A Random Blog

maul speaks like he's delivering a judgement and hardly like he's ever having a conversation with someone

a great example is this exchange from msl:

"You made the police captain an offer, so we will do the same. Surrender, and you will be unharmed."

"Surrender? When has that passive ideology ever served you Jedi, haven't you learned your lesson? It seems not."

one pattern ive noticed is that maul will find philosophical assumptions in someones words and turn it into a weapon. he then turns that philosophical assumption into a verdict, and thus eliminate the persons ability to respond to him

so mauls basically operates as someone whose judgement it's the correct judgement, and its foolish that you havent arrived to that conclusion as well.

2. maul is very specific and intentional

"It is your unwillingness to use your power that makes you weak."

maul could just call the jedi weak, pathetic even. but he's identifying a specific cause and specific effect.

"You have no purpose, no hope. Your future was robbed from you, yet you sit idle. You are one of the few Jedi who survived, now you squander that gift."

again, very specific. maul is extremely observant and emotionally intelligent. within a few hours of meeting devon, who barely speaks to him, he's easily able to pick her apart and piss her off. you dont do that by making hand wavy statements.

what makes maul fascinating is that despite how emotionally aware and intuitive he is, he's extremely blind to his own hypocrisy, but thats a conversation for another day

"I suppose concern doesn't...fit with what you've been told about me, but I invite you to look more closely."

this is so fun, because maul is doing several things at once.

first: he's getting ahead of devons assumptions and skepticism about him. maul knows who he is, what is his, and what his reputation is. it's actually a very defensive statement framed as self-awareness in an almost casual way

and "i invite you to look more closely" re-establishes control. because for maul, this was a vulnerable statement, but he quickly reels it back in.

it is a sincere statement, but extremely manipulative.

"I see a murderer."

"Well, we do what it takes to survive. Perhaps the says since the Jedi fell, you can relate."

what's so fun about this exchange is one: devon caught maul off guard. and two: maul says "perhaps since the jedi fell, you can relate." its not a question, it's a statement.

and he's pulling devon into it. another thing maul does constantly is deflect. instead of saying "I" he's saying "we", subtly dragging devon in with him. because it's true. both maul and devon are survivors, so he's leveling the playing field here.

"I know what you're doing, we're nothing alike."

"Are we not? You were part of an order poised to serve the republic. You don't realize the fragility of these institutions until they're ripped away. I felt certain of my destiny once as well. But that was before my master cast me aside. I had to find my own way. My brother was murdered, my mother was murdered. All by the same enemy who destroyed your order. So tell me again: are we nothing alike?""

maul starts his recruitment of devon with control and she cracks it. he recovers and escalates the argument to personal experience. he starts losing composure as he relays his vulnerability, then weaponizes that vulnerability by proving to devon they're alike and daring her to ask if he's wrong

ugh its a MASTERCLASS in manipulation

3. he speaks in abstractions rather than feelings

"As the Empire as risen, we have all been made to suffer - even the once mighty Jedi have fallen. But, there are many who have prospered from my misfortune: the pykes, crimson dawn, vario. Soon, they will all pay."

instead of saying "these people fucked me over when i needed them the most and it hurt my feelings" he's conceptualizing it like it's a philosophical concept.

and maul. makes it about himself

he starts off the statement by saying "we're all suffering because of the empire, including the jedi." then goes on to talk about how he is a victim

its a personal and vulnerable statement. but also, not really? because he's turning his own suffering into resource exploitation. and it shows that maul views betrayal as transactional.