KMC Forums - Star Wars Myths: Darth Maul is not a true Sith Lord

For a long time, people in the Star Wars fandom have spread many myths, one in particular is that Darth Maul is not a true Sith Lord. One of the reasons why this is common in fandom is because of a passage from the Darth Plagueis novel:

quote:
"Master, would you consider training someone in the Sith arts to execute whatever missions are required?"

"Another Venamis? In defiance of our partnership?"

Sidious shook his head. "Not an apprentice; not someone who could ever aspire to become a true Sith Lord. But someone skilled in stealth and combat, who could be eliminated when no longer needed." — Darth Plagueis Novel.

For more context for the passage, you can copy and paste it and you'll find the rest of the scene via google search if you don't own the novel itself. The crux of this scene is that Palpatine is telling Plagueis that he is training someone in the ways of the Sith to carry out their tasks and missions that they can't due to the risk of being caught and their grandplan being ruined, but Palpatine has not violated the rule of two because he didn't train an actual apprentice who could ever aspire to be a true Sith Lord, but just a disposable assassin. However, what fandom often forget is that Palpatine is a pathological liar, so what he says is often a lie, and what he says to Plagueis, his master, is dubious because Palpatine was planning on overthrowing Plagueis, not only because he had the goal of replacing him as the Sith master, but Plagueis being alive was incompatible to his vision for the Sith grand plan. Darth Plagueis is probably the absolute worst person for Palpatine to inform that he's training Maul to become a true Sith Lord because if that had happened, Plagueis would've either 1) killed Maul and develop a distrustful relationship with Palpatine from then on; 2) killed Maul and have a fight to the death with Palpatine, which at that point, would've likely resulted in Palpatine dying and Plagueis emerging victorious and alive; 3) had a fight to the death with Palpatine, which would've likely resulted in Palpatine dying and Plagueis emerging victorious and alive, and then replace Palpatine's role as Maul's Sith master.

Either way, the ramifications of dropping that bomb on Plagueis would've created various problematic scenarios for Palpatine (Maul dies in most of them, like he usually does), best case scenario is that Plagueis's trust in Palpatine would've been shaken so much he wouldn't have been able to kill him in the Star Wars reality that we're familiar with (or should I say two realities?), worst case scenario is that Palpatine dies by Plagueis's hand and we'd get something called The Tragedy of Darth Sidious the Fool, a story that Plagueis would be telling to people in an alternate reality. So usual, Palpatine lies to get his way. We know that Palpatine was lying to Plagueis because there are numerous sources, in-universe and out of universe, say otherwise. The Ultimate Visual Guide for instance, is very clear:

quote:
"Following his Master's instructions, Darth Maul trains for the day he will be unleashed upon the Jedi. On Coruscant, Maul masters the lightsaber and practises martial arts and marksmanship, but his training also takes him to other world. On an Outer Rim world, he survives for a month against a legion of assassin droids. On the lommite-mining planet Dorvalia, he relishes the opportunity to use his double-bladed lightsaber against living opponents. But it is in a different duel, a test against his own Master, that Darth Maul opens himself up to the Dark Side and becomes a true Sith Lord." — Star Wars: The Ultimate Visual Guide.

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Note that the source above, is an out of universe source, not an in-universe source, which cements the notion that Palpatine's statement to Plagueis was a lie, not just because he is a notorious liar, but because in-universe character statements aren't infallible, nor are they always truthful. This passage from The Ultimate Visual Guide is talking specifically about Maul's duel with Palpatine on Hypori, which took place when Maul was 17 years old. Granted, it also says that Palpatine used Maul as a tool, but that's not mutually exclusive with it's statement that Maul was a true Sith Lord. Not to mention, virtually everyone who served or allied with Palpatine (e.g. Vader, Dooku, Talzin, Plagueis, Grievous and Ventress), were tools to Palpatine, in the sense that he used them to advance his own goals. Anyway, this source's explicit statement that Maul is a true Sith Lord is complimented by The Dark Side Sourcebook:

quote:
"Maul's final test as a Sith apprentice occurred on an isolated Outer Rim World. Abandoned there by Darth Sidious, he was told that he had to survive on his own until Sidious returned a month later, all the while being hunted by hordes of deadly assassin droids. Maul fought as best as he could, but exhaustion and hunger finally took their toll, and one of the tireless droids finally wounded him badly enough that he felt he could not go on. At that point, Darth Sidious returned and challenged his apprentice to a lightsaber duel, telling Maul that he had secretly been training a second apprentice in case Maul failed his final test-which, by failing to kill Sidious in the duel, he just had.

Anger and hatred welled up in Maul, and he drew renewed strength from the dark side. Hurling himself at Darth Sidious, he nearly bested his master with a flurry of deadly lightsaber blows. Sidious barely deflected them all. Eventually Maul spent his fury, and Darth Sidious still stood. Maul prepared himself for death-but Sidious only laughed. By giving in to his rage and hatred to kill his own master-by wanting to kill his own master-Maul had in fact passed the final test. Now he was a Sith Lord-Darth Maul, Dark Lord of the Sith." — The Dark Side Sourcebook.

This source states that Maul officially became a Sith Lord known as Darth Maul, a Dark Lord of the Sith, once he passed his final test under Palpatine. This is reinforced even further here:

quote:
"For the boy who had been selected to be a Sith apprentice, life was almost unbearable. Fear, compassion, innocent fun — all were cruelly punished by the Sith Lord. Anger, aggression and hatred were rewarded by further tests and training. The dark side of the Force was woven around the boy much as the Sith tattoos he wore from early adolescense, utterly indoctrinating him, twisting his view of the galaxy. So complete was his absorption by the dark side that the Iridonian youth even saw Sidious as a father figure. The destruction of that feeling, that last vestige of normality, would be the final step of the young Zabrack to becoming Darth Maul, a fully fledged Sith.

(....)

For a Sith apprentice, things were harder. When he deemed his apprentice ready, Darth Sidious took him to a distant planet on the fringes of the Outer Rim and abandoned him there. Innumerable assassin droids were set loose, theirs orders to terminate the young Zabrack.

After a month had passed, Darth Sidious came back and challenged his harried apprentice to a duel. Sidious won with ease, saying how glad he was that he had been training a replacement for his failed student. Knowing his death was at hand, an impossible fury filled the Zabrack apprentice. He leapt at his former master, biting into his hand and spitting the blood at Sidious' face. Falling, exhausted, he waited for death as the Sith Lord struck at him with a harmless training lightsaber. The bitter act of hatred, of wishing to see his master dead and being willing to kill him was a mark of success. The final test had been passed, and Lord Sidious named his apprentice Sith Lord Darth Maul." — Star Wars: The Official Starships & Vehicles Collection 21.

Like other quotes, this quote is commenting on Maul's upbringing under Palpatine, including his duel with Palpatine on Hypori, and it explicitly identifies Maul as a full fledged Sith and a Sith Lord.

I am aware that there are some LFL sources that describe Maul as a "Sith assassin," or simply as "assassin," rather than describing him as a Sith Lord. However, neither terms are mutually exclusive, Maul can be both a Sith Lord and also a Sith assassin and there's no contradiction, it's just a matter of different writers having different preferences on they want to describe Maul, trying to differentiate them is splitting hairs. There are a lot more sources talking about Maul's intellectual and combat prowess that further validate his position as a true Sith Lord, but I don't think it will be necessary to include them because they've been posted countless times by the likes of ILS and others, so I'll just be committing ad nauseam, and this post doesn't have enough space for them to begin with. The sources that I've included, I have never seen them posted on this site, so these sources could be considered new sources from a certain point of view.

In summary, Maul is a true Sith Lord because LFL sources have labelled him as a "true Sith Lord," "A full fledged Sith," and a "Dark Lord of the Sith," I hope that is crystal clear enough for everyone.