Why that One Word in Maul: Shadow Lord Altered my Brain Chemistry (And Why it Should Leave Us Reeling)

"Kenobi?"

Maul: Shadow Lord quickly became my all-time favorite in the Star Wars cinematic universe, second (perhaps, and then only by a thin margin) only to Clone Wars. The final three episodes had me on the edge of my seat, absolutely awestruck by what I was witnessing.

But today, we’ll be talking about specifically about episode 8: The Creeping Fear.

Episode 8 opens with a series of flashbacks into Maul’s history. Now, due to his mental state, Maul is an unreliable narrator and we have to take these flashbacks with a pinch of copper. What I think we can take at face value? His reaction to his memories.

Now, for the first six seasons or so of Clone Wars, Maul has a very simple motivation: revenge on Obi-Wan Kenobi. He finally gets some of that revenge when he kills Satine - taking the thing Obi-Wan loves most so that he can suffer as Maul himself has. It’s not until Sidious murders his brother and destroys his criminal empire that Maul’s hatred shifts.

The Lie

Nevertheless, it was a shock to me, and perhaps to you, when Maul is given a vision of Obi-Wan in Shadow Lord and doesn’t respond in anger, hate, or spite. He whispers the name in desperate hope and pleading: “Kenobi?”

We can imagine what went through his brain right then. Everything is falling apart around him, this endeavor of his is hopeless… but Kenobi is here! Kenobi survived, perhaps he’ll be able to see that they have a common enemy in Sidious. He can’t defeat the Emperor alone, but with Obi-Wan at his side, there might be a chance.

And then he’s gone.

This is an incredible contrast to what happens next. You know the line: “My brother, my family, my home, all taken from me. Sidious… you did this to me.” He breathes the name of Kenobi in undisguised relief, but screams the name of his former master with all of the hatred in his soul. This changes everything we thought we knew about Maul.

Maul hates Obi-Wan Kenobi. No, he doesn’t. He blamed him, for a time, for everything that he had lost. Not just his legs, his destiny as apprentice to the Dark Lord of the Sith - his potential to become one of the most powerful beings in the universe. He survived, but he was abandoned, cast aside with literal garbage. Sidious never sought him out because he had fulfilled his purpose; he had killed Qui-Gon Jinn, quite possibly the only Jedi who could have prevented Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side.

Maul never hated Kenobi. He thought that by getting his revenge, by building an empire, he could earn back what he had lost. His statement, “You cannot imagine the depths I would go to to stay alive, fueled by my singular hatred for you,” is a lie that he tells himself.

The End

That single word completely altered my perspective on his final scene, in Star Wars: Rebels after he tracks Kenobi to Tatooine. He does this only, mind you, after his last hope of killing Sidious is foiled by Kanan and Ezra. With no chance of touching the Emperor, he gives up.

He hunts Obi-Wan, but he doesn’t find the general he once knew; he finds a hermit who refuses to face him. Maul spits out every taunt he can think of, and finally strikes a nerve. Obi-Wan is protecting someone, and if he doesn’t stop Maul now…

It’s a threat. Maul subtly communicates to Kenobi, “Fight me, or I’ll find whoever you’re here to protect. You don’t want to know what I’ll do to them.”

So Obi-Wan ignites his lightsaber, the two of them duel briefly, and Obi-Wan delivers a fatal blow. Maul collapses in his arms, and there’s not an ounce of hatred in his final words. In fact, when Kenobi’s lightsaber strikes him, there is a flash of emotion on his face - not anger, not fear: relief. Watch it for yourself, or find the interview where Sam Witwer talks about it.

Maul dies, trusting that the Chosen One will do what he could not, and speaks his last words to Obi-Wan not as an old enemy, but as a peer.

Maul never hated Kenobi. Despite what he said, Maul didn’t go to Tatooine to kill; he went there to die at the hands of the one man he respected above all others.

I don’t mean that Maul wasn’t driven by hatred. Of course he was, but that hatred wasn’t for Obi-Wan. It was for two people: Darth Sidious and himself.

Sidious took everything from him, but Maul failed to stop him. Time and time again, Maul has been outwitted and outmatched by his old master, never good enough to take the power he was promised. Maul sees himself as weak, as he shows in The Creeping Fear when he screams at his own reflection, “I hate you!”

The Conclusion

My primary point is this: Maul has worn many faces. He has been a warrior and a sage, a king and a peasant, a mastermind and a madman… but deep down inside, Maul is still the boy in the puddle.

Maul is evil, but he’s the type of evil that can be understood. He’s a broken man who has had to scrape and fight for everything he has ever had, only to watch it all be taken from him. He is desperate for triumph, power, revenge - anything to fill the void where his soul once was - but is doomed never to find it. The fall of Anakin Skywalker is a tragedy.

The fall of Darth Maul is far more so.