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Star Wars Rebels Season Three (spoilers)

Maybe a TIE Advanced? There seemed to be one on several of the Return of the Jedi space battle shirts and posters even though I don't think there was even one in the movie at all.
 
Maybe a TIE Advanced? There seemed to be one on several of the Return of the Jedi space battle shirts and posters even though I don't think there was even one in the movie at all.
Maybe this is the reason the TIE Interceptor exists? It wasn't really showcased in the final film, but what if they'd initially intended to feature it in this scene?

It wouldn't be without precedent. The B-Wing was supposed to be prominently featured in the battle but they just couldn't get the shots to work the way they wanted and I think the A-Wings were going to be used more than they ended up with too.

I would love to see either of those guys pop up.

Garm Bel Iblis is certainly doable as a leader of one of the other cells, perhaps more of a fringe group like Saw's in keeping with the EU backstory.

Horn I think would be too problematic for many of the same reasons they're not likely to use Mara Jade anytime soon. In the EU he's the son of a Jedi raised by said Jedi's best friend and colleague, which instantly raises issues in and of itself, not to mention the somewhat conspicuous similarities to Luke's story. So as with Mara Jade they can have the character appear in name only and alter their background beyond all recognition in order to fit them into the new continuity...or just leave it alone and respect the source material.

Now Booster and Mirax Terrik on the other hand would fit in just fine on this show with next to no alterations. Indeed they could do with an old rogue who isn't Hondo. Someone say, who still have substantial underworld connections and can procure the Rebels some much needed arms and equipment via the black market. Talon Karrde would also suit the role quite nicely.
 
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I forgot about Horn's backstory.
What problems are there with Mara Jade? If it's just that they don't have Emperor's Hands in the Disney canon, couldn't they just change her into another Inquisitor?
 
I forgot about Horn's backstory.
What problems are there with Mara Jade? If it's just that they don't have Emperor's Hands in the Disney canon, couldn't they just change her into another Inquisitor?

I'd say it's more to do with her story being so closely related to Luke. Sure, if they wanted to they *could* in theory have Mara show up as an Imperial agent or Inquisitor, but they can't make her Luke's wife because that's not where they're going with his story. That's not to say that "Luke's wife" is her defining characteristic (far from it) but it's intrinsic to her character arc from Imperial assassin, to private mercenary to Jedi Master because Luke is a big part of that change.
So what you'd have is a version of Mara Jade who can't have the character arc of Mara Jade. She's just stuck in her arc's starting position as an Imperial until they kill her off or forget about her. Remember how uninteresting and two dimensional Ventress was until they advanced her character? That's what that version of Mara would be.

That wouldn't be doing the the character justice and Filloni has specifically said he won't bring in EU characters in name only as he considers it rude and disrespectful to the authors.
 
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That wouldn't be doing the the character justice and Filloni has specifically said he won't bring in EU characters in name only as he considers it rude and disrespectful to the authors.

Well, characters in name only is literally all Filoni and friends been doing since Rebels debuted, so I'm going to call BS there. As for Mara, remember there are still these things called books that contribute to the SW Universe, and they can have exclusive characters and tell stories that the show for 5 year olds can't. If Mara does appear in the New canon, and she was so popular (for an EU character, at least) there is no chance that she will stay in limbo forever, the books are the best place. If she does come back, I'm hoping Timothy Zahn gets to bring her back, and in a book that isn't a supposed Rebels tie in like Thrawn. He already wrote a few great books with Mara before she met Luke (plus the Thrawn trilogy of course), so I bet he could reintroduce her in a good way without making her generic Inquisitor #345 or having to connect her to Luke.

Dave Filoni doesn't have complete control of all the possible characters in the Star Wars universe, and Mara could be brought back in several different forms of media (books, comics, and even, unlikely as it is, movies) that have nothing to do with Filoni or Rebels.
 
Dave Filoni doesn't have complete control of all the possible characters in the Star Wars universe, and Mara could be brought back in several different forms of media (books, comics, and even, unlikely as it is, movies) that have nothing to do with Filoni or Rebels.

Where did I say he did?
 
Hopefully, Mara never shows up. The character, pretty much like all things EU, is complete garbage. That being said, I'm sure Filoni would do a vastly better job with her than that overrated hack Zahn.
 
Where did I say he did?

You didn't but you seemed to be implying that Mara Jade coming back would only be in the context of Rebels, when she could be introduced in the books/comics/etc at any time in the new canon timeline. I'm pretty sure she'll be brought back eventually, and I'd assume it would be either post RotJ or maybe in the middle of the OT but then continue from there. regardless, I don't think Filoni will have anything to do with her reintroduction, or at least I hope he won't.

Hopefully, Mara never shows up. The character, pretty much like all things EU, is complete garbage. That being said, I'm sure Filoni would do a vastly better job with her than that overrated hack Zahn.

I completely disagree with everything you said. I consider Zahn the reason I'm a big SW fan in the first place (The Thrawn trilogy being, in my opinion, better then any of the movies, even the really good IV-VII) and Mara Jade is my favorite Star Wars character.
 
Wasn't Mara younger than Luke, thus also younger than Ezra? While younger doesn't mean too much in Star Wars (we've had a planetary queen at the age of 14 and Jedi that are preteens), Mara would be about 15 years old at the present time in Rebels, maybe even 14.

I wouldn't expect to see her until at much closer to the Battle of Yavin, if not afterwards, if Rebels continues for more than two more seasons.

As for her being in other media. It is possible, but again I get the feeling they don't want to use her until Episode VIII or IX can confirm what Luke was doing after RoTJ and who Rey's parents are due to rumor mill materials about Rey being a Skywalker and the old EU having a lot of Mara-Luke going on. Basically they are unsure if she can exist on her own yet while that thread is dangling in the films.
 
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I completely disagree with everything you said. I consider Zahn the reason I'm a big SW fan in the first place (The Thrawn trilogy being, in my opinion, better then any of the movies, even the really good IV-VII) and Mara Jade is my favorite Star Wars character.

Good for you. Even garbage writers have there fans it looks like. Fortunately, Disney realized what junk the EU was and dumped it all. Thrawn is in much better hands now with a competent writer like Filoni and is already more interesting than the fan wank level literature pooped out by Zahn.
 
Wasn't Mara younger than Luke, thus also younger than Ezra? While younger doesn't mean too much in Star Wars (we've had a planetary queen at the age of 14 and Jedi that are preteens), Mara would be about 15 years old at the present time in Rebels, maybe even 14.

I wouldn't expect to see her until at much closer to the Battle of Yavin, if not afterwards, if Rebels continues for more than two more seasons.

As for her being in other media. It is possible, but again I get the feeling they don't want to use her until Episode VIII or IX can confirm what Luke was doing after RoTJ and who Rey's parents are due to rumor mill materials about Rey being a Skywalker and the old EU having a lot of Mara-Luke going on. Basically they are unsure if she can exist on her own yet while that thread is dangling in the films.

About 2 years younger IIRC. As you say though, age isn't much of a barrier and I would absolutely buy the Emperor using indoctrinated children as agents and assassins. Indeed, between Maul and those force sensitive younglings he had Cad Bane kidnap he already has something of a track record with this kind of thing, no?

As I said before though, the issue isn't really about whether they can incorporate an Imperial Agent called Mara Jade, it's whether they can faithful adapt the character. Since her arc is so intrinsically bound up with the EU version of Luke I can't see that working very well.
I'm not convinced they're just waiting for how the new movies shake out, since they're already shooting the second and must at least have a general idea what the third is going to be about. No I think they've simply decided that character is best served by being left in 'Legends' where she belongs.

Not in a "because she sucks" kind of way, but because there really isn't a good way to adapt the character that doesn't fundamentally change who she is. Yes she *was* and Imperial, but that's the point: "was". As in past tense. Her starting point. Imagine for the sake of argument if they were to re-adapt the story of Anakin Skywalker by giving him the same starting point, except he never becomes a Jedi or becomes Darth Vader. What you have is an entirely different character who happens to have the same name (and as luck would have it, that guy exists too...sorta.)
 
Like I said before, Zahn wrote great stories with Mara that had nothing to do with Luke. I think its a disservice to the character to say she only works in connection to Luke. A good writer could adapt the character very well without using Luke, and I doubt any significantly popular EU character is going to be completely jettisoned, especially since Mara was easily at Thrawn's level when it came to well known, popular EU characters. Heck, they could bring her back in a book with a similar redemption story as her role in the Thrawn trilogy, and even use Luke but just don't have them get romantically involved.
 
Good for you. Even garbage writers have there fans it looks like. Fortunately, Disney realized what junk the EU was and dumped it all.

laugh.gif


Thrawn is in much better hands now with a competent writer like Filoni and is already more interesting than the fan wank level literature pooped out by Zahn.

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I was thinking if they wanted to use the love interest aspect, they could just transfer that relationship to either Kanan is she's an adult or Ezra if they want her to be a teenager.
I could see a pretty interesting arc with Kanan where we see him struggling with whether or not he should still follow Jedi Code with the Order being destroy, and we also see her struggling with whether or not to betray the Empire/Vader/The Emperor.
Or even if they wanted to skip over the romantic aspect, they could still just have her bonding with the Ghost crew and ending up with the same issue.
 
I was thinking if they wanted to use the love interest aspect, they could just transfer that relationship to either Kanan is she's an adult or Ezra if they want her to be a teenager.
I could see a pretty interesting arc with Kanan where we see him struggling with whether or not he should still follow Jedi Code with the Order being destroy, and we also see her struggling with whether or not to betray the Empire/Vader/The Emperor.
Or even if they wanted to skip over the romantic aspect, they could still just have her bonding with the Ghost crew and ending up with the same issue.

It sounds nice, but as I said, that's not Mara Jade. That's a different person with her name.

Falling in love with Luke is not the central focus of her arc. It's her long term internal struggle with self identity, survivors guilt, perceived failure, abandonment issues and coming to terms with the knowledge that she was a servant of evil while simultaneously feeling nostalgic for the order and security that world provided, which leads to more guilt. There's also threads of confusing independence with self imposed isolation. Emotionally and literally.

You'll note that most of this character growth takes place *after* RotJ. That's because the Emperor's death and her failure to intercept Luke on Tatooine is the main catalyst. She was an Emperor's Hand, answerable only to him and more crucially, only *known* to him. Thus when he died, she was cut off and alone with no resources or authority of her own.

That is the *beginning* of her story and given the shape of the new post-Jedi continuity, it's not one that can easily adapt.

I mean if nothing else, how weird would it be if they introduce Luke's wife from the EU into canon and *not* have her be his wife? It'd be Mara Jade in name only.
 
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