Full Series Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir

The anthology format of TCW makes the purpose of characters an interesting question. Does Daka serve a purpose in TCW, meaning it was necessary to show her onscreen? Probably not, except perhaps to highlight differences between the Nightsister culture and that of the Jedi or Sith. IMO, she absolutely serves a purpose in Talzin's overall story, and I think the clue is in Talzin's expression as Daka begins her chant of resurrection. She looks like she's trying to memorize it.

I read an article once in National Geographic about the descendants of the Magyars in Hungary and they interviewed a young woman who wanted to be a witch. The girl feigned an illness so that she would need appointments with an existing witch, and worked to memorize the woman's incantations. When the interviewer asked her why she did this she replied, "Theft is our ancestors' way, and the only way to acquire these skills." Perhaps Talzin uses elements of Daka's chant of resurrection in her healing of Maul or possession of Dooku. Perhaps she learned much, or all, of her Nightsister-specific knowledge from Daka.


That would make sense especially if Talzin were the Mother exiled from Mortis and Daka is the one who took her in and taught her to fit in on Dathomir. Talzin's mention of Daka being the oldest may be part of maintaining their secret -- Talzin's apparent age is 55-65, and there are no old Nightsisters aside from Daka who would know the truth. Talzin is visibly upset when Daka dies, and it is only after Daka and the Nightsisters die that Talzin does "un-Nightsister" things like going offworld and treating men like people.

 

That's an interesting theory, I've often speculated about Talzin's connection to Mortis as well, and whether she is Abeloth / Mother in the Mortis family. My only real objection to Talzin putting her on a pedestal is because we see her using a singular magick / Force power when she resurrects the dead Nightsisters and she is easily killed by Grievous. Daka could have slipped into Spirit Ichor as Talzin did, or displayed some of the other known powers Talzin had, like Force Lightning.

 

Just got Dark Disciple and purposely avoided the discussion thread for that book because I haven't read it yet. (It was a rough summer, so SW books weren't a top priority.) But I thought I'd look and see whether there had been any interesting discussion of Son of Dathomir in the past month or two. And what was one of the first comments I end up reading? Yeah, the above quoted one. This is why I should never read any online discussion from anyone about anything ever. So now I'll have the "privilege" of reading the whole book knowing what's going to happen. This depressed me so much that I actually posted for apparently the first time ever just to say how depressed it made me.

Though I had admittedly thought there was a strong chance of that event occurring ever since that one TCW image was released ages ago. And it's not like it's the first time I've been spoiled about a big SW moment. Oh well. If you don't want to be spoiled about things, just close yourself off from the world until you've finished reading/watching/playing whatever it is you want to experience fresh. And if that's not realistic, deal with it. That's the world now.

 

When Kenobi first saw Maul on Raydonia he was not 100% certain it was truly him, despite the shock and awe aspect and apparently he could not sense him in the Force and held suspensions if it was truly him - begs the question was he suspecting that some battle droid was using his skin and it was some Sith/Separatist plot?! Always found that rather odd but interesting. Maul had to prove it was really him to Kenobi by mentioning the slaying of Jinn.

 

Well, we know that Kenobi is familiar with the Nightsisters / Nightbrothers, so he could have simply thought it was someone else from the clan that knew Maul or idolized him and wanted to continue his work. After the battle of Naboo, Kenobi and the Council had no reason to believe Maul was alive. I'm wondering though, if Talzin was able to mask him in the Force to a degree via magicks, as Sidious wasn't even fully aware of him...

 

I wonder whether female Dathomirians are human, Rattataki, or hornless Zabraks because if they're human, Palpatine and Talzin could have had a child together.

 

They are human-Zabrak hybrids, just like the males.

 

Palpatine's child with Talzin is Snoke, you heard it here first people.

 

According to new canon, the offspring of human females and zabrak males is called dathomirians. Suprisingly, males have zabrak phenotype and females have human phenotype, which is in my opinion very wierd.

So Palpatine and Talzin could have had a child together... but definietely not a zabrak child, if you refer to Maul.

 

I'm actually thinking of a TFA character.

 

I feel a bit of Dathomiri variation would have made the Nightsister episodes all the more intriguing. Females with horns and skin color variations as well as males with lighter skin would have looked interesting. I'd imagine crossing a female Dathomirian with a Zabrak would give us something similar to Eeth Koth when it comes to skintone - not red, though pale yellow is likely.

As for a child of Talzin and Palpatine - that would be an interesting story to explore if that was one of their shared experiments in manipulating the Force. His darkside knowledge and manipulation of midichlorians and her magicks and manipulation of spirit ichor could have possibly even resurrected someone, if not creating a new life all together...

 

Nah there Chiss!

 

ok not gonna lie, didnt like the fact that maul somehow survived... until i saw the episode where him and his brother fight obi-wan and asajj. i still dont know how i completely feel about him surviving but i think him in clone wars is very fun to watch

 

Maybe Talzin cheated on Palpatine with a Nightbrother and Maul was the resulting child, and for revenge Palpatine kidnapped Maul and raised him to be a Sith Lord.

 

To my knowledge they are just called "Dathomirian." In my head canon, they are still Rattataki. IMO it is peculiar that the Nightbrothers are recognized as being Zabrak, while the Nightsisters are merely "Dathomirian." If the Nightbrothers were Zabrak colonists/slaves brought to Dathomir and made subservient to the witches, I would imagine that the Nightsisters themselves were not native to Dathomir and instead were perhaps Rattataki witches that came to Dathomir with their Zabrak servants and established a new home. That's not canon by any means, but I hope that some day they do clarify the history there. It just makes sense to me that a society based on witches with suppressed Zabrak males, with the males not being native to the planet, implies that the females must not be native either (or else how did they reproduce prior to the introduction of the Zabrak?) I would imagine the Witches have to have been from elsewhere, and Rattatak is as good of a planet as any.

 

Likely there was selective breeding, the females born with horns were killed. They would be inbred anyway. Ventress was brought to Rattatak as a slave by the pirate, she's not native anymore. Iridonia is supposed to be where the Zabrak males originated/came from. How long where they there for, 50 years a 100, 1000? No answer is given. There is no real resemblance between the females and the males obviously yet they're supposed to making and producing offspring. Looked like something thrown together by Lucas(and his daughter) and Filoni without much thought.

We do learn in SOD through Brother Viscus who has witnessed Talzin's transformation process before, implying that he and the Nightbrothers have served her for a long time and they even guard her tomb - something you'd think she's only entrust the Nightsisters to do. But everything about Talzin really reeks of deception, much like the Sith. Was she even alive during the TCW, apparently not.

 

I thought it was the other way around. I thought that Ventress was taken from Dathomir by pirates as a kid.

 

Yes she was alive during the CW - it wasn't until she fully restored Maul that her physical self had to rely on ichor to exist between realms. In the lost episodes, we can see that she cant fully manifest because of how much energy she used to bring Maul back. In SOD, its not until she drains Dooku of his power that she herself is restored. That tomb on Dathomir is the heart of her power - its hard to say what exactly it is. Perhaps its a failsafe imbued with magicks to ensure she is never truly killed, and not an actual grave per say. I'd like them to explore that next time we see Maul, because the comic doesn't show the stone being destroyed. When the spirit ichor left her corpse, it could have returned to the tomb, to be awakened later...

 

By a slaveowner, not a pirate. Mother Talzin sold her, her owner took her to Rattatak - he was murdered by Weequay - she was rescued from the Weequay by Ky Narec, and she became Narec's apprentice and they fought together against the warlords of Rattatak until Narec was killed.

 

I don't recall the episode, but the Wook says Hal'sted was a pirate that was given Asajj as though she was tribute, given to prevent conflict.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hal'Sted

 

Fair enough - the "sale" is not in goods or money, but in "going away" - Danegeld, so to speak.

 

I get that Asajj is given up to protect the clan, but I don't understand what the logic is from Talzin's point of view. When Jedi show up, the Night brothers wanted to kill them, right?

And when Asajj showed up before them, the Nightsisters threatened her. But with Hal'Sted, he was bought off by offering one of her own as a slave. Why? Talzin was a rival to Sidious, and her clan had access to Dark Side magic. Surely they could kill Hal'Sted.

Was there some benefit to offering up Nightsisters as slaves? Did it allow them to see the Galaxy then one day return to the clan with new knowledge to share?

Was Dathomir a planet known only to few and Asajj was given up to buy his silence (but even then, why didn't they just kill him)?

I thought that was always a poorly developed story element to explain why Asajj was given up.

 

Unless he's the head of a large gang who will take revenge on his killers (or, for that matter, merely their representative, and thus, someone who the gang can't themselves be coerced by threatening).

Still seems a little mundane as a force capable of coercing Nightsisters though.

 

Its likely just a quick explanation as to why Ventress wasn't always with the Nightsisters on Dathomir. My understanding is that this trade off would prevent a conflict or put Dathomir in the middle of something Talzin would otherwise want to avoid. Its not something Talzin had to do - she alone could wipe the pirates out. Its possible she knew the potential for Ventress and wanted her to endure a variety of trials and training to become the warrior she ended up as...

 

Talzin's tomb was there for ages it appeared, which implied she was quite old and has been coming back from the dead . She keeps herself in a physical state and realm by feeding off of Force sensitives. She was "dying" again when Maul offered up his life to destroy Sidious. Sidious also divulges a secret that not even Dooku was aware, that Talzin was older and fowler than even he realized. The actress that played Talzin also said she played the part as if she was immortal, so there is something more there. Viscus appears to have gone through Talzin's resurrection before as he knew she'd be weak and not at full strength once brought back through Dooku.

Hal'Sted is(was) a pirate:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hal'Sted

Still, I would've liked to have seen a rematch between Maul and Sidious(and Dooku?) as the covered showed. him with a double-bladed firesaber that Talzin fashioned for him. I liked the whole can't keep a good dog(bad Sith) down theme with Maul. Even if you knock him down, he's gonna keep coming back, stronger and stronger as he has since his TPM return.