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Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord Chapter 9 "Strange Allies" & Chapter 10 "Finale"

MAY THE SPOILERS BE WITH YOU

It’s May the 4th - Star Wars Day! - and Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord’s finale serves as an excellent tribute to our favorite galaxy. It’s a furious run to the finish line, with Spielberg-ian action sequences, character payoffs, shocking losses, striking design and one of the craziest lightsabers duels of the entire Saga. It’s a big wow of a finale, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, Star Wars fanatic.

For all the fun and fireworks, and for all of the Impressionist painterly style, Maul’s finale returns to the cleaner lines of story. It’s about the choice between darkness and light. It’s Star Wars’ most legible and consistent theme, although this time, we get a slightly new perspective. Star Wars generally centers the character being tempted by the Dark Side. Luke Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker, Ezra Bridger, Rey Skywalker: they’re all heroes being called to betray themselves for greater power.

Centering Maul’s agony, and the series’ generous use of Sam Witmer’s iconic Maul-scream throughout the sound design, allows us to see the corrupting impulse from the perspective of the tempter. We come to understand what would drive someone like Maul to sway and seduce someone like Devon Izara.

Devon Izara is Maul’s quarry for this season. He offers her protection and power, pleads with her to embrace what he calls strength. But, as we can see by the body count of Maul’s companions in the finale (RIP Spybot, you incredible diva; farewell Rook Kast, I guess you weren’t the Armorer after all), being Maul’s ally doesn’t bode well for one’s future.

The qualities of Devon’s personality that lead to Maul’s path are carefully laced throughout Season One. She’s young and impulsive, feels powerless, her burning temperament a mismatch with Master Daki, a traditional Jedi in the deepest sense. Still, if Maul’s offer of power was all that called to Devon, that would have been a discredit to her character. It would have made her seem naive and easily swayed.

Devon is not only convinced by Maul, but tricked. Near the end of the finale, Maul and Master Daki have joined forces to fight off Darth Vader, while Devon is in a fight for her life with The Eleventh Brother. With her focus elsewhere, Maul betrays Daki, abandoning him to face Darth Vader alone. When Devon turns back to see the battle she’s left, she doesn’t see Maul’s subtle act. She only sees Darth Vader killing her beloved Master.

Oh wait. Did I bury the lede?

Yes, Darth Vader is in the finale.

And yes, it’s very, very cool.

Now, let’s be honest: ‘break glass insert Vader’ has been a go-to move in the Filoni-verse for a while now. His appearance in the finale comes as no surprise to fans who pay a lot of attention to how Lucasfilm Animation employs its toys.

Here, though, it really works. Partially because Star Wars fans finally get to see Maul and Vader lock horns (no pun intended), a long-imagined confrontation. (An appropriate gift for Star Wars Day!) Partially because his appearance as the final boss of the Inquisition makes sense in the Star Wars galaxy. He’s who gets called in when Marrok and The Crow aren’t quite enough to handle their targets.

But also? He towers. He looms. He’s treated like a true horror. Even Maul doesn’t quite understand what he’s up against. Maul himself asking “What are you?” is a wonderful little piece of dialogue. Even Maul doesn’t instinctively recognize Vader has his own replacement. Vader seems like something monstrous and unique, unknowable, to even someone who has stood where Vader stands.

I’ve, also, always appreciated how Lucasfilm Animation treats Vader’s fighting style in the Original Trilogy as sacrosanct. They’ve never updated him to move faster, or flip around like the rest of the Jedi/Sith characters. Instead, his stillness is a symbol of his authority and efficiency. One swing of a saber from Darth Vader is worth twenty jumping side kicks and spinning blades.

But yes, the result of Vader’s attack is the death of Master Daki, which leads to Devon’s descent.

“I will kill them,” she screams, Gideon Adelon lowering the register of her voice to reveal a terrifying transformation.

“No,” says Maul, “You are not yet strong enough. I will train you. We will have our revenge.”

We. Maul has, at last, infected her with his trauma. Because, perhaps, his pain is so great he thinks he needs someone else to help him carry it. Or maybe he doesn’t see Devon as a person at all: just another weapon to be turned on those he hates. (If he saw her as someone who mattered, would he do this to her?)

Maul has been driven from Janix. He’s lost his loyal gang. He’s barely able to walk. But he’s won. He’s found his apprentice. What victory looks like for Maul? A young woman, crying with despair, and clutching a weapon of war. If that’s winning, that tells one everyone they need to know about the path of darkness.

There is undoubtedly an irony to betraying one’s own ideals in order to avenge the one who taught them to us. If Devon did actually kill Vader with all her rage, would it in any way serve as a testament to her lost Master, who died trying to protect her life… and her soul?

But that type of devil’s bargain is prevalent, even now. We are often quick to toss away our ideals in what feels like their defense. Think of all the evangelical Christians in the US that have come to vote for the least Christian human being on Earth because they believe it’s the only way to bring about a Christian Nationalist country. What really is Christianity that rides in on the back of cruelty, violence, distrust of the stranger, and a lack of charity? Is it Christianity at all? But I’m guilty too, at times. I cheered as Democrats in Virginia gerrymandered the heck out of their state in order to ‘fight fire with fire’ in the battle for the House of Representatives. But I basically think political gerrymandering is undemocratic. So, the only way to defend democracy is to betray it?

One thing I particularly appreciated in Maul - Shadow Lord’s story is that the rage Maul promises will bring power? Often fails. It’s an empty promise. Maul takes down an Imperial Walker on his own like he’s playing The Force Unleashed (a little nod to Sam Witmers earliest entry into Star Wars lore, maybe). They sharply cut back to Devon cocking an eyebrow, impressed by such outward displays of skill. But it’s just a video game cut scene: it’s not real power.

Master Daki is, in the end, right. (It’s not an accident that Master Daki is, in fact, the only one of the three to cut Vader, his patience and experience winning out over Maul’s raw force.) Maul often loses his battles, and resorts to dropping rocks and running away when he feels overwhelmed. He’s neither brave nor strong. He just knows how to appear strong to someone who doesn’t know any better. Devon believes she is about to learn something from him that Jedi can’t teach her, but she’s about to absorb but his greatest weakness: a single-minded focus on vengeance.

And so, we close out a new chapter of the Star Wars Saga, and look forward to a new season. Will Lawson have survived? Will he chase down his son? Or is Rylee alone now, in the belly of the beast of Crimson Dawn, with Two Boots. Will we go deeper towards a crossover with Solo? I personally love the character of Dryden Vos, so I hope we get even more of him in Season Two. But we know where this is going, at least for Maul. Will his tragic fate, like his beliefs, befall Devon? Or will she escape the clutches of the Dark Lord that betrayed her Master to his death?

We’ll find out eventually. In the meantime, today is a day for celebrating all the fun and intrigue and thematic resonance these stories bring into our lives. Thanks for reading and being a part of my Star Wars fandom! I hope you have a wonderful day celebrating! May The 4th Be With You!