She can, and be killed before TFA. Yes, it's a stretch and no, I think it's more likely an Emperors Hand character would be someone else. Barris is a possible choice, although TBH i'd rather not go back to TCW again.
Again; that's not Luke's path. If Lucas was very clear on one thing it was this. This kind of haphazard pairing off and/or killing of characters for the sake of drama and little else is one of the many reasons the EU became such a mess. Mara was wasted in the EU once she married Luke. Even her death was largely done just for shock value, as was that whole tedious Caedus mess.
As for Barris; having her show up as an Imperial agent of any kind makes no sense whatsoever. The Empire, or rather the Republic's slide into empire and the Jedi's role in it was exactly what she was railing against. Why would she ever willingly serve
that?
If Barris ever appears again, I'd say she's either going to be a prisoner, a hermit, or a mercenary like Baylan. Given that Filloni didn't use her in the show says he has something else in mind for her. Maybe season 2 . . .
In Rebels and Kenobi we see the Inquisitors are no match for Vader. They're Vader's enforcers/knee-breakers (i.e. head choppers
)
I prefer the analogy of hunting dogs. They're there to track, to chase, and to flush. Nothing more, other than perhaps to pick off the occasional weak one. Doesn't matter if the Jedi they flush from cover cuts them down, because they're disposable and flushing the Jedi from cover was the whole point of it. Actually killing Jedi is what Vader is for.
Anyway, none of that matches what Sidious was describing. He wasn't after bloodhounds or springers, he was after indoctrinated spies and assassins. Whole other thing. If they use Emperor's Hands in canon, that's what they'll be. Force sensitives with control chips, serious psychological conditioning, armed to the teeth, and masters of stealth and infiltration.
Which still works fine for Mara's story; you just replace her internal battle with Palpatine's dying psychic command, with the programmed and conditioned compulsion to obey his final instruction (given the more mundane way), only in my proposed revision; instead of "kill Luke Skywalker" it would be "kill Galen Marek".
