SIOSIN

I just want to know why every time the story has anything to do with Maul there's a deliberate effort to make him suck. What is that about. It wouldn't bother me so much narratively if it wasn't constantly the case with maul specifically.

You're telling me the first time inquisitors are portrayed as anything but fodder it just happens to be in Maul's show, when every other previous depiction of them has established that they are subpar attack dogs? Of course it's with maul. It's always with maul. Ahsoka dealing with the exact same inquisitors in her own show gets to look cool and kill them in seconds, but as soon as maul is involved we need to bring everyone else up just so they can put him down. Can we stop that? Can we ever just watch maul fully fuck someone up? As a treat 🥺

Maul just straight up not blocking is so funny to me.

He's given a "weakness" that is literally just "getting hit with lightsaber bad" as if that's not a universal weakness. Yeah getting hit in the leg is bad for everyone my guy, that's how this works. That's why we block. A character's skill is directly correlated to their ability to not let themselves be hit by a lightsaber, and maul should not be getting hit over and over, he has the skill and the reflexes to parry that shit. Why are We not exploiting everyone else's legs by hitting them with a lightsaber? It would be just as effective. Is it because they block perhaps? What a crazy idea.

Maul not having mobility isn't a good argument because not only will he be jumping around arbitrarily by the next scene, but he's a goated force wielder. Why is he not using the force if he's about to get hit and can't move out of the way, or parry apparently? It's dumb af. maul was literally about to die, and would have, if temu Savage didn't jump in and save him last second. Why would Maul allow that to happen when he can seize people with his literal fucking mind? The inquisitors should have never been the antagonists that Make maul struggle in this show, they should have been the reason Vader needed to come in and I will never not be salty about it 😂(And again, sometimes narratively you have to make these exceptions to have a story, but they are constantly doing this shit to Maul specifically and I'm starting to get pissed off).

Same character btw.

Maul just straight up picks her ass up and holds her there for Ezra💀 why can't he do that in his show? Throw one fucker into the other. You're Darth fucking Maul. Lock tf in player.

Pick one weakness and make it obvious. If he can't move around well, make that consistent throughout. If he can't fight with his body, he's going to switch to the force. Getting smacked in the hip by a lightsaber is a skill issue that has nothing to do with the mobility issue.

All of this handicapping doesn't have the effect of giving Maul a vulnerability to explain away why he's not fighting well, it's actually just making the case that he never fought well in the first place. Every depiction of maul has been an effort to rewrite his abilities and make him worse than he's meant to be, and I hate that for his character. He can be affected by his legs, that's fine, but It would have been so easy to make the droid legs a hindrance in a believable way. instead they just made maul pathetic and inconsistent.

It might actually be time to accept that the writers just want to create the perception of maul to be a wasted potential character, so they deliberately make him a massive bum in every aspect. that's clearly what they're going for. I'm so tired of the "hubris" argument like every sith ever wasn't prideful. "Maul is just so prideful", so he has to lose the majority of his fights by being thrown off of something really high, or forget what blocking is in a sword fight lmfao. Maul is just handpicked by the narrative to lose and still manages to hang around despite himself, as if that's supposed to be compelling. Well it's not. I want to see maul being lethal af. His arrogance and need for vengeance will cause him to lose in the bigger picture because of his choices, but that doesn't mean we need to watch him constantly lose fights over and over, or just barely survive them every time. Sidious wants him gone because he's meant to be a problem. How TF is maul a problem to sidious if he just takes care of himself every fucking time by losing? All sidious needs to do is ignore him tbh.

Despite being personally picked by sidious and trained his entire life with the sole purpose of being proficient in dueling and killing other force users, maul is actually the biggest fraud in the franchise. He not only loses large scale, but he's trash small scale. All he has is cunning and even that ultimately sucks. It would be easier to accept that reality if all of his comic/novelization content didn't directly contradict every time he's on screen taking nothing but Ls or barely surviving every encounter. It's annoying that every fight he has comes with a list of excuses on why he lost. It's like damn, at this point just give him a redemption arc because he's not even good at being a villain.

It's been a few days and I've come to the conclusion that I hated that finale.

I don't know why you would make a show about Maul just to have him suck. not only did we not get any new insight into maul and his crew, but he also sucks at fighting. so Why are we here? We already know he's going to fail at everything anyway, so genuinely what's the intrigue anymore? What is the point of watching maul at all if we're not getting something new?

I really didn't want Vader to be in this show, but if it's going to happen don't lessen maul just so Vader can be cool. Rewatching that fight has me so pissed off😂. At some points maul is literally just standing there weakly poking at Vader and somehow not able to hit him even while vader is completely occupied. That shit is so lame. If Vader fights like a cardboard cutout don't slow everyone else down to accommodate his janky ass. I'm so tired of arbitrary star wars fights where genuinely nothing matters. This finale was for Vader fans and not maul fans.

The leg wasn't even a good excuse because the writers just allow Maul to jump around and do crazy shit when it's convenient, but fall apart when he's fighting. His leg is damaged, sure, but that doesn't mean he suddenly forgot how to block? why is he letting everyone hit his leg over and over?

It's crazy that this show has made me feel like I like Maul less now because I'm just wasting my time. the only thing that I'm interested in seeing in season 2 is him having a genuine connection with Devon, but I have a feeling that won't happen either. It's going to be more basic surface level shit. I want to explore the side of maul we never get to see and nothing else. Stop wasting my time.

In season 2 I want emotion and inner-conflict and connection. I want Devon to actually grow to care about maul and challenge him to be better in ways he's unfamiliar with. I want to see how he handles caring about someone else after his revelation that he treated his brother like shit. Give me something to bite into. I'm so clocked out of Maul's story at this point. It's just the same shit over and over. I want to see maul crawling and clawing his way out of the depths and get so close to the light that it's devastating when he falls down again.

my in-depth analysis on why maul is still a massive dirt bag despite dabbling in character growth. And how he might have been low-key right and I hate it here

This obviously isn't the first time Maul has teamed up with other characters, but it is the first time Maul has made an alliance without the intention of betraying everyone involved. He goes into this alliance with genuine respect for them. These are brave people willing to fight and that's a rare commodity.

One of my favorite things about this show is the juxtaposition of what the audience knows about maul, and what the characters know about Maul. we have seen Maul's introspection. We know about the vow of justice made when he was at his lowest down in the tunnels. We know that Maul has clearly changed, at least in mentality. He's watched people he cares about sacrifice their lives for him. He values what other people bring to the table and he's had his turning point moment.

But the other characters still think of maul how he's always been; maliciously deceitful. They believe he's just using them to help him escape, then he will dispose of them at his earliest convenience.

The reality is that maul is being genuine here. I believe Everything he is saying is surface level. He means exactly what he says.

The danger maul poses to them is no longer in inherent malicious deceit. the real danger now lies in the ideological divide; how things should be done for the success of the group. If you believe someone is a handicap to the success of the group, it's going to cause the eventual betrayal. not a betrayal of malice, but a betrayal of perceived necessity. More on that later.

I like how in these conversations all of the characters seem to be on the same page about who maul is, except maul himself. They say he is untrustworthy, he is a double-crosser, rook assumes he's going to kill Daki. But then maul comes out and says, "hey have some respect. This guy is on our team now."

Of course Maul being Maul, he always leaves in the caveat of "for now" because he's prepared for this to not work out over ideological differences. He's more than willing to kill Daki If he needs to, but I don't believe he wants to. I think he would much rather work with Daki than be at odds with him.

I love these moments of maul showing respect and building rapport with Daki. He agrees with his logic, He notices when the Jedi senses something wrong. I don't think Maul necessarily likes Daki, but he doesn't dislike him either. He respects him and what he brings to the table. (I will always appreciate how mauls characterization is up for interpretation depending on who you ask.)

Maul is putting himself in harms way for the safety of his teammates. He's defending them, he prioritizes their escape while he holds the line. He tells Rook to flee despite her protests to stay at his side. He urges Devon and Daki to safety while he holds back the inquisitors. Maul is very openly putting himself in danger for his allies. That in of itself is growth.

Maul genuinely sees the value in his team. Even while he's losing people, he doesn't give up trying. At least not yet.

The first disagreement comes after the first fight with Vader

Daki reassures Devon to keep calm, but of course maul believes real power comes from emotion. It's an interesting scene because maul is not mad at Daki, he's really trying to get through to them to help them understand, at least in his perspective, that they are handicapping themselves by not using their full power. He's frustrated and he wants them to succeed. He has unique insight into who Vader was. he knows Vader will exploit their weakness and defeat them easily.

Maul is really desperate here to get through to these Jedi. He's being patient, he has no desire to betray them. But he believes they can't win unless they tap into their passions.

It's so heartbreaking how supportive Daki is throughout the rest of this scene. He helps maul up, let's him lean on him for support, assures maul that together they can beat Vader. And maul for his part is reciprocating sincerity. Maul of all people is the flexible one in this scenario, imploring Daki to heed his advice. and As they fight together daki is so trusting of maul to have his back, and Maul is genuinely committed to the task. Support is all maul has ever wanted and he's finally got it, but Maul believes that unless Daki taps into his rage, this is a losing battle.

At this point maul has been hit in the leg 3 times, he's having trouble even standing up. There's a point where he gets up to lunge back into the fight but his leg spasms out and he realizes that they won't be coming out of this on top. He's too bruised and beaten. All the while he can hear Devon fighting the inquisitor alone. He's struck by the reality that he can either fight a losing battle, or he can sacrifice Daki to give himself time to save Devon, push her into her power, and flee to see another day.

You can clearly see that maul is conflicted here. he's grown to respect Daki but he knows this is over. He is either going to die here or make a choice.

I like the moment where he hears Devon struggling by herself to fight the inquisitor, and in a panic he just says "no". He knows without help she will die. he's lost everyone at this point and she's all he has left.He can't do any of this alone, he needs her help. Without her all of this was in vain.

I feel a little bit deflated by this finale. Not because it was bad per say but I'll get into it.

I'm going to talk about the things I didn't like in this post because they are the things immediately on my mind, and I'll talk about the things I liked later.

What I didn't like:

deaths;

Character deaths feel unresolved. Icarus and scorn by the end were nothing characters only there to give some context to mauls psychosis. When Icarus dies nobody even notices. Rip boso I guess? I am once again left feeling like something is missing.

Rook was such an important character and essentially Maul's best friend. I am really bummed that she's gone but my issue isn't necessarily that she dies, it's how brief and inconsequential it felt. I would have liked to see maul have some kind of reaction to it. the moment was very flat to me. They had such a cool dynamic and Maul genuinely valued her. She dies with the impact of a stormtrooper. I want the camera glued on Maul's face to get his in real time reactions to everything, then I want a little interview to be conducted to ask him how he feels about it like this is 'The office'

I guess Maul's mandalorian arc is officially over now.

Spybot crushed my soul. I wish he could have lived just because there is a season two and he brought so much to the show with his whimsy and his interactions with maul. I'm a bit sad there's no one left for Maul to play off of but Devon going into season 2.

The fights:

I tried to get over it but I can't lmao. It's incredibly irritating to me that Maul can't kill one of these inquisitors, but also that the inquisitors never take any damage. A 3 on one and they're still managing to dominate is absolutely ridiculous. Maul is supposed to be a beast when fighting other duelist force users, at this point I would argue a top 3 duelist. I was convinced after episodes 7-8 that maul was going to lock in and beat the breaks off of these two but this show really made him kind of a bum. I realize they had to nerf him with the leg injury on purpose because these two specific inquisitors can't die here, but it's only a disservice to Maul. I signed up to see him winning in his own show damnit. I want to see him like he is in the lore absolutely dominating as the lethal duelist he's meant to be. I would have preferred if they just added different inquisitors to this show that could be killed off. The aura farm service of maul slaughtering pikes and police droids means significantly less to me. We almost always see him losing when it counts. The inquisitors should have been the fodder, and Vader the real threat.

Vader:

This fight fell into the ‘everyone attacks one at a time’ trope that I can't STAND. One person hits Vader, then steps aside so another person can hit Vader, and on and on…. Not utilizing maul as an acrobatic flurry of fury for this fight makes me shed a tear.

it also took all the steam out of the long awaited maul vs Vader match up. Maul is at his lowest and not fighting his best, and it's a 3v1 again. The whole thing felt silly to me and I can't really explain why. They just smack sabers around, run a little bit, smack sabers, run a little bit lol. It's also so disappointing that we didn't get a conversation between them. There must be a rematch planned for season two because not only was the fight not a satisfying duel of Vader vs maul, but they missed such a massive opportunity for some great conversations. They really should have just saved Vader for season two with a fully recovered maul, because I don't think having Vader show up twice and the characters keep getting away is a good move.

Lack of closure:

I really wish this show had a quiet moment after the battle to linger on what was lost. We don't get any insight at all into how maul feels about his lost crew. That's it, we just moved on and the show was over. I was really hoping we would have gotten a moment on the ship of maul having a conversation with Devon to talk about literally anything. Talk about what happened, talk about their losses, talk about what she's feeling. Anything. Anything to show us where they're at, and give them something to connect over with some dialogue. This show does a lot of skipping opportunities for good dialogue and moments of character exploration and how they feel about each other. We get tons of action and almost none of the quiet after where the impact really matters. It made me feel like I was starving and consumed a giant meal that had zero calories.

The betrayal:

Maul's antics have never made me as bummed as I was after this finale. I knew it was coming, but man was it hard to watch after the positive change maul experienced last episode. This isn't really a nitpick about the finale, I'm just personally sad 🥲

I love a team up, and this team up for the first time ever didn't feel like it was poised purely as an eventual betrayal on Maul's part. maul is genuinely different. He respects these people. He's concerned for the most part for everyone's well being. It was cool watching him allow everyone to escape while he kept the inquisitors busy. It's fascinating to see that Maul has changed, but he's still the same. His motives are completely different now, but his actions haven't caught up. I want to talk about that in a different post though.

I also predicted that he was going to be the one to kill Daki but the way it happened was somehow worse than I expected.

Even Devon joining maul didn't feel how I thought it would. i was hoping it wouldn't go the way of Devon completely changing as a character, but it's starting to feel like Devon is actually going to “fall” in the worst sense. I don't get the impression that she's going to retain her moral integrity and I think that's also a massive bummer. I was hoping that 'joining maul ≠ turning evil' but I guess that's my fault for being delusional😂 I just have way too much hope in these characters. I've been on mauls side his entire journey knowing I will lose and still feeling surprised I lost. Make it make sense. And it's only downhill from here folks.

I genuinely feel like, “do I really want to watch more of this? Is season two even necessary?”

I can't look away from the trainwreck I'm afraid.

Spybot with Maul 🥰

Spybot with everyone else 👹

I already knew this was coming but having it confirmed hurts even worse

I don't want to watch him fail, I actually have dread😂💀. I want him to succeed so very badly

It's not only that he's going to fuck up, but his fuck ups are going to slowly drag him down until he loses all of this newfound purpose and motivation to change. He's going to fall back into old habits and stay stuck. What a bummer, dude.

I'm interested to see what happens in this finale, and how much of the conflict comes down to Maul's poor choices, or the influence of the moral characters around him who tend to reject him at the crossroads. We shall see 👀

I linked the other post I made talking about his attempts at breaking out of his cycles.

Is there a way for Devon to join maul without becoming corrupted? I don't understand how fighting with passion suddenly erases your morals? Devon already has a strong moral foundation, Maul doesn't want Devon to become “evil”, he wants to change where she derives her power from. I don't understand why that HAS to be a bad thing. star wars confuses me sometimes. Isn't vaapad a Jedi technique used for fighting with emotions? Mace windu could do it. Ventress has more or less become a morally sound character and she's still of the dark side, or at least neutral. Already having the light side foundation, Why could Devon not incorporate both? That might be her ultimate character arc, but maul will inevitably drag her down, and she'll either die or have to leave him. Which is a bummer.

The direction I'm personally hoping this show is going in is that Devon doesn't necessarily "fall" in the Anakin sense, but she chooses to join maul because of their shared goal. Devon just turning bad seems lame to me and she already has a strong moral foundation, but she's willing to get her hands dirty. I really hope this doesn't go the route of "the dark side is corruptive" and her convictions aren't solid enough to keep her firm.

It seems the most likely direction will be her choosing to fight like he does, but it will only come with negative consequences. Maul is meant to be a black hole type character, but i really want both characters to influence each other, not just maul making her life worse lol. It would be the first time someone objectively good doesn't just outright rebuke maul. It would be an interesting dynamic to explore how they wrestle with each other's morals and give ground in order for a partnership to work. It would be messy and frustrating for them but it would be such a compelling dynamic when they find moments of compromise and synergy, but also connection. I would love for her to teach him something. maul is at his most compelling when he's confronted by opportunities to change. And maybe he can in little ways.

Unfortunately it has to end badly because these characters aren't together by rebels, but it can go pretty well for a while. Episode 8 was really Maul's true rebirth moment of realizing he'd rather not replicate his master, and he's found renewed purpose, so it will be interesting to see if his demeanor shifts towards devon in the next two episodes. I still think he'll probably get Daki killed on the DL and blame the empire in order to push Devon over the edge 😬

"BuT iT's sO pOeTic". I don't care. miss me with the analysis lmao

You can't just show him breaking down in the sewer reliving his trauma and finally finding a purpose just for it to end like it does.

Roll out the time travel, filoni, fuck it. World between worlds can save him

I don't care anymore

LOOK AT HIM

DONT DO THIS TO ME

Maul walks up aura farming on these goobers

Devon is just watching maul be an absolute menace

shock and awe. flabbergasted.

"oh fuck he's sick as hell :0"

maul with the look back to make sure everyone saw ts lmfao

Daki clocking her admiration 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀

First of all I'm a little bit heated that two inquisitors were too much for maul to handle, ngl. I'm going to pretend the janky knee was the excuse. I hope after this moment he's going to lock TF in.

Second, episode 8 has made Maul's death in rebels 1000 times more depressing. Seeing him come to terms with himself and essentially have his dark night of the soul moment as he shows kindness, for the first time in his life, to his inner child was devastating, but also yet another crack in the foundation of the commonly held perception that maul is incapable of change. This is possibly the most monumental moment of growth Maul has ever had, and was a real positive change moment that could have put him on a better path. The foundation is there, he's so CLOSE! but the walls always crumble when he tries to build them up. There's so much hope and potential as he vows to stop sidious from hurting anyone else like he was, but he can't turn his positive inner change into position action without the support of positive allies willing to overlook who they know Maul to be in order to guide him on a better path. Ughh.

The triumphant moment was so deflated for me, knowing that maul will die having failed to ever get justice for the wrongs done to him. He will die begging obiwan to provide him with just a tiny glimmer of hope for what he will fail to do for the next 15 more years as he loses everything yet again. Damn dude.

Third thought.

I was really hoping they would stick to the wrath of maul book for maul's backstory. For me I think it is more tragic to have never known any positive interaction in life than to have known it briefly and been taken from it. This episode shows a young maul choosing to join sidious as his brother Savage pleads for him to stay. I think Giving maul the pseudo choice to join sidious really took away some of the injustice of his situation. Nothing about maul up until after his fall on naboo was ever his choice. He was taken by sidious as a very young child and forced into darkness. I didn't like that they included a scene of maul walking into sidious' arms like he was willing to be his apprentice, but not sure what he was getting himself into. Him being doomed from the very start was the worst kind of injustice.