The season one finale of Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord premiered on Disney+ today in celebration of Star Wars Day (May the Fourth), and it is INSANE.
The episodes are non-stop action in the best way possible, featuring some of the best lightsaber duels in the entire franchise – live-action or animation. The episodes stick the landing to close out a spectacular first season, while also setting up the already-announced season two.
Shadow Lord is an incredible show, and these episodes are the best of them all. Let’s dive in to a spoiler-filled review of Maul – Shadow Lord episode 9, titled “Strange Allies”, and episode 10, titled “The Dark Lord”.
These episodes are filled with desperation, as the entire premise is that the fugitives must escape from the Empire’s grip. Maul has been down on his luck, but he finally gets a bit of good news: Dryden Vos of Crimson Dawn wants to meet with him. So we pick up this week with that conversation, which happens over hologram, of Vos offering Maul a way out. Vos offers to extract Maul and his allies from Janix, in exchange for Maul killing Crimson Dawn’s boss, Rintero, and placing Vos in charge in his place. The plan is spectacularly Sith-like, of an apprentice conspiring to kill the master so that he can gain power for himself. Maul seems to recognize this, telling Vos that he’s proud of him and agreeing to the terms.
Earlier in the season, Maul killed Pyke boss Marg Krim and appointed a new leader in his place – who answers to Maul. It appears the same thing will happen with Crimson Dawn, as by the time of Solo: A Star Wars Story Maul is the shadowy leader of the crime syndicate, but Vos is its public leader. By that point in the timeline (approximately nine years after the prequel trilogy) Maul will have control of the Five Crime Syndicates, and it seems this is the way it happens – by appointing leaders of the organizations who all answer to him. By the time these two episodes are done all of Maul’s prior allies have been killed, so it’s time for him to turn the page toward an entirely new future. Surely Dryden Vos will have a bigger role in season two, which I’m looking forward to… but I hope they get the voice figured out, because he sounded nothing like Paul Bettany in these episodes, which was a bit jarring.
But that’s all looking ahead to next season. For now, Vos offers Maul what they need: an escape. Getting to the rendezvous point will be difficult, though, so they turn to Captain Lawson for help. Maul uses the Force to haunt Devon Izara with images of a statue, where he intends to meet them. He will later use a similar tactic with Ezra Bridger, as apparently Maul has the ability to connect with, and influence, a person’s mind once they’ve established a connection. The fact that Maul is able to do this reveals to Master Eeko-Dio Daki that Devon hasn’t been entirely truthful about her reluctant alliance with the former Sith Lord, and though every one of the heroes knows it to be a bad idea, they go to meet Maul – because they have no other choice. That is something this series has done so well, forcing the heroes into an alliance with the villains. I’m glad that the heroes are all aware that it’s a bad idea, but they also know they don’t really have any other options. This alliance has been slowly tightening around their necks all season, and here at last both sides are forced to team up. And no one seems happy about it, except maybe Maul, since he still wants Devon as his apprentice.
They head off for the rendezvous point, which is outside the city, through an underground passage Lawson knows. They are pursued by the Inquisitors, Marrok and the Crow, who once again are proving their prowess as Jedi hunters, and who once again pose a haunting threat. The underground passage is a junk pit sinking in acid, and the only way across is for Spybot to ferry two people at a time across. It’s a fitting symbol, as they sit underneath the city, in the place where all the trash has been dumped. This was surely once a place much nicer, but it has been corrupted over time. It’s an underworld of sorts, which was exactly the design of the production team. Showrunner Matthew Michnovetz told StarWars.com that this was a metaphor for “the sins of the city”, something akin to the River Styx from Greek mythology – with Spybot the ferryman across. The slow nature of their crossing builds the tension, especially once the Inquisitors arrive, followed by stormtroopers, and from that point on the episodes never really let up.
Maul, Daki, and Devon join forces to fight the Inquisitors while the rest of the uneasy alliance fight off the stormtroopers. The lightsaber fight is stunningly brilliant, and it is without a doubt some of the very best work we have ever seen from the Lucasfilm Animation team. The animation quality of this entire season has been superb, but it really shines in some of these fights. The choreography and the fast-paced, relentless onslaught comes through with splendor thanks to the animators, and it’s so much fun to watch. Maul gets to show off as he fights the Inquisitors, including breaking his double-bladed lightsaber into two individual sabers and fighting with both hands, much like Ahsoka Tano used in combat against him.
Maul’s forces take heavy losses, including Icarus, who sacrifices his life by tackling troopers into the acid. True to his namesake from Greek mythology, Icarus flew too closely to the sun, as it were, and wound up falling into a river and dying. Most painful of all, though, Spybot is killed by Marrok, which really seems to hurt Maul. I like that he’s not just stoic about his forces and actually does seem to care about them, yet it is Maul’s lust for power and revenge that gets everyone around him killed.
For now, though, Maul doesn’t seem to want the Jedi killed. I was a bit surprised how at several points Maul could have had a chance to potentially double-cross Daki, but didn’t. The best example of that came as the trio of lightsaber-wielders had to leap over the lake of acid. Devon went first (obviously), but then Maul insisted Daki go next. As he articulated to Rook, Daki is a Jedi Master, so they need him alive… for now. So they escape from the Inquisitors, who cannot follow. If ever there was a time for the Inquisitors to use their spinning lightsabers as helicopters, that would be it. Given how silly it was in Rebels I’m guessing we won’t see much of that ever again, but in-universe we can just assume their lightsabers don’t allow them to do that yet, or that they haven’t discovered it yet, and who wants to test it out over a lake of acid?
Or maybe there’s an even simpler explanation: the Inquisitors knew that their job was done, and they had driven their foes right into the belly of the beast. Enter: Darth Vader.
The Dark Lord of the Sith is a character that Star Wars has gotten SO right in the Disney era, as he is more menacing and powerful than ever. He is terrifying. He is untouchable. He is a silent terror haunting everything and destroying everyone in his path. His introduction at the end of episode nine really plays into the horror theme, as Rook is pulled into the mist and killed, as we hear her scream, before Vader emerges from the mist and ignites his lightsaber. That sets up the final episode, which is basically an episode-long lightsaber battle, with Vader fighting Maul and the Jedi. It hardly looks like Vader is trying, fending off every attack with ease and making use of his lightsaber and the Force to continually keep the heroes on the run, desperate to survive. Once again, the animation of these sequences is just so good, and that continues when the two Inquisitors join the fight again, adding to the chaos of a six-way lightsaber fight. As the “heroes” fight Vader, they realize he is not just an Inquisitor, with Daki speculating that he is actually a Sith. Maul seems to suspect the same. He asks Vader who he is, but Vader remains silent – silent the entire episode. That could well be in order to escape having to make a decision about his voice (James Earl Jones is dead. The use of his AI-generated voice, though approved by his family and used in Obi-Wan Kenobi, is controversial. And re-casting isn’t universally well-received, either.). But in the story this episode is telling, it just highlights how little Vader thinks of his opponents; he isn’t here to converse, he’s just here to kill them and end the threat. He has been sent not just because there are two surviving Jedi, but because Maul lives – Darth Sidious’s former apprentice.
Maul reveals this background to Devon during a brief reprieve from the fight. He shares that his master, Sidious, is the Emperor, and that only he can help her defeat this Sith Lord, Darth Vader. Maul seems to have a suspicion on who this is. The showrunners debated how much Maul would know about Vader and ultimately decided that he doesn’t know much, but it sure does seem like Maul has a suspicion about Vader’s identity – because he tells the Jedi that if he is right, then their enemy knows how Jedi fight. Remember at the end of The Clone Wars Maul had a vision that Anakin Skywalker had long been groomed as Sidious’s new apprentice, so I think it’s reasonable to conclude that if Maul suspects this to be a Sith who knows how Jedi fight, he probably suspects it is Anakin. But he doesn’t voice that here, only that their enemy will be prepared for a Jedi’s fighting style – and that they must instead keep him off guard by tapping into their aggression.
So once again, the lightsaber duels in this show are not only really cool, but also battles over philosophy. Maul insists they use their aggression and anger. Daki insists they can defeat Vader if they are patient and defend one another. And Devon is caught in the midst of this argument, with her fate hanging in the balance. Who will she listen to? Maul actually makes a pretty compelling case that aggression is the way, since Vader knows how the Jedi will fight. So he tells Devon, “I implore you. Use your rage and unleash your potential.” In Maul’s mind, it is the restraint of the Jedi that is holding Devon back, and he wants to help her reach her full potential. Translation: the dark side is the pathway to unlocking greater power. That’s an age-old question many a Jedi has faced, such as Luke Skywalker asking Yoda: “Is the dark side stronger?” The answer, of course, is no – but it is quicker, easier, and more seductive. It does not actually grant more power, but does grant a quicker and easier pathway to power. Maul’s compelling case helps us see why Devon is intrigued by it, but it has a fatal flaw inherent to the dark side, that aggression and anger and fear don’t actually lead to greater power.
This is contrasted by Daki’s statement to Devon, “You must remain calm in the face of fear. True power lies in our patience, and cunning.” It is true that the dark side is quicker, because the Jedi celebrate patience. But it all comes down to what one does with their fear. We don’t have to go far to see this, as just last week Devon told Rylee that to feel afraid is natural, but they can’t let it control them. That is Daki’s point – instead of giving in to fear and responding with aggression, the Jedi must remain calm and patient. Their goal must be defense. He tells Maul, “If we defend one another, we will be stronger” than Vader. Again we can go back to the wisdom of Master Yoda: “A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense. Never for attack.” Daki is expressing the Jedi way: prioritize defending what they love rather than attacking what they hate. He insists this is a stronger way.
And I love that the episode hints at that, too. Because during the entire fight, there’s only one person who actually gets a hit on Vader: Daki. It doesn’t really do much at all beyond making the Dark Lord angrier, but I think it’s a subtle way of reminding us that the Jedi are actually the ones who are right. Yes, they lost their way throughout the prequel era, but that doesn’t mean their philosophy was inherently wrong. It’s just that they had strayed from it. Daki lands a hit on Vader, reminding us that the dark side isn’t stronger. And we’re left to wonder: if Maul had stuck with him, working together to defend one another, what would have happened? It’s hard to picture them defeating Vader, based on how dominant he was in this fight, but they probably could have found a way to escape.
We will never know, though, because Maul ran away. His leg was severely injured by Vader, and he seemed afraid. As Daki fought Vader, Devon fought the Crow, and Maul made a choice to withdraw from Daki – using the Force to push the Jedi Master toward Vader – and instead go join Devon. This decision cost Daki his life. As he fights heroically against the Sith, he realizes he is all alone. He lands a hit on Vader, leading to the Dark Lord unleashing his full fury against the Jedi until there was no more defending it, and Vader kills Daki with a lightsaber through the chest. Devon senses this through the Force, and finally her rage breaks through. All season long Gideon Adlon has been fantastic voicing Devon, but in these moments in particular. As “Anakin’s dark deeds” echoes in the background, Devon gives in to her aggression and fights the Crow. She loses her blue lightsaber, but Maul is there to give him one of his red ones. Together, Maul and Devon fight the Crow until the Inquisitor is injured and retreats. Devon runs after him, but Vader cuts her off. Maul uses the Force to collapse the ceiling, distracting Vader long enough for them to escape. (Note to self: if you ever need to beat Darth Vader, it’s not sand that will do it, but rocks. That’s a tactic that we have seen used several times.)
But Devon doesn’t want to escape. She wants to fight. And here, at the end of the season, it is Maul who is literally holding Devon back from her rage, telling her that she cannot defeat Vader yet – but that he will train her to be able to. Her descent to the dark side is complete, because she is full of rage and looking for revenge. That sets up the second season, as Devon tells Maul aboard Vos’s ship that she is ready to begin her training with him. I’m really curious to see where it goes from here, but I’m guessing a key piece of Maul’s demise will be that eventually the truth of him leaving Daki to die will come out.
On that note, let’s talk about Brander Lawson. He leads the non-lightsaber heroes into the jungle to the rendezvous point, where they fight off stormtroopers. Vario gets a moment to shine, luring the troopers away while Lawson and Two Boots take the Imperial turret and turn it on the gunship. It’s a fun side plot to break up the lightsaber duel, and to give the others a chance to escape, Captain Lawson sacrifices himself. He draws the Empire’s fire away, takes out a number of troopers, and gets shot several times in the process. The last we see of him is running into the mist in pursuit of troopers. It is implied that he is dead, but I would be really surprised if he actually is. For one, there is a general rule in Star Wars that if we don’t see a body (or even if we do), the person probably isn’t dead. His ending being disappearing into the mist is quite conspicuous, and not in the Rook Kast way (which was to highlight the horror of Vader). No, this is him running after troopers into the mist, and that makes me think this isn’t the end for him, instead probably taken captive by the Empire or something.
But there is a bigger reason I think he is still alive. The episode makes it a point to show us that Brander witnessed Maul’s decision to leave Daki behind, and that only Brander saw it. There is very little story reason why we needed to see Lawson witnessing this, except perhaps for the dismayed look on his face, but then he is pulled away to fighting the stormtroopers once again. I am confident that this reveal of what really happened to Daki will be a major turning point for Devon in season two, and a major flaw in Maul’s efforts, but who – apart from Maul himself – actually knows what happened? Only Brander Lawson. I’m guessing that is significant. I’m guessing he is still alive, and that he will be the one to make this reveal in season two.
That is all for later, though. Season two is already in the works, and I cannot wait for it. I think this was the strongest first season any Star Wars animated show has had, and the ending was sheer perfection.
Star Wars Thoughts 