Throughout Star Wars’ long history, there have
been dozens of complex characters- characters who, thanks to mindful and intentional storytelling,
came alive on the screen and in fans’ minds, leaving behind legacies long
past their on-screen death. Anakin Skywalker is an excellent example of
this, with character arcs that showcased his character growth and motivations. Others, like
Saw Guerrerra, received enough attention to capture the audience’s interest, but not enough
to really shed light on his true character, leaving fans to either speculate, or judge
him based on limited information. And then, there are others who received plenty of
screentime, but thanks to the nature of their role, they were rarely if ever featured
from a first-person perspective of their story. Darth Maul is perhaps the best
example of such a character. Featured in one movie, four seasons of The
Clone Wars, and four seasons of Rebels, Maul is the character with the lowest on-screen time
to first-person perspective ratio in the series. What this results in is a character whom we
can say we know well, but might not necessarily understand. Beyond his very memeable rivalry
with Obi-Wan Kenobi, many fans might not be aware of how truly complex a character he was.
With Maul, the writers tried and succeeded in creating a character with a multilayered
and multifaceted personality and drive. In many ways, what Maul truly was is
misunderstood, and that was mostly the intent behind the way he was written.
Maul’s character is the personification of dichotomy. One surface layer that seems
to be all you need to know about him, until you peel it back and realise that
wasn’t the entire point of his character at all. In today’s video, we’ll be looking at
both those layers - Maul the Villain and Maul the Victim - and bridging the gap between these
two seemingly contradictory characterizations. Before we get into the meat of the matter,
let’s take a look at the sources we’ll be looking at today. Ever since his first
appearance in Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Maul has been incredibly popular with
the fans, so it’s no real surprise that the writers tied him into a dozen other films,
novels, series, and comics. For today’s video, we’ll be looking at the three Canon sources
that give him the most screen time: Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: The
Clone Wars, and Star Wars: Rebels. Although he appears in many other sources, we’ll be focusing on these three, since they
follow a pretty consistent character depiction. Too many different sources give too many
different characterisations, and Maul is already a very complicated man. As it is, these
three sources are more than enough to depict Maul’s tragic life, from his time as Sidious’
pawn, to his final moments in Obi-Wan’s arms. In every source he has ever appeared in, Maul
has been characterised very clearly as a villain. In his first ever appearance in Episode I,
he only has two brief lines of dialogue; he is there to show up, attack our
heroes, and murder Qui-Gon Jinn before being slain himself. This sequence
takes up very little on-screen time, but it’s more than enough to cement him in
our minds as an antagonist and a villain. This portrayal of Maul doesn’t change
in his subsequent appearances except for one episode in The Clone Wars and one
in Rebels - but we’ll get to those later. From The Clone Wars to Rebels, he’s shown
as a scheming, backstabbing manipulator, and in many ways, this is an entirely accurate
picture. Maul was absolutely all of those things, and they’re pretty obvious to anyone who’s
seen any Star Wars content, so we won’t bore you with the details of every instant he was
evil, or orchestrated some bad news for our heroes. Instead, we’ll focus on outlining
the shape Maul’s villainy is shown to take. There are two essential components that
make up Maul’s villainous motivations: a lust for power, and a lust for revenge.
Rather than be separate motivations, they both intertwine and interconnect
with one another throughout the series. To start with, his lust for power started
in his childhood. Those of you who watched our video on the tragedy of Maul’s life
will remember that, from a young age, Darth Sidious took Maul under his wing and trained
him brutally to become his Sith Apprentice. What Sidious instilled in Maul, much as he would
do later to Anakin, was a sense of destiny. Maul, Sidious promised, was destined for greatness. For
power. He was powerful, and with Sidious’ help, he would fulfil his destiny, destroy the
Jedi Order, and rule the galaxy at his side. When we first see Maul in The Phantom Menace,
he is only there to fulfil his destiny as he believes it to be: he is there to destroy
the Jedi and take the first step towards supporting the Dark Lord of the Sith in taking
over the galaxy. The reason Maul barely speaks, the reason he is shown as calm and
confident is because, in that moment, he is. Maul is shown as arrogant because, in that fight,
he was consumed by the notion of his own destiny, and by default, that led to an arrogance that
he could never lose. It was his destiny to win, and so, he could never conceptualise
an outcome in which he loses. As a consequence, his subsequent defeat
by Obi-Wan rattles his mental state more profoundly than anything else could.
Humility is the opposite of arrogance, after all, and nothing humbled Maul more than
being bisected at the hands of a Padawan, of all people, an adversary that
wasn’t worth his caution or respect. Following his recovery thanks to
Savage Opress, it would seem that his devastating loss only added fuel to
the fire for both of his core motivations. First, Maul didn’t lose his obsession with
power. If anything, it only seems to have gotten stronger. From Season 4 of The Clone Wars
and onwards, he is shown plotting and scheming to establish a powerbase. He manipulates his way
into an alliance with Death Watch, and from there, he begins establishing a powerbase called
the Shadow Collective composed of all sorts of underworld elements. In essence, Maul
attempts to build an Empire of his own, one which he intends to rule. Sidious promised
him an Empire, and if he isn’t going to offer Maul his rightful place at its head, then
Maul will simply make his own and rule it. But power isn’t his only motivation. As much as
Maul works painstakingly to erect his empire, he toils almost as much - if not
more - in his efforts to exact revenge on the person responsible for
his fall from power: Obi-Wan Kenobi. We mentioned earlier that his lust for revenge and
power aren’t independent of each other, and now we can explain why. Maul had always felt entitled
to his destiny. He believed that power was his birthright, and in defeating him on Naboo, Obi-Wan
had stripped him of it. Obi-Wan had made himself the obstacle in Maul’s destiny, and in doing
so, had earned a lifetime target on his back. After his recovery, Maul made it his
mission to punish Obi-Wan for getting in the way of his destiny. By exacting his
revenge, not only would he punish the Jedi, but he would also overcome the hurdle that
had been presented to him and prove once and for all that he deserved that birthright
of power. Revenge against Obi-Wan wasn’t just a matter of rage and hatred, but one of
validation; if Maul continued to work around the obstacle instead of taking it head-on, he
would never prove his strength to himself. And, as everyone knows, through strength
comes power, and through power, victory. Throughout the second half of The Clone Wars
and the second and third seasons of Rebels, Maul goes out of his way to hurt Obi-Wan.
And it isn’t always straight-forward. Although sometimes he tries to outright
kill the Jedi, most of the time, that isn’t Maul’s goal. Just killing Obi-Wan
wouldn’t be enough. Before he ends him, he has to break him down and humble him the same way Maul
was humbled. He has to take everything from him. On multiple occasions, he targets those
Obi-Wan loves. A perfect example of this is when he murders the Duchess Satine Kryze in
front of him in the throne room of Mandalore. He could have had Obi-Wan killed,
but instead, he tried to break him. Maul’s desire for revenge permeates all of The
Clone Wars and is the only thing he tries to do in Rebels. On his journey for vengeance, he
hurts countless people - some close to Obi-Wan, some not - and there is no doubt that
we’re supposed to dislike him for it. In combination, these two core character
motivations send a very clear message to the viewer, especially to a younger audience,
which was The Clone Wars’ and Rebels’ target demographic: Maul is a villain and a
bad person, and you should be rooting against him. Those statements are entirely
true, but they’re not the full picture. In fiction, just as in real life,
people are never all bad or all good. Life isn’t black and white, and
in order to get a clearer picture of it, we need to look for the myriad
shades of grey in-between. To most, it isn’t a strange concept
that trauma and suffering can often lead to villainy. It’s a trope we’ve
seen many times before in fiction, where a character with a tragic backstory went
down the path of evil. Even in the real world, it’s pretty well known as an idea.
People talk about bullies in childhood, and how they were likely lashing out not
because they were inherently bad people, but because they themselves were hurt and were
only trying to redirect that hurt onto others. When someone is suffering, it is often the
case that they feel powerless to improve their situation. Powerlessness leads to a strong desire
for control - or at least the illusion of it. In an effort to gain control over the
world around us, we lash out at those we can hold power over, and in doing so,
we try to make ourselves feel better. That’s why bullies always target those
they see as weaker than themselves. This is all a rather long-winded way of saying
that, fairly often, someone who has chosen villainy isn’t doing so because they’re evil,
but because they were a victim first. Important to note here is that this doesn’t work the other
way around: just because someone was a victim, it doesn’t mean they will become villains.
That said, there’s a thing called the cycle of abuse for a reason, but getting into
it goes beyond the scope of this video. Back to Maul. There is no doubt that he
was an antagonist through and through, and thanks to his actions, direct or indirect,
thousands, if not more suffered. He is portrayed as someone with evil motivations, but that
doesn’t necessarily make him evil himself. In this section, we’re going to argue in favour
of Maul’s less obvious side - that of the victim. The writers of Star Wars did a truly wonderful job
of giving Maul’s character a subtle subtext that makes his character so much more interesting than
a cookie-cutter bad guy. This is true for most Star Wars characters, to be fair; even Count
Dooku has nuanced motivations for everything he does. But with Maul, there’s a beautiful
symmetry to it that often goes overlooked. Just earlier, we mentioned that Maul’s lust
for power and revenge were the two core motivators behind his villainy. Simultaneously,
they’re also the hidden cores of his trauma. Let’s go back to the beginning. As we mentioned, Sidious took Maul on from a
young age and trained him. However, this wasn’t a fun Sith summer camp. Maul was completely
isolated, subjected to brutal training at the hands of his droid caretakers. The only sentient
being he ever had contact with was Sidious, who never showed him any form of kindness. For
years, Sidious had hyped him up as his Sith Apprentice. Together, Sidious promised him
that they would reclaim the galaxy from the Jedi and rule it as Master and Apprentice.
For years, Maul did his Master’s bidding, killing his enemies and preparing the way for the
return of the Sith. Sidious’ promises had made him eager to reveal himself to the Jedi, but soon
after that day came on Tatooine, he met his demise at the hand of Obi-Wan Kenobi on Naboo before his
conquest of the galaxy had even properly begun. In truth, however, Maul was never destined to
rule the galaxy, much less at Sidious’ side. Maul’s entire life up until that point
had been a lie. He was never a Darth, nor was he an Apprentice, as at the time, Darth
Sidious was himself the Sith Apprentice to Darth Plagueis under the Rule of Two. Maul had never
been anything more than a talented assassin, trained only in the art of murder and
intended to be thrown away once he had outlived his usefulness. This
had always been Sidious’ plan. Indeed, after Maul’s convenient death on Naboo, Sidious moved on in a matter of weeks to claim
Darth Tyranus as his new Sith Apprentice. Count Dooku, as he came to be known, was far more
fitting in the role; he was a true demagogue and politician, yet skilled in the Force and
lightsaber. A perfect Apprentice - for now. Had Maul survived his encounter with the Jedi on
Naboo, Sidious would have disposed of him soon, if not immediately after his triumphant
return. If he chose not to kill him himself, perhaps Sidious would have used
him to lure Dooku to the Dark Side, as Maul had murdered his
beloved Padawan, Qui-Gon Jinn. Whichever way Sidious would have chosen,
the end result would have been the same; Maul was a useful pawn, but he had outlived his
usefulness and couldn’t be permitted to live. But Maul didn’t know that. His entire life, he had
believed himself a valuable asset to his Master, the rightful Apprentice to the Dark Lord
of the Sith. He had been promised power, glory, and dominion over the galaxy and,
raised in that environment as he had been, he was taught it was his Force-given right. And then Obi-Wan snatched that future from him. You can imagine the sort of effect something
like that might have on a person. Earlier, we said his defeat humbled Maul, but
in truth, it goes far deeper than that. Maul’s defeat on Naboo is the moment when his mask
slips. Up until then, he had been the arrogant villain we were always meant to see, but after,
his real character motivations shift completely. What his defeat is, at its core, is
an incredibly traumatic event. We’ve all heard about trauma; in today’s
ever more mental health aware world, we’re all starting to recognise how past
trauma can affect our perception of the world, our motivations, and our behaviour.
For Maul, losing to Obi-Wan dealt him a double blow and destroyed his image of
both himself and the world around him. On a physical level, Maul was essentially
crippled for over a decade. He lost his entire bottom half and had to crawl on the
ground until he could find some prosthetics to attach himself to. And we say ‘attach himself
to’ because we doubt Maul’s first choice was a half-spider centaur thing that was more monster
than man. From a writer’s perspective, however, the choice is perfect to symbolise
his transformation from a sane, collected being to what was essentially a raving
lunatic several fries short of a Happy Meal. But it wasn’t just Maul’s body that was left
broken. On a deeper level, his self-image and core ideas were not only challenged, but shattered. By
defeating him, Obi-Wan had made Maul question his birthright for the first time ever. He made him
question whether he was worthy of his destiny, and whether he would ever achieve the
greatness he had always believed he would. As crippling as the physical injuries were, we would argue the psychological
damage caused was far more significant. As sentient beings, we all rely on a sense of self
and purpose to feel grounded in our lives. Trauma, which is any event or prolonged situation that
has lasting adverse effects on our functioning and mental, physical, social, emotional, and/or
spiritual well-being, creates a core memory associated with those negative emotions that is
then triggered over and over. Trauma alters our core beliefs and introduces new fears that shape a
new perception of reality. Some excellent examples are new core beliefs like “I am weak,” or
“people will hurt me if I show weakness.” Maul was traumatised with a capital T.
His entire early life - which had been abusive enough to count as trauma in and
of itself - built up his core sense of self founded on the notion that he
was the rightful Sith Apprentice. Sidious hyped him up to believe he had a right
to rule alongside him, and that he was nigh invincible. On Naboo, his defeat at the hands of
Obi-Wan completely shattered that sense of self, leaving a void behind it. And there are few
things more terrifying than looking into the void. With that context in mind, let’s take
a new look at Maul’s core motivations. The moment Savage Opress finds him
again and makes him whole again with the help of Mother Talzin, Maul
immediately goes on the warpath. After taking charge of their little family,
Maul immediately sets out to erect an empire he would lead. We’ve already gone over this plan
to amass power and become the leader of a powerful criminal empire, and we already discussed
how it was his way of fulfilling his destiny. But that wasn’t the only reasoning. The first reason is directly connected to the
trauma we just described. By losing everything, Maul’s sense of self had shattered. In building
an empire, he was clinging to a core belief that he no longer believed in: that he was worthy
of it all. They say fake it til you make it, and Maul’s approach was exactly that: he tried
to convince the world he was a supervillain so that he could believe it himself once again.
But that wasn’t even the main reason he did it. His main motivator was fear. After returning from thirteen years of
isolation, Maul could see what others couldn’t. He was the most insignificant
piece in Sidious’ Grand Plan with the most information out of everyone in it, and
the brainpower to piece it all together. Since the beginning, Maul had known Darth Sidious’
true identity. Sidious had even walked him around the Jedi Temple in person, boasting about
how the Jedi would one day fall to them. The Clone Wars, which were well underway when he
recovered, may have seemed like a grand battle between the Republic and the Confederacy of
Independent Systems, but Maul knew better. He knew that Sidious was playing both sides,
and that it could mean only one thing: Sidious was orchestrating the fall
of the Galactic Republic, and the rise of something far more terrifying,
ruled by the Sith in open domination. Faced with this looming threat and
recognising his own weakness to stop it, Maul decided there and then to do everything in
his power to come out on top. When faced with the choice between fight and flight, Maul chose
to fight. By building up the Shadow Collective, Maul had hoped to build a criminal empire strong
enough to survive the Empire he knew was coming. He had hoped to create a corner of the world
where Sidious wouldn’t have been able to touch him because, at the core of it all, Maul
feared Sidious more than anything in the galaxy. This becomes painfully clear when Sidious,
recognising the threat Maul was beginning to become and wanting to nip it in the bud,
travelled to Mandalore and challenged him. Up until this point in The Clone Wars,
we’d always seen Maul as a focused, mildly manic, but in-control figure.
When fighting Obi-Wan and the Jedi, he was always a step ahead and seemed in
control of the situation, even if he didn’t win. He always got away. When facing off against
Sidious, however, he’s very clearly terrified. This fear is directly linked to his lust for
revenge, but as we’ll discuss in a minute, his true vengeance was never
supposed to be against Obi-Wan. The truth is, revenge is rarely a motive driven
by anger. In many cases, what pushes people to enact fantasies of revenge is fear, often
fear that whatever happened to them in the past would happen to them again. Revenge is an
action intended to neutralise one’s aggressor; if you take your revenge, not only does it mean
that you’re now stronger than the person that hurt you, it also means that you can make
sure that person never hurts you again. No one had hurt Maul more than Sidious had. On a
surface level, Obi-Wan had been the one to deal him his most devastating trauma, but he wasn’t
responsible for Maul being in that position. Sidious was, and Maul was smart
enough to recognise that truth. In an ironic twist of fate, his defeat at
the hands of Obi-Wan on Naboo most likely saved his life. Maul’s brilliance is a trait
underlined frequently, so it’s no real surprise he could see beyond the surface. Obi-Wan had
defeated him, but it had never been personal. In fact, throughout the series, it’s incredibly
apparent that their rivalry is very one-sided. While Maul seems obsessed with Obi-Wan, the
Jedi never reciprocates that desire for revenge. Even when Maul kills his
Master and his close friend, Satine Kryze, Obi-Wan remains a true
Jedi and rises above these passions. On the other hand, Sidious had directly
lied to him and manipulated him. Because of his machinations, he had
been set up for failure on Naboo. Later, the moment he tried to claw his way
up from disparity, Sidious had stepped in swiftly to remind him that, no matter what
Maul did, he would never be free of him. The one who had ruined Maul’s life wasn’t Obi-Wan, but Sidious, and he knew that very well.
However, he was also painfully aware that he didn’t stand a snowball’s chance
in hell of ever hurting Sidious back. He could never have justice for himself, but
he craved it nonetheless. That’s why he propped Obi-Wan up as his rival. In pursuing Obi-Wan, he
allowed himself to feel as if was getting justice for himself without actually destroying
himself by challenging Sidious directly. Maul had always wanted revenge.
It was just never about Obi-Wan. That said, two separate
occasions subvert this pattern, and they’re the two episodes we mentioned earlier. In Episode 10 of the final
season of The Clone Wars, Maul comes face to face with Ahsoka
in the throne room of Mandalore. Although he initially states he had been
hoping for Obi-Wan, he nevertheless proceeds to basically tell Ahsoka everything in what has
to be the greatest villain monologue in the saga. Maul proceeds to explain how, to thwart
Sidious, they need to take out Anakin, which Ahsoka at the time is incapable of agreeing
to. But Maul tried. Even if it meant teaming up with his “rival,” he was desperate enough to
try and take the fight to Sidious directly. Of course, Order 66 was mere hours after
this moment. It had always been too late. But for that one instant, Maul put aside his
fear to try and prevent Sidious from succeeding. He tried to take control of his
destiny, and yet, he failed once more. That, unfortunately, is the
running theme in Maul’s life. From the moment Sidious took him on, his life was
out of his own hands. It was by Sidious’ choice that he was trained as a Sith Assassin. It was
by Sidious’ choice that he confronted the Jedi on Naboo and was defeated. It was Sidious’ plans he
was reacting to once he returned from isolation. None of that had ever been Maul’s decision. He certainly tried to convince himself
it was, of course. He thought of power as his birthright, but that wasn’t
something he’d wanted for himself until it was programmed into him after
years of isolation and brutal training. His entire life was spent following instructions, or reacting to the choices others had already
made for the galaxy, but none of it was what Maul had wanted. Because there was only one thing
Maul truly wanted, and was doomed to never have. Companionship. As a Zabrak, Maul was biologically predisposed
to a need for family. From what we’ve seen of the Dathomirian Zabraks, they had an incredibly
powerful sense of community. They considered each other family regardless of blood relation,
and supported one another through anything. Savage Opress, for example, drops
everything to track down and save Maul the moment he heard his brother was still
alive despite not having seen him in decades. Companionship was something innate
to the Zabrak that they craved. And Maul had been deprived
of it nearly his entire life. When Sidious trained him, he had intentionally
isolated him. In that environment, he could poison his mind, shape him into precisely the
tool he wanted him to be. But as a side-effect, it robbed Maul of any hope he ever had to form
real connections again. And it’s pretty clear he craves them; he defends Savage Opress
and refers to him as brother, and later, he tries incredibly hard to bring Ezra Bridger
into his company and make him his apprentice. He needs someone near him, someone to call family,
but he’s no longer able to be family to someone. Early on in their relationship, Maul corrects
Savage when he calls him ‘brother’. Instead, he establishes a new dynamic between
them, one of Master and Apprentice. Similarly, when he’s trying to corrupt Ezra, he
keeps trying to bring him in as his “Apprentice.” That’s because, thanks to Sidious’
teachings, that’s all he knows. The Rule of Two states that there
is one Master and one Apprentice. That Maul sees the world solely through this
lens is extra tragic, as his “Master” had been the apprentice and the place he believed
he had in this hierarchy was a lie. But by isolating him and making him his apprentice,
Sidious raised Maul so that the only way he perceived relationships was through the lens of
hierarchy and authority. Maul was incapable of accepting someone as an equal, and thus, he
was never able to be truly close to someone. That is the true tragedy of Darth Maul: the one
thing he actually wanted, he could never have, and the things that were never his desires were the
things he spent his life pursuing. For his entire life, Maul was a slave to the choices of others,
and their decisions were what controlled his own. With one single, powerful exception. Episode 20 of Rebels’ third
season has us return to Tatooine. Through some impressive manipulation, Maul has
succeeded in manipulating Ezra into coming to Tatooine and leading him straight to Obi-Wan
Kenobi, who was looking over Luke Skywalker. For the first time in 17 years, the two
former rivals face off against each other. After Maul reveals he knows why Obi-Wan
is there, the Jedi is left with very few options other than to take his life in order to
protect Luke. In perfect symmetry, Maul attempts to use the same move that got through Qui-Gon
Jinn’s defences during the Battle of Naboo, but Obi-Wan is ready, and he quickly deals
a finishing blow. A lifelong rivalry ends, but, like much of Maul’s life, it, too,
isn’t what it seems to be on the surface. When Obi-Wan strikes him down,
it isn’t as an enemy. Indeed, he catches Maul and lowers him to the
ground, holding him in his arms. And Maul? It’s hard to do this moment justice
with words. For his entire life, Maul was a slave to others’ choices. The
only choice he was ever able to make for himself was the way he died, and he
chose for it to be at the hands of his old nemesis. A nemesis who had been as
much of a victim of Sidious as he had been. Of all the ways he could have chosen to die, Maul
believed Obi-Wan, a fellow survivor and victim, was the only person worthy of killing him.
Not only because they had suffered together, but because, as we said earlier,
their rivalry had never been personal. Unlike Sidious, who hurt him intentionally, Obi-Wan only ever did what was necessary.
And, to Maul, that made all the difference. In the end, Obi-Wan not only gave
him the peace of a physical death, but also peace of mind. Peace in knowing that
their mutual enemy, Sidious, was going to face justice for what he had taken from them both.
And, with that knowledge, Maul was finally able to let go of all the pain and suffering he
had endured and fought through. He found peace. Darth Maul died in the arms
of a friend, a free man. Villain, victim, antagonist, antihero. Many
labels fit Darth Maul’s turbulent character, but none of them quite fully sum up the
complexities of his life and death. In this video, we did our best to paint a picture better
writers than us took seven seasons to illustrate, but we hope we were able to do it justice. In
the end, do you believe Maul was more villain than victim? Do you feel sympathy
for him, just like Obi-Wan did, or will you forever hate him for all he did?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
