"I'm a fighter. I've always been a fighter. The few times when I have been at leisure, I've been miserable. I want challenges, I crave them."
―Mara Jade Skywalker
 
Mara Jade Skywalker was a Force-sensitive human female who was during different times in her life, an Emperor's Hand, a smuggler, and later a Jedi Master who sat upon the Jedi High Council. She was raised as a servant and assassin to Emperor Palpatine and became a high-level Force-using operative. As an Emperor's Hand, Jade carried out the Emperor's bidding, killing Rebels and corrupt Imperials alike with cold professionalism, even as a young woman. As Palpatine's assassin, she received top-notch training from experts in a variety of fields as well as training in the Force, which was continued by Luke Skywalker years later. After Palpatine's death, she received his last command, which was to kill Luke Skywalker; however, the death of her Master caused her to go rogue. Eventually she joined smuggler chief Talon Karrde, becoming one of his best smugglers and his second-in-command. During the predations of Grand Admiral Thrawn, she was forced to work with Skywalker, and developed a grudging respect for him. During the Galactic Civil War, Mara Jade proved herself skilled in a variety of fields; she was a good pilot and mechanic and trained in the use of both a blaster and hand-to-hand combat even without relying on the Force.
 
Over the years, she continued to work for Karrde and interact with Skywalker intermittently, training at his Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4 for a short period of time. She was groomed by Karrde to take over the Smugglers' Alliance and had a brief relationship with Lando Calrissian as part of that role, although she later admitted it was a charade. She also continued to grow closer to Skywalker and worked alongside him on numerous occasions, including the Almanian Uprising and the Corellian Crisis. The two finally realized in 19 ABY while on a mission to Nirauan that they were in love, and wanted to spend the rest of their lives together.
 
After marrying Skywalker, Mara Jade took the surname Skywalker and devoted her life to the New Jedi Order, becoming a Master in her own right. Shortly before the Yuuzhan Vong War, she fell ill due to deadly coomb spores that she'd been infected with by a Yuuzhan Vong agent. She used the Force to slow their progress even as she continued to fight against the alien invaders on numerous battlefields including Dantooine and Ithor, but the disease was only purged from her system after the birth of her son Ben in 26 ABY. After becoming a Master, Jade Skywalker took her niece Jaina Solo as an apprentice until she reached Knighthood. During that time, she participated in Jedi offensives against the Yuuzhan Vong, aiding in the war effort. After the fall of Coruscant, she helped Cal Omas become elected as the Chief of State as the New Republic reorganized itself into the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances. Jade Skywalker ultimately saw her efforts against the Yuuzhan Vong rewarded in the war's final battle on Coruscant with the death of Supreme Overlord Shimrra Jamaane.
 
In the following years, Jade Skywalker was active during the Dark Nest Crisis and the subsequent Swarm War, wherein she helped to thwart the expansionist plans of Raynar Thul and the insectoid Killiks who were spreading into Chiss space and subverting many other people into becoming Joiners under the influence of several Dark Jedi. Jade Skywalker was insistent that the Jedi who had joined Killik communities would be withdrawn, as they were using their skills in combat against the Chiss, provoking them. She continued to serve by the side of her husband as a Jedi Master during the Second Galactic Civil War, first serving alongside the Galactic Alliance against the rebellious Confederation. The re-emergence of the Sith Lady Lumiya was another threat that Jade Skywalker had to confront, but though she and her husband skirmished with both Lumiya and the fallen Jedi Alema Rar on multiple occasions, the darksiders escaped. As the war escalated, Jade Skywalker was killed by her nephew, Jacen Solo, whom she had learned was a Sith and therefore saw as a threat to her family personally, to the Jedi Order, and to the galaxy at large.