Ok...genuine question here and I know I'm only one who's asked this but...
Did Obi-wan and Yoda never wonder that if Luke succeeded with killing Vader, how he would react if he found out that he was made to unknowingly commit patricide?
Because as it is knowingly committing patricide even if your dad was a horrible person takes a toll on one's psyche, it impacts a person's mental wellbeing and leaves a scar that never really heals for the most part.
It's also well known that Luke yearned for his dad like crazy and we know that both Yoda and Obi-wan were aware of this.
Now imagine unknowingly committing patricide when you've been yearning for Mr. Paternity himself, coming to realisation that you now have the blood of the father you've been yearning for on your hands and there is absolutely nothing you can do to change that and knowing that the mentors you trusted knew you were killing your father but didn't stop you or care for how it would affect you if you found out, they were insisting upon it in fact. I'm pretty sure that's a good way to make a whole new Sith Lord no?
Did they not...consider what that would do to him, how that would genuinely and most probably break him?
My theory has long been that Obi-Wan and Yoda sincerely thought that if they waited until Luke was more trained to reveal the little point of view thing, they be able to convince him that Vader has nothing left of his father in him.
The Jedi, I think, didn’t really understand family by this point. If children were raised in the academy and bonded in master/apprentice relationships, then they saw those as the strongest relationships Jedi had.
Since Obi Wan, Vader’s master, couldn’t keep him from going dark, they couldn’t imagine anyone else pulling it off especially a son Vader didn’t know he had.
They forgot Anakin’s strong bond with his mother, and completely underestimated Luke because all of it was outside of a point of view they could understand.
What better way to make sure everyone thinks Mara and Lando are together than putting in an appearance at one of the last places Mara wants to be - a glittery palace gala.
May the Fourth Be With You!!
New Posting! Mara Jade Memoir Part 3: Dances Without Purpose
Welcome to Part 3 of My Decisions, My Reasons: a Mara Jade memoir
Chapter 1 is up!
Dances Without Purpose - Chapter 1
I'm currently planning to post on Mondays and Thursdays.
Part 3 covers the time period between the defeat of Exar Kun in Champions of the Force and I, Jedi up to roughly the end of The Crystal Star, but a lot of the storyline is also impacted by references made in Vision of the Future.
Here, Mara recounts her regularly interrupted hunt for Jorj Car'das in the company of Lando Calrissian.
Unlike parts 1 and 2 which start with my suppositions before moving into existing texts, part 3 leaps right into the middle of Champions of the Force and Mara and Lando's visit to Kessel...
Believe it or not. Part 3: Dances Without Purpose, is almost complete.
It's a bit rambly but so is this segment of Mara's life as she navigates a strange route through some odd obstacles and relationships.
This segment is from Children of the Jedi. It's a minor moment but I find it deeply illustrative of Mara and Han's friendship and I really love it. These two people are both prone to a snarky defensiveness, but, by now, there is a deep trust there. And it shows here as Mara is able to read him through the emotion and regulate herself.
I sat down with a map of Belsavis and poked through my memories of my time there, trying to remember enough details to find the coordinates I told the Solos I’d get for them. Their call had lodged in my brain and I hadn’t been feeling quite myself since talking with them.
Of course, I pointed out to myself, it’s not as though I’d gone into this mission with a great sense of personal identity anyway. I’d decided to track down Car’das with Calrissian in order to get out of studying to be a Jedi. The toll of slipping in and out of identities in order to get information the way I had been was starting to show, and now that I was digging through an old identity to assist the Solos, I was starting to feel a bit fractured.
 Hopefully Karrde and Ghent would be able to track down this Exocron place and I could go back to just being Mara Jade again, whoever that was.
When I was fairly certain I had pinpointed the right location for the tunnel heads, I yanked the datacard out of my pad and went over to the holostation in our room. I tapped in Solo’s frequency, sat down, and waited for a response. I almost closed the call when it occurred to me I might be catching them in an inopportune moment like they had me, but before I had the chance to reconsider, Solo’s face appeared in the vid field.
“Got your coordinates for you,” I opened, holding up the datacard, “what’s your receiving speed?”
I was taken aback by the sudden accusatory look on Solo’s face, and even more so when he snapped at me.
“Why didn’t you tell us you were after Nubblyk the Slyte?”
Why didn’t I what?
“Because I don’t lie to my friends.” I returned sharply, rage and confusion battling for supremacy in my mind. I’d had nothing to do with Nubblyk the Slyte, even when I’d been on Belsavis, he’d been a mere fact of the place. Nothing to do with me, “and if that’s all you’ve got to say to me -”
I reached out to cut the call, but I could see Solo’s face collapse on itself.
“Sorry” he muttered, “but I heard -”
“What’s wrong, Solo.” I said quietly, dropping my hand. His expression reminded me of the way he’d looked when he was playing Calrissian for the Falcon. Stakes were high. Something was very wrong.
WIP: Trust an assassin to foil an assassination plot
In Vision of the Future, when threatened by Crimelord Bombaasa on Pembric II, Karrde says the following:
"I'm talking about a situation that occurred here a little over six years ago... one in which a rather dapper gentleman and a young lady with red-gold hair foiled an assassination plot against you."
So here's an excerpt from Mara's own experience with this crimelord...
[W]ith a gesture, he directed Lando and me to follow him back out to the Thrusterburn where he ordered a round of drinks and took an oddly long first sip. Despite his nonchalance, the assassination attempt had clearly spooked him.
“Well.” He finally declared, “now you intrigue me. And I find things that interest me to be very much worth my time.”
“Like Rastus Khal.” Lando remarked.
“Who?”
“He’s a character from the Adsila saga.” Lando raised an eyebrow, “ancient Corellian mythology, you see. He always made time for that which interested him. You remind me of him.”
“I will have to revisit the saga.” Bombaasa replied looking impressed, “I do not remember this Rastus figure. Now I must ask, what payment do you demand for your actions?”
“For saving your life?” I asked innocently, “for foiling a multi-layered assassination plot with my hands tied behind my back after having my ship boarded and nearly being executed under false pretenses?”
Lando, placed a hand on my shoulder warningly.
“No, my friend.” Bombaasa said reassuringly, “the lady of the blade is right. That is what happened.”
Mara and Lando are getting tired of the whole charade...and of each other as they head into an asteroid belt.
 "I just don’t want to face down a vengeful Jedi Master if something happens to you.”
I snorted again, “sure. That’s a real worry.”
“You don’t think he’d be upset?”
“If Luke Skywalker cared about what I was up to, he could have come on this jaunt.”
“Would you have been any nicer to him than you have been to me?”
I thought of Skywalker skipping out on the dinner he’d invited me to.
“Probably not.” I admitted.
Calrissian shook his head, “okay, let’s see what this ship can do against those asteroids.”
“You mean let’s see what I can do.”
“No, the ship. I know you’ll do fine. It’s your paint job I’m worried about.”
“Thanks.” I turned back to the panel.Â
“Looks like we’ve got something to prove then,” I said quietly to the Fire, “let’s do this.”
Carefully, I advanced into the asteroid field.
“Do you want help?”
“You offering?” I didn’t take my eyes off the viewport.
“Would I have asked if I wasn’t?”
“I guess not,” I gestured at the ceiling, “you know where the gun router switches are. Switch the turbos to the co-pilot’s panel and hit anything that I don’t seem to be clearing.
“So you’re making it my job to protect your paint.” He said as he slid into the copilot seat next to me.
Mara and Cilghal had an exchange in Lightsabers are Always Loaded that suggested Cilghal, with her healing skills, might be able to help Mara deal with her trauma.
Although she seems unaffected in canon, I figure her adventure with the Death Star in Champions of the Force would be rough on her, so she decides to give it a try.
Clearly she has some work to do...
“Do you remember how old you were when you started considering Emperor Palpatine your master?”
I sighed, “I don’t really know. I could walk, I could speak in complete sentences, I could dress myself. Five, maybe?”
“Do you have any memories of your life before then?”
Nothing mattered until then.
“No.” I said it too sharply and too quickly to be believable. I shook my head and tried again, “not really.”
I looked at Cilghal, “there are feelings. Shadows. They didn’t want me to go.”
“Your parents?”
“I think so. I don’t know. That’s what I told Organa Solo a couple of years ago and it still feels true.”
“You’re close to Leia Organa Solo then.”
“Not really.”
Cilghal looked skeptical, “you told her a lot.”
“That wasn’t my choice. She happens to be very good at backing beings into a corner until she gets what she needs out of them.”
“And what did she need out of you?”
“An explanation for why I rescued Jacen and Jaina from an Imperial assault force.”
“Did she tell you her conclusions?”
“She thought I’d rescued them because I’d been taken away from my parents.”
“Does that feel true to you?”
“Maybe.” I wriggled my shoulders, uncomfortably. I thought of my conversation with Horn about friendship and duty, “couldn’t I have just done it because I could and therefore I should?”
More from part 3.
Every undercover mission involves sacrifices. Sometimes they're your sacrifices. Sometimes you make them someone else's...
 If Faughn had a lead, it was the most anyone had had so far and we needed to follow it. Double checking my plunging neckline to make sure it covered as much as it possibly could, I pushed off the wall of my alcove and worked my way back to our box, ordering delivery of a bottle of Darruvian champagne on the way.
When I seated myself next to Calrissian again, he slid an arm around me and kissed my cheek.
“I’m three races up.”
“Good.” I answered as the champagne arrived, “I got something to celebrate.”
Calrissian held his silence as two flutes were poured for us and he followed along as I toasted his fortune and skill. His eyes narrowed as I downed my flute filled with sweet bubbles.
“Mara? What’s going on?” He murmured in my ear as he sipped his own.
“Follow my lead.” I whispered in response, ignoring the way his eyes widened in concern.Â
I waited until the cheering died down from the latest race and then I stood up and turned to face him dramatically.
“How dare you!” I screamed with all of the rage and humiliation I could muster.
“Mara?” Calrissian let his glass slip out of his hand in surprise, and as it shattered on the floor, I grabbed the bucket of melting ice globes that had come with the champagne and unceremoniously dumped it in his lap, knocking the champagne bottle over at the same time and drenching the seats below our box.
“Never touch me again!” I screeched. Then, working hard to summon a tear, I turned and ran, seemingly blindly from our box, leaving a sputtering and dripping Baron Calrissian behind me.
She is soooo angry. I also love Luke in this panel. It is canon that he uses his outer tunic as a pillow and I love the reminder this means he’s just lounging around napping in his sleeveless shirt, showing off his sculpted form to her.
blakekathryn
tangentwithtanner
