The Force doesn't exist in Tokyo, so they have no Force enhancement. Maul is the only one of the two who has experience fighting an opponent without Force senses aiding him, has more experience fighting without Force augmentation, or while limiting it deliberately, and is generally in much better physical shape.
Take that, Kenobi fans.
__________________ “The galaxy must experience the pain of death and the rapture of rebirth as I have. I will bring chaos. It is time for war.”
If this wasn't merely TPM Maul I'd be inclined to pick him. Bloodlusted CW Maul can take Kenobi imo, since I feel the reason Kenobi can keep getting one up on him is Maul's own hubris and personality problems.
Without Jason Fry's off-hand post towards Erkan regarding Maul's "more powerful" quote, any argument for him being a better duelist than TPM Maul would fall apart, as was always the case before. And even then, it wouldn't be the first time we've questioned creator commentary. The primary source material we've been given hasn't told us that CW Maul is a better duelist than when he was in TPM, and logically, he isn't.
I'm not underrating Obi-Wan, but Maul's placement as a duelist has always been set in stone based on his accolades and feats from TPM and prior.. not from stalemating TCW Kenobi briefly or fighting Mace Windu for one panel. Those feats and the others only reinforce where he always was.
I just don't see the edge RotS Kenobi has over TPM Maul. They're negligibly close as fighters.
__________________ “The galaxy must experience the pain of death and the rapture of rebirth as I have. I will bring chaos. It is time for war.”
Well, in Shadow Conspiracy Maul's own musings seemed to indicate that his increase in power enhanced his saber prowess. He was making a direct comparison between his new power boost and Sidious's power, claiming that despite his power boost, he still found himself in awe of Sidious' blade work. In that context, he was seemingly referring to his force aided physicality and precognition being better than before.
That said, I think TPM Maul is still close to his CW self, IMO. It's just that he focused his power more on his dueling abilities, so we didn't see much else from him. Dooku also indicated that Maul, before he was rediscovered by Savage, was a great deal more powerful than Ventress, who herself has some insane force feats, believing that Maul's power was more than sufficient to fill in the gap in power between himself and Sidious, something he evidently didn't believe from Ventress's power.
__________________ "The power of the dark side is an illness no true Sith would wish to be cured of" -Darth Plagueis
Last edited by Dominis on Apr 10th, 2015 at 08:35 PM
I'm gonna agree with ILS. I never bought the idea that TCW Maul > TPM Maul in Sabers or by any Significant margin overall.
TCW Maul was out of practice for 10+years, and never even got back into using his Saber Staff (the weapon he was most adept in using). TPM Maul was at the height of his Saber skill IMO. His Saber skill is praised as unparalleled by numerous sources.
He will however likely lose his Force advantage over this Kenobi, and might not be quite as strong (maybe).
I'd say it's a Split. But probably majority to Kenobi. Whilst if this was TCW Maul I'd also say it's a Split but give Maul the majority due to his TK. And that's honestly the extent of the difference I see between TPM Maul and TCW Maul.
Apr 10th, 2015 03:52 PM
