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Mara Jade


priest

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Here was her response in an interview she did:

 

EUC: How hard was it to write Mara’s death, and are fans lashing out at you for it like they did when R.A. Salvatore wrote Chewbacca’s death and Troy Denning wrote Anakin Solo’s death?

 

KT: I’ve had no really adverse reactions to Mara’s death. I think the small lunatic fringe of fandom learned their lesson way back that threatening and abusing writers just alienates other fans, and it certainly doesn’t change a word of what writers do. I’ve had one letter from someone telling me I ruined their life by killing Mara, but it wasn’t abusive, just very sad. Every other piece of mail I’ve had from Mara fans has been wonderful – okay, they’re sad to see her go, some very upset indeed, but they’re mature enough to accept it, and they’ve all said that the death was handled properly.

 

I don’t just bump off characters for the hell of it. It’s an integral part of the novel; it has to be, or it shouldn’t be in a book. It has to be a logical progression of the story. If I was ever asked to whack a character for the sake of sensationalizing a book, I’d hand back my advance and walk away, because that’s just bad storytelling, and it creates problems for the rest of the book, because it’ll feel bolted on for no good reason. Writing a character’s death is very hard if you immerse as I do, because you have to feel what the characters feel to make a decent job of it, and it’s not fun. It’s harrowing to put yourself in Ben’s mind, or Luke’s, and imagine what it is to lose your mother or your wife like that, with so much left unsaid. And it carried on into Revelation – it’s painful writing Ben and Luke at that phase of their grieving process, where the funeral’s over, and everyone else is getting on with their lives, but yours is changed irrevocably forever and the pieces are missing every time you try to pick them up.

 

Readers can see from the way I write that I take character deaths seriously, and so they don’t react badly. For a writer, it’s about maintaining respect for role that the books play in readers’ lives. And beloved characters have to face death, or there’s no drama, no real risk, and no high stakes to play for in the story. Oddly, many people seem okay with “minor” characters dying, as if their lives have no meaning, but I hate that. Every life – even a fictional life – has to count, or else we start thinking of some real people’s lives as having less value than others, which is a terrible attitude to slip into.

 

 

I highlighted the portion of importance...the rest is just self-important aggrandizement.

Edited by priest
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So basically... "I didn't care about Mara or that she was popular so it didn't bother me a bit that I had to kill her off and the fans that were upset are just lunatics." I always wanted to be part of the lunatic fringe...

 

It was kind of a stupid death too, imo. Made Mara out to be waaaay stupider than we all know she was.

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I completely agree. It was a stupid death. Reading this interview just made me mad all over again. Seriously Karen, YOU didn't create the character, and you just decided to off her...without any real imput from Timothy Zahn. I hated it when Chewbacca was killed off. I didn't understand why they killed Anakin (that was a dolt move too,) and Mara?

 

Makes me want to burn all my EU books.

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I actually got to talk to RA Salvatore during a book signing once about Chewie's death. He said he tried to get them to not make him do it but Lucas Arts insisted. Anakin at least got a -good- death, I was just more upset that right when he was becoming a ****** he died. But at least it was in a ****** way.

 

As for Mara, so many of the EU writers butchered her character whenever they tried to incorporate her. It got better later, NJO and such but then we hit Legacy and it went downhill again.

 

 

On the upside, she shows back up in the Legacy comics as a force ghost and basically tells her descendent off for being a whiny *****. Even as a force ghost she's awesome.

 

 

Edit: sigh.. profanity filters...

Edited by Lurkz
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I actually got to talk to RA Salvatore during a book signing once about Chewie's death. He said he tried to get them to not make him do it but Lucas Arts insisted. Anakin at least got a -good- death, I was just more upset that right when he was becoming a ****** he died. But at least it was in a ****** way.

 

As for Mara, so many of the EU writers butchered her character whenever they tried to incorporate her. It got better later, NJO and such but then we hit Legacy and it went downhill again.

 

 

On the upside, she shows back up in the Legacy comics as a force ghost and basically tells her descendent off for being a whiny *****. Even as a force ghost she's awesome.

 

 

Edit: sigh.. profanity filters...

 

I didn't know Lucas was pushing to kill Chewie. RA gets a pass for that then, especially since his death was fantastic. It, of course, with the existential crap that the EU has become was rendered null when Anakin died a few books later. And then...Jacen a sith lord?

 

What they should do is just put a sign in front of Bantam Del Rey that says, "We did it. We killed the greatest IP in modern times. Hell, George Lucas couldn't even do that with EP1...but we sure did!!!"

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The Jacen as a Sith Lord just made me roll my eyes. Particularly with all his "I know my grandfather thought that he wouldn't fall and did. But he was WRONG! I however will succeed!" I just wanted to be like "Seriously? You think you have some magical way to succeed where even LUKE SKYWALKER fell?? The Solo genes of common sense skipped you didn't they?"

 

Also... Jaina. OMG are they butchering her character. Not enough that we have a dead Mara, now we have a lame Jaina. It's kind of like they suddenly decided that awesome female characters were no longer in vogue or something. (Which is not to say I don't think Jaina shouldn't hook up with Jag permanently, she totally should just... in an awesome way).

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See, I liked Chewie and Anakin dying in the NJO. It gave the series a much different feel, as mentioned several times in the books, it did away with the plot armor the character had all been walking around with. You can't have great drama if you KNOW that the main characters will always succeed.

 

 

It's like what Joss Whedon did with Serenity. Killing Book was one thing. . . he was an important character, sure, but he was probably the most expendable character in the story. Killing Wash. . . now, that was a signal to the audience that no one was safe, and this whole thing could turn into Butch and Sundance before it was over.

 

 

I didn't even have any qualms about how they died. . . my only complaint is that Anakin had been being built up as the new hero of this story, and Lucas decided that, to avoid any confusion between Anakin Skywalker and Anakin Solo, Anakin Solo had to die. It feels like an insult to the audience's intelligence. Then again, given the exhibited intelligence I've seen from some of that audience, maybe Lucas had a point.

Edited by ErikModi
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Also... Jaina. OMG are they butchering her character. Not enough that we have a dead Mara, now we have a lame Jaina. It's kind of like they suddenly decided that awesome female characters were no longer in vogue or something. (Which is not to say I don't think Jaina shouldn't hook up with Jag permanently, she totally should just... in an awesome way).

 

I haven't read anything past NJO, but as I understand it, Jaina suddenly turning incompetent is more a result Karen Traviss' hatred of Jedi and fetishization of Mandalorians. In Traviss' mind, Jaina Solo, being a Jedi, can't even tie her shoes right unless she's trained by a Mandalorian.

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Killing her....who really thought that was a good idea?

 

Karen Traviss didn't even give Timothy Zahn the courtesy of telling him her intentions, nor did she ask for his permission to do so..... yea, I think she's just jealous; or simply put anti Republic/ Jedi

Edited by Darth_Malevolent
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See, I liked Chewie and Anakin dying in the NJO. It gave the series a much different feel, as mentioned several times in the books, it did away with the plot armor the character had all been walking around with. You can't have great drama if you KNOW that the main characters will always succeed.

 

[sblock]It's like what Joss Whedon did with Serenity. Killing Book was one thing. . . he was an important character, sure, but he was probably the most expendable character in the story. Killing Wash. . . now, that was a signal to the audience that no one was safe, and this whole thing could turn into Butch and Sundance before it was over.[/sblock]

 

I didn't even have any qualms about how they died. . . my only complaint is that Anakin had been being built up as the new hero of this story, and Lucas decided that, to avoid any confusion between Anakin Skywalker and Anakin Solo, Anakin Solo had to die. It feels like an insult to the audience's intelligence. Then again, given the exhibited intelligence I've seen from some of that audience, maybe Lucas had a point.

 

Agreed. Even Mara, I could have dealt with if it wasn't just so damn... stupid. Obviously they will all die eventually, but if they aren't going to die of old age... at least make them die logically. Chewie and Anakin's deaths at least fit characters. I mean heck, it took a damn moon falling on Chewie to do him in. And Anakin was a voluntary "I will become one with the Force to save all my friends". Mara?

 

 

It was just some stupid "I'm going to allow myself to be tricked into facing Jacen alone even though I KNOW he's evil and I should have probably taken Luke with me but that's ok! I'm going to act like an idiot!"

 

 

Re. audience intelligence: Yeah... I hear ya there.

 

Edit to add a spoiler tag as I just saw that Erik hasn't read past NJO.

Edited by Lurkz
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I haven't read anything past NJO, but as I understand it, Jaina suddenly turning incompetent is more a result Karen Traviss' hatred of Jedi and fetishization of Mandalorians. In Traviss' mind, Jaina Solo, being a Jedi, can't even tie her shoes right unless she's trained by a Mandalorian.

 

Yeah, basically. God forbid the Jedi be awesome and intelligent people. Also, she starts fawning over Jag apparently instead of being the independent woman we know she should be (esp. as a daughter of Han and Leia).

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See, I liked Chewie and Anakin dying in the NJO. It gave the series a much different feel, as mentioned several times in the books, it did away with the plot armor the character had all been walking around with. You can't have great drama if you KNOW that the main characters will always succeed.

 

[sblock]It's like what Joss Whedon did with Serenity. Killing Book was one thing. . . he was an important character, sure, but he was probably the most expendable character in the story. Killing Wash. . . now, that was a signal to the audience that no one was safe, and this whole thing could turn into Butch and Sundance before it was over.[/sblock]

 

I didn't even have any qualms about how they died. . . my only complaint is that Anakin had been being built up as the new hero of this story, and Lucas decided that, to avoid any confusion between Anakin Skywalker and Anakin Solo, Anakin Solo had to die. It feels like an insult to the audience's intelligence. Then again, given the exhibited intelligence I've seen from some of that audience, maybe Lucas had a point.

 

I don't like the new feel to it. I liked the original nieivity and innocence of the series. I'm not looking for a more gritty GFFA; If I want hardcore dark drama, I'll go to Battlestar Galactica (which I also like by the way.)

 

I know what they're getting at; really I understand. I just don't agree. I want a simple, pop corn story that I can read and feel like, in the end, the good guys win. Killing Chewie, Anakin, Mara, and making Jacen this odd heel character was just stupid imo.

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Chewie's death, was awesome and poignent and did shatter the "hero's are immune to death" shield that was around the characters. Anakin Solo's death was a hero dying to save his friends (I still think there could have been a way around it, but hey).

 

 

Mara dying at the hands of Jacen, who never should have turned Sith, was simply sensationalism to shock the readers no matter what the fake author says. I will be honest, I do not like KT. You know in her books, Boba Fett will be the star and every one else will be secondary characters who need his help to succeed. Now let me clarify, I do think someone from the family should have turned evil (it's happened many times before after all) but Jacen had been through too much at that point to simply be..hey, I have a kid, let me control the galaxy so she'll be safe. Jaina on the other hand was always a better fighter and more quick to anger. Plus, no one would have seen it coming....:p Just my idea's, agree or not your choice. Back to the matter at hand, Mara should have been able to beat Jacen or what ever he was calling himself. She had the training and the experiance to fight in situations like that, he didn't. Personally however, I think LucasArts should have at least done the honerable thing and let Timothy Zahn kill her off if she absollutly had to die. He created her, he should be the one to finalize how she goes out.

 

 

Just my ideas *shrug*

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Chewie's death, was awesome and poignent and did shatter the "hero's are immune to death" shield that was around the characters. Anakin Solo's death was a hero dying to save his friends (I still think there could have been a way around it, but hey).

 

 

Mara dying at the hands of Jacen, who never should have turned Sith, was simply sensationalism to shock the readers no matter what the fake author says. I will be honest, I do not like KT. You know in her books, Boba Fett will be the star and every one else will be secondary characters who need his help to succeed. Now let me clarify, I do think someone from the family should have turned evil (it's happened many times before after all) but Jacen had been through too much at that point to simply be..hey, I have a kid, let me control the galaxy so she'll be safe. Jaina on the other hand was always a better fighter and more quick to anger. Plus, no one would have seen it coming....:p Just my idea's, agree or not your choice. Back to the matter at hand, Mara should have been able to beat Jacen or what ever he was calling himself. She had the training and the experiance to fight in situations like that, he didn't. Personally however, I think LucasArts should have at least done the honerable thing and let Timothy Zahn kill her off if she absollutly had to die. He created her, he should be the one to finalize how she goes out.

 

 

Just my ideas *shrug*

 

Agreed. Though, on the Jaina front, they'd already done her "brush with the dark side" thing so it would have seemed equally silly for her to suddenly fall. Personally, by that point, I don't think it was really necessary for anyone from that generation to completely fall to the dark side.

 

But yes, as for Mara, Tim Zahn should have definitely been consulted and given the opportunity to kill off the character he created. Especially given that his portrayal of her is what made her such an awesome and popular character. Not anyone else's, and esp. not KT's.

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logic, you cant kill a kid, not aggen! you cant kill Luke, you can't kill Jana as we cant lose both twins "you most kill the one you love" who that live I give you a hint ^^

 

I don't know why anyone needs to be 'killed' anyway. It hasn't refreshed the ip...it has just made it sound like the other bad neo-existentialist fiction out there. If I wanted to read Hunger Games...I would.

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