#Leia breaking a table with a lightsaber/the force during negotiations is something I need to see

[vani11a-ice]

Of course! Honestly, yeah, I've found very few people online who have mostly realistic/fair interpretations of Star Wars media in general so that's perfectly understandable. Your Mara Jade analysis is literally the first criticism I've seen for her as there either aren't enough who know about her, or the ones who do would not spot/do not care to find flaws in her character .0.

(Long ramble incoming)

Mara Jade fans are incredibly obsessive for sure - it's one thing to just like her, but she is definitely not immune to character analysis/criticism just because she is a fan favourite. I think, as you said previously, she's just kind of a female (possibly self) insert for Luke and they just came up with the backstory on the fly, that has tons of potential by the way, only to do nothing with it because that's all she was meant to be :(

I'm really happy you agree, I don't think enough people talk about the difference in the EU pre and post prequels. And yes TCW era (TV shows and other media) is one of my favourite eras along with TOR (All the games and novels, characters like Malgus and Revan are so good).

Thrawn was actually handled quite well in Disney (At least at the beginning, maybe not so much in Ahsoka :/), the Rebels show and especially his new novels do a really good job with him (Timothy Zaun himself wrote those novels as well :D).

And yes, whilst I do love Legends for establishing more about the Mandalorians and their culture in the first place, I agree TCW added onto Mandalorian lore quite significantly by splitting the planet into different/diverse factions. The power struggle makes Mandalore/the Mandalorians much more interesting, and I still incorporate a lot of the old Mandalorian lore in my head because it can still work.

I loved the Force Unleashed, it is just so iconic (Even if I included it in my nonsensical legends list lol). I actually really like Galen just on a personal level as well. To expand on my previous point, I definitely agree that his sacrifice starting the rebellion in the way it did was silly. The Empire knowing who the leaders of the Rebel Alliance are with certain proof a few years before the Civil War is quite foolish, because that contradicts with the OT and Leia Organa having plausible deniability until she is caught red-handed with the death star plans (It's also a huge criticism of the Kenobi show also which made no effort to hide Bail collaborating with a wanted Jedi). For me, there's also a few other things that didn't make sense or didn't have the best writing. e.g. I thought Juno Eclipse was lacking as a character (they did expand on her in the novels a bit though, so there's that), but she's the love interest I guess that’s expected so whatever. Rahm Kota being taken into the Jedi Academy (By Mace WINDU, might I add) at a much older age from a war-torn planet (I think 17-18) never made sense to me, contradicts with Anakin a few decades later, who was considered too old/dangerous to train at 9 years old by the council.

I could go on, but honestly, I never strictly saw the game as canon/completely true anyways. The game is explained to exaggerate/overpower Galen's force powers to the extreme by the writers and actors (Beating Vader's ass the way he does is easily the most common example lol, then again Darth Vader was weakened in Legends continuity more than he is in the Disney Canon due to losing limbs, which is why I actually prefer Disney's interpretation of Vader slightly).

Regarding Galen however, he's cloned in the sequel after his sacrifice and basically just becomes himself again. I'm like you where I just headcanon he never died in the first game lol

Yes, absolutely, it is insulting that they prioritised Mara Jade over Leia in terms of force ability despite that being really unfair. I think in one continuity, Yoda actually would have preferred to train Leia. And ROTJ's reveal of confirming Leia's force sensitivity was supposed to be an indication that she would be the next Jedi and Luke's successor (The title Return of the Jedi and Yoda's dying wish of 'training others') and yet, Legends and Disney seem to ignore that or not care for some reason. I definitely don't think this should override her life as a parent/politician however. But I think that's the problem with Disney and Legends - Leia, can be a politician, a parent and a powerful Jedi, she does not need to pick, at least not in the NJO period. Palpatine and Plagueis maintained their careers whilst still being successful Sith and Luke and Mara also have a child whilst being successful Jedi, so I don't see why the same can't be done here. Although, I do believe that her Jedi training/character development should have taken precedence way before any marriage/kids, which should've happened at least many years later. And finally, her importance as a character and powers as a Jedi should not be overshadowed by Luke once she finally earns her skills.

Personally, I always saw Luke as the Consular Jedi, not just because of his lightsaber colour, but also because he is shown to be powerful in the force but also a meditative/peaceful Jedi first. Obviously, there were many powerful Consulars who had the fighting prowess of a Guardian, which describes Luke perfectly. Leia I see as a Sentinel/Guardian, because she would merge her career with her skill in the force (Sentinel) but also has a strong propensity towards justice/defence and protecting the weak (Guardian). Likewise with Luke, there are guardians that match a Consular's force abilities and skills in diplomacy, which would fit well with her political background. Overall, it doesn't matter too much because it's hard to put these two in a box, but just some thoughts about it I had.

I think, unfortunately, it's a given, that Star Wars fans, even within Legends, will disagree on many things. It would be a lot easier if people were more willing to have open discussions about things without being so toxic.

Funny enough, I've also been doing some thinking about reimagining my own Star Wars canon, just for fun, and it's a fruitful exercise/response to any Star Wars media you don't happen to like as well :) Regarding Mara Jade on this front, I'm no professional writer, but your criticism is a good place to start when it comes to improving her character. Here are some of my rambly/messy thoughts as to how she could potentially be improved...

She lacks trauma/scars from her childhood with Palpatine, so maybe they should give her these aspects. She should not exist to be perfect eye candy and this should be thoroughly shown not just from the scarring of her body, but her mind too.

Palpatine should not be a doting father figure who goes easy on her for her mostly her entire life. That, to me, is mischaracterisation and goes against the only other two pieces of evidence we have of him raising/grooming children as to what he would be like as a father - Anakin and Maul. Tbf I know their backstories were introduced after hers and Palpatine wasn't expanded upon until the prequels, but that doesn't change the fact that theirs is a more accurate/well-rounded depiction of his character that is just more realistic. Mara Jade should be a victim of Palpatine, it is the only relationship that would make sense and establishes sympathy for her.

Personally, I find the shoehorned appearances of her in the background of the OT unnecessary. They should just have her be busy elsewhere/explain her absence another way without her actually encountering the main cast until post-ROTJ. That just feels like fan service.

They should go into more detail about her life pre-Palpatine. Maybe have her be kidnapped as an older child instead so she will actually have memories of an old life to reflect back on. If she is kidnapped as a very young child, however, this should be thoroughly explored on how this affected her and her emotional development and not just ignored.

She can be a bad person/a villain, but there needs to be, as you said before, an actual redemption/acknowledgement of her wrong doings. She should be different by the end of it, not just the same or hold the same opinions she did about Palpatine before. It should be a lengthy character arc that spans a long(-ish) period of time that completely changes her and her world view (This would also be the perfect opportunity to go further into detail about her trauma in childhood and how she ended up the way she did).

This is just a starting point, but there are more ideas one could put to make her more interesting:

Maybe instead of just being a force-sensitive servant/hand she should be a full on Sith Assassin - maybe have her be powerful enough in force potential to be distinguished from the Inquisitors, giving the Emperor a reason to see her potential/personally train her, but weak enough to be below the likes of Darth Vader and Darth Sidious. This would make her more of a formidable threat to Luke as well when she is finally introduced.

Maybe her original family/home life was a place of poverty/neglect, and she thought the emperor had saved her from it. This could also render her more vulnerable to grooming. The Emperor could be sweet and lulling, posing as a father figure at first so she can let her guard down, but then gradually wear her down emotionally and physically with rigorous training, abuse and manipulation until she grows too comfortable in her mistreatment to properly recognise what he has done to her.

Perhaps Palpatine makes her believe she is more important, that she is an Acolyte and not just a servant/assassin and that she will one day replace Vader as his new apprentice, that she is stronger than everyone else. This would be her ultimate and only goal/wish as she has built up her self-worth and happiness around him and his twisted sense of approval. But unfortunately, she was never going to be anything but a disposable tool to him, and she will be overtly cast aside in favour of Luke in the lead up to ROTJ. Perhaps this would explain her hatred of Luke later (?)

And post-Palpatine's death, she is lost, confused and traumatised, but continues to serve the Empire with Thrawn at the helm because all she has ever known or been is a tool. Palpatine did whatever it took to secure the Empire, so she will uphold this in his absence to justify her continued existence. Her blame towards Luke, will therefore, be a defence mechanism and a mode of denial: because it is easier to blame one of the biggest enemies of the Empire, the one who (assumedly) killed the only family she had left, than to confront the truth that her entire life was a lie and that Palpatine used her.

These are all things that can be confronted, unpacked and explored in a detailed redemption/character growth arc.

These are just some of the silly thoughts I had whilst coming up with what a new story for her could look like in my head. It's a scrambled mess of random ideas, but I thought they might be some interesting starter ideas for her. If you have any additional thoughts yourself about Mara and what could be done, I’d love to hear them!

So, any unpopular opinions about Star Wars Legends that you have? I'm perfectly willing to listen.

Lmao hi, I didn’t expect to see you here! I really liked your Mara Jade criticism/analysis, and I saw your thoughts about my silly little hashtags—off topic to the ask but yes I definitely agree it’s too late to do anything with Mara Jade now given her story already concluded in Legends/EU verse, not to mention Disney now own the rights so that couldn’t even happen. If she were rewritten however she definitely could be far greater of a character.

As for your kind ask, when it comes to Star Wars EU there’s a lot to unpack because there’s so much content, but I guess I can give an overall opinion to make it more concise (But brace yourself, I will be yapping quite a bit anyways on here lol).

I generally love Legends. I grew up mainly with the central Lucas canon many years before Disney acquired the franchise: obviously the movies and 2008 clone wars series, and then some small EU content such as video games and some children’s comics/books before I even knew what the EU was. Because of this, I think it’s easy for me and many others to look back on the old stuff and be nostalgic for it.

But now that I’m older and gotten back into Star Wars (after losing interest in it for a while due to the sequels), I now have a better grasp of Legends content as well as a lot of lore I didn’t know as a kid—mainly books about what happens post ROTJ—and one thing I’ve noticed is that the quality highly fluctuates. On the one hand you get some amazing stuff like the Old Republic era, some of the Clone wars comics, old Battlefield games, the Darth Plagueis novel, the Prequel novelisations, Thrawn, Clone Wars 2003 and ofc many more. On the other hand, you get some pretty ridiculous stuff too, like Dark Empire, Shadows of the Empire, the Force Unleashed (Ironically, I actually really like this game for the nostalgia, its gameplay, Galen himself, story potential and the memes but many events of the game itself do not realistically make sense lol) and many books post ROTJ (mind you haven’t read all of them, way too many lol) that kind of have plot points I’m not too happy with and I could go on forever about (and some others I probably haven’t thought of).

My main point is, many legends fans will always advocate that the solution to Disney’s less than stellar Star Wars works recently is doing adaptations of existing legends material. And whilst I do think that there is a lot of lore you can pluck from legends and reuse/rewrite for their potential (I mean Disney already does that with characters like Thrawn), I never would want a 1-1 recreation. First of all, Legends started before the prequels so a lot of it doesn’t make complete sense now anyways (Hot take, but post-prequel-movies legends has always been better overall in terms of quality. For this reason, Old Republic/Prequel era was handled better overall than New Republic era). Additionally, Legends just isn’t as consistent or good overall as people would like to believe. It’s a large universe with several different writers, there’s bound to be mistakes/bad works riddled throughout here and there.

I also don’t think there’s enough people that talk about (especially) the older legends materials’ problematic elements as well. I’m not always a huge fan of how certain writers treat female and even other minority/non-human characters in Legends. I’m sure you’re familiar with this with people like Mara Jade. One of my other personal main gripes just to list another example is Leia. I’ve always hated how sidelined she is because she was always my personal favourite as a child, and the writers throughout the continuity could not make up their mind on whether she should be a Jedi or not to the point where her skills largely varied between writers until they finally decided to make it official when she’s much much older. Even by then she’s already overshadowed by her children/brother. George Lucas himself didn’t always write her or other female characters in the best way either, but I always thought an EU continuity would be the perfect place to give her the attention she deserves, instead all we got was an inconsistent arc, especially after the Thrawn trilogy. Disney could have turned this around but unfortunately the exact same thing happened where they couldn’t make up their mind on whether she was a Jedi or not (and gave her the shittiest excuse for quitting—how ironic that both Legends and Disney write in immediate motherhood and marriage as a sexist obstacle rather than actually letting her character grow before/during these events).

Fanatic Legends fans will, however, unfortunately rarely agree or at least try to understand criticism of their favourite universe, and, in my view, this is no better than Disney Adults who vehemently reject criticism of some of the worst recent Star Wars media that’s been released.

To conclude this long ass rant, I just think Star Wars EU whether that be Legends or Disney could do with rewriting/organisation here and there. But that’s highly unlikely, so a more realistic solution is just to pick and choose the media you enjoy from both universes (or make up your own!) and just accept it as your own personal canon. That’s what gives me peace and mind anyways :)