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Darth Maul is a fictional character in the science fiction saga Star Wars. He serves as Sith Lord Darth Sidious' first apprentice who is trained as a master of wielding a double-bladed lightsaber. He is the main antagonist of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (portrayed by martial artist Ray Park and voiced by Peter Serafinowicz) and one of the main antagonists for Star Wars: The Clone Wars (voiced by Sam Witwer).
Appearances
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Introduced in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Maul was ordered by Sidious to capture Queen Padmé Amidala and eliminate Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
On Tatooine, Maul intercepts Qui-Gon while approaching the Queen's starship. While Anakin Skywalker gets onboard, Qui-Gon engages Maul in a lightsaber duel. But the Jedi Knight manages to get away from the Sith Lord behind.
During the film's climactic scene, Maul fights the two Jedi. During the fight, he stabs Qui-Gon in the stomach with his lightsaber, fatally injuring the Jedi Knight during the duel. Maul then knocks Obi-Wan into a reactor chasm; at the last minute, however, the Jedi Padawan uses the Force to propel himself out of the chasm, equipping himself with his master's lightsaber. Obi-Wan quickly slices Maul in half from the waist. Maul's body separates into two pieces and falls into the chasm.[1]
Maul's murder of Qui-Gon makes it Obi-Wan's responsibility of Anakin's training, setting the stage for the rest of the prequel trilogy.[1]
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
On Star Wars: The Clone Wars which is set after Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones but before Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Maul's origins was elaborated as a warrior of the Nightbrother clan on the planet Dathomir, who inhabit the planet alongside the dominant Nightsister clan, a society of women who practice witchcraft and are led by Mother Talzin. The tattoos covering his body are described as the markings of a warrior (in contrast to earlier sources which identify his bodyart as the markings of a Sith Lord). Maul was also aware of Sidious' master plan involving the Clone Wars.[2]
He also has two brothers Savage Opress and Feral. Opress was taken into custody by the Nightsisters and used their magic to turn him into a ruthless beast under their control; to complete the transformation, Opress murdered Feral. Opress then becomes entangled in a power struggle between Count Dooku (his brother's successor) and Asajj Ventress (Dooku's former apprentice), but breaks free from both of their control. With no one to lean on, Opress returned to Mother Talzin and learned about Maul, and sought to find him.
Having survived his bisection in The Phantom Menace, Maul was striving to survive by any means and ended up on the junk planet Lotho Minor in the Outer Rim and turned into a cyborg with an arachnid-like lower half, and managed to survive with the help of Anacondan Morley. Over the decade, Maul's mind sank into a melancholy insanity before he was found by Opress. Opress's presence causes Maul to remember his downfall by Obi-Wan and resolves to have his revenge. Brought back to Dathomir in the aftermath of the Nightsisters' slaughter by Dooku's forces, Maul undergoes a purging of his madness and is given a new pair of robotic legs crafted by Talzin's magic. With his mind restored, Maul learns from his brother that the Clone Wars have started without him. Then, with the help of Opress, proceeds to extract revenge on Obi-Wan by luring him into a trap by attacking a small village on an outer rim planet named Iridonia, knowing that the Jedi will come to assist.
However, Asajj's unexpected appearance to collect a high bounty placed on Opress (presumably placed by or at least known to Yoda, implied during an earlier conversation with Mace Windu) thwarts this plan. Kenobi and Ventress duel Maul and Opress in the cargo bay of Opress's stolen ship but soon realize that they are outmatched and are forced to flee via the cockpit escape vessel. Maul decides not to pursue the jettisoned pod but to wait for another opportunity, realizing that the Jedi already know of his continued existence through the Force.[3]
Darth Maul and Savage Opress return in the fifth season's premiere episode with the former clarifying to the latter they they are master and apprentice rather than equals and siblings as they kill any one standing in their way as they attempt to set up a place of power within the criminal underworld. Opress is not too keen on the idea of master and apprentice, but Maul quickly overwhelms his brother in lightsaber combat. Needing followers, the brothers travel to Florrum where they manage to convince Weequay pirate Jiro and his crew to join him and in turn betray their leader Hondo Ohnaka. But experienced from past situations, Hondo is not easily fazed as Maul's recruitable fell apart with the arrival of Obi-Wan and Adi Galia, the latter killed by Savage before his arm is sliced off by Obi-Wan. With his legs blown off by the pirates and their ship damaged, Maul and Savage escape in an escape pod. The pirates assume that the brothers are dead as they are not found in the wreckage of their ship, but Obi-Wan thinks otherwise as Maul had survived being cut in half. The Jedi then takes this to Palpatine, but dismisses it as Maul has yet to prove to be a threat to the Republic and the situation appears to be a personal matter for Obi-Wan. Yoda, Mace Windu, and Anakin Skywalker reluctantly agree, but as the Jedi walk away, Palpatine smirks, implying that he may have plans for his former apprentice.[4]
Maul and Savage are later found by the Death Watch Mandalorians led by Pre Vizsla, who gives Maul a new set of legs and Savage a new arm. Seeing this as an opportunity to get revenge on Obi-Wan, Maul offers Vizsla the chance to reclaim Mandalore, using his unsavory methods to recruit the Black Sun (after having Savage kill off its previous chain of command), spice traders connected to Coruscant's crime families, and the Hutt Council after impressing Jabba with his determination. From there, he engineered Vizsla's rise to power by having his army of thugs attack Mandalore and have the Death Watch arrest them to make themselves look like heroes and demonize Duchess Satine's policy. But having expected Vizsla to betray them after they do his dirty work, allowing himself to be arrested, Maul decides to replace Vizsla with Almec, a prime minister who Satine locked away for corruption. Easily breaking free, Maul challenges Vizsla to a duel to take over Death Watch and Mandalore, killing him and claiming Vizsla's darksaber. He wins the loyalty of most Death Watch members while Vizsla's second-in-command Bo Katan retreats along with those loyal to their previous leader. From there, Maul anticipated Satine being broken out of prison and her attempt to contact the Jedi Council as part of his plan to get Obi-Wan to Mandalore. Once Obi-Wan arrives, Maul captures him and kills Satine right before the Jedi to make him suffer rather than kill him straight away, then sends him to a jail cell so he can agonize. However, as Obi-Wan is freed by the Night Owl rebels, Maul is confronted by Sidious, who kills Savage before defeating his former student in lightsaber combat as their plans were interfering with Sidious' own master plot. Maul pleads for mercy, but Sidious ignores him and fires a stream of lightning at Maul. While torturing him, Sidious states that he won't kill Maul as he may be of use to him.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
In Solo: A Star Wars Story, Maul is revealed to be the master of the crime syndicate Crimson Dawn, to which crime lord Dryden Vos answers. Qi'ra tells Maul that Vos and his men were killed by Tobias Beckett and his accomplices, but neglects to name Han Solo and Chewbacca. Maul commands her to meet with him on Dathomir and warns her that they will work more closely from now on, igniting his lightsaber.
Star Wars Rebels
On Star Wars Rebels, which is set between Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, an older Maul is tracked by an Inquisitor named the Eighth Brother, while he is stranded on the ancient Sith world of Malachor, where he is discovered by Ezra Bridger among the ruins. Introducing himself as "Old Master" and seeking revenge against Sidious, Maul leads Ezra into an ancient Sith temple, where they discover a holocron that Maul claims can give them the knowledge needed to defeat the Sith. After recovering it, the two find Ezra's Jedi master Kanan Jarrus and former Jedi Ahsoka Tano locked in battle with the Eighth Brother. They also find the Fifth Brother and the Seventh Sister, who have been pursuing the Rebels for some time. Maul – having cast aside the title of Darth – then reveals a new lightsaber disguised as a walking stick and joins the Jedi in battling their enemies.
After the Inquisitors retreat, Maul wins the Jedi's trust by denouncing the Sith, and tells them that he cannot defeat Darth Vader on his own. Working together, he and the Jedi ascend towards the top of the Sith temple and successfully kill all three Inquisitors. It is then that Maul reveals his intention to take Ezra as his apprentice, having already tricked him into activating the temple. After blinding Kanan, Maul briefly duels Ahsoka before facing Kanan again, only to be knocked off the temple's edge. However, he survives the fall and escapes Malachor in the Eighth Brother's TIE Fighter.
Months after the events on Malachor, Maul once again reveals himself to the Jedi as he takes the Ghost's crew hostage. He threatens to kill them unless Kanan and Ezra bring both the Sith and Jedi holocrons to him. Despite an attempt by the Rebels to escape, Maul successfully recaptures them and takes them to a remote base in the Outer Rim where he awaits the arrival of the Jedi. After they arrive, the holocrons are hazardously united allowing Ezra and Maul to see visions of their desires: Ezra sees images of a way to destroy the Sith, images including "twin suns", while Maul sees a vision of his own. Kanan begs Ezra to look away before he sees something he doesn't want to while Maul tells him to ignore Kanan and keep looking. Ezra heeds his master's words and breaks off the connection, which causes a great explosion. Maul escapes in the confusion, uttering, "He lives."
Maul reappears after finding the Rebellion's secret base. He tells Ezra that because the connection was severed, they got bits and pieces of each other's visions. With the holocrons destroyed from the events of their previous meeting, Maul discovered another way to get the information he needed. With Ezra he travels to Dathomir, former home of the Night Sisters, and recreates one of their spells to temporarily meld his and Ezra's minds. After the spell is completed Ezra, who was still looking for a way to destroy the Sith, and Maul realize they are both looking for Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Maul is soon lost on Tatooine. He decides to use Ezra to lure Obi-Wan out of hiding. During their confrontation, Maul deduces that Obi-Wan is not only hiding, but is protecting someone. In a swift duel, Obi-Wan fatally wounds Maul. As he lies dying in Obi-Wan's arms, Maul asks if the person he is protecting is the Chosen One, and Obi-Wan replies "he is". Maul declares that this "Chosen One" will avenge them, and dies.
Star Wars literature
As portrayed in the novel Darth Plagueis, Darth Plagueis sends his apprentice Sidious to the Force-rich world of Dathomir as a way of denying him his craving to visit a Force-rich Sith homeworld. A Dathomiri witch, or Night-sister, senses Palpatine's Force ability and approaches him. She assumes he is a Jedi and begs him to take her Zabrak infant son. She realizes Palpatine is not a Jedi, and explains how she is trying to save him from the threat of a Nightsister mother named Talzin so he can live freely; Maul's father was killed by tradition. It is implied that Maul has a twin brother and that Talzin is only aware of one child. Palpatine realizes the infant is strong in the Force and that the risk is too great for him to be found by the Jedi.
As portrayed in the novel Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, Maul is kidnapped from his Jedi training by Sidious at an early age, and is trained as a Sith, having Sith tattoos put all over his body. Maul initially goes on countless missions of terror for his master, killing politicians, crime bosses, merchants and warlords.
Several sources depict Maul returning from the dead in several different forms. The story "Resurrection" from Star Wars Tales 9 depicts a duplicate of Maul created by a cult (via an unspecified process) with the cult intending for Maul to replace Darth Vader as they believe that Vader is too tainted by his past as Anakin to be a true Sith, only for this Maul to be killed by Vader. The story "Phantom Menaces" in Star Wars Tales #17 (set after Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi) depicts Luke Skywalker visiting Maul's home planet of Iridonia in an ambassadorial capacity, where he faces a "solid state hologram" of Maul projected from Maul's salvaged brain as part of a scientist's attempt to recreate Maul as Iridonia's 'champion', Luke shutting down the life-support systems keeping the brain alive as he recognises the disruption that Maul's existence is causing in the Force.
In 2005, Dark Horse Comics published Star Wars: Visionaries, a compilation of comic art short stories written and illustrated by members of the Revenge of the Sith art department and ILM artists. One story "Old Wounds", considered to be non-canonical to Star Wars lore, depicts Maul surviving his bisection at Obi-Wan's hands, replacing his missing bottom half with cybernetic replacements. He then follows Obi-Wan throughout the galaxy, finally tracking him down on Tatooine a few years after the events of Revenge of the Sith. He engages Obi-Wan in a lightsaber duel but is killed by a blaster bolt to the head from Owen Lars.
In early 2012, a young adult biography of Darth Maul entitled Star Wars: The Wrath of Darth Maul was released by Scholastic. In the 2014 novel, Star Wars: Maul: Lockdown, set before The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul is sent into an infamous galactic prison. Maul is also featured prominently in comic series starting in this period, Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Sith Hunters & Darth Maul: Death Sentence. Set in the period of the Clone Wars around the various episodes that featured Maul, Sith Hunters and Death Sentence detail his and Savage Opress' journey across the galaxy as they seek vengeance on the Jedi.
Dark Horse Comics produced Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir based on the scripts and storyboards of an unproduced 4-episode story arc intended for The Clone Wars Season 6. After killing Savage Opress, Darth Sidious takes Maul to a Separatist prison, where Count Dooku tortures him for information about the Shadow Collective. Prime Minister Almec arranges Maul's escape and the latter then heads back to Zanbar to command the Death Watch army. However, he is followed there by General Grievous and his droids, who then battle with Maul and the Mandalorians. While they put up a fierce fight, Maul and his minions are ultimately overwhelmed by the droids. During the battle, Maul tears through the droid ranks and attacks Grievous, but is overpowered and forced to retreat. Afterwards, Maul confers with Mother Talzin (revealed to be his biological mother) and plots to draw out Sidious by capturing Dooku and General Grievous. The scheme works, and Talzin is able to restore herself to her physical form, but she sacrifices herself to save Maul. Although Maul escapes with a company of loyal Mandalorians, the Shadow Collective has fallen apart due to the conflict with Sidious, as the Hutts, Pykes, and Black Sun have all abandoned Maul.
In flashbacks during the novel Star Wars: Ahsoka, it is revealed that during the final days of the Clone Wars, Maul and his forces were besieged on Mandalore by an army of clone troopers led by Ahsoka Tano and Captain Rex. During the siege, Maul confronts and duels Ahsoka, and though he proves to be the stronger fighter, the former Jedi outwits him and traps him in a ray shield. However, before Maul can be taken into official custody, Order 66 is enacted and the clone troopers following Ahsoka turn on her, with the exception of Rex. With Rex's life in peril, Ahsoka abandons the chance of killing Maul, allowing the former Sith to escape once again. This battle was originally intended to be depicted in the series finale of The Clone Wars had the series not been prematurely cancelled – Anakin and Obi-Wan were dispatched to Mandalore with Ahsoka, but were immediately called back to Coruscant to rescue Chancellor Palpatine, thus leading into the opening sequence of Revenge of the Sith.
In 2017, Marvel released Star Wars: Darth Maul a 5-issue prequel series centered on Darth Maul before the events of The Phantom Menace.
Characteristics
Concept and creation
Series creator George Lucas had described Darth Maul as "a figure from your worst nightmare". Designer Iain McCaig thus offered Lucas a design based on a nightmare of his, which was rejected, but later inspired the Nightsister Sith witch Asajj Ventress in later Star Wars tales. One day, McCaig was trying to make "Sith Lord versions" of the art department crew, and drew David Dozoretz, head of the animations group, with a circuit board on his face. Lucas was intrigued by the circuit board idea, and McCaig started producing similar caricatures.
After getting frustrated with a drawing of production designer Gavin Bocquet, McCaig started covering it in tape. Both he and Lucas liked the result, described as "a kind of Rorschach pattern". The final drawing had McCaig's own face, with a pattern based on three things: a concept of a "flayed flesh face", face-painting of African tribes and further Rorschach experimentation (dropping ink onto paper, folding it in half then opening).[5]
Darth Maul's head originally had feathers, based on prayer totems, but the Creature Effects crew led by Nick Dudman interpreted those feathers as horns, modifying his features into those common in popular Christian and other depictions of the Devil.[6]
His clothing was also modified, from a tight body suit with a muscle pattern to the Sith robe based on samurai pleats, because the lightsaber battles involved much jumping and spinning.[5] Another concept had Maul a masked figure, something that could rival Darth Vader, while the senatorial characters would sport painted and tattooed faces. It was later decided to apply this to Maul rather than the senator.[5]
Portrayal
Darth Maul was protrayed by Ray Park in The Phantom Menace, voiced by Peter Serafinowicz in the movie as well as Lego Star Wars: The Video Game, Gregg Berger for the video game adaptation, Jess Harnell in Star Wars: Racer Revenge as well as Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds and Star Wars: Demolition, Stephen Stanton in Star Wars: Battlefront II, Clint Bajakian in Star Wars: Super Bombad Racing, David W. Collons in Star Wars The Force Unleashed and Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron, and Sam Witwer for Star Wars: The Clone Wars as well as Star Wars: Brisksaber. Savage Opress is voiced by Clancy Brown.
Popular culture
Since the release of The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul has proven to be a popular character. IGN named Darth Maul the 16th greatest Star Wars character, noting, "Of the countless characters to walk in and out of the Star Wars saga, none look or act more badass than Darth Maul."[7]
Darth Maul related merchandise was popular among Hasbro Star Wars toy lines, with plastic recreations of his double bladed lightsaber and various action figures in his likeness developed. Darth Maul has been the focal point of the toy marketing campaign surrounding the 2012 re-release of The Phantom Menace, being featured on the packaging for the toy line.[8] The character's double-bladed lightsaber has influenced several homages and parodies, including an appearance in The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror X" and a similar weapon being featured in the video game series Ratchet and Clank. The character was also an unlockable character in the video game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3.
In December 2017, an 8-year-old Ontario boy went viral on the Internet with a video of him pretending to be Darth Maul and displaying his martial arts skills.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
- ↑ Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008 TV series)
- ↑ Valby, Karen. Entertainment Weekly - Darth Maul Lives!. Insidetv.ew.com. Retrieved on June 13, 2012.
- ↑ Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 5, episode 1, "Revival"
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Designing a Sith LordTemplate:Dead link
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Darth Maul- #16. Ign.com. Retrieved on June 13, 2012.
- ↑ Star Wars New Line Look for 2012
External links
- Darth Maul in the Official StarWars.com Encyclopedia
- Darth Maul on Wookieepedia: a Star Wars wiki
- Savage Opress on Wookieepedia: a Star Wars wiki
- Feral on Wookieepedia: a Star Wars wiki
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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original article was at Darth Maul. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Lucasfilm Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |