Originally posted by Darth_Janus
The rise of Sidious is the shining period for the darkside? Say what?And Maul was hardly as dangerous as Malak. Let's compare accomplishments:
Maul tracked down and harassed two Jedi.
Malak waged open war with the Republic and decimated the planet of Taris.
Maul managed to kill Qui Gon but fell to thehands of Obi Wan.
Malak defeated all Jedi who came before him except for his superior former master, Revan.
Maul's destiny, despite all his training and reputed badassness, consisted of removing Qui Gon Jinn from the big picture.
Malak's destiny included the Jedi Civil War which meant the destruction of the Jedi Order as it was once known. Malak also controlled the mighty Star Forge and was competent in his own right to remain a Sith lord for some time.
I swear, some of you place way too much emphasis on the movies, especially in a EU forum. Consider the possibility, for a moment, that the movies were made with a limited history and with the possibility that they would stand alone on their own, not breed numerous offshoots.
Now, with that in mind, consider again how impressive other Sith Lords have been. Take a moment, think on it. And reconsider giving Maul more props than he is due.
All of your points are valid, but allow me to do a little editing.
-Maul tracked down and harassed two Jedi.
-Maul managed to kill Qui-Gon but fell at the hands of Obi-Wan.
-Malak defeated all Jedi who came before him except Revan.
Now, as you can see I removed some topics here. Why? Yes Malak found the Star Forge, waged war on the Republic, and began the Jeid Civil War which was responsible for the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of Jedi Knights. But how many did Malak kill personally? His soldiers did most of the work for him, Malak was merely a behind-the-scenes General. He did not destroy Taris, the Leviathan destroyed Taris; Malak merely gave the order to have Taris destroyed.
In terms of personal accomplishment, we have the following:
-Maul killed Qui-Gon Jinn and very nearly killed Obi-Wan Kenobi but failed simply because he became overconfident. I think we can all agree that Maul technically won that fight because had he not been toying with Obi-Wan, he would have won.
-Malak, from what we know, killed two Jedi Knights onboard the Star Forge as well as those Jedi that were part of the enclave on Dantooine AFTER it was bombarded, meaning the many Jedi were probably already dead. We don't know how many Jedi he killed (unless you count the 8 imprisoned Jedi seen during the final battle).
Plus, we don't know if the Jedi that Malak killed were Padawans, Knights, or Masters. Yes, whichever they were infuences the opinion of his strength because 8 Knights would be harder to kill than 8 Padawans. Add that to the fact that we don't know if Maul killed any Jedi prior to Episode 1 and we have a very large gap of uncertainty.
So we have the final tally in terms of Jedi killed:
Maul: 1 (technically two) that we know of
Malak: 10 at least
But strength doesn't simply come from how many things you've killed does it? It comes from fighting technique and your ability to use the Force. We haven't seen anything that could give us an idea of how skilled with the Force Maul is, nor have we seen anything substantial from Malak.
At best, it's difficult to compare the two fairly.
Let's not forget another thing...Maul only killed one Jedi techically...why...because he wasn't allowed to expose himself. Picture that more Jedi would be at the blockade. Maul's overconfidence wouldn't even be there as he knows he has to focus on the Jedi...He was just overconfident that compared to his skill, killing a Padawan is nothing. But he just didn't know that this Padawan would become one of the greatest Jedi of all (who also educated the greatest Sith of all...Ironic lol)
Just because we only saw him kill one Jedi, that doesn't mean that we know crap about how well skilled he is.
You could argue Qui-Gonn had a lot of skill since Dooku was his teacher, and we all know Dooku is hard a**.
And, for a padawan, Obi-Wan did an admirable job of standing up to a fully trained Sith Lord.
I would have to say Malak, you have to remember that before you face him on the Star Forge, you see him slaughter 2 Jedi like it is nothing. He also defeats Bastila who is supposed to be all good. Darth Maul on the other hand was beaten by a 20 year old Obi-Wan Kenobi, he also seemed to have little control of the force, I can hear the people protesting but wait a minute. Malak used drain life, force storm, kill etc., what did Maul do? He tossed a metal can at the door to open it, I think he's a great fighter, but not very balanced, Malak is more balanced, thus Malak would win.
Well obviously none of you have read anything on Darth Maul, nor know anyhting about him other than what you see in the movies. Read Darth Maul' journal, or Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter.(hunter being a longer, better book, and a more efficient source of Maul ass-kickery) and also the four-issue comic series on Darth Maul, titled Darth Maul. Once you learn all you can about the s.o.b. , you won't know his true bad-arse-ness.....Maul would win.
actually I have read Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, and yes Maul did kill 2 jedi in that book, a master and a apprentice (sp?). But Malak killed off the two jedi on the Star Forge FAR easier than Maul could even dream of, and I would have to say that both jedi were at least Knights or possibly masters, would they send along a half trained jedi to kill the dark lord of the sith? I think not. Luke is an exception and the jedi had no other choice. Malak also slew Mandalorians in the Mandalarian War and likely engaged in saber combat, if Revan killed Madalore, Malak probably killed the #2, spectulation, yes, but very likely. And it would be a good fight, but Malak had a lot more experience and power, he would win
you guys seem to be forgetting (or dont know) that Maul also whiped out all of Black Sun and returned unscathed. And yes i have read shadow hunter and Maul does kill a jedi master, a jedi padawan, and a deadly bounty hunter. So its really hard to tell since we never really saw just how powerful (yet foolish) Maul really is.
deadly bounty hunter? excuse me but Lorn Paven was no bounty hunter, he was a drunk, former jedi secretary who got fired, not a bounty hunter. And sure Maul killed lots of Black Sun assassins, but I think that almost any jedi knight could have killed off several assassins. I also think that the Mandalorians would be more dangerous than a bunch of assassins, the mandalorians were trained killers (yes the assassins were too I know that), but if the Mandalorians weren't stopped they would have taken over the galaxy, Black Sun could not have done that. The mandalorians also were kicking the republics ass and this was in the age when the republic was strong and actually had a military. Again Black Sun could not have done that. Nope sorry, Malak wins
Lorn Pavan wasn't the bounty hunter. It was Mawhi Lihnn. Yes, this is the only book she was in but she was a good bounty hunter. she was firing her twin blasters so fast that Maul could only deflect them, he couldn't redirect them back at her. Then she went to hit her rocket launcher and before she could even press it, Maul busted through the wall and was gone before it fired. That's pretty impressive.