The convoluted, twisted reasoning that some people come up with to argue with our heretofore mentioned complaints is truly impressive. We have suffered for years listening to people who tell us "Mara was mistreated by the post Zahn authors," and "that if Mara had been let to develop along the lines he had set up we wouldn't despise her so." They propose that "If we ignore the other intervening books and imagine what that development might have been like we would see how great Mara is, how she is a truly tortured soul who has worked hard to overcome her many problems and her relationship with Luke is obviously on a path to romance."

So let's get this straight--if we squint real hard, hop on our left feet, and hold our noses this cesspool won't stink so much. Is that it?

Sorry. What has been written, has been written. It's there in black and white. We've read it and you can't take it back. Mara is undeserving of Luke's love, and is also undeserving of the heaps of popularity she has somehow earned (we are still puzzled by it, personally). In a poll taken by the Star Wars Insider, Mara Jade ranked higher than any of the other non-movie characters, and that, my friends, is why she was paired up with Luke Skywalker--because she's popular. She will sell books. And that is also why the marriage will happen (albeit in a comic book series) and that is also why although she is reported to have some sort of strange illness in the upcoming Vector Prime novel that we know she will not die of it (even though everyone else who's contracted it is dead). We can only hope the illness the author, Mr. Salvatore, gives her is painful and extremely embarrassing for her.