May the 4th be with you. ^_^
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I had this one planned out for awhile and having missed a few other holidays/special days I wanted to be on top of this one. ;P
I've been a Star Wars fan ever since I was little and while my first experience at only a year old was being scared by the Rancor while seeing Return of the Jedi in theaters, I grew up to love the series and almost everything produced with the name Star Wars on it. From comics, to novels, shows, and movies I have and will always be a Star Wars fan even when it outlives my fandom and myself.
To celebrate today I wanted to get my girl Jenet dressed up as Mara Jade, from the now non-canon Expanded Universe and my all time favorite character in the franchise. I mentioned the novels, and that's where I kept my love of the franchise going until the prequels came around and my first novel was by pure luck, Heir to the Empire, the novel Mara made her first appearance in. My brother had read it and had left it under the passenger seat of our step mom's car where I randomly found it. I started reading it and was hooked. I really enjoyed Timothy Zahn's writing for those novels. I didn't know what to think of Mara at first. She seemed like a potential villain and in some ways early on she was, but as her story and motivations unfolded I really started to like her and it was clear she was sort of the focal point of those novels and Zahn really wanted to push her as a character for the franchise to come. After his trilogy of novels, Mara kind of fell out of the spotlight as other writers didn't seem to care for her a pushed her to side. Zahn brought her back though when he pushed a budding romance between her and the series chief protagonist Luke Skywalker. Fitting given she had seen him as an enemy in the early going of his initial trilogy. And soon enough the couple was married and Mara was pushed to the front to join the ranks with Luke, Han, Leia, Chewie, and other long standing protagonists. I always admired Mara's strength and resolve. While her motivations in the beginning were misguided, she never gave up her confidence and drive to see things through. Also, something about fiery red heads. ;)
I originally wanted to go with Mara's more iconic look, the black jumpsuit, but Scarlett convinced me to go with this outfit, one that was featured on a Japanese cover for one of the Dark Nest novels. Possibly Swarm War. However, the Bishoujo version of Mara's outfit I originally wanted to go with still got some use as we both agreed it had a good pose to work with. Still would like to get Jen in that outfit in the future. Or maybe have Jessie wear a red wig and play the role himself? ;D
Super thanks to Scarlett for getting this one done in time for the holiday as well as letting me know they were a long time fan as well. ^_^



Jenet © Me ^_^

Mara Jade © Timothy Zahn

Star Wars © Disney

Art by  MartianJellyfish