In 1994, I saw all three Star Wars movies for the first time in one thrilling day. The first thing I wanted to know once I'd emotionally recovered from my introduction was if we ever found out what happened next. I found Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire not long after that and breathed a huge sigh of relief that the saga continued. But even as a 13-year-old, I was disappointed from the first chapter that Luke still seemed to be single. Luckily, that didn't last forever, and it was immensely satisfying to see how he became a husband and father over the years of the Expanded Universe.
What is the Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade story?
For me, Han Solo and Leia Organa epitomized the idea that constant arguing can lead to love, but Mara Jade, a redheaded smuggler with a mysterious grudge, took it a step further. Just chapters after Luke's daring escape from an Imperial Star Destroyer's tractor beam, he wakes in his X-wing to find that a freighter has come across his damaged ship. The captain, Talon Karrde, credits one of his crew, Mara Jade, with leading them to find one X-wing in the middle of nowhere.
Luke's attempt to sense her in the Force "shot through him like an electric current." The next chapter opens with Luke being held prisoner by an armed woman who mocks him for not being able to sense her in the Force. "As far as I'm concerned, the only question left is whether we turn you over to the Imperials or kill you ourselves." It's not exactly what you would call a meet-cute, but this is our first interaction between the first of the new Jedi and the woman I really hoped he would marry.
It took three books for them to become not just allies, but friends. It took some hard truths for her to realize that her hatred of Luke Skywalker was the result of a deception by her master, Emperor Palpatine. However, Luke didn't hold it against her that she had conflicted feelings along the path to help him defeat a dark Jedi Master clone named Joruus C'baoth.
Seven years and many minor appearances after Luke met Mara, Timothy Zahn sent Luke to Mara's rescue in Vision of the Future. Trapped in a series of caves, they finally resolve both the conflicts that there have been between them and the feelings that they've left unspoken.
After Mara has asked, "When have I ever made anything easy for you?" Luke takes her hands and proposes marriage. It was probably a shock to the New Republic and Empire alike, but it was a wonderful payoff for those of us who hoped those crazy kids would get together.
There are many stories that lead on from there. We see their wedding in the Union comic and watch them as newlyweds in Survivor’s Quest. By the time the New Jedi Order series starts, the former Emperor's Hand is so trusted that she's Jaina Solo's Jedi Master. It was in that series of books that I remembered why I liked the Skywalkers so much. We see the Jedi Masters, Skywalker and Jade Skywalker, fighting a war to end all wars and experiencing horrific losses together, but they're also anxious about starting a family and coping with a devastating illness on Mara's part.
In all of Star Wars books, perhaps my favorite mushy moment is in Troy Denning's New Jedi Order installment, Star by Star. New parents Luke and Mara have slept through the night for once and Mara tries unsuccessfully to make authentic Tatooine food without alerting Emergency Control. Rather than laugh at the burnt nausage and rubbery dustrcrepes, Luke treats it with the appreciation he would show a gourmet meal. Mara has this to say about the man she once hated:
"To everyone else on Eclipse, he might be the enigmatic Jedi Master and last best hope for an imperiled galaxy, but to her, he was the gentle husband who always knew what to say, the unassuming moisture farmer who had seen value in her when she could not find it herself. Even knowing of all the things she had done in Palpatine's service, all the lies told and the lives taken, he had accepted her first as a peer then a friend, and finally - after it had dawned on Mara that the Force was steering them toward a very different relationship than the one envisioned by Emperor Palpatine - a lover and a spouse."Troy Denning, Star by Star
With the advent of the Sequel Trilogy and the relegation of the Expanded Universe to "Legends" status, we lost Luke's great love of his life and the stories that went with her. That doesn't mean we've forgotten what we learned along the way. This Valentine's Day, we can all hope for a love as patient as theirs.