Maul's Death
I wanted to make this a separate topic rather than post what I read on the SWR thread since that is, at the moment, consumed by a debate with quanchi, and we all know those debates never end, and I didn't want it to get swallowed up with that shit.
Anyways, I was scrolling through Tumblr and I saw some posts discussing Maul's death from some pretty unhappy people, and I found their points to be agreeable and interesting, so I wanted to post what they wrote here and see of you feel the same way. The larger purpose of this thread is to provoke a conversation regarding Maul's death, so feel free to write what you thought of his death, and from a story perspective, explain why you thought it was done successfully or unsuccessfully.
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Here are the posts I was referring to:
1. … That was the most pathetic excuse for a send-off I have ever seen, and I’m including Twilight of the Apprentice back when we all thought Ahsoka was actually dead.
Twin Suns wasn’t about Ezra. It wasn’t about Maul. It wasn’t even about Kenobi. It was about tying up loose ends. Killing the last character with the desire and the ability to **** up the railroad, in a fight scene that was about twenty seconds of posing followed by two seconds of actual combat culminating in a completely nonsensical and badly choreographed deathblow.
I am so ****ing pissed off right now.
Sanctimonious, useless hermit Jedi? Check. Ezra getting chained to the railroad? Check. Maul being played as ~so crazy and evil~ to contrast Kenobi’s oh-so-sagacious calm? Check.
Why would you bring Maul back if THIS was what you were going to do with him?!
For extra bonus points, Kenobi was the only person on Tatooine who didn’t end up all dusty and sandy and dirty, apparently because virtue confers immunity to grunge. (Cleanliness is next to godliness or something?) He was also the most terrifyingly, jarringly detailed character. His face was too ****ing realistic. I have my issues with how SWR does stylized faces, but this was just uncanny and creepy and weird. Again, transplants from movie canon have freakishly Wrong faces compared to the stylization of the crew.
… So yeah. **** this show, **** Kenobi, **** everything. Maul lives in Redshift, he is the designated Senior Grumpy Cyborg, and he–and all the other darksiders that Ezra and Evren accidentally-on-purpose adopt–get to see Sidious ****ing burn.
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2. Well, that’s precisely the point: villains don’t get send-offs from mainstream media, lately. They get executions that are tailored to make an argument for why they “had” to die in the first place. And, especially now that fandom exercises its ability to just go “your story sucks, we’re doing it better,” the writers try to manipulate as much of the audience as possible into accepting their being dead.
From a canon creators’ perspective, I’m pretty sure Maul being intensely popular is something to manage, rather than encourage. And that’s what they were doing here. Too much fight would make people miss his inhuman talent as a fighter. A more personal, mutual hate in the clash with Kenobi would get new people on the ObiMaul ship. Etc.
This was anti-climactic and disappointing on purpose, because they don’t want Maul missed or turned into an even bigger deal than he already was. They want him forgotten. They want the audience to follow his and Kenobi’s eyes, when they both focus on how great “the chosen one” is going to be.
It’s like canon is tugging us on the sleeve and saying: Remember? Over there? The hero. He’s so important. Watch everyone onscreen have a conversation about how important. Darth Maul doesn’t even get proper last words because the canon creators were so focused on trying to make the audience care more about Luke ****ing Skywalker. So, you know … from my perspective, it’s a travesty.
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3. The fact that Luke came up at all, at least in Maul and Obi-Wan’s brief chatter, was disappointing. Putting most of the episode on Ezra’s shoulder felt like a waste.
His death (and his life, ultimately) was meaningless to the larger story, but it was deeply personal. Life is personal. His connection to Obi-Wan is personal. Maul is insignificant to the bigger tale - they’ve made that clear, but that doesn’t mean his death should have been derailed by vague all-encompassing vengeance and some twerps wake up call to grow up.
His story was personal, and he deserved a personal death. I think they tried. You can’t have Maul die in Obi-Wan’s arms and be completely oblivious. But they played fast and loose with Maul, like they wanted him to have grown (openly desiring companionship, recognising the negative effect of Sidious on his life) but also play the role of (as @smarsupial puts it) moustache twirling villain, almost comically failing to lure Ezra to the dark side. His death is on a similar cusp. Not quite reflecting his growth enough, and not fully committed to some villain cliche.
Rebels couldn’t contain Maul, and it couldn’t give him what he deserved. I’m only sorry he had to die there, and not in another form, where he could at least be the focus.