Clone Wars Do you enjoy how Maul is being used/portrayed in TCW?

Now im sure we can all agree here that bringing back Maul was a horrible decision and should have never been done. But though this is true, did you enjoy how the TCW writers have been using Maul in TCW (you can hate the fact that Maul is back, but still enjoy his storyline/scenes in TCW)? Or do you dislike his appearances in TCW? Or is it all simply "meh" to you?

What do you think of his voice actor? Was the man named Crashdown a good choice to voice Maul? Or should it have been someone else?

Yes i am enjoying how Maul is being portrayed in TCW

I'll preface this by saying I would've been perfectly happy with Maul not returning during the Clone Wars.

But since he is back, I've honestly been enjoying him. First of all, I think Sam Witwer does a fantastic job as Maul, and that may be a large part of why I enjoy him. He does a remarkably good job of capturing the essence of Maul's voice, better than even James Arnold Taylor's Obi-Wan, in my opinion. His range is excellent, capable of moving Maul from savage insanity, to lost apprentice, to re-affirmed Sith Lord without ever feeling as though he's stepped over a line.

As for Maul himself, I was a big fan of the comic Old Wounds, where the idea of Maul returning as a cyborg and seeking revenge on Obi-Wan first originated. When I found out that it had been labelled non-canon, I was very disappointed, and despite it's faults, it's nice to see some manner of that salvaged with The Clone Wars. As I said on the Temp Boards, I have no problem with Maul's actual return. Sith Lords of all kinds have found ways to postpone, stop, or even reverse death in numerous sources and in numerous ways. Maul is practically par for the course when it comes to Star Wars' Sith. And while I find some of the story choices...odd, let's say, such as using him in conjunction with the previously separate Mandalorian plot, I withhold judgement until I see the arc to conclusion. I don't expect him to have an enormous impact on the universe around him because he's obviously not around by the time Revenge of the Sith comes along, but what they are using him for is far more intriguing than annoying.

So, long story short, I am enjoying how Maul's being used and portrayed.

I don't mind Maul's portrayal so far as his behavior or anything like that. It's just the fact that he's back to begin with that bothers me and the manner in which they tried to rationalize his survival. Those flaws (IMO) are enough to really sour my opinion of the character no matter how well they manage to represent him beyond that point.

Sam Witwer does a great job with what he is given but I miss the days when Maul was a silent assassin and not a long-winded hasbeen full of hot air.

I'm liking that he's given more development and a personality other than a silent, one-dimensional tool like in TPM. And Sam Witwer rocks as him.

Not all; there are always exceptions.

Well said, agreed 100%.

Holy sweeping generalization batman!

As I've said in other threads I've basically made my peace with with Maul's return, and despite how abysmal Revenge was, season five seems poised to take all sorts of interesting storytelling directions. For the first time I'm actually interested in what's going on on Mandalore. And I think Witwer did a great job with his VA.

THIS!

Plus, I have to admit, bringing together a bunch of fringe factions into an army is pretty intriguing. It would be cool if they ever made a strategy game with a Maul playable faction, or maybe have them as payable in the next battlefront game.

Can I vote "meh"? I'm pretty much on the middle ground in terms of my enjoyment of the character.

I'll say this: I think he'll be used way better in S5 than he was in S4.

lookie lookie (open) lookie lookie (close)

Mostly in that Sidious will teach him how pathetic he (and by extension the Talzin Nightsisters) really is.

Not only was bringing back Maul bad and unnecessary, they're doing him completely wrong.

SSS, I blame the "Darth Maul should never have died" topic.

Also,

DARTH MAUL LIVES

TO SHAKE HANDS WITH AHSOKA

Absolutely not. It is an absolute mess that utterly cheapens the entire point of Randy, puts me in contact with Witwer's castrated screaming again, and it is poised to destroy the one original idea this show had with the mandalorians.

This part I totally agree with. At the time I assumed Darth Maul wouldn't be coming back because I couldn't conceive a reason for having both Savage Opress and him in the story. By reading various interviews from this year's editions of SW Insider I've gleaned that basically GL did Opress first to see how it would go and based on liking the outcome decided to go ahead and bring Darth Maul back too. That's about the million and first thing GL didn't execute as well as he could have and should have because he didn't have a larger story structured before finishing the first part and was content to use filler. Par for the course but still unfortunate. I think he should have gone either/or.

Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler

Well, at least we'll be back to only one by the end of the season.

But yeah, Maul's return makes Savage really redundant. Now, if Savage had not been Maul's brother, or even a Zabrak, then we could have had some other dark character going after Maul, yet serving the same role as Savage.

Temporarily overlooking the terrible idea of brining Maul back, I still don't think his character is the same as it was when TPM debuted. Maul was Sidious's lackey and there was no Mother Talzin; the good old days...

I kind of figured the Maul/Oppress thing would be like Yoda/Luke, only the dark side of it.

For instance Savage finds Maul in exile on some planet; Maul agrees to teach Oppress; we get more insight into his training and how he is becoming more powerful; then Savage kills Maul. I especially never would have thought that Sidious or Obi-Wan would ever have learned of Maul's survival, given that I think it throws a wrench into what Palpatine tells Anakin about Plagueis.

Anakin should seemingly know that Maul was cut in half by Obi-Wan, and should know that Maul survived being cut in half and falling into a pit. So when Palpatine starts talking about only one knowing how to cheat death, it seems like Maul is a blatant contradiction... Unless Anakin thinks that they are talking about Maul... which then makes the tale of Plagueis a random thing to mention.

I was starting to believe fan theories that Savage might just find a holocron and learn from Maul that way, or that if Maul did survive that Plagueis would tie into it someway (the bit of Maul on the back cover of Plagueis made me so convinced that that was going to happen). But in the end it's just some unconscious "trance" that keeps him alive by turning him into a garbage-spider-abomination and makes him insane, just for Talzin to cure him in two seconds with uber-magic. And more on that point, if magic was going to be the excuse for giving him legs, might as well just have given him his legs back, rather than creating mechanical legs... though magically. But then Maul goes on to assert his dominance over Oppress who seemed like he had potential for his own interesting story in its own right, only to be overshadowed by "brother" and made redundant.

I agree with those that think Witwer does a good Maul. I have nothing against the character in that regard. I just think that how his re-emergence has been brought about is too messy for me to ignore.

I've heard a couple mention rumors that S5 will offer more insight into his survival. And so I hope it becomes something more than "I wanted to survive so badly, and so that the Dark Side turned me into a spider and saved my life."

I really like Sam Witwer's voice acting and I love the way he's animated. The way they close up on his face during his "every cut" speech to Obi-Wan makes it clear they spent a lot of time trying to capture Ray Park's facial features while imbuing them with genuine seeming emotions. And while some of his return story isn't that good, I'm a fan of Jason Todd in the DCU-who was brought back to life by a reality warping punch. Maul scraping by and going insane makes sense to me, as it could be much worse.

Also, Maul's return and the execution of his storyline was good enough to get me much more invested in this season of Clone Wars. I only started watching the show when Death Watch showed up back in Season 2, and having a potential wild card thrown in with Maul's appearance helps spice the story up in my opinion. The fact that he and the Death Watch are going to be interacting, thus bringing two of Kenobi's biggest antagonists together for a few stories, just makes me smile. Fanservice? What's that? Combining Darth Maul and Death Watch, that's what..

Contrary to what I'm sure Lucas wants us to believe, it's patently obvious that this decision was an ass pull of epic proportions. That said, they've done well with fleshing Maul out so to speak-- Witwer is, as many have said, superb as a voice and guiding figure (his dedication to Star Wars lore is commendable). I enjoy the explanation offered (that a miasma of dark side energy kept him alive through sheer hate) as it lends credibility to the whole Plagueis-immortality/"unnatural" dark side powers plotline from ROTS.

My only real complaint is that it seems an opportunity or two was missed with the character (a fight with Dooku) and I'm uneasy about the spoilers I've heard from "Revival" regarding his rematch with Obi-Wan.

This is one of the times when I hope poll results weren't anonymous.

The fact that Darth Maul was as flat as a character can possibly be in TPM is one of the reasons I'm enjoying his "resurrection" even though it wouldn't have been my preference. He's already got infinite times the character he did in that movie alone, and he's only been in one and a third episodes so far.

You say 'flat', I say 'mysterious'.

Ever since he started opening his mouth in TCW he sounds like a total moron. Not to mention that he looks like a ****ing clown.

Even when TPM first came out and I was 10 years old I thought it was stupid that they had this awesome looking character and didn't try to develop him at all. It seemed lazy and wasteful, not mysterious. I think it's about damn time they're finally getting on top of that. It makes TPM better in a "this guy has no idea what's about to happen to him" way, in addition to expanding on Sith lore in general which to me is always good.

I always thought he looked cool and honestly don't think his legs change his overall look all that much, especially since it seems from S5 trailers he'll be wearing pants, he'll look exactly the same.

Honestly they might as well brought time back via time travel. That would have made more sense than what we got.

Witwer still sounds like a whinny Starkiller.