SE: You're doing a story for Dark Horse called Union in which Luke Skywalker marries Mara Jade. I think this is probably surprising to some Star Wars fans--especially those who have been reading the comics series and not the novelizations.
MS: Sure.
SE: It might be nice for you to outline, for those fans, which of the Star Wars novels lead up to this event. Even the most dedicated fans have probably missed a story or two along the way, so I'd like to establish some reference for where the relationship between Luke and Mara originates
MS: Sure. In general, Tim Zahn first had Luke Skywalker meet Mara Jade in the Zahn Trilogy, Heir To The Empire. It is pretty obvious the characters had . . . well, let's say sparks were flying between the characters.
Then, in terms of the novels in chronological order, after the Zahn Trilogy, my novel, I, Jedi, kind of expands on that theme. There are a bunch of other novels that deal with it to a greater or lesser extent, I mean they brush by some of them, and then in Tim's Hand of Zahn Trilogy, which would be Specter of the Past, and then finally in A Vision of the Future, the last band(?) of books, Luke and Mara get engaged.
SE: OK. Can you describe the first meeting of Luke and Mara? Judging from our comic series Mara Jade, I don't think any reasonable person would ever assume these two would end up engaged to be married . . .
MS: (laughs) Right. This certainly comes out of those novels. And considering their first face to face meeting you probably wouldn't think they would get married. In fact, their first face to face meeting is more like something you would expect to see in Divorce Court, actually.
SE: In case our readers haven't yet read Mara Jade, let's explain this a little. Mara had been assigned by the emperor to kill Luke--and this would be roughly around the same timeframe as the beginning of Return of the Jedi . . .
MS: Right. She was basically compelled by the Emperor to kill Luke Skywalker. This was the emperor's last order to her as he was dying, and, literally, she was under a compulsion to kill him. This kept eating at her and eating at her. She didn't kill him at the very first moment they met because it was mutually advantageous for them to work together, but this began to prey on her more and more, and Tim (Zahn), being the great writer he is, found a way out of it.
SE: And what a way to go about it. I never would have expected this to result from their initial interactions
MS: Well, Mara had to deal with her compulsion to kill Luke at first, but then romance could blossom. But it was a tough road for the couple. It took them a long time to realize that they were meant for each other.
SE: If you go back and looked at the histories of both characters, you can see that they are very similar types of people, despite some obvious differences.
MS: I think the main difference between them, which actually worked very well in developing the story, is that Mara has always been a very tightly held character. For Mara to trust anybody takes a monstrous effort. And Luke, on the other hand, is very, very accepting. And so, she knows she is supposed to kill this guy--she's certainly not supposed to like him or anything like that. And he turns out to be so accepting and he even wants to help her, despite her background. All these things about him get through this armor that she has kind of accreted around herself.
SE: At this point, news of Luke's marriage to Mara has been on the internet for a good while, and a lot of fans know about it already. But none of the novels deal directly with the wedding, do they?
MS: No, none of that is in the novels. The novelization picks up five years after Vision of the Future, and at that point, they are already married, so it is only alluded to.
SE: OK, so, how does it feel to be the guy who wrote the vows for Luke Skywalker's marriage?
MS; Working in Star Wars is a solemn and sacred duty anyway. (Laughs) It's true, and it's still great fun . . .
SE: Of course.
MS: And so, being able to contribute, in this way, is just unbelievably special. I feel very, very honored. The cool thing about this whole series is that its kind of a cap to the Bantam novel series, because we will get to see everybody's favorite characters from those novels finally represented graphically.
SE: I noticed a lot of notations about that in your script. You were kind of describing how these characters were going to be developed for the comics page, and that seemed like a really great thing to bring to Union . . . yet another reason for fans of the novelizations to check out this series.
MS: That, and, you know, there is a whole segment of fandom out there that customizes action figures. And one of the neat things about describing all these characters in detail for the artist is that I am very aware that they are out there--these very wonderful people who want to see costumes, and want to see cool stuff. If you want to be able to take all your customized figures and do a cool diorama of the wedding, here's your chance, guys!
SE: Wow. I hadn't even thought about that aspect of it. I also have to say that I really appreciated reading just the overdraft you had written of the series and the first couple of scripts. There is a lot of levity in the series as well. You used the words "solemn and sacred" earlier, and while there are certainly large elements of that sort of sentiment throughout, it's a fairly relaxed series, as far as the tone goes.
MS: Well, the kind of the feel that we have decided we wanted to play with was along the lines of Shakespeare in Love, where you have these wonderfully romantic and passionate passages, and then you've got the great sort of action and fun and humor and all the things you expect out of a good blockbuster sort of project.
SE: That's exactly how it feels, and it really is everywhere in the series. You know, Luke has a bachelor party, and there are some very light-hearted elements surrounding the ceremony, but it never steps away from being anything but great Star Wars storytelling
MS: And, again, I've said this before--if you are dealing with Mara Jade, you have to be really, really careful because she has literally legions of fans who are dedicated like you wouldn't believe . . .
SE: How true!
MS: . . . and the witness protection program would not save me if I screwed it up (laughs).
SE: Well, I'm pretty sure that won't happen this time, at least. As a female fan of comics, it's wonderful to read really great depictions of interesting and strong women who don't lose their inherent femininity, and Mara Jade is one character who really fits that description. And there are some priceless touches here that really capture the surreal sense that surrounds a wedding and all the strange ceremonial preparations that the women in particular, tend to handle on their own.
MS That's another thing about working on this series, too. Because there are other female characters who have been through the novels, being able to bring them in and working through some of the character dynamics has been fun. You really come to see, for example, how Princess Leia is very different from Mara Jade, and Mara is different from Corran. Having this opportunity to sort-of round-out the women of the Star Wars universe and bring them together for this occasion is kind of cool.
SE: And I think a lot of readers will say, "It's about time," since so many of these characters are compelling, and we don't get to see them in action as much as their fans would like. I think a lot of people who aren't necessarily fans of Star Wars in general have always assumed that Princess Leia is the "token Star Wars female." It's not true of the films, and it certainly isn't true considering the myriad female characters who are so important to the back history.
MS: True.
SE: Another facet of this series that I think is fun is that we've watched so many of these characters fight intense battles and, in general, behaving very bravely and altruistically. And suddenly, here they all are talking, in essence, about what kind of rice to throw . . .
MS: Well, I think one of the cool things about being a writer--and especially with characters who are so grandly heroic--is having these characters deal with things that would seem so terribly mundane to most of us. It's about getting to see how these heroes would go about, you know . .
SE: . . . picking out toothpaste, or something like that, anyway.
MS: Right.
SE: But, obviously, with such an eventful series, not everything can be expected to run entirely smoothly. Without giving too much away, what would you say is the biggest potential problem this union will face?
MS: Well, the biggest difficulty is this--there are going to be people who are not happy with the fact that the Empire lost. And, you know, we have certainly seen, in our world people, who feel that their ox has been gored, and they take action. Luke is such a symbol of the New Republic and because Mara was part of the Empire, they view this marriage as a total trespass, and they are out to ruin things. They are out to show people that know that this is all an abomination. And the lengths to which they are willing to go are rather extreme.