Mara Jade vs Ashi (Star Wars vs Samurai Jack)

Mara Jade Skywalker, the Emperor’s Hand turned Jedi Knight!

Ashi, the Daughter of Aku turned ally of Samurai Jack!

Fated to kill the last and greatest warrior hope in the name of an ultimate evil, these two women only knew their life’s goals and strove to slaughter all their masters’ enemies. However, in a chance encounter where enemies were forced to become allies and later lovers, they would defy their destinies and redeem themselves by aiding to put the final nail in evil, for good.

Though both daughters of darkness managed to steer the hand of fate, they are no less dangerous. When crossing paths and blades, only one will walk away from a DEATH BATTLE!

Before we begin

The media we’ll be drawing from is pretty straightforward. Since she’s exclusive to the Star Wars Legends continuity, Mara will be getting the novels, comics, games, and guidebooks from that. Ashi will be getting her feats from the Samurai Jack show and the Battle Through Time game since it’s considered canon by series creator Genndy Tartakovsky.

Background

Mara

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away the first Galactic Empire reigned supreme. Founded by Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, this all-powerful dictatorship was the culmination of a millennia-long war between the idealistic, peacekeeping Jedi and the corrupt, power-hungry Sith, a war the Sith had seemingly won. With the Empire under his rule, Palpatine hunted the Jedi to near extinction, whether through his troops or his own personal agents. Among them, the highest ranking belonged to his handpicked spies and assassins, a group so inconspicuous that even its own members were unaware of each other’s existence: the Emperor’s Hand. And the deadliest of these Hands was a woman known only by a few in the Empire:

Mara Jade.

Born on the planet Coruscant in 17 BBY, Mara was discovered by Palpatine at a young age and taken from her parents. Under his guidance Mara was trained in the ways of the Force and taught to be the perfect spy and assassin. She received training in CQC, infiltration, thievery, marksmanship, and many other skills, which she’d put to the test during her teenage years by officially being bestowed the title of Emperor’s Hand. Though many in the Empire believed her to be nothing more than a dancer or one of Palpatine’s many concubines, Mara’s true career lied in exposing traitors, assassinating enemies, and maintaining his hold over the bureaucracies. No matter the assignment, each mission was carried out flawlessly, but that would change when she was assigned to kill Luke Skywalker.

Following the death of the Emperor, Mara’s life was destroyed, everything she knew was lost. Too stubborn to let herself fall apart, she never gave up. Her mission would remain, going from an unfulfilled destiny to a voice screaming in her brain, endlessly: YOU WILL KILL LUKE SKYWALKER. Whether an independent bounty hunter or second-in-command to the infamous yet honorable smuggler Talon Karrde, Mara never lost sight of her revenge. Within Karrde’s organization, Mara would have her loyalties to past and present tested with the return of the formerly exiled Grand Admiral Thrawn and his plan to destroy the New Republic in its infancy with a single master stroke. Said stroke involved the rogue Jedi, Joruus C’baoth, and his desire to have the last remaining Jedi as his apprentice(s). And then…Luke fell right into Karrde’s lap, without even knowing it.

Caught between the heir to the empire, the man who killed his predecessor, and her potential new lease on life, Mara took her shot, only to end up stranded and powerless with the one person she was meant to kill. Mara and Luke became allies to survive the dangers of a secret planet, save one another from C’baoth’s wrath, and do what they could to thwart the dark force rising under Thrawn’s control. With Luke’s sister Leia pregnant with two Force-sensitive children, Mara found herself protecting the Skywalker/Organa/Solo family despite herself, and using her knowledge to expose Thrawn’s secrets. As Thrawn attempted his master stroke in space, C’baoth was still to be dealt with, which Mara and Luke faced together. Between creatures that defuse the Force, the mad power of a Dark Jedi’s psychotic clone, and the clone of her mortal enemy, Mara stood her ground, aiding Luke when he needed it the most. In killing the clone of her sworn enemy, the last command of Sheev Palpatine was no more. Mara was finally free.

Spending the next decade working with Karrde or following her own interests, Mara remained an ally of Luke’s, since she no longer wanted to kill him. Against uprisings here, superweapons there, the odd interaction with Luke’s failed romantic pursuits somewhere along the line…until one day it seemed that Thrawn, killed in his moment of triumph, had returned. Meeting with Luke and sharing all she knew, the two set out in pursuit of a powerful weapon only known as the Hand of Thrawn. Not wanting her past mistakes or anything else the Emperor’s would-be successor had done to hurt anyone any longer, Mara took initiative and placed herself on Luke’s mission.

Realizing it or not, the two had grown closer to one another, to the point where even being stranded and injured only led to them realizing it more. With a little Jedi training from Luke and persistence from Mara, the Hand of Thrawn was discovered: a new Empire, one of Thrawn’s loyalists and own kind, which she was welcomed to be a part of. Considering the offer, Mara declined, deciding that her destiny was with Luke, the man she… loved? From the primal destiny of killing him from ruining her life, Mara’s life had so changed to the point where he was now the man she wished to marry. The spectre of her past was gone…the vision of her future was as wife to the master of the New Jedi Order.

Unfortunately, these times of peace would come to an end with the invasion of the Yuuzhan Vong, a species from outside the galaxy that was seemingly cut off from the Force. During the start of the Yuuzhan Vong war, Mara would end up among the many infected by the coomb spore. This bio-engineered pathogen killed many of its victims within days, some within weeks, but through the power of the Force, Mara persevered for two years even while pregnant!

Despite her stubborn insistence that she could handle the infection on her own, as childbirth drew closer, the disease became stronger than ever. With her body on the verge of dying, Mara combined her strength with Luke’s and her child‘s, using it to fully purge the virus from her system and give birth to a son named Ben. While she initially tried to minimize her role in the war to protect her son, Mara was soon left with no other choice but to join the front lines. She battled the Vong’s forces, aided the Jedi against the Sith cyborg Lord Nyax, and eventually tracked down and defeated Nom Anor, the Vong heretic responsible for her infection.

Following the war’s end, Mara would become more involved in the Jedi Order as one of its more prominent members, yet at the same time struggled with raising Ben. Thanks to the constant deaths and traumas of war he’d witnessed from infancy, Ben had lost any sense of childhood innocence and developed a habit of removing himself from the Force, something that left Mara troubled and saddened but unable to fix. Fortunately, her nephew Jacen Solo would help mend Ben’s relationship with the Force by taking the young Skywalker on as his student, allowing him to slowly move past his traumas. Mara would begin bonding with Jacen as a show of thanks, but this growing relationship would color her perception, leaving her blind to a change she never could’ve expected. 

Unbeknownst to anyone in the Order, Jacen was having an internal struggle. Plagued by visions of the galaxy on fire and the discovery of an illegitimate daughter, he became desperate to save the galaxy from this approaching threat and ensure no child would have to experience the horrors of war like he had. This desperation would be discovered by Lumiya, a former Emperor’s Hand and old enemy of both Luke and Mara. Sensing his potential, Lumiya gradually coerced Jacen from the shadows, tempting him into joining the dark side and sculpting him to become a greater leader than even Palpatine.

By the time the Jedi discovered this, it was too late. Having used his experience and natural charisma as a war hero, Jacen had captivated the public by appearing as a rising politician and beloved military commander, all the while growing stronger in the dark side of the Force.

Hoping to prevent the rise of another Empire, Mara confronted Jacen and tried to dissuade him, but upon realizing he was too far gone, she took matters into her own hands. After crashing both of their ships Mara lured him into a cave and ambushed him, engaging in a savage brawl that pushed both of them to their limits. But right as she was about to kill him, Jacen used Mara’s love for her son to distract her with an illusion of Ben, and in her moment of hesitation, stabbed her with a poison dart. With her body convulsing and utterly paralyzed, Mara experienced a slow, painful death, her last thoughts being of Ben.

Though her physical body may have died, Mara’s presence remained after her spirit became one with the Force. Using her limited connection to the living, she was able to comfort her grieving husband and son while also giving them clues to uncover her murderer, planting the seeds for Jacen’s rising Empire to prematurely fall. While she may not have succeeded in her final mission, Mara’s reputation would be passed down through generations, and she- like her husband- would go down in history as one of the greatest Jedi Knights of her time.

Ashi

Long ago in a distant land, Aku, the shapeshifting master of darkness, unleashed an unspeakable evil. But a FOOLISH samurai warrior wielding a magic sword stepped forth to oppose him. The two did battle in Aku’s lair, with the young prince nearly emerging victorious… but before the final blow was struck, Aku tore open a portal in time, sending him thousands of years into the future where Aku’s evil was law. The nameless samurai known only as Jack wandered the land in search of a way to return to the past. All the while he battled the various robots, bounty hunters, aliens, and demons that worked under Aku, aiming to undo the evil that was him.

But following a humiliation whereupon Jack became unworthy of his magic sword and disappeared into the wilderness, fifty years had passed. Time had lost its effect on the samurai, but the suffering continued. And as Aku’s grasp choked the past, present, and future, hope was lost. But Jack had not disappeared… not entirely. And what was left of him needed to be hunted down and destroyed before he got back, back to the past.

Fortunately for Aku, he had once visited one of his most loyal sects during that gap, a cult of women known as the Daughters of Aku. Offering a drop of his evil essence to the Mother of the cult for amusing him, he failed to foresee what he had then created. The Mother drank the essence, and proceeded to give birth to septuplets. These seven would be raised together, their skin burned black as the darkness they were spawned from, and their only way of life was the death of the samurai.

And when they were finally set loose to embark on their final mission, one would surpass the other six. One whose skill, whose passion, whose dedication and whose potential for power rose above the rest. One who would fight the samurai and not only live to tell the tale, but take a path that steered the destiny of time itself.

The One True Daughter of Aku:

Ashi.

Alongside her sisters, Ashi tracked Jack down and ambushed him, but despite their best efforts, they fell one by one until Ashi was the only one left, hanging from a cliffside by her kusarigama. After falling to her presumed death, she survived and continued trying to kill Jack regardless of her circumstances. It didn’t matter if she was trapped by her own weapon, eaten by a monster, or being saved by Jack. Her mission ingrained in her since birth remained the same: Kill the Samurai!

But right when she was about to kill Jack, a ladybug happened to fly by, reminding her of when she found one as a child, only to have it crushed by her mother, who deemed it a distraction unworthy of Aku’s reign. And now she’d watch as a similar ladybug flew into Jack’s hand… and he released it unharmed.

Seeing this sort of kindness and tranquility from anyone, let alone her mortal enemy, surprised Ashi. After witnessing this and reflecting on his previous attempts to save her life, Ashi slowly broke free of the conditioning her mother had placed in her all her life. As she traveled alongside him, Ashi would learn more about the world as a whole, including how Aku had destroyed nature and how his rule preyed upon the weak, leaving nothing but death and destruction.

During a mission to save some brainwashed children from being implanted with mind control chips, Jack would mysteriously disappear, blaming himself for the kids’ supposed deaths. Ashi wandered the land trying to find him, and her journey would lead to her encountering many of Jack’s allies, showing her Jack’s impact on the world.

After preventing Jack from committing seppuku, Ashi helped him regain his sword, battling an army of orc soldiers and even her own mother, killing the High Priestess with one of her own arrows. As they traveled the land to finally end Aku’s reign, Ashi and Jack’s relationship would slowly turn from being allies to something more intimate and they eventually fell in love. But when it finally came time to confront Aku, the sorcerer smelled something strange: his essence inside of Ashi.

Manipulating the remnants of him in her body, Aku forced his daughter to fight Jack, eventually bringing them to the surface and fully corrupting her. Now trapped inside her own body, Ashi was forced to watch as Jack surrendered and was taken prisoner, about to be publicly executed on live TV.

Fortunately, Jack’s allies would arrive in time to free him and battle Aku’s forces, and in the ensuing battle Jack and Ashi would use their love for each other to overcome Aku’s command, giving Ashi full control. Using her new powers, she created a portal in time to send her and Jack back to the past, allowing him to finally return home and kill Aku.

Though the day was saved and Aku was slain, Jack would still have one final tragedy befall him. Just as they were about to be wed a few years later, Ashi suddenly collapsed. Since Jack had killed the past Aku, this meant Ashi was no longer born, and she faded in his arms, leaving only her empty kimono. Grief-stricken, Jack mourned the loss of his fiancée, but was given the strength to move on when he saw a ladybug. The same creature that inspired Ashi’s change of heart would give Jack the courage to move on and forge a better future despite his loss.





In the game Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time, things take a different turn when Aku interrupts their return to the past, separating them and sending Jack to a pocket dimension filled with his past enemies. Unable to reach Jack directly, Ashi would occasionally appear through a temporary time portal to offer him advice to keep going, even begging him to spare her sisters this time around. Despite his best efforts, Jack was once again forced to kill the Daughters of Aku, including the past, evil version of Ashi thanks to Aku pushing her onto his sword.

Reanimating her with his essence, Aku would force the dead Ashi to fight Jack to the death, only for the real Ashi to destroy her copy and finally help Jack reach the past. Jack killed Aku, and by destroying a series of gold medals he‘d corrupted, his influence was weakened enough that Ashi remained alive, now accompanying Jack as his wife.

Experience, Intelligence, and Skill

Mara

According to many sources, Mara was trained by Palpatine himself (Allegiance, The Last Command, The Last Command Sourcebook, "Sleight of Hand: The Tale of Mara Jade," Mara Jade: By the Emperor’s Hand #3, Mysteries of the Sith manual, InQuest Gamer 50, New Jedi Order: Balance Point, You Make The Card - Mara Jade, Star Wars Insider 91, The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, and these trading cards). While some of these describe her as being trained from childhood, Mara‘s personal recollection states she was trained from infancy. Regardless of when she began, this training consisted of Palpatine teaching lightsaber combat and Force abilities, his protectors teaching hand-to-hand combat and marksmanship, professional thieves teaching her how to steal, learning political intrigue from Palpatine’s advisors, infiltration techniques from his spymasters, and how to move and fight in zero gravity.

With all these skills, Mara served as a spy, infiltrator, and assassin, performing dozens of successful missions for the Emperor. She exposed traitors, assassinated his enemies, and helped him maintain control over the bureaucracies he controlled. She became an expert combatant, spy, and assassin, and an excellent blade duelist. Despite only being a teenager she carried out Palpatine’s missions without failure, and by the time she was 14 she learned the most silent and efficient ways to kill Palpatine’s enemies. She’d go on to be a redoubtable and resourceful young woman in her late teens, was assigned to spy on Bail Organa, and killed so many people she eventually lost count.

Her time as the Emperor’s Hand has also led to her having a ton of accolades. She’s considered one of his most capable spies and the perfect spy. She’s been called a highly skilled assassin and operative, an elite agent and assassin, Palpatine’s deadliest assassin and agent, his top assassin, and even the best assassin of her day.

She’s skilled in the use of multiple weapons, including lightsabers, blasters, whips, vibro weapons, rifles, heavy weapons, and simple weapons. She can even dual wield two blades at once or her lightsaber and blaster.

In Luke’s Jedi academy she learned how to use her Jedi powers in a few days and fought enemies like Sith temple statues animated from her own Force energy, a dark copy of herself, and a corrupted Kyle Katarn. During her participation in the Yuuzhan Vong war she fought and killed multiple Yuuzhan Vong warriors, including the false prophet Nom Anor, and aided Luke and Tahiri against the giant cyborg Lord Nyax.

During the Dark Nest Crisis, she was able to defeat a Gorog assassin and multiple Gorogs and Kiliks alike.

She’s defeated the dark Jedi Alema Rar, battled the Dark Lady Lumiya on two occasions, nearly killing her the second time; and did the same against a dark side Jacen Solo. There is a slight asterisk with Jacen since she had to deliberately lure him to a narrow tunnel to limit his ability to fight, and Star Wars Insider 107 says this was because she knew Jacen would triumph in a regular duel. However, even after her death Jacen still acknowledged she would’ve killed him and he was still terrified just recapping it.

She’s also fairly intelligent, having studied psychology, gathered intel on Jedi that survived Order 66, run tests on the Empire’s cells to ensure they couldn’t be escaped, and tricked Darth Vader by exploiting her surroundings as the Emperor’s Hand. During the Yuuzhan Vong war she was able to identify a disguised Yuuzhan Vong based on how he doesn’t appear in the Force, the Vong’s nervous system and why they can’t be stunned, and developed a biotoxin drill to counter amphistaff poison. She could crack Thrackan Solo’s security in three minutes, and even gave yearly seminars teaching young Jedi how to track their quarries through the galaxy’s data banks.

Ashi

As a Daughter of Aku, Ashi has been trained from childhood as an assassin who can fight in any condition, including underwater, in complete darkness, or naked. She’s killed every soldier in this massive army with her bare hands without visibly tiring, then went on to fight her mom to the death. She’s also helped Jack fight off a group of alien tiger men and Lazarus 92, a massive swarm of parasitic alien bugs.

She’s displayed some quick thinking in general and during battle, like creating new clothes out of surrounding plants, turning a ram horn into a makeshift dagger, using broken glass as shuriken, or finding a way to attack Jack with her kusarigama while it was restraining her.

Due to her training being incredibly limited to the cult she was literally born into, however, Ashi’s knowledge of the rest of the world is limited and her experience is incredibly specific. She’s proven to not even understand basic modesty, ending up naked several times without being embarrassed. (We see you there, Genndy…) This isn’t a Starfire-like situation where fish out of water characters simply have a different concept of modesty, this is a matter of her never being raised with such foreign concepts in mind, since that wasn’t “kill the samurai”. So while she is skilled at what she’s been trained to do and adaptable in many different forms of combat, her conventional wisdom and experience is woefully limited.

In short…

Jack is smart.

Aku is pure evil.

Ashi is neither.

Equipment

Mara

Combat Suit

A skintight, black combat suit equipped with a weapons belt, a BlasTech K-14 blaster, knives hidden in her boots, detachable sleeves, a cloak for added protection, a hip holster for her blaster, and a belt for her lightsaber.

Lightsaber

A blade of pure energy capable of cutting through most materials. While it radiates no heat, the lightsaber is capable of melting through metals, deflecting blaster bolts, evaporating liquids, and illuminating dark areas. Contact with the blade will short circuit any droid, and it still functions perfectly underwater. Lightsabers appear weightless to most outsiders, but their plasma blade creates a strong gyroscopic effect that requires a lifetime to master.

Throughout her years as the Emperor’s Hand and a Jedi, Mara has wielded many lightsabers. These include her original magenta lightsaber as the Emperor’s Hand, a green lightsaber in “Mara Jade: A Night on the Town,” and a violet one during her time under Kyle Katarn, but her most consistent was the blue lightsaber given to her by Luke. Originally belonging to Anakin Skywalker, Mara used this throughout her career as a Jedi Knight all the way up to her death at the hands of Jacen Solo.

Shoto Saber

A half-length lightsaber made to defend against Lumiya’s lightwhip. She used this while fighting Alema and during her final battle with Jacen.

Vibroblade

A fifteen centimeter knife with small ultrasonic generators that produce thousands of microscopic vibrations per second along the blade's edge, allowing it to easily cut through duraplast, ceramic armor, and metal alloys. Even a glancing blow from this blade is capable of amputating a limb or inflicting serious injuries. Mara dual wielded one of these with her shoto while fighting Jacen. According to her, it was the best the Empire could buy.

BlasTech DL-44 Pistol

A powerful sidearm that shoots a concentrated beam of high-energy particles capable of burning through advanced alloys and irreparably damaging organic flesh. It has a maximum range of 50 meters (164 ft) and can fire up to four shots at once. While the blaster can overheat from rapidfire uses, Mara does not tend to rely on it as her primary weapon, let alone rapid firing.

Sleeve Blaster

A tiny blaster hidden in her left sleeve, which she’s made occasional use out of.

E-11 Medium Blaster Rifle

Also called the Stormtrooper Rifle, it’s a heavier form of blaster with an equippable E-11 electroscope crosshair that enhances the speed and accuracy of its shots, potentially resulting in increased damage. It’s also capable of being used in close quarters combat one-handed.

Bowcaster

A heavier form of blaster that can fire a lethal spray of five bolts at once. It’s particularly useful in close quarters.

Imperial Repeater Rifle 

A standard spread-shot blaster rifle used by Imperial troops. Can fire three shots at once, either as a single burst or as a triple burst spread.

Rail Detonator/Seeker Rail Detonator

The rail detonator fires explosives that either detonate on impact or stick to any surface/enemy, while the seeker rail detonator is a homing missile that travels to nearby targets.

Auto Sequencers 

Explosives that can be timed or proximity based. There’s also a manual variant that can detonate at the press of a button.

Concussion Rifle 

Fires compressed bullets of ionized air that explode into shockwaves. It can be fired as a single shot or in a shotgun-like spray.

Carbonite Gun 

Fires a spray of carbonite that freezes enemies in seconds. The freezing is only temporary, but Mara can smash them to pieces with the butt of her gun, her lightsaber, or by elbowing it.

Flechette Launcher

A tube-shaped gun that fires canisters and small missiles which explode into hundreds of high velocity, razor sharp flechettes. It possesses a maximum range of 100 meters (328 ft) and the stopping power of a blaster.

Its laser tracking system "paints" the target with an electronic homing signature, allowing the cartridges to follow the target's movements while in flight. Once the cartridge is within three meters of them, it explodes, releasing dozens of tiny flechette darts strong enough to puncture blast vests, ceramic armor, and even stormtroopers’ plasteel armor plate. And since the flechettes spread over a two-meter diameter, even a "near miss" can severely injure the target.

While she never used it on screen, Mara gathered it as one of the many weapons she planned to use against Lumiya.

Thermal Detonator

An explosive with a six second timer that disintegrates anything in a five meter radius. Can be modified to explode on contact or have a three second delay.

Flash Bombs

Blinds enemies, which lasts longer the closer they are.

Glow Rod

Portable light sources that illuminate surroundings through the use of phosphorescent chemicals or small power cells and bulbs. They can be adjusted to ultraviolet frequency.

Datapad

A handheld computer used for organizing information, writing, processing data, and reviewing recordings. Mara used it prior to her fight with Jacen to look up charts and surveys of her surroundings so she could find monuments and tunnels to box him in. 

Electrobinoculars

A pair of electrobinoculars that have audio capabilities to let her eavesdrop on conversations. It has up to 500x magnification, can operate in full daylight or near darkness, and reach targets up to 600 km (372 ft) away.

Syntherope

A canister filled with at least 50 meters of quick drying liquid rope.

Stokhli Spray Stick

A canister of liquid that shoots a 200 meter paralyzing mist which can create climbable surfaces or a spray-net that even lightsabers have trouble cutting through. Useful for immobilizing enemies or scaling walls.

Misc. Tools

• Inflatable mannequins and decoys

• A comb she can reassemble into a pair of palm grippers to climb walls

• Assorted disguises and fake IDs

• Tusken clothes used to disguise herself and avoid suspicion

• Hidden disguises, weapons, communications gear, and falsified documents

• Blood samples, an invisible, transparent glove with Thrackan Solo’s fingerprints, and a holoprojector scanner that replaces her face with a glowing version of his

Z-95 Headhunter

A common, legendarily durable starfighter equipped with laser cannons and concussion missiles. It was later modified by Kyp Durron to have a center-mounted ion cannon and its triple blasters hardwired for dual firing, and further modifications gave it a hyperdrive, allowing it to travel at faster than light speeds.

Jade Shadow

After her previous ship, the Jade Sabre, was destroyed by the Yuuzhan Vong, Mara was gifted this as a replacement by Lando Calrissian. This Horizon-class luxury yacht can reach up to 1000 km/h (621 mph) and is outfitted with enhanced shielding systems, retractable laser cannons, proton torpedoes, a hyperdrive, a tractor beam, and a stronger, stealth-based, Force-guided variant of the proton torpedoes called shadow bombs.

Its interior consists of five staterooms, a passenger bay, a galley, a medbay, and a common area that leads to a corridor connected to the bridge and common room. An airlock hatch with a dummy door is located on the port side. While it doesn’t have a prison cell, its medbay has decent restraints and medical supplies to create an impromptu prison.

Ashi

Kusarigama

A chain sickle Ashi’s frequently used in combat. It can extend to insane lengths to restrain others, attack from afar, lift them into the air, or disarm them. She can also use it to swing through her surroundings and save herself from falls.

It was destroyed when a sea monster shot her and Jack out of its blowhole, but she seems to carry a spare since she uses one in a later episode.

Bow

After killing a cult member with her own arrow, Ashi stole this off her body to help her sisters during a training session.

Ram Horn

Used as a makeshift dagger while fighting the High Priestess.

Glass Shards

Used as makeshift shuriken while fighting Lazarus 92.

Double-Sided Blade and Riot Shield

Used against Lazarus 92 while investigating the lab it had escaped.

Broadsword

Used to fight Jack while under Aku’s control. After having her latent Aku powers awakened, it became the same material as her skin and is constantly on fire, but was later destroyed by Jack.

Skills

Mara

Dancing

As one would expect from someone with a dancer’s figure, Mara is a skilled dancer, having displayed it during her time undercover in the Imperial court and Jabba’s Palace.

Stealth

Thanks to her training from Palpatine’s spymasters, Mara has shown off a wide range of skills when it comes to infiltration and stealth. She’s noted to have an uncanny knack for slipping away unnoticed, remained hidden on a ship for 4 days without being seen, snuck on a ship and monitored security from afar, can eavesdrop on conversations from the shadows or underneath vehicles, pick locks, sneak up on the gargantuan cyborg Lord Nyax and the Yuuzhan Vong without being detected.

She’s regularly donned disguises both during her time as the emperor’s Hand and long after her service ended. These disguises include:

• Countess Claria to infiltrate a party and investigate corruption

• Palpatine’s court dancer Lianna

• A high-ranking Imperial officer to gain information

• Litassa Colay, Director of Offworld Special Events, to intercept guards and lead them into a trap, and an informant named Arica Pradeux

• A dancer named Arica to go undercover and assassinate Luke

• A hunchback to sneak past security

• A waitress named Chiara Lorn

• Baroness Paltonae, the representative of a company specializing in devices to cheat at gambling

• A helpless messenger/slave girl to infiltrate Chay Praysh’s mansion

• A hooded cloak, trunked mask, and goggles

• Baroness Muehling of Kuat to extract information from a Duros and hack into Bburru's communications bureau

Thanks to her Force abilities, her stealth is particularly deadly. By combining her robes with Force Bubbles, she becomes nearly invisible, unable to be detected by pressure sensors or the air around her. Even her body heat becomes undetectable, to the point where she doesn’t even sweat! 

Martial Arts

While she hasn’t shown it often, Mara has a mastery of martial arts thanks to her training from Palpatine’s protectors alongside the Imperial Royal Guard. She’s used them to fight off a group of Duros gunmen, dominated Nom Anor in hand to hand combat, and briefly trained Jaina Solo in them.

Marksmanship

Like with her martial arts abilities, Palpatine’s protectors trained Mara to have an expert marksmanship with both hold-out and full blasters. It’s also possible to enhance her accuracy using the Force.

Piloting

Mara is an accomplished starship pilot who claims she can fly anything. As the Emperor’s Hand she was trained with a basic overview of starship operations mainly focused on military craft.

It’s said that her piloting skills would be an even match for a Chiss squadron.

Strategy

Mara is extremely skilled when it comes to the art of strategy, able to instantly adapt to unusual or unexpected situations. She was trained by Palpatine in a form of layered thinking where she leaves behind trails or diversions her target thinks are trails to trick them.

She’s a skilled manipulator, having tricked two men who’ve known each other for years into distrusting each other.

Her creator, Timothy Zahn, has said that Mara has an alertness and awareness that ensures she’s always two or three steps ahead.

Whenever she starts investigating something, Mara enters a mindset called “sniper mode,” “a calm and rational state close to transcendence” where she reverts back to her Imperial assassin training by focusing only on assessing and planning.

If an opponent feels superior to her in even the smallest way, she’ll nurture it to exploit their overconfidence. She’ll even deliberately leave openings in her stance to bait enemies into getting closer before beating them into submission.

She’s caused distractions using the Force and chemicals, hid her lightsaber in a bust and used it to kill a target, deliberately crashed her ship to destroy a fortress, destroyed a droideka from inside its shield using the lightsaber of a dead Jedi, and relied on speed and precision to kill a Yuuzhan Vong after realizing she couldn’t use the Force on him. 

But her best uses of strategy come from her fight with Jacen. She started the fight by ripping the tendons in his leg right off the bat, then goaded him into entering traps and enclosed areas to prevent him from using his full Force abilities. 

She’s somewhat ingenious when it comes to using everyday objects, like turning a jacket into a makeshift version of her combat outfit.

Medical Knowledge

Knows how to mend a fractured arm.

Hacking

Distracted a group of rebels by hacking their camera feed to make them think they were being attacked. She’s also managed to disable a safe’s sophisticated alarms, disarmed a boobietrapped datapad, and bypassed security systems and sensors using older technology, frequencies, and relays they’d never spot.

Mechanics

Among the many engineering talents taught to her by Palpatine, Mara knows the Paparak cross-cut, which is designed to weaken a stressed wall in such a way that it holds together long enough for the saboteur to safely escape before it collapses. Her profiles in the RPG handbook describe her as having skills in programming and repairing computers and droids, and the ability ro repair repulsorlifts and starships.

Ataru

Of the seven lightsaber styles that exist, Mara is noted to use Form IV: Ataru. This is an acrobatic style that requires a constant use of offense and relies on a Jedi’s ability to run, jump, and spin using the Force. As such, it’s best practiced by Jedi who rely on enhancing their speed and agility through the Force. But even with this in mind, Form IV should only be used in short, devastating bursts or the user will risk becoming exhausted. 

Niman

While never officially acknowledged by any guides or sourcebooks, Mara’s use of dual blades against Alema and Jacen suggests she has training in the art of Jar’Kai, which is founded on the use of Form VI: Niman. Niman draws on all of the other lightsaber styles to create a hybrid style that encourages integrating Force powers with swordplay.

Ashi

Stamina

While never shown often, Ashi has displayed some immense stamina, taking down every single orc in this massive army without any injuries before fighting her mother to the death, only passing out after killing her.

Agility

Ashi is able to parkour off stalagmites, leap above attackers, and perfectly balance herself atop narrow pipes and scaffolding while investigating a factory.

Martial Arts

Ashi’s displayed some impressive skill when fighting at close quarters, having used it to fight off an entire army and help Jack against a group of tiger men.

Marksmanship

During her training with the Daughters of Aku, Ashi showed proficiency with a bow and arrow, using it to kill some of the cult members who were fighting her sisters. When fighting an army of orcs, she was able to throw broken spears into their heads with complete accuracy (0:38-0:40), and she could bifurcate the bugs comprising Lazarus 92 with broken shards of glass.

Stealth

The Daughters of Aku have all been trained to be so adept at stealth that they can completely blend in with the shadows.

Powers

Mara

Force Sensitivity

The ability to use the Force, an energy field that permeates everything in the galaxy. The Force flows through all beings, whether they’re aware or it or not. Those who are sensitive to the Force can freely manipulate this energy field, which is split into a light and dark side.

The light side of the Force embodies peace, love, tranquility, and life, and is obtained through meditation and thought with the intent of doing good and preventing evil. The dark side is the opposite, embodying death, destruction, and anger. To use it, a Force user must give into their own selfish desires or fall victim to anger and fear.

Strangely enough, despite being trained by one of the most powerful dark side users, Mara’s never turned to it or used it even while under Palpatine, though this is contradicted by one-off lines from an earlier sourcebook and a later author. Regardless, she can use Force abilities related to both the light and dark sides.

Force Control

The ability to control one’s inner Force, letting you maintain control over your hunger, thirst, pain, and exhaustion. This allows you to enhance your immune system against diseases and poisons, accelerate your healing abilities, heighten your alertness, and enter a hibernation trance. With enough mastery, a Jedi can even slow their bodily processes to live for up to 200 years.

Of the RPG exclusive abilities she doesn’t show in other media, Mara possesses the following according to various official sourcebooks:

• Accelerate Healing: Mara accelerates her body’s natural healing processes

• Control Pain: Mara powers through the pain of any injuries she has

• Emptiness: Mara empties her mind to let the Force flow through her, putting her in a deep meditation that leaves her oblivious to her surroundings. During this time she’s left immobile and hard to detect or feel in the Force. Upon coming out of Emptiness, her Force abilities are enhanced equal to the time spent in it

• Remain Conscious: Lets Mara remain conscious even after suffering injuries that should knock her out

Force Sense

One of the most basic Force powers. Mara can feel the ebb and flow of the Force to gather information on her surroundings, see in total darkness and past barriers, sense emotions, enhance her awareness and reflexes to detect oncoming danger, magnify her senses to see past the range of macrobinoculars, “hear” a person’s thoughts, sense ambient Force energy, or discover how diseased or injured something is. For Mara specifically, she can use this to tell if someone’s lying or sense dark side energy on another person's clothes.

Advice she’s given to other Jedi implies she could use the Force to locate a partially blocked artery in the brain and pinch it off with telekinesis to incapacitate anyone she doesn't like. Other Jedi like Luke have used the Force to perceive concealed weapons.

Force Alter

Mara can use this to move objects with the Force, help others control their own Force, change the perception of others or plant a suggestion in their minds to trick them, and spread the abilities of Force Control to others.

Force Sight

This ability can be used to see in the dark or make walls invisible, allowing the user to find hidden enemies or weapons. It can also see those under Force Persuasion and protect the user from Force Blinding.

Force Hearing

Lets Mara hear other people’s breathing and ensure attackers are dead.

Sensory Enhancement Techniques

In addition to being able to sense emotions through the Force, Mara’s been trained in sensory enhancement techniques that let her detect poison or flammable gas.

Sense Deadening Techniques

Mara can deaden her senses to pass through sense-based lie detection or suppress the pain using the Force.

Precognition/Danger Sense

Also referred to as Farsight, Mara can clear her mind to receive visions from the Force, letting her see events that will happen in the future, including possible deaths she could suffer. 

She also has a “danger sense,” where she extends her senses around the area to act as an early warning system for oncoming danger. This lets her detect attacks, the deaths of others, or the arrival of suspicious people before they happen.

Her danger sense is better than Luke’s.

Telepathy

Mara can sense “every nuance of thought and emotion” during an interrogation and communicated telepathically with Palpatine during her time as the Emperor’s Hand. She’s used this to see past Leia’s disguise in Jabba’s palace and determine if someone’s lying to her. Additionally, she possesses projective telepathy that lets her communicate with others and make them feel her emotions.

She has several ways to soothe, confuse, or incapacitate by affecting minds with the Force, though this will fail if the target is too alert. She can also “jab” into an opponent’s mind to incapacitate them near-instantly.

Mind Tricks

By gesturing with her hand and putting the Force into her voice, Mara can alter a person’s perception and memories or get them to change their minds. She’s used this to make a guard release her from a cell and convince two joggers they didn't see a fight.

Mara also possesses other variants of the mind trick such as Force Persuasion, which tricks those around her into thinking she’s invisible, and Force Corrupt, which brainwashes enemies into joining her for the rest of the battle.

Battle Meld

The ability to let Force sensitives join their minds together, letting them lend strength and sense the emotions of others as though they were their own. Mara has created a battle meld with Luke, giving them a mental and emotional bond they can use to send each other strength or refresh each other. This bond runs so deep she gained knowledge of his hopes, fears, successes, failures, strengths, and weaknesses, and could “see to the very core of his being.” There are even times where they’re so in-sync they seem to fight, think, and even breathe as one.

In the presence of enough Jedi, their existing battle meld is magnified to the point that Luke and Mara can hear each other’s subconscious thoughts.

Aside from aiding allies, Battle Melds can also be used on enemies, leaving them seized by confusion and fear.

Telekinetic Kill

Mara exerts her control over the Force to injure or kill her target. The exact method depends on what she desires, but known executions include stirring the brain, squeezing the heart, or collapsing the trachea.

Saber Throw

Mara throws her lightsaber into the air and uses the Force to guide it

Detoxify Poison

Mara can force her body to eject poisons before they can take effect. Even if they do take effect she can call white blood cells to the affected area and fight them off.

Force Injure

Also called Injure/Kill, this is an ability normally used by Sith. Mara can use this to alter a target’s body, mortally wounding or killing them instantly. This can be applied via touch or done from a distance.

Inflict Pain

Mara causes a target to experience a great agony that prevents them from acting.

Force Push

Mara creates a concussive wave of telekinesis to knock enemies or obstacles back. She used this to slow Lumiya’s lightwhip to let her dodge it, and can use it to push enemies into dangerous situations or off cliffs.

Force Pull

Mara uses the Force to telekinetically drag an object to her. She can use this to disarm her enemies, drag them closer, or reach items that are out of the way.

Force Jump

The ability to jump unnaturally high. Mara can Force Jump up to five meters across, scale up buildings, and use it to escape Force Grip.

Force Speed

Also called Burst of Speed, Mara can traverse her surroundings at a quicker pace and become harder to hit. Though this comes at the cost of draining her energy and metabolism with prolonged use.

Force Choke

Also called Force Grip, this telekinetic choke can hoist others into the air and close off their trachea for a quick death, though the victim can escape by subjecting the user to Force Blindness.

Force Absorb

Also called tutaminis, Mara absorbs an enemy’s projectiles and attacks to heal and empower herself. This can be used on light, heat, radiation, blaster bolts, and even Force Lightning. Mysteries of the Sith also depicts it working on attacks like Force Destruction and Force Grip… somehow.

Force Heal/Healing Trances

Mara’s been taught a dozen Force techniques for self-healing, though none of them work on other people. These include a Force healing trance that can completely heal burns and scrapes at the cost of leaving her hungry and thirsty, or a hibernation trance where her heartbeat slows, her breathing drops to the point of being imperceptible, and she falls unconscious, causing her to appear dead to the outside world. Hibernation trances can be used when food or air is low, and the trance can last up to a week in dry climates and a month in wet climates.

Her healing abilities are potent enough to rebuild damage from coomb spores by cutting off the blood flow to diseased cells and destroying them. It’s also been implied Jedi can use healing trances to cure themselves of a venom that causes permanent paralysis.

Force Barrier

Also called Force Protection, this temporarily creates a rotating Force barrier around Mara, shielding her from both physical and Force attacks.

Force Bubble

A defensive ability where Mara creates a giant sphere of Force energy to protect herself from harm, including rocks or acid. With the help of another Force user she can increase its height to throw off hundreds of boulders.

She can also combine this with her stealth training to make it so her body doesn’t set off any pressure sensors and contain her own body heat so she doesn’t sweat.

Doppelganger

Also called Force Projection, this distracts enemies by creating a lifelike decoy that’s virtually indistinguishable from the real deal. It lasts longer depending on how many experience points are put into the power.

Force Blindness

The user creates a flash of Force energy that overwhelms the optic nerves, rendering those around them momentarily blind. However, if they aren’t careful, the victims can still track their movements by listening to them.

Force Destruction

A destructive blast of Force energy that can be used to push enemies off cliffs or into walls.

Force Lightning

Mara can convert her Force energy into Force Lightning, creating a wide blast of electric forks that are nearly impossible to deflect and send surges of pain through the target’s internal organs. Those caught by the Force Lightning are subjected to excruciating pain as their life energy is siphoned from their body, which will eventually kill them. Sustained exposure has been noted to roast flesh, calcify the skeleton, and stop the heart.

She also possesses a variant known as Chain Lightning, where the lightning arcs toward up to four targets.

Deadly Sight

One of the few Force abilities forbidden by the Jedi Council, Mara harnesses her fury and hatred through an intense glare toward her enemies. This rare ability can blister skin, vaporize limbs, and quickly kill its victims.

Force Paralysis

By simply flicking a finger, Mara can leave a target unable to move.

Sever Force 

As part of her preparation for fighting Jacen Solo, Mara had Ben teach her how to completely cut herself off from the Force, letting her do so for up to two minutes. With this she can freely dip in and out of the Force, and it gets easier by the minute.

Galaxy of Heroes abilities

In the game Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, Mara has several unique skills she can use during combat:

• Calculated Shot inflicts Daze for two turns

• Ultimate Predator removes enemy buffs and inflicts Stun and Vulnerable for one turn. It deals Special damage and inflicts Tenacity Down on a target for one turn. The damage of this move is doubled against Shocked enemies and Jedi

• Infiltrate and Disrupt damages all enemies and inflicts Offense Down, Shock, and Stagger for 2 turns. Mara Jade gains Stealth for 2 turns and 1.25% Turn Meter for each debuff that’s inflicted

• The Emperor’s Hand gives +20% Offense and Potency for the entire team when Palpatine’s the party. If Palpatine isn’t the leader, other Dark Side allies gain Useful Pawn until the end of the encounter, which can't be copied or dispelled. Mara has +10% Critical Chance, Critical Damage, and Offense for each ally with Useful Pawn. At the start of Mara's turns, she gains a stack of Loyal Hand (max 20 stacks) until the end of the encounter

• Useful Pawn: -5% Critical Chance, Critical Damage, and Offense 

• Loyal Hand: +10% Max Protection and Offense

Ashi

Enhanced Senses

As part of her childhood training, Ashi’s senses have been trained to their absolute peak, letting her dodge arrows in total darkness and fight in those same conditions.

Hammerspace

Ashi has used this to pull her kusarigama out of thin air.

The following are attained after being corrupted by Aku:

Aku Physiology

Thanks to her body becoming a shapeless black blob like her father’s, Ashi can now twist her neck 180 degrees, stretch her limbs as long as she wants and turn them into blades, shapeshift into anything she can think of, and even absorb entire beings into herself.

At one point, her body’s dark mass became a writhing ocean that Jack tried to pull her out of, implying it was supposedly intact beneath all this, but that is provably not the case based on other shapes she’s taken. Much like Eddie Brock’s body inside Venom, the anatomy of the human inside is “ehhhhh don’t worry about it.”

Pyrokinesis

Lets her summon fire and imbue it into her weapons and limbs.

Laser Eyes

Red-hot beams Ashi can fire whenever she wants. She’s used this to counter Aku’s eye beams and incinerate a copy of herself.

Time Portal

By letting out a sonic scream, Ashi can summon a time portal around herself or another person to send them to any point she wants. She used this to send herself and Jack back to the past.

Resistances

Mara

The Dark Side of the Force:

Because Mara never turned to the dark side or even used it under Palpatine’s training, she can easily resist its effects.

Fear Manipulation:

Her profile in the Jedi Academy Training Manual states that Mara is immune to abilities that induce fear.

Mental Manipulation:

When Lord Nyax attempted to brainwash her and Luke into killing Tahiri, Mara was able to resist his commands using logic and cold calculations. This is notable since Nyax was able to briefly overpower Luke’s mental defenses.

Mara was also trained to resist Alema’s memory manipulation, which is so potent that her Force presence robs others of any memories she was there.

Diseases and Cellular and Molecular Manipulation:

During the events of New Jedi Order, Mara spent most of the series using the Force to resist the effects of the coomb spore, a Yuuzhan Vong disease that alters the cellular and molecular structure to the point of breaking down the molecules. This disease killed targets within days or weeks, yet Mara persisted for two years before she was eventually cured with help from Luke and Ben.

Paralysis Inducement:

Mara is listed in multiple sourcebooks as having Resist Stun, which lets her resist the ability to induce paralysis in a target. She used this during her battle with Jacen to resist and deflect him jolting her spine to paralyze her with the Force.

Ashi

Electricity:

After enduring prolonged torture from The Dominator, Ashi was able to directly overpower his electrocution and beat on him.

Aku Body Resistances:

Taking on the powers of Aku, Ashi has several immunities and resistances both shown and implied. See Scaling and Before the Verdict section for additional details, as the specifics on what is a resistance and what translates into immunity is better addressed there.

Forms

Mara

Force Ghost

Upon dying, Mara’s body sublimates its organic cells into pure energy, becoming one with the Force and letting her manifest as an intangible spirit. She used this to give Ben clues on her murder and appear to Luke in his sleep.

Ashi

Daughter of Aku (Controlled)

Thanks to Aku “bringing out the best” in her, Ashi’s latent powers were awakened by Aku and she was placed under his complete control. This turned her body into the same amorphous, pitch black material as Aku, and she gained his horns and fiery eyebrows. 

While in this state, Ashi’s subconsciousness is left to struggle for control against her body, and she gains the same weakness to Jack’s sword (0:51). Fortunately, Aku’s influence can be overcome, either temporarily with sufficient enough pain or permanently using the power of love.

Daughter of Aku (Free)

After Jack’s love for her freed her from Aku’s influence, Ashi gained full mastery over her powers as a Daughter of Aku and obtained new ones like laser eyes and time portals. (Supposedly she had them all along, but this was her first time demonstrating them. Once again, see Before the Verdict.)

Feats

Mara

Overall

• Carried out numerous successful missions as the Emperor’s Hand
• Was considered Palpatine’s top, deadliest assassin
• Managed and manipulated many diplomatic situations as an Imperial envoy and spy, as well as a New Republic asset
• Sparred with a (relatively) pissed-off Darth Vader at the age of 18, and lived
• Became one of Talon Karrde’s top smugglers over the course of six months, eventually becoming his second in command
• Fulfilled Palpatine’s final wishes (from a certain point of view) by killing Luuke Skywalker
• Helped turn Kyle Katarn back to the light after he was corrupted by the dark side on Dromund Kaas
• Became one of the leaders of the Smugglers’ Alliance alongside Lando Calrissian
• Married Luke Skywalker
• Worked with Luke to destroy a droideka
• Solved the fifty-year mystery of Outbound Flight
• Defeated Lumiya twice
• Killed Dequc, Luuke Skywalker, Joruus C’baoth, and Yomin Carr
• Nearly succeeded in killing Jacen Solo after he became a Sith
• Gave Ben clues to her murder and encouraged Luke to keep living after becoming a Force Ghost
• Ranked 20th in Star Wars Insider 38’s popularity poll, which was the highest ranking from a non-movie character and the only EU character to appear on the list

Strength

• When she began training as a Jedi Knight it was said that if Mara ever completes the training, she could become one of the most formidable Jedi in history. When she finally became a Jedi Knight, she was considered among the strongest of them
• Shatters a stone triangle with a kick
• Knocks out an officer with a chop to the neck and later does the same to a stormtrooper
• Cuts through a door that couldn’t be blasted open
• Slashes and impales members of the Black Nebula with her lightsaber
• Defeats Lumiya
• Kills Luuke
• Fights and kills C’baoth
• Severs a wampa’s arm
• Duels several Sith statues
• Holds her own against a dark side Kyle Katarn
• Throws a large stone table
• Slashes an Imperial assassin with her lightsaber and beats him, leaving him with a ruptured spleen, bruised liver, broken ribs, and fractured skull.
• Slices a Yuuzhan Vong across the stomach and decapitates him
• Cuts through a dozen falling boulders and holds back a cave in with a Force bubble
• Hook kicks a Yuuzhan Vong
• Stabs a Yuuzhan Vong in the face, staggers him with a kick to the jaw, and forces him into a defensive position. Then she stabs through his right arm socket, shears it off, and stabs him in the face
• Pulls Gorog to the ground, snaps one of her legs with an elbow strike, does the same to one of her joints, then Force pulls a table into her and dents Gorog’s head
• Force pushes an entire wall of Killiks
• Cuts a gunman from shoulder blade to stomach
• Stabs Lumiya in the chest
• Sears Jacen’s cheekbone, cuts him from jaw to hairline, plunges her shoto saber under his collarbone, and stabs him in the chest with her dwindling strength
• A week after her death, Luke tells Jacen that if Mara were still here and learned Jacen was sending Ben to carry out assassinations, there’d be pieces of him scattered along the Hydian Way
• Even after her death, Jacen is still scared of Mara, admitting she nearly killed him and he was only able to stop her because of the poison darts

Speed

• Has consistently shown that she can dodge and deflect blaster bolts, even deflecting a flurry of them early in her career while flicking her lightsaber on and off
• Blaster fire in Star Wars has multiple statements of being lightspeed
• Dodges a vase thrown at her
• Blocks C'baoth’s Force lightning (comic version)
• Dodges an Imperial assassin’s spear
• Dodges and cuts through a dozen thud bugs, which were fast enough to react to her blaster
• Forces a poison from her body before it can take effect
• Dodges amphistaffs and coufees
• Dodges acidic saliva in a quarter second
• Dodges Alema’s blow dart, which came at her “only slightly under the velocity of a blaster bolt”
• Dodges Alema’s Force lightning at point blank range
• Dodges a dart trap
• Deflects Jacen’s poison darts

Durability

• Gets burned by an explosion but suppresses the pain using the Force
• Survives hearing C’baoth’s Force Scream
• Blasted by C’baoth’s Force Lightning
• Gets shot by several bolts during a training exercise
• Quickly recovers from being whipped
• Shrugs off a blast of Force Destruction
• Takes a backhand and a bludgeon from Yomin Carr’s whip
• Endures Lord Nyax telepathically transmitting the pain of her limbs, fingers, toes, shins, and forearms exploding, then gets up and keeps fighting
• Withstands Nyax transmitting his dying pain into her mind
• Gets stabbed in the shoulder
• Hit by half a dozen electrobolts, leaving thumb-sized craters burned into her flesh
• Impaled from behind by a Gorog larva, leaving a hole the size of three fingers, then has her skin burned by another Gorog’s acid
• Has a Wookiee sized piece of spitcrete smashed into her then gets shot by a shatter gun pellet, though she’s more surprised than hurt
• Keeps fighting after being stabbed in the throat by Alema’s talons
• Gets cut by headbutting Lumiya’s metal jaw, slammed into a nearby wall hard enough to bleed and briefly lose her breath, and is left with a black eye, blood streaking her face, and rope burn around her neck
• Knocked back by Jacen’s Force Push and pelted with brick fragments, cutting her scalp, then gets Force Pushed into a wall

Ashi

Overall

• Nearly killed Jack multiple times 
• Helped Jack free some children who were kidnapped by the Dominator
• Gave Jack the strength to keep living when he was on the verge of committing seppuku
• Helped Jack fight a group of tiger men and Lazarus 92
• Killed an orc army, the Dominator, and the High Priestess
• Broke free from Aku’s control with Jack’s help
• Helped Jack finally get back to the past
• Got married to Jack in Battle Through Time

Strength

• Kills one the Cult of Aku’s archers by stabbing her through the eye with an arrow
• Made Jack scream in pain while dragging him through a stone pillar
• She and her sisters overwhelm Jack’s defenses and rapidly cut him
• Lifts Jack into the air with her kusarigama
• Headbutts Jack twice
• Backhands The Dominator, escapes her restraints, punches him four times, and throws him through a window
• Punched an orc hard enough that his teeth flew out, used him as a battering ram against thousands of his men, beats most of them to death with her bare hands, splits their spears in half, and throws the tips into their heads
• Picked up a massive stone slab, then throws it off with enough force to shatter it
• Throws an arrow into the High Priestess’ stomach
• Overpowered and knocked away some tiger aliens
• Cuts through Lazarus 92 and her clothes, then shreds through more of the bugs when they take on different forms
• Repeatedly clashes with Jack, pushing him far at 1:25, and cuts through a giant robot at 1:53

Daughter of Aku form

• Clashes with Jack a bunch of times and stabs through the robot they’re on (0:27-0:35)
• Her axe kick forms a massive crevice in the ground and kicks up boulders visible from a distance (0:38)
• Destroys the cliff she and Jack were fighting on
• Sent Jack flying with a punch to the chest
• Knocks away the Scotsman’s daughters with her tendrils
• Briefly chokes Jack before regaining control
• Matched Aku’s blades and laser eyes with her own
• In Battle Through Time, she uses her eye beams to incinerate a copy of her corrupted self, which previously smacked Jack away

Speed

• As a child, she dodged flaming arrows in complete darkness
• Dodges arrows fired at close range and grabs one out of the air
• Blitzes Jack alongside the rest of her sisters
• Dodges a spear thrown by Jack
• Briefly dodges some large, mechanical restraints
• Jumps away before two Woolies can crush her
• Avoids The Omen’s attacks
• Dodges spears from some orcs (0:38)
• Catches an arrow from the High Priestess
• Reacts to a rain of arrows flying toward her and picks up a massive stone slab in time to block them
• Dodges the High Priestess’ knife swings
• Throws a ram horn fast enough to intercept a knife heading toward Jack
• Blocks and dodges multiple attacks from the High Priestess even when she turns her fingers into claws
• Outruns and dodges Lazarus 92

Durability

• As a child, she withstood the following:
• Being thrown into a pile of burning coals
• A brutal beating from a buff Aku cultist who previously beat up her sisters
• Having the High Priestess’ staff ground against her fingers until they threatened to snap
• Quickly recovers after being kicked by Jack
• Falls from a high branch into the forest below, losing a lot of blood, but gets back up to keep fighting
• Has needles rain on top of her but shows no visible signs of pain
• Endures prolonged electrocution from The Dominator
• Spends several hours scraping away the outfit that was burned onto her skin
• Got back up after being thrown through a tombstone
• Crushed by debris but gets back up a few seconds later
• Endures electrocution from the protocol that kills Lazarus 92 (0:52)
• Crushed under a giant robot and emerges unharmed (1:46)

Daughter of Aku form

• Cut by Jack’s sword (0:51)
• Knocked back by waves of Celtic magic from the Scotsman’s bagpipes

Scaling

Mara

Luke Skywalker

Mara and her husband have regularly fought alongside each other, each contributing their fair share in watching each other’s backs and assisting them. Official sources have described her as being one half of a formidable fighting unit with Luke and his most powerful supporter and ally.

It should also be known that Mara killed Luuke Skywalker, a clone of Luke created by Thrawn and Joruus C’baoth (the double vowel is how clones used to be indicated a decade before Geoorge Lucas decided what the Clone Wars even were). Luuke had matched Luke blow for blow during their fight initially.

Additionally, Mara was able to directly challenge and nearly kill Lumiya, who in a previous fight pushed Luke to his limits so thoroughly he thought he wouldn’t be able to win and could barely dodge her attacks by the end of it. Both in-universe characters and statements from the author acknowledge Lumiya being a challenge, describing their fight as a standstill and pushing Luke to his limits. Even taking into account that Luke won his later fights with Lumiya, this would still mean Mara and Luke are on a similar level of power.

• Defeated Emperor Palpatine, with the Official Star Wars Fact File stating Luke was too strong for him
• A post Dark Empire Luke was too powerful in the Force for Exar Kun to battle
• Kueller admits an injured Luke would still be a formidable opponent, and he only won their first fight because Luke was already injured, exhausted, and deliberately chose to stop fighting
• Manipulated a dovin basal’s black hole with the Force, though it leaves him exhausted and he passes out (9.85 exatons)
• The dovin basals are repeatedly described as creating black holes, which show properties of real black holes and are compared to or outright described as such by official guidebooks
• A younger, inexperienced Luke blitzed and perceived the droid Guri in slow motion with his first use of Force Speed
• Guri can process information and react within 6.1 picoseconds (28.44 - 546.8 c)

The Jedi Order

Mara has been hyped up by official sources as one of the most powerful Jedi of her day, with statements including that she’d become one of the most formidable Jedi in history if she completed her training, would’ve instantly become Luke’s best student if she stayed and trained, being considered among the strongest of the Jedi Knights, and being described as Luke’s most powerful supporter and ally. As such, she should reasonably scale to the feats from her fellow Order members, as well as members of the older Jedi Orders.

• Kyp Durron manipulated one of the coralskippers’ black holes into hitting another, though he’s left exhausted by the effort (13.99 petatons)
• Thon contained the dark side energy from a Sith ritual that wiped out all life on the planet and sealed it in a lake (64.57 petatons)
• Anakin threw an escape pod containing Durge into a star, which created an explosion visible from orbit (31.8 – 77 exatons)
• Yarael Poof held back the energies of the Infant of Shaa (47.37 – 82.42 zettatons)
• The Hero of Tython battled and defeated Gethul and defeated Tyth The Machine God when its body was at full power
• Gethel was capable of destroying planets, and its tentacles alone could damage the core of a world
• After charging its core for a few minutes, Tyth had enough power to completely destroy lokath, a Dyson Sphere encompassing a small star (4.8 quettatons) (Star Level)
• A duel between two padawan turned a planet into a star (28.47 ronnatons - 331.29 quettatons) (Dwarf Star - Star Level)
• Jax Pavan deflected a laser beam said to be lightspeed from 7.3 meters away (10.27% the speed of light)
• Obi-Wan could deflect three blaster bolts in a nanosecond (6.7 c)
• Mace Windu perceived his surroundings as completely frozen and surveyed the environment while a blaster bolt and bullet were coming his way (106.7 - 500 c)
• Ood Bnar was able to survive the Cron Cluster Supernovas by transforming into a tree (19.32 gigatons)

Misc. Sith and Darksiders

Seeing how she’s comparable to Luke, who physically overpowered the most powerful Sith Lord to ever exist in his earlier days, Mara should be at least on the same level as these lesser Sith Lords and Darksiders.

Darth Vader:

• Was said by George Lucas to be 20% less powerful than Palpatine
• Was described as far more powerful than Kar Vastor, to the point Kar wouldn’t stand a chance against him. Kar Vastor was a Force sensitive stronger, faster, and “immensely more powerful” than an all out Mace Windu
• Swung his lightsaber faster than the eye could track while stopping 11 blaster bolts
• Stopped I-Five’s laser with the Force, which was said to travel at the speed of light
• Kueller, an extremely talented student of Luke’s, possessed power comparable to Palpatine after leaving the academy
• Exar Kun killed the Sith wyrm and destroyed parts of the Great Temple long before reaching the peak of his power, and a prime Kun was considered more powerful than any Jedi of his day, which would include Thon
• The Great Temple is larger than the average Mannassi temple, which can withstand full powered turbolaser bombardment from a ship much more powerful than the Acclamator Assault Ship (200 gigatons)
• Darth Nihilus lifted his ship, the Ravager, from Malachor V's orbit (21.98 gigatons) and held it together with the Force (1.49 - 2.65 gigatons)
• Darth Vitiate wiped out all life on Ziost (16 - 21 teratons) and turned Dromund Kaas’ atmosphere into a giant electrical storm (91 - 728 teratons)
• Darth Malak absorbed the Force energies that were refueling the Star Forge (52.1 exatons) and moved in tandem with the Star Forge’s light speed drain (15% the speed of light)
• The Nightsister Charal exhausted the energies of the Sunstar, which could move moons (6.28 - 9.15 yottatons)
• Jacen could predict actions in microseconds
• Count Dooku could swing his lightsaber faster than light

Palpatine

Mara says twice in LOTF: Sacrifice that she could’ve stopped Palpatine and killed him, so clearly that means she upscales from every feat he’s ever done…

Okay, jokes aside, there actually are a few ways to argue for Mara scaling to Palpatine’s level of power. During Mysteries of the Sith, Mara fights Kyle on Dromund Kaas, which Kyle describes as “a greater source of power than I had ever known.” This would include the previous Jedi Knight game’s Valley of the Jedi, which was described by the developers as making a dark side Kyle a figure of almost Palpatine-like power. Given that Mara fought off a dark side Kyle in an area more powerful than that, she should at least downscale from Sheev’s feats.

You could also use the statements in the Jedi Order section to say she should be above Kueller, a former student said by both Luke and Mara herself to have power comparable to Palpatine.

Or you could use the fight with Lumiya to argue a scaling chain. Luke was well beyond the power he displayed during the Palpatine fight in Dark Empire, and since both he and Mara defeated Lumiya despite her nearly killing post DE Luke prior, it could be argued that Mara should be around that level of power.

• Is stated multiple times to be the most powerful Sith Lord to ever exist, which would put him above the Sith and Darksiders listed prior
• His dark side energies corrupted the planet Byss over time, completely enveloping it in the dark side and turning it into one of the most powerful dark side sites in the galaxy
• According to Jedi Knight’s developers, the Valley of the Jedi gave a dark side Kyle “almost Palpatine-like power,” which means Palpatine would be above it in terms of raw Force power
• The Valley of the Jedi allows users to create supernovas with a thought, destroy a star with a whisper, eradicate a solar system with a snap of a finger, or think a planet out of orbit
• Blitzed and killed two Jedi Masters
• Killed three Jedi Masters in 10 seconds
• Matched the speed of Mace Windu for a time during battle
• Unharmed by Galen Marek’s dying explosion (10 megatons)

Ashi

Ashi’s nearly killed Jack and actively fought alongside him during Season 5, and considering this was after 50 years of constant fighting, Jack would’ve realistically honed his skills and become far superior to any feat he, his allies, or his one-off enemies performed during prior seasons. This would include allies like the Scotsman, who he fought for over a day during their first meeting, the monkeys who taught him to “jump good,” and the various bounty hunters and robots he defeated.

Samurai Jack

• Regularly slices through robots
• Beat Aku with his bare hands and a makeshift staff
• Broke a Daughter of Aku’s neck in one punch
• Has caught arrows, cut them mid-flight, and dodged three of them simultaneously while blindfolded
• Outran automatic fire
• Deflected a rock that was starting to break the sound barrier
• Dodged mini rockets from a group of alien bounty hunters
• Deflected fire from a machine gun and a laser cannon
• Defeated a group of bounty hunters in the time it took a drop of water to hit the ground
• While he's hit by the initial blast, he proceeds to dodge all of the subsequent ones from DJ Stylbator’s gold tooth
• Blocked a laser while in space
• Dodged beams of sunlight (70% - 80% the speed of light)
• Survived being crushed by a 700 ton sumo wrestler
• Endured being beaten and cut by the Minions of Set, whose blades could shatter a massive stone pillar
• Unharmed by missiles that destroyed an outhouse and being hit hard enough to reduce a building to rubble
• Crushed under a giant robot and emerges unharmed (1:46)
• Tanked atmospheric reentry and the resulting explosion (19 megatons)

The Scotsman (and his wife)

• Destroyed alligator robots by headbutting them
• Blocked Jack's attacks and kept up with him
• Was unharmed by missiles that destroyed an outhouse and being crushed under a collapsing castle
• A copy of him was able to fight post Season 5 Jack but was eventually defeated
• His wife destroyed an army of robots, ripped them apart with her bare hands, and seemingly collapsed an entire castle by running

Misc. Allies

• The Robo-Samurai beat Aku with its fists
• The Monkey Man could jump high above the trees and into the night sky in seconds
• The Thief blocked and deflected machine gun fire with his briefcase (he was an ally in the comics, so he counts)

Misc. Bounty Hunters and Enemies

• Ezekiel Clench traded blows with Jack, smashed him against some gears, and was the first to recover when they were both electrocuted
• Josephine briefly restrained Jack to let Ezekiel beat him up
• One of the Ultra-Robots blew up part of a city (487.57 tons of TNT - 3.87 kilotons)
• Princess Mira, Jujunga, I, Am, The Gentleman, and Boris all fought Jack in the time it took a drop of water to hit the ground
• Battle Through Time has various copies of Jack’s old enemies (and the Scotsman) show up as bosses or mini bosses to fight a post Season 5 Jack. These include:
• Beetle Drones
• Demongo during several levels of the game
• The Lava Monster
• A giant version of the Hag Witch
• The Imakandi
• Josephine and Ezekiel
• Scaramouche’s golem
• Scaramouche
• The Daughters of Aku
• Lazarus 92 twice
• Daughter of Aku Ashi

Daughters of Aku

As its sole surviving member, Ashi should be superior to the feats shown by her sisters.

As a group

• Blitzed Jack and destroyed his armor

Individually

• Shattered a caved-in entrance with a punch
• Cut a tree in half in one swing

Aku

Aside from him being the source of her powers, Ashi’s been able to match his shapeshifting and the power of his eye beams while he was trying to kill her and Jack.

• Casually smashed through buildings
• While giant-sized, he destroyed the Emperor’s home with a massive blast of fire (33 megatons of TNT for the fire, 1.2 gigatons for Aku existing at that size)
• Part 2 of the episode depicts him using his eye beams instead
• Left a massive crater when he destroyed the last remaining time portal (694.5 kilotons - 83 megatons)
• Can roll over an entire army
• Killed the Scotsman with one blast from his laser eyes
• Created a pocket dimension with no past or future that exists “between time,” which he controls (17:18-17:40) and collapses upon his defeat (Inapplicable; See “Before the Verdict”)
• This dimension seemingly contains a sun (136 quettatons)
• Dodged attacks from Jack even when he was enraged
• Can travel interstellar distances in a short, unknown timespan
• Aside from his eyes, his body is unable to be harmed by conventional weaponry

Weaknesses

Mara

Luke has noted that Mara has considerable pride, and she can oftentimes be overly stubborn, refusing to take help from others unless it’s absolutely necessary. She’s also been described as a perfectionist who can’t stand failure. This was very much seen in her early years, being an 18-year-old who could spar with Vader (still not letting that go) but she has matured since then. Still, even as an adult, her pride can get in the way of her priorities. 

Lightsabers aren’t able to cut through everything. Materials like cortosis ore, ultrachrome, neuranium, phrik, beskar, and even the bones of certain aliens are resilient enough that lightsabers can’t cut through them (or can only do so with extreme difficulty).

While she can read minds most of the time, she won’t be able to if they’re too clouded by anger, hatred, and insanity, have control over their emotions, or have the mental resistance to shut her out. Her mind tricks have similar problems, as they only work on weak minds and can be resisted by stronger minds or certain species.

Her connection to the Force can be shut off by the ysalamiri, a species of reptillian alien that can cancel the Force for up to 10 meters and only grows stronger the more there are. Even without that, overusing the Force can have devastating effects on the body and potentially kill the user from overexertion. 

Despite her ability to heal or force out poisons, this doesn’t make her immune. As shown from her death, a fast enough poison can paralyze or kill her before she can even hope to heal herself. 

If she dies… being a Force Ghost doesn’t let her do much to a living opponent. The most she managed was holding Luke above the surface of a lake… which also could’ve just been from Luke’s own emotions and the natural surface tension. It's also unclear whether she’d be able to fight an opponent who’s also some kind of ghost.

Ashi

Despite her pain tolerance, a hard enough blow can knock her out for some time and she can’t survive mortal wounds. She also has no inherent resistance to poisons and needs help getting them out of her system.

While her skill with the kusarigama is impressive, she’s not strong enough to escape it on her own if it’s used to tie her up, though she can still use it if she gets in the right position. And while she’s proficient with close-range weapons and (makeshift) shuriken, she lacks any experience in handling firearms.

Even though she inherited Aku’s powers, it’s unknown if she can actually use all of them. Her screentime is mainly spent on basic powers like shapeshifting and pyrokinesis, with only a few miscellaneous powers like laser eyes and time portals showing up near the end. Even if we say she knows how to use all of them and completely inherited his immortality, that wouldn’t mean she’s completely invulnerable. Aku’s been physically harmed before, and strangely enough, his eyes can still be harmed conventional weaponry while the rest of his body can’t. It also doesn’t let Ashi come back from having her body blown up, as she demonstrated against a copy of her.

And as seen by her canon death, altering the timeline in a way that affects her existence will cause her to fade away.

Ashi is also not very difficult to outthink. Her training is very specific, making her brash and giving her a significant lack in experience. An experienced strategist able to survive her for long enough will be able to maneuver her into a trap, it is simply a matter of comparing the powers that will allow one to keep her there.

Before the Verdict

Aku’s dimension feat

This blog goes over it in more detail, but for a brief explanation in our own words:

The Samurai Jack wiki describes Battle Through Time as “The player controls Jack as he travels through different timelines towards his final showdown with Aku,” but nothing in the game supports the game’s setting having multiple timelines. It’s described as a “pocket [Aku] created between time,” and it’s unlikely this “pocket” is a single, unified area. As shown from the transitions between levels, Jack’s clearly being dragged from one time portal to the next and ending up at specific points in the timeline.

As far as Ashi is concerned, she's only able to initially reach out for Jack between these points until she's able to access them more directly later in the game chasing after him, aka she's in the portal herself when he's about to be taken through elsewhere.

So despite what the fan-based wiki claims, there’s nothing in the game to imply its setting consists of multiple timelines.

Does this mean the pocket dimension is completely irrelevant to the debate? Possibly not. Aku created this dimension and it starts collapsing after he’s defeated. As shown in an earlier level, this dimension appears to contain a sun, and since Aku created the dimension, this would arguably extend to him. To generate a sun like our own would require an energy would require 136 quettatons of TNT, which is well beyond anything else in Samurai Jack, to the point where it could easily be considered an outlier.

Should Ashi have all of Aku’s powers in her Daughter of Aku form?

Regardless of the potency of the actual abilities demonstrated by Ashi on screen, a few things have to be remembered regarding her actual use of them.

First off, Ashi did not actively get to see Aku perform all of these attacks herself. Her first time meeting Aku directly was the first time Jack was reunited with him following that fifty-year timeskip. She might have heard a few details talking to Jack, but nowhere did she get to see most of what Aku could do for herself. Yet, she was able to match Aku blow for blow briefly, both in power AND manner, and then open a time portal without watching Aku do it. You could try to force an explanation that Ashi would have received such education under Aku’s control or that there was some connection through their minds, but this is conjecture at best and would still imply she has these capabilities after regaining some self-control. On that note…

Second, we see her performing some of these abilities in Battle Through Time, like when she pulls out the laser-eyes on the time-bound version of herself from within a portal, or the recurring abilities to reach from within her portal to the game setting occupied by Jack. She actively resists Aku’s actions independently of him in order to use the powers on her own.

Third, during her initial ‘death’, it is not as if she suddenly died because Aku no longer lived in the present day. It’s because thanks to the defeat of Aku in the present day that Ashi would never have been born in the future. That being said, Ashi does state that she felt Aku has left her, and there is no strict definition of whether this is her ability to sense his presence or his power being gone from inside her

However, with the alteration to the ending done by Battle Through Time, she is freed of the consequences of erasing Aku altogether, so she should supposedly also be freed of what killing Aku means for her power, whatever that might have meant. One must also note that while Aku awakened Ashi’s power from her body, it was always there, as Aku was able to sense his essence inside her before it was brought to the forefront. He’d separated it from his body to put into that goblet, and this young woman is where it ended up, both human and Aku.

In short, Ashi can act independently with many of the powers she possessed in the Daughter of Aku because the absence of Aku is not a proven deterrent to her existence nor those of her access to his powers following Battle Through Time.

Does Ashi have Aku’s immortality?

While Ashi shares many powers with her father, some of them are brought into question as to whether she shares them fully. One of these is her inability to be conventionally killed, as repeatedly demonstrated by Aku. Aku can be punched, stabbed, burned, blasted, grabbed and thrown, even occasionally feeling pain from these, yet he’s fine. Even the Emperor, in his fateful battle with Aku, managed to defeat him using the only weapon that was supposed to be able to harm the demon, yet he survived in the form of a tree. It wasn't until Jack repeated this that Aku finally died. So, does that apply to Ashi? The answer, surprisingly, is no. 

In Battle Through Time, Jack fights a time-displaced version of Ashi twice, once in her baseline assassin garb along with her sisters, and again later on in full Daughter of Aku form. In neither case does he actually kill her, but after the second encounter, the quote unquote “real” Ashi does, appearing from a time portal to laser eye the wounded doppelganger once and disintegrate her. As this is not a clone or facsimile, but rather a version of her displaced from the normal timeline, it’s as if she fully killed, for lack of a better term, herself. And while an argument can be made that it took the power of Aku to kill the blood of Aku, this is not provably demonstrated anywhere else. 

Even when Jack was possessed by Aku's germs, another of his strange vulnerabilities, it didn’t take the shapeshifting master of darkness himself to eradicate that part from Jack. Therefore, it’s not proven that it would require the same to destroy Ashi. Whether she shares this property with her father or not, Ashi can be conventionally killed. It just won't be easy to get through her inherited powers to do so.

Fight Script

Click here.

Art

Art by Lamelev.

Verdict

Stats

In terms of direct feats, this is fairly straightforward. Strength-wise, both have feats of stabbing enemies to death and beating grown people with their bare hands, Mara can shatter stone with a kick, throw a stone table, and cut through a dozen boulders. Ashi can drag Jack through a pillar or lift and throw a large stone slab. None of these are quantifiable for Attack Potency, but from a visual perspective, Corrupted Ashi’s feats of forms a massive crevice in the ground (0:38) and destroying a cliff are more impressive.

But scaling is a different story.

With the various statements about her potential and abilities in the Jedi Order, Mara is easily in the upper echelons of the Council. This should put her above feats from her era’s Order, as well as those of past Council members. This would include Kyp Durron manipulating one of the coralskippers’ black holes into hitting another, Anakin throwing an escape pod into a star hard enough to create an explosion, Yarael Poof holding back the energies of the Infant of Shaa, or the Hero of Tython defeating Tyth The Machine God, who could completely destroy a Dyson Sphere encompassing a small star. These are feats whose yields vary wildly, from nearly 14 petatons, up to 77 exatons, 47 - 82 zettatons, to over 4.5 quettatons. In other words, anywhere from Multi-Continent Level to Planetary or even Star Level at highest.

Meanwhile, Ashi’s scaling is rather straightforward. Thanks to pulling Jack through a pillar with enough force to make him scream, overwhelming his defenses, and matching him blow for blow in her base and corrupted forms, she should be at least City Level from scaling to Jack tanking atmospheric reentry, which could get up to 19 megatons. And thanks to Jack beating him in CQC and Ashi matching his shapeshifting and eye beams, we could extend this and scale Ashi to Aku. This would let her scale to feats he’s performed with those powers, like destroying the Emperor’s home, which would be worth 33 megatons, or leaving a massive crater from destroying a time portal, which would bump her up to 83 megatons.

No matter what we go with, they’re far below even the lowest end feats that Mara would scale to. Even if we’re generous and scale her to the potential energy of Aku’s giant form, it would only come out to a little over 1 gigaton, which is still millions of times below Mara’s minimum scaling.

We could give Ashi full scaling to the 136 quettaton feat of Aku creating a pocket dimension with a sun, and it still wouldn’t change things.

Thanks to killing a clone of Luke that matched the original blow for blow and nearly killing Lumiya, someone who pushed Luke to his limits and later lost to him, Mara should easily be comparable to Luke. This is the same Luke who defeated and completely outclassed Emperor Palpatine, whose power was above Kyle Katarn with the power of the Valley of the Jedi. That’s a Force nexus that could casually let its users create supernovas, destroy stars, and eradicate solar systems, and Mara fought Kyle when he wielded a power greater than that!

For speed, their direct feats consist of Ashi dodging arrows and catching them, which can move anywhere from 150 to 200 mph vs Mara consistently dodging and deflecting blaster bolts that are near or at the speed of light. That would be a maximum of 200 mph for Ashi vs 670,616,629 mph for Mara, over 3,353,000 times faster.

If we use scaling, then Ashi being able to blitz Jack and react to his attacks would easily make her comparable to him dodging beams of sunlight, which gets anywhere from 70% - 80% the speed of light. That makes the speed gap closer to Mara’s direct feats… but when we apply scaling to Mara, the gap massively widens.

Being a top tier Jedi of her time, Mara should be on par with members of the Jedi Council, making her around the same level of speed as Obi-Wan, who deflected three blaster bolts in a nanosecond, which would require reaction speeds worth 6.7 times the speed of light. And this is a lower end feat she’d scale to considering you could once again scale her to Luke, whose first use of Force Speed was able to blitz Guri, a droid who could process information and react within 6.1 picoseconds. To accomplish either of these feats, Guri would need reaction speeds over 28 times faster than light, while Luke would need to be moving at speeds of nearly 547 times faster than light. This would make Mara 677 times faster than Ashi, and that’s from scaling her to an inexperienced Luke!

Fortunately, durability is a bit closer… mainly because there’s not much quantifiable on either side. They’ve both survived electrocution, and Ashi’s got feats like surviving a fall and losing a lot of blood, being thrown through a tombstone and crushed by debris, or knocked away by waves of Celtic magic. Mara’s got being stabbed in the throat, blasted by Force Destruction, getting shot by half a dozen bolts that left thumb-sized craters in her skin, having a Wookiee sized piece of spitcrete smashed into her, and continuing to fight after enduring the pain of her limbs, fingers, toes, shins, and forearms exploding.

With something like that, Mara easily takes durability, as well as the other physical stats.

Tertiaries

Experience is relatively easy to figure out. Both women have been training for most of their lives, but Mara has been doing this for a lot longer than Ashi. Ashi may have been trained since she was a child, but depending on the source, Mara either matches that timespan or surpasses it by being trained since infancy. Even in the unlikely event that they trained for the same amount of time, Mara’s time as a spy, smuggler, and Jedi would’ve given her far more combat experience and overall experience compared to Ashi. That’s not even getting into the age gap with Mara being about 57 at the time of her death, while Ashi doesn’t even have a confirmed age beyond “adult.”

(As Ashi was literally born to face Jack in a cult dedicated to that from her birth, the absolute maximum age Ashi could be is 49. She was born after Jack arrived, account for the fifty years of Jack not aging, subtract one year to account for the time she spent with Jack and then the happy/sad ending, and there you go. Very likely, she’s even younger, and her maturity is certainly stunted by her upbringing, but there you go. No matter how you slice it, Mara has more.)

Intelligence is a similar case. Ashi has displayed some quick thinking in battle by weaponizing her surroundings and circumventing restraints to attack others, but that’s not on the same level as Mara being able to instantly adapt to unusual or unexpected situations, psychologically manipulate enemies, entering a state of mind dedicated to planning and assessing situations, or actively setting traps and resorting to tactics like severing tendons during battle.

Mara takes tertiary advantages.

Arsenals

This is an aspect of the debate that Mara unquestionably takes. Excluding the kusarigama, all of Ashi’s equipment was picked up off the battleground, while Mara consistently has an entire arsenal of lightsabers, blasters, and tools at her disposal. She’s also got a major edge with her vehicles, which could let her attack Ashi from a distance the daughter of Aku can’t exactly match with her own weapons.

In fact, Mara’s lightsabers alone invalidate everything in Ashi’s arsenal since they can effortlessly cut through anything she tries to use.

For the sake of argument, however, let’s assume that a lightsaber still counts as ‘conventional harm’ that Ashi can resist with her black Aku-like mass in that form. Mara has so many different additional weapons, including an entire ship, a beckon call remote for it, and a gun that would completely encase Ashi in carbonite, to say nothing of her various Force abilities. So she’d still be more versatile in the arsenal department, we’ll just address if that would work in Powers.

Skills

Comparing these two, it’s a case where anything Ashi has, Mara surpasses her by miles.

Ashi can parkour off stalagmites and perfectly balance herself on narrow surfaces? Mara’s trained in Ataru, a fighting style that focuses on speed and agility. Ashi’s able to completely blend in with the shadows? Not only has Mara done the same, she has way better showings of it, like remaining hidden on a ship for 4 days without being seen, sneaking up on fellow Force sensitives, or even using the Force to make it so the air around her doesn't register her presence and her body heat is undetectable.

To her credit, Ashi’s fight against the orc army means she’d have way better stamina than Mara. But considering Mara’s wider pre-established advantages, the chances of Ashi being able to whittle her down in a prolonged fight is highly unlikely. Especially when you realize that Ashi would have to play catch up with the other skills they share.

Mara has the edge in skill.

Powers

To cut to the chase, Mara takes Powers in spades.

Comparing their base forms, Ashi only has two powers: enhanced senses that let her see in the dark and hammerspace to pull weapons out of her ass. Neither of these are going to be all that useful against Mara’s far superior enhanced senses, telepathy, telekinesis, precognition, various healing techniques and stat boosts, duplication, ability to produce flashbangs, shoot lightning, paralyze with the flick of a finger, or kill you in seconds with a look.

Her mind tricks would be particularly devastating here because Ashi can’t really resist mind control. When she was under Aku’s control, she was completely powerless against it and needed Jack’s help to overcome it. Seeing how this is a one-on-one fight, that wouldn’t come into play, meaning there’s nothing to stop Mara from hypnotizing her into surrendering or giving up, tricking Ashi into thinking she’s gone invisible, or turning Ashi to her side.

However, Ashi’s Aku powers might be able to turn things around. Since she’s made from the same black goo as her father and he can't be harmed by conventional weapons, this could theoretically prevent Mara from being able to damage her at all. Though the key word here is “theoretically,” as there are two factors against this.

Firstly: recall that, in the agreed-upon duel between Jack and Aku, Aku was harmed quite a bit in human form by Jack, if not mortally wounded. Aku was once again harmed physically by the army, including by Monkey Man ‘jumping good’ right into his eye. In both of these cases, as indicated by his pained groans and recoiling, it can’t be argued Aku wasn’t affected at all, but rather that his shapeshifting after the fact made it not matter.

Secondly: while Ashi had an Aku-like form, she was also depicted as her normal human body being drowned in it, struggling to escape. This wasn’t simply more of Aku’s evil-body-goop drowning her, this was Ashi’s own evil-body-goop that Jack tried to dive into in order to reach her sensitive form inside. (Apologies for that unfortunate phrasing.) Jack was expelled by the goop physically, meaning this wasn’t crossing some metaphysical barrier along the lines of [spoilers for Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts* here]. Effectively, in a similar manner to Venom, Ashi’s human body is actually physically inside her shapeshifting goop-form, and her human body is vulnerable were it to be forcibly extracted.

Mind you, that’s all speaking defensively. Even offensively, the rest of Ashi’s Aku powers are hard countered by Mara’s weapons and the Force. Shapeshifting and extending her arms could be stopped by cutting them off with a lightsaber or vaporizing them with Deadly Sight. The pyrokinesis and laser eyes could be blocked by the lightsaber, Force Barriers, and Bubbles, or even be absorbed into Mara to make her stronger. Even if Ashi tried absorbing Mara into her body, she could be held off by the barrier and bubble, knocked away with a Force Push, or stopped entirely since Force Paralysis and Inflict Pain would leave her unable to move.

You’d think the time portal would be a good ace in the hole, but even this has its flaws. Ashi only ever used the portal on herself and Jack to send themselves to the past, and she understandably never used this power on anyone else. So there are two ways this could go: either Ashi’s backed into a corner and uses it on herself, or she uses it on Mara to send her to another time period.

Ignoring that Ashi has never resorted to that second strategy in either ending of the series, Mara has multiple ways around both options. With her danger sense warning her of attacks ahead of time, she’d know the time portal is coming, and she’d sense Ashi’s intentions ahead of time through the Force, so she’d know that Ashi either intends to flee the battle or send her away. And with her Force powers, Mara has several ways to stop either of these from happening.

Force Choke would stop Ashi from screaming to summon the portal in the first place. In the event she was too late or failed to realize this, Mara could still Force Push her out of the portal’s way (if Ashi tries using it on herself) or (if Ashi tries to BFR her) Force Pull to take Ashi with her and keep the fight going. Mara even has several ways to avoid the portal if Ashi goes for BFR, like Force Speed or Force Jump to get out of its incredibly small range, or tricking Ashi into using it on a doppelganger.

Even in the event that Ashi successfully uses the time portal and sends herself back to the start of the fight, that wouldn’t help things. Not only would the past Ashi likely be confused and reluctant to help a version of herself that just showed up, Mara’s danger sense would warn her of any attempt to attack her. So even if the Ashis automatically teamed up against her, she’d have no trouble fending them off given her established stat advantages. In fact, she could just use Force Corrupt to make them surrender or turn them against each other.

Mara doesn’t just have the more versatile powers; she completely dominates Ashi!

Conclusion

When we started working on this, we never imagined this match would be a complete wash in Mara’s favor. We thought Ashi would at least have some advantages, and while there’s no denying she’s a skilled assassin, the only thing she has is stamina. Mara takes every other category by a landslide. She outstats to the point Ashi realistically wouldn’t be able to fight back or even register her, she’s far more experienced and intelligent, has better skills than anything Ashi has shown, and her weapons and Force abilities put Ashi’s equivalents to shame!

Ashi-re as the sun rises, the daughter of Aku is just too Jade-d to see to-Mara.

The winner is Mara Jade Skywalker.

Summary

Mara

Advantages:

• Demolishes Ashi in the stat trinity
• Way more experienced and intelligent
• Superior skills to anything Ashi has shown
• Her main weapon cancels out everything in Ashi’s arsenal
• Completely outclasses Ashi in sheer amount of powers and hax, on top of countering all of her powers
• So many more weapons
• So many more action figures
• Just… a lot more material to put from, by a country mile
• Unlike her opponent, she actually got married without needing a spinoff

Disadvantages:

• Worse stamina
• Is a terrible chef
• We never got that Skywalker family road trip that Timothy Zahn proposed
• Don’t mention her to George Lucas

Ashi

Advantages:

• Better stamina
• Can potentially give herself a numbers advantage by using the time portal on herself or BFR Mara by using it on her…
• Genndy’s a cheeky artist with those outfits

Disadvantages:

• …But Mara has plenty of counters to both of these
• No hope of matching Mara’s stats even when taking both at their high ends
• Mara’s far more experienced and intelligent even if you try to highball Ashi’s age
• Mara completely out skills her
• At a massive disadvantage in arsenal, especially when Mara’s main weapon invalidates everything she has
• Mara’s powers counter all of Ashi’s and are WAY more versatile
• Has no defense against mind tricks
• Debuted in a controversial season to say the least
• Didn’t get featured outside of much BESIDES that season and its spinoff game
• Needed that spinoff game to give her a satisfying ending

Credits

Luke Skywalker vs Saber G1 Prediction Blog, Bang’s Blogs: Revan vs Dark Urge, Saul’s VS Blog: Aku vs The Lich and Cleverly_Clearly’s Samurai Jack, Scotsman, and Aku respect threads for some of the calcs and links
Morkez Marihser for helping with research and writing
Sharaku Jr for Mara’s Scaling images