guessed her life could be filled with so much light and love.
Luke and Mara even planned on the future of the Jedi Praxeum and decided to turn into a Jedi Academy where beginner students can learn the basics from older students, and practice amongst themselves. Once they passed that stage, Luke and Mara, and other instructors can complete their training. Mara agreed to this once she got more training under her belt, although she objected to the part about staying on Yavin. Mara proposed the idea of the two of them traveling around the New Republic worlds with the more advanced students, teaching them as they go. This way Luke and Mara would be available for emergency conflicts and they could give students a taste of real-life situations.
Early in the Yuuzhan Vong conflict, Mara was infected by a deadly disease courtesy of Nom Anor. Mara was able to draw on the force to sustain her life whereas this disease has killed 100 others before her. Even as she was struggling to sustain herself, she was able to single handled defeat several Yuuzhan Vong and she advised Anakin against his crutch like usage of the force.
Mara Jade was very much Luke's foil, with Luke being idealistic and Mara would be pragmatic, they'd tease each other often, when one was emotional the other was there to help, what Luke could do with raw power Mara Jade did with insane skill learned over a lifetime of service. Luke helped Mara get past her fears and connect with the lightside of the force as well as other people while Mara Jade would always rush off to assist him or protect his sister's family. Mara would teach Luke a few techniques she learned from her days as the emperor’s hand as well as teaching him the value of knowing when he’s not the right person for a particular job. Mara even helped Anakin learn the proper way to utilize the force. They both had a desire to help people and it was truly a joy to watch them both come together in this common goal.
