im enjoying the new maul show

Idk if I'm right but given that understanding healthy relationships is Maul's blind spot there's a very real possibility that Devon and Rylee bonding over losing their father figures is potentially going to become a massive hindrance to his plans at some point in the future. Rylee isn't just here for the heck of it. There's a purpose to his character not only existing but also seemingly intentionally paralleling the same type of loss Devon is also experiencing. Yeah, it's a motivation for Devon to team up with Maul now, but I feel like eventually her desire to protect her friend and her desire to get back at the Empire are going to clash. Those desires may align currently, but remember, when she defied either Daki or Maul it was explicitly because she chose to protect Rylee instead of obeying the adults. That was her priority in the moment above all else. If one goal at some point gets in the way of the other, which one is she going choose? Maul expects her to automatically choose the goal that aligns with his. But is he right or is that too presumptuous on his part?

What Maul fails to understand is that children - especially teenagers - are not merely extensions of adults. This is because he was never taught any different, which yes is tragic, but he's continuing the cycle Palpatine imposed on him. Neither Devon nor Ezra is an individual person to him - they're reflections of his own self. So he mistakenly assumes they're going to behave exactly like him. Feel the same feelings, make the same decisions. But while they're similar, they're not the same, and we've already seen that individuality win once when Ezra chooses to abandon his temporary brush with the Dark Side.

Dysfunctional and doomed relationships are generally ill-conceived, weak, and full of red flags, right at the beginning. To be well written, we just have to buy that the characters get stuck together anyway, wherein something more significant is given means to grow.

So I ask this: Do we really think Devon would just give Maul the bird and run off to go fend for herself? After three deadly hunters killed her master, nearly killed her, and will continue to hunt her? Cause I don't.

It should be really obvious Devon still doesn't like Maul, or agree with his principles. His coercion and manipulation is obvious to her, too. But as much as he wants to use her, she intends to use him back -- For safety, and for power/revenge. This is the crux of their dysfunction.

Devon will inevitably receive guidance, wisdom, and care from a twisted replacement father figure, and Maul will think this relationship is good for them both... but he won't be good enough to fully stop the cycle of abuse he comes from. The dark side will remain a path to failure.

Season 1 was a solid explanation for how this bad situation gets going. Season 2 onwards will likely explore the slippery slope Devon thinks she can balance on top of without losing herself (not that she has other great options), alongside Maul grappling with... everything.

Can we talk about how right at the end there, Maul’s gaze loses focus.

He looks straight ahead, then to Devon, then at nothing. How during the whole ending there, he had not said a single word since the fight in the cave, and he is standing at the far back of the group.

He supressed any kinship he had felt before because it started to weaken him.

Like he does not scoff at her words or pulls a dismissive face or even SAYS anything. He disassociates instead, and I’m also wondering if that had been the first time someone called them his “friends” to his face and he needs to chew on that. Were they his friends? Were their actions that of FRIENDS who cared about him? Might their care have went above what a crewmember’s loyalty is defined by? I don’t know, WAS IT?

... Ok, no, back to the topic:

There's a decline in reaction AND time spend on his crew’s deaths going from this:

(Scorn’s death is literally complicit in his break down in the tunnels)

to this:

(stopping mid-fight to watch, afterwards shouting out in rage)

to this:

(being more and more surrounded, having no time to dwell on another loss)

and lastly, this:

(instead of making it out, being confronted with an even bigger threat than before)

We as the audience are right there with him, and we are not given even a second to mourn. Because Maul is not given that time either.

Mind you, Devon offering her condolences is right before Rook’s death. She does not even turn around, giving him the space to process this on his own, being the more sensible and emotional collected one, sensing that he’s struggling.

Just that right then Vader attacks.

But I am so very sure he WOULD have reacted more to Icarus and Rook would the circumstances have allowed it, would their and Spybot's deaths not have happened in the span of ... five minutes?, because he IS affected.

We know Maul is not modest in using his tragedies to evoke compassion or to proof a point - but for that to work, he needs to come to terms with what happened and mould it in his favour. He could have used that tender moment to evoke Devon’s sympathy by acting on this loss. I am not surprised if he will do so in the future, alá we both lost every remaining one close to us that day, it’s on us to make it worth it.

But right then and there, he does not know what to think. This was not planned. He wanted for his crew to grow, to gain a new strong ally with Devon, not for everyone to be killed during their attempt to flee. So now it’s just an open wound that Vader makes even bigger a second later.

This also circles back to him being genuinely conflicted for a moment when he pushes Daki towards Vader and leaves to save Devon. Her loss would be the final straw, because then it was all for nothing and he CANNOT have that.

Also why his emotions jump right into the opposite direction and he's smiling like a maniac when Devon dips into the dark for the first time and agrees to become his apprentice, later on. Y’know, this lovely image of him:

He is relieved.

Devon decided to follow him.

Meaning it - they - all served a purpose, and now he does not need to think about them as losses, but as sacrifices that were needed to be made.

There is absolutely no need for Maul to turn her against the Jedi as a concept in order to turn her to the dark side.

There is no need to convince her that the Jedi Order is bad. Because it's gone. It doesn't exist anymore. It was destroyed. That's WHY Devon is so vulnerable, because her still-living master is her only remaining tether to what came before, because her grief at surviving Order 66 and the loss of her family and culture, her fear of just how easily she could be hunted down to, is why she's going to be receptive to being offered a new path forward, because the one she was on was destroyed.

But she's not getting recruited by the Inquisitorius here. She's not being turned into a Jedi-hunter. There is no need to convince her that from her point of view the Jedi are evil. Because they're gone.

I read a lot of lightsaber lore when I was younger, and it actually lines up really well with the depth of Maul's duel with Devon in Ep. 3.

Devon states she "Isn't foolish enough to fight [Maul]", but when cornered at the exit, she says "Let me pass, I'm not afraid of you". She then opens into what appears to be an opening stance for Form III lightsaber combat (Soresu), which supports a couple ideas about her character.

1 . She's past the basic fundamentals of Form I lightsaber combat (Shii-Cho), which is what padawans generally start with. She's no beginner.

2. She is prioritizing defense and endurance here, as these are the primary functions of Form III. Her goal here really is to defend herself as long as she has to. You can win a duel with Form III, but she definitely just wants to get past him.

Maul responds with an opening stance for Form II (Makashi), which isn't his typical fighting style. We usually see Form II with Count Dooku.

Form II is a traditional & advanced form, focused on efficiently defeating an opponent in saber-on-saber combat. He wants to flex the extent to which he can easily outclass Devon, because he wants her to buy into the value of his training (much like Vader with Luke in The Empire Strikes Back. Wow parallels).

She actually holds up pretty well for a minute, and is very much on the defense, so yeah... Form III.

Unfortunately, he essentially beats her here:

And again

And again.

And again.

Obviously, he isn't trying to kill her, and she can gather as much. He just wants to do this little demonstration, test her, and get in her head.

She ultimately gets away, but only after he frustrates her enough that she perhaps "taps into the dark side" a little bit, as the kids say. He pushes her to be more discontent and ambitious with her life, so that he can be part of the answer. She can gather as much.

I'm curious where this is really headed. As a final note, Maul doesn't open into his typical fighting style with Form VII (Juyo) until Ep 4., when he has to fight both Devon and her master.

You don't exactly need to know any lightsaber lore to extract these ideas from the narrative, but it was pretty fun to see these details lining up.

A friend of mine was having trouble making reference sheets for her characters, so I made quite a few!

I figure these could be really useful if anyone else was struggling too, so these are all F2U

because tell me why I caught myself multiple times leaning forward like, "oh… this might actually work." "oh, i would like to see what happens," like I was considering it. like I was ready to watch Devon fall and go, "yeah, okay, I get it, I support it."

and that’s the trap.

this whole time, we knew who Maul is. manipulator, survivor, (at one point) a victim, walking vendetta wrapped in charisma, Sam Witwer voice, and cool tattoos. him technically not being a Sith anymore doesn’t cleanse anything. it just makes him more unpredictable. he’s not serving Sidious anymore, he’s serving himself.

and still… the show makes you feel for him.

that last episode especially felt like emotional whiplash in the best, most unsettling way. one moment you’re watching him inch closer to getting what he wants; Devon as an apprentice, and there’s this creeping tension where you think, "is it really gonna happen?" and then the next moment he’s practically delivering Master Daki to Vader like a calculated sacrifice.

and it snaps back into place.

oh. right. he’s awful.

but it doesn’t stick, does it? because then Daki dies, Devon is angry and shattering the way Maul wants.

and Maul... Maul has that moment. that barely-contained smile. that flicker of satisfaction he tries to hide while feeding her anger, sharpening it. "we will have our revenge." and suddenly you realize something deeply uncomfortable:

he’s not just manipulating her.

he’s been manipulating us the entire time.

because why are we feeling anything close to hope when he speaks? why does his pain feel compelling enough to blur the lines? why did I, even for a second, forget that wanting Devon to follow him is wanting her destruction?

it’s not just character writing at that point. it’s narrative sleight of hand.

and honestly? I have to give it to the writers. because making Maul likable isn’t new. making him tragic isn’t new. but making the audience complicit in his manipulation? making us feel the pull of the dark side alongside the characters?

that’s something else entirely.

“it’s not as simple as good and evil”