Darth Maul: Ineffective?

Ok, i know there are alot of people who really enjoyed Maul's ruthless character. But when you think about it, he brought nothing to the table. Dooku created the Seperatist and engaged the Republic into war. Vader helped wipe out the entire the Jedi order, but Maul?......All her did was kill ONE jedi. THis must have made Palpatine extremely angry, after all, he did train Maul throughout his entire life.....for him to get beaten by a Padawan?

 

Maul was a tool of Palpatine. I suspect that Palp found him young and trained him to be a Jedi killing machine, nothing more, nothing less, to serve the specific need he had at the time. I also suspect he killed other Jedi more quietly prior to our meeting him - he was very competent at it and remember that Sifo-Dyas died mysteriously... I also think that as of TPM, Maul didn't have the grandiose goals of overthrowing his master - he was a warrior and got his power fix from being a machine of death and at that point, he was happy with it. This is not to say that if he had lived, he wouldn't have eventually tried.

However, Maul was no politician, diplomat, or leader and lacked the charisma and suave nature of Dooku. Turning a Jedi is clearly no small feat and I would suspect that Palpatine worked on Dooku for years, starting out as Palp and sharing his seperatist sentiments with him, probably implying that some sort of revolution was necessary to wake folks up. Dooku eventually left the order, even believing at first that he was acting to prevent the Sith from taking over and eventually found himself trapped and accepting his lot. Sideous was planning to replace Maul all along when his needs changed, Maul's death simply pushed things up a bit at most.

 

When Maul killed Qui-Gon, he paved the road to Anakin's path to the Dark Side because Qui-Gon was the one person that could've prevented Anakin from turning evil but since he's dead, Palpatine is free to brainwash Anakin into turning against the Jedi.

 

I think the death of Qui Gon is what lead Dooku to leave the Jedi Order and left him open to Palps persuasion.

 

It was the introduction of Maul that told the Jedi Council that the Sith was back.

 

Darth Mauls actions at the end of TPM were some of the most important of the saga. The death of Qui-Gon Jinn is a moment of critical importance to the further development of the main characters(esp. Anakin) destiny.

 

Maul was a tool. And, I actually think he was a good introduction bad guy. Think about it, most peopel were impressed with him, and have been for a few years. Yeah, he was just a tool, but he was cool and formidable. Then we got to see Anakin in all his glory, and I definately think Maul has been overshadowed, as he should be for the sake of the prequels. Perfect storytelling.

 

I agree. Anakin's victory in the Podarce and the death of Qui-gon bound together the combined fates of Anakin and the Galaxy as a whole.

 

I think it's been stated several times that Maul was a tool that Darth Sidious was going to use to break a hole in the Jedi.

 

Darth Maul though he did very little in the movies is a crucial character in the movies. Without him killing Qui-Gon there might have not been an episode 4,5,and 6. Also him dieing at the hands of Obi-Wan is also important, Obi-Wan killing his masters murderer might have been what made yoda believe Obi was capable of training Anakin and promoting him to a master.

 

More and more, it seems to me that that was Maul's sole purpose in his master's eyes. As an effect, he would kill a bunch of Jedi and other people, but his main purpose seems to have been revealing the Sith's existance to the Jedi. By revealing that, the Jedi began to look outward for his master/apprentice, leaving Palpatine that much more free to change the Republic from within. Once the Sith's existance was known of, it's doubtful Maul would have been kept alive much longer by Palpatine. He probably would have sent him on some suicide mission so Sidious could begin training Dooku. That's my theory.

And in that context, Maul was effective in the same way Peter was an effective Grim Reaper in "Death is a bitch". He didn't kill quite as many people as he was supposed to, but he still made Sith prescence known.

 

<------

Does that look ineffective

 

Before TPM, Darth Maul was exactly what Darth Sidious needed. Sidious needed someone extremely loyal, who followed orders to the letter, could protect Palpatine's identity, act as a bodyguard, track or eliminate threats and gather information. Sidious was still trying to consolidate his power while keeping his plans quiet, so he needed a hunter/tracker/killer/spy/saboteur, rather than the leader/gentleman/aristocrat/duelist/Renaissance man that Count Dooku was.

 

The death of Qui-Gon is VERY important. If I need to list of the reason for you, then you basically need to watch the films again. It's a turning point in the Saga.

 

This couldn't have been planned better. Without Maul, Qui Gon would have lived to train Anakin. Qui Gon was the father-figure that Anakin needed in order to become a true Jedi. By killing Qui Gon, the Sith either knowingly or unknowingly removed the one piece of the equation that would have kept Anakin away from evil.

You might say that without Maul, there would be no "Revenge of the Sith". Therefore, he was quite effective.

 

All he did was kill ONE jedi

Yeah, one Jedi who was really the only one that could have trained
Anakin the way he should have been trained. Away from Coruscant
and away from Padme.

Darth Maul is quite effective. He puts the Jedi in a precarious
position, they become aware of their ignorance and are crippled for 3 films.

 

I think this is more about the Jedi's effectiveness rather the ineffectiveness of Maul

 

Ineffective for the movie:

No way.
Cool bad guy, for his completely un-used role he will be long remembered for being a great villian.

Ineffective as a character:

Yep. Didn't do enough. May of Killed Qui-Gon but just didn't get the scenes.