mostly Star Wars

Watching as many Star Wars shows as I can in very little time just makes me realize how much Father-With-Unplanned-Adopted-Kid is a trope there

Also how much I love it

That's how the episode went right?

It fucking KILLS me to see the way Ezra looks at Maul

vulnerable, full of shaky hope and insecurities, he feels lost and in need of guidance and Maul perfectly plays into that, twists his morals and makes him question the way Kanan taught him the force

Maul tells Ezra what he wants to hear: “you’re powerful”, “you have the potential to be something bigger”

“You were given this gift for a reason, use it. Can you do this for me?”

It’s the way Ezra takes a moment to look at Maul’s hand on his shoulder. It feels familiar because Kanan often does the same gesture but wrong at the same time

Yes, Ezra at this point is really attached to Kanan, but he’s also full of anger and frustration at the world, at the Empire. And he feels weak and there’s Maul, who guides him into thinking that he can become more powerful, that his gift in the force is being underused and undermined by the jedi’s teachings.

And on the other hand there’s Maul — he's desperate and he is soaking in his own deep seated hatred. He doesn't even know that Ezra could be useful in finding Obi-Wan yet, he just wants an apprentice. Someone whom he will pass down his knowledge to.

"We could walk that path together as friends, as brothers" he wants a connection again. Maul's understanding of apprenticeship is twisted and his sense of possession is even more screwed up but he craves it

So he sees a boy, who's craving that connection as well. The boy has a huge untouched potential to become something bigger and he has means of reaching it (fear, anger, hatred) but he lacks a "proper guidance" so he latches onto him

after this point, in Maul's eyes he IS his master. Even if Kanan is alive, even if Maul himself uses Ezra, manipulates and hurts him in order to obtain his infatuation (Obi-Wan), he still keeps calling Ezra his apprentice

and Ezra never denies the title. He hates Maul so much, but he never denies the title.

Ezra HATES Maul but it doesn't matter because in Maul's eyes that's how things should be

Wrecker/Hunter 🤝 Kanan

knowing their child is the one causing chaos

bonus:

Omega 🤝 Ezra

ASAJJ VENTRESS & LYCO STRATA In Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld (2025)

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