Star Wars has officially transformed Darth Maul into one of the best villains ever. There’s always been demand for villain-led stories in Star Wars, but Lucasfilm has traditionally been wary of meeting it. That’s largely because this is as much a fairytale as anything else, and the good guys always win. Meanwhile, everything has really been said about the franchise’s biggest villains, characters like Darth Vader and Palpatine.
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Darth Maul is an exception to that rule. Palpatine’s Sith apprentice died in The Phantom Menace, but Lucas wasted little time figuring out how to bring him back (he even briefly planned General Grievous to be a resurrected Maul in Revenge of the Sith). Instead, Maul returned in The Clone Wars as a crime boss who dreamed of becoming Palpatine’s rival. His story is now continuing into Star Wars’ first villain-led Star Wars TV show, Maul – Shadow Hunter – and he’s officially become one of the best villains ever.
Maul is a Little Fish in a Big Pond
Maul may consider himself a dark side powerhouse, but he’s so much less than he likes to imagine. This is, after all, the Sith assassin who was defeated by Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Phantom Menace, and by former Jedi Ahsoka Tano in The Clone Wars Season 7. In Shadow Lord, Maul has struggled to match just two of Darth Vader’s Inquisitors, when Vader could probably take them all on at once.
This, however, is what makes Maul such a compelling figure. He’s a smaller villain who has the misfortune of living at the same time as some of the most powerful Sith Lords of all time, which means he’s overshadowed by them. He’s a little fish in a big pond, and Qui-Gon was right when he warned that “there’s always a bigger fish.” This makes Maul a surprisingly compelling monster, simply because he’s the David going up against the Empire’s Goliath.
Darth Maul Is As Much a Victim as a Villain
Shadow Lord has gone one step further, though, making Maul remarkably sympathetic. Episode 8 features stunning flashbacks throughout Maul’s life, showing the beginning of his training with Darth Sidious. The flashbacks confirm Maul was as much a victim as a villain; he was taken by Palpatine at an early age, twisted and reshaped according to Darth Sidious’ will. Even more tragically, there can be no doubt Palpatine didn’t see Maul as a true apprentice; he was even seducing Dooku to the dark side at the same time. Maul was a weapon, a tool to be discarded when the time was right.
Shadow Lord has subtly turned this into Maul’s motivation during the Dark Times. Haunted by visions of the past, he tells his young self that he won’t let Palpatine do this to anyone else. There’s something almost noble about that vow, but it’s also twisted and shocking, given Maul is attempting to do the same himself to Devon Izara. He hates Palpatine, he wants to destroy everything Palpatine stands for, but that hatred is transforming him into a Palpatine-like figure. The idea is wonderfully poetic.
We Already Know How Maul’s Story Will End
It certainly helps that, in true Star Wars fashion, we already know how Darth Maul’s story will end. Eight years ago, Star Wars Rebels revealed Maul’s final duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi. “Twin Suns” is generally seen as one of the best Star Wars episodes of all time, a deeply emotional story in which Maul proves his greatest weakness once and for all: he is trapped in his own past, unable to escape his pain, simply rinse-and-repeating yesterday’s actions in the hopes of getting a different outcome.
Star Wars has always been destiny. In Maul’s case, that element of destiny adds to the drama of Maul – Shadow Lord, because we’re essentially watching a fly struggling against destiny’s web. Maul dreams of freedom, of being master of his own fate, but everything is already determined. We don’t yet know whether Devon Izara will fall, whether Maul will have a legacy, but we can say for certain that all his plans will come to nothing. Maul will die on Tatooine, buried in a distant grave.
For now, though, we have at least two seasons of Maul – Shadow Lord. The Sith’s quest for revenge may be hopeless, but it will continue nonetheless, as the darkness of the Empire descends on the entire galaxy. Maul is no agent of the light, and his battle against the shadows he flourishes in will surely remain so very compelling.
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