It ticks me off that Mara Jade isn?t canon as well. I don?t know why Lucas/Disney would ignore such a hugely popular fan favorite character.
She's a redhead. They've been dropping off like flies in media for a while now. Who knows why...
I wonder if it has to do with acknowledging other creators or paying royalties. However, even now it could still be fixed. No reason Luke couldn?t have met and married MJ, even if only for a brief time. She could still have started off as the Emperor?s Hand and a powerful force wielder. With the empire defeated and a semblance of peace and freedom in the galaxy, Leia and Han happily married with a newborn son, and Luke married to Mara Jade it would have been their Camelot. Mara goes off with Luke to train a new generation of Jedi and tragically dies or gets killed a few years later. That would only add to Luke?s tragedy and bitterness.
They canned they entire EU so that they would be free to create a "new" tailored to the [current year], while still stealing from the EU but without having to acknowledge it. I still remember KK coming out and saying "unlike Marvel, we don't have tons of comics and books as source material". BRAVO KK!
Had the sequels not gone the way they did with Rey, another twist of the MJ story would be that she disappeared and was presumed dead. However in reality she could have been badly injured during an attack and her ship had to crash land on Jakku. Unbeknownst to Luke, she was also pregnant at the time. That way Rey could have been Luke?s daughter (the offspring of two extremely powerful force wielders), Leia?s niece and Ben?s cousin?which would have accounted for their strong force connection. This could have been implemented even up to Rise of Skywalker (and actually would have worked perfect for the title). Would just have needed to figure out a few plot beats to creative the connective tissue with TFA plot lines. Unfortunately, the Solo twins are completely in the wind.
When Kerri Russel was cast, most people assumed that she was gonna play Mara Jade and that's how the story would go. But, instead, we got RoS... But hey, we got Hermit Luke drinking Green Space Milk from the tit! Haha, that smarty Rian and his subversions. Much better than the boring and predictable ways a story could go in a franchise about space wizards!
Well Rebels gave us Thrawn, maybe they'll slip MJ in somewhere. I think they KNOW some older Legends/EU characters are popular and fans want them. I wouldn't be shocked if they pull it out. There's a HUGE gap between ROTJ and TFA, and the comics are giving us some insight, but there's still a lot of room to play with.
There is a rumour that she's the one Luke keeps seeing in his visions in the current Marvel SW comic, but even if she does come back, I fear she'll be some pansexual tranhermotherkin who'll cuck Luke with an alien tentacle...
As cool as Mara Jade (Maray Sujade) was she was definitely a Mary Sue before Rey. She has red hair, the trademark of Mary Sues, she?s the secret all powerful agent of the Emperor and the main hero falls for her. Even her purple lightsaber before Mace made it canon, is another indicator of being special and above the rest. It?s interesting that the EU, Lucas and the ST all planned for the OT heroes to ultimately die and/or fail in these future stories. That said no one is stopping anyone from keeping their own head canon about Luke hooking up with some imperial firebrand turned Jedi who died or ran away before the temple was destroyed. Until Lucasfilm decides to give Luke a wife somehow. Even then MJ could be his first, who knows.
Some Mary Sues/Gary Stus are better than others. And it all comes down to execution and charisma. I'll take Starkiller and Mara everyday over Rey. Even Mace, who was just Space SLJ being Space SLJ, was cool at least because he had character. Leia beating Luke in a duel, Rey being a super-important, all-loved plank of wood, Holdo being a Donut Steel ***** and whatever else, had nothing to hook you, and therefore are just bad cases of self-insertism and Mary Suing.
Besides, being powerful and having a unique design isn't a trait of a MS/GS, it's usually that of an MC. The key is giving them character traits, arcs, flaws, troubles, limitations, etc, instead of showering them with praise just for existing. X being great just 'cause, defeating Y and being loved isn't that much of an interesting story. And if we're talking solely about movies, shows and whatnot, it comes down to how well the actor/actress can emote, how likeable they are, all that jazz. Even a shallow character can gain a new dimension through a great performance.