Quote:
Originally Posted by Wild Goose
To give an example, one of the most popular charecters in Star Wars Expanded Universe is a redhead named Mara Jade, created by Timothy Zahn in Heir to the Empire. Zahn was so good in selling his characters that he essentially created SW EU. He was so good at setting up the chemistry with Mara and Luke Skywalker that for many fans she was the only romantic option for him. And then it was decided to kill off Mara in the recent NJO books - Zahn wasn't pleased about that, but he recognised that Mara Jade was like any other character created by any writer in the shared Star Wars EU - any author can use another author's characters and the original creator has no say.
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I must add though that this was done by an author who admitted to never having read any other Star Wars novel. Said author had no idea what the character was about and merely needed someone to kill, so blindly picked Mara and completely failed even the most basic communications with Zahn about her plans (you know, a phone call or e-mail with her intent).
What I'm trying to say is that while people are free to use characters, a little bit of politeness and research should not be ignored.