When the first page of the Disney canon The Last Jedi novelization leaked to the Internet, everyone in my EU groups went crazy over one sentence.
The first sentence of the D-Canon The Last Jedi Novelization to be released in March.
“Does this Mean Mara Jade Is Canon?” “If they would just make Mara Jade Canon, I could forgive everything” “Luke is Married but not to Mara?” “Does this make Mara Jade Rey’s Mother?” “As Long as it’s a Mara Jade Archetype, I’d be okay with that” For those who know me, you know that I did not utter any of those above statements. Yet, I keep finding EU fans who want Disney to validate Mara Jade and other EU characters by introducing them (or similar versions of them) into the new canon. “If they would just Make X Canon, that is all I want”. While I agree that having Mara Jade around might improve Luke Skywalker's Disney canon storyline -- perhaps if they paralleled Jacen’s story through Kylo Ren somehow -- it’s not a storyline I wish to see. I already saw this play out in the original Expanded Universe. I'm for keeping the canons as separate, continuing both along parallel timelines. The fact is Disney bought the Star Wars Expanded Universe, they had all the fan favorites including Mara Jade, Thrawn, Jaina Solo, Ben Skywalker, Kyle Katarn, Bastilla Shan, Revan, and countless others. They bought the entirety of the original Expanded Universe canon that kept the Star Wars franchise going for 37 years and the new heads of Lucasfilm chose to toss it over their shoulder like "Jake Skywalker" does a lightsaber. Disney/New Lucasfilm asked for creative freedom, then I ask them to “go and be creative”, create your own new stories and characters, and leave the original Expanded Universe alone, unless you are willing to continue it as a separate and alternate timeline. The Legends universe that THEY SAY may or may not have happened. Do not offer me pale copies of EU characters and stories I know and love, I will always prefer the original Characters that I grew up with, my friends. The commandeering of names of beloved, well know characters from the original Expanded Universe needs to stop. Examples: Ben Skywalker vs Ben Solo Galen Marek (Starkiller) vs Galen Erso / Starkiller base Poe (X-wing: Bacta War) vs Poe Dameron Finn Galfridian vs D-canon Finn Porg the Trandoshan bounty hunter vs D Canon Porgs creature Jacen Solo vs Jacen Syndulla (Rebels, half human half Twilek with no Lekku) They claim there needed to be "creative freedom", and new stories to not confuse new fans. What do you call it when you take names and story lines right out of the original Expanded Universe. If "the powers that be" included Mara Jade into their storyline she would not be the Mara Jade I admired as a kid. My role model equal to Leia Organa Solo. A "Mara Jade" archetype character at best would be shoehorned in or a composite of several beloved characters as a partner for Luke Skywalker; Our Mara Jade has specific life choices and experiences that made her the character we love. "The powers that be" chose to toss Mara Jade's storyline, to toss all of the female characters' stories of the original Expanded Universe, toss all of the male characters' storylines of the Original Expanded Universe. They had them and didn't want them for whatever the reason. I wish my Expanded Universe storyline could be continued as an alternate, separate storyline. I would love to see The Sword of the Jedi Trilogy about Jaina Solo that was canceled, but I accept "the powers that be" have chosen a different path, for now, and I remain hopeful we can get new stories set in our universe sometime in the future. To quote another strong female senator of the Expanded Universe, "you are going down a path I cannot follow" - Padme Amidala. I'm still exploring the 37 years of original C-Canon storyline, revisiting my favorites, completing my collection; it’s the Star Wars I grew up with, it is the story that made me a female fan of Science Fiction in general. It feels more like Star Wars than the D-canon direction I have sampled. “Everything I have seen confirms my worst fears.” - Fatal Alliance Now dealing with this "Leaked page" of The Last Jedi novelization. It is one sentence without context. Do I think Mara Jade is in the Novel? No. Is Luke or Jake Skywalker married in the New D-Canon? given what I've seen, I say no. Most likely this reference in The Last Jedi Novel is a dream sequence, this sad shell of a Luke Skywalker is lamenting what might have been had he settled down and had a family. Some sources say it is Camie, the girl who treated "Wormy" like dirt in the deleted scene from ANH. Is this a Jab at us EU fans, possibly? I would also state that Novels don’t matter in the New D Canon. Pablo Hildalgo himself has stated that they are returning Star Wars to be a movie Franchise as it originally was. The D-Canon books and continuity or contradictions simply don’t matter and if a fact needs to change or be contradicted, oh well. to the new heads of Lucasfilm it is what is on the Screen that matters most.
Luke daydreaming about "his canon wife" didn’t happen on screen as I understand, so it doesn’t really matter if it makes it into the novelization? an abandoned story thread. "There's no such thing as truth. . . . Anything is malleable." – Leland Chee. What we know so far there has been no official announcement that Mara Jade has been introduced into the new D canon. Yet, even if there was such a character introduced as Mara Jade, she would likely be completely different from the character we followed for decades in the original Expanded Universe. It is no matter to me. I didn’t see the Last Jedi film, Darth Moll told me all I needed to know, and even she, giving the New Films a chance has called it "Traumatizing and vowed never to buy it simply because she would never want to watch it again." Much like her decision to not buy Rogue One, as a film its not very good. Now even the heads of new Lucasfilm tell fans it doesn't matter if you buy the tie-in books because the sands will constantly be shifting like Tatooine during a sandstorm to make "better movies". The Last Jedi film has divided the fandom even further. Besides we know what the #TrEU first page of The Last Jedi looked liked years ago.
Thankfully, I still have my contiguous and reliable original Expanded Universe that has been there for this Female Fan of Star Wars since I was 13 years old; A relationship I treasure, but that is a story for another day. To see more from Debbie, click here. To find Debbie on Facebook, click here.