PT Why Didn't They Just Shoot Darth Maul?

This has probably been brought up, but didn't Darth Maul like literally walk into an firing squad at the end of Episode I?

He opens the door and there's at least 15 armed Naboo guards and two Jedi just standing in front of him. That "battle" between them would've last like all of 30 seconds ... maybe?

I mean really the scene should've played out like this

DOOR OPENS, Darth Maul takes off his cloak

Qui-Gon: Uh ... everyone, aim at this guy and shoot. We'll clean up the carcass and then we'll all go together and mess up the Neimodians.

Darth Maul: Please don't shoot, at least let me light up my cool lightsaber, I spent a lot of time working on it.

 

Yes, they should have, altho I cant at all imagine he would have been killed or even injured in such an attack. At worst, he might of been forced to beat a hasty retreat. The reason I think they didn't attempt that was that the Jedi wanted to engage with him to learn what "it" was and what they were dealing with in regards to the "phantom menace" that they believed was working behind the events.

 

But in Episode III it looks like just a handful of Clonetroopers were able to take out Jedi Masters en masse with just blasters. Maybe he could block 2-3 of the laser blasts, but like 15 of them?

I mean everyone shoot at Darth Maul with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan attack from the sides = Sith toast for all.

 

Because they already did that in Raiders (and Lucas didn't think it was appropriate)

 

He caught them by surprise and Qui-Gon confidently said that he and Obi-Wan would handle it before they had a chance to make up their minds about him.
That's why.

 

Ya that crossed my mind and perhaps there is a difference in a Jedi/Sith's "force alertness" (for lack of a better term) when being attacked from behind by their own comrades and being attack frontally by opponents they are expecting to attack them. In any case it seems the Jedi were intent on engaging him for reasons beyond simple situational/tactical expediency.

 

Because they would lose time and probably Maul would kill lots of them, not to mention Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan couldn't fight smoothly due to distractions of the crowd.

 

It is in the script... but seriously that would taken away from their duel no?

 

I had a detailed post about this on IMDb a year or two ago. Could have sworn I saved it, but I just spent the last 30 mins looking -- no luck.

I'm quite annoyed. It was saved so that I might one day use it for an occasion like this. So infuriating.

Going on a combination of memory and whatever comes to me in the moment...

The reasons boil down to:

a) A sort of supernatural fear and uneasiness Maul summons up with his sudden presence and enigmatic appearance. There is a sense he can strike implacable fear in the hearts of lesser mortals, literally freezing them in their tracks.

b) The Jedi having a desire to personally intercept and apprehend Maul, thus a need to engage, rather than let him be clobbered with laser fire.

c) Padme and her entourage being unwilling to shoot at Maul for tactical reasons, perhaps fearing that a hail of laser fire might incapacitate Maul but result in unacceptable casualties, thinning their numbers and even, in principle, placing in danger the life of their beloved queen.

d) Padme and her entourage being unwilling to shoot at Maul for philosophical or ethical reasons, since he is a living being, and that might go against their ingrained pacifistic mores, somewhat nullifying their reasons for attempting to restore ownership of the palace and stewardship of the planet.

e) File a, c, and d under a broader notion: they don't know what they're up against. And since the Jedi are with them, it is simply more expedient to let the Jedi handle the unknown, and for the rest of them to proceed as smoothly as possible with the main objective (recapturing the palace).


And as for invoking Order 66...

The clone troops were pretty skilled shots, and they caught the Jedi off-guard. Perhaps they even were programmed to behave like bees, willing to sacrifice themselves without thinking, provided their targets, the poor, unfortunate Jedi, were still downed in the process.

Go back and try plugging those variables into the Maul encounter. You'll see it is laced with much more uncertainty. Maul stands there, in the open, facing them directly, and they weren't expecting to come up against such an obstacle there and then.

Plus, given that Maul is strongly imbued with the Dark Side, creating a sudden burst of fear, panic, and confusion, it can be reasoned that he seems like a far more exotic threat than even Jedi standing in the same place would be -- and these were mainly "security volunteers" coming up against this sinister apparition, not ruthlessly-brainwashed, battle-hardened clones.

And Padme's, "We'll take the long way" ----------------------> that's classic, IMO.

 

This. Qui-Gon And Obi-wan knew only they could deal with Maul. Look what happened to them. Maul was too powerful. Amidala and the Naboo soldiers would have been cut down. Those two blades are reflecting the fire of 20 whatever guns. They probably felt it too. This is the way I've always viewed it and always will.
I love this seen. Maul is just too badass.
"We'll take the long way." You'd better.

 

Yeah, the element of surprise here is crucial. You can't look at the Order 66 scenes and come to the straightforward conclusion that force users can easily be taken down with some well placed blaster shots - that's the Han Solo approach. If force users were easy to take down, Palpatine needn't have bothered setting up the clone wars to isolate the Jedi from each other - he could have just sent the first batch of clones directly to the Jedi temple.

 

I think it was caution and scripting nothing more.

 

Especially since we know that Maul described as ''one-being army'', he is not only a good duelist also good against this kind of threats.

 

Marco1907 "One-being army". Yes!
Excellent video. He dispatches what seems like an entire legion of those(elite) Black Sun guards with ease.
Exactly how I picture those Naboo guards going down if they drew on him.
Honestly I have never checked out any comics but think I will after seeing this. The drawings are fantastic.
I'm liking that Darth Maul respect thread also.

 

I'm sorry but is that actually a serious question?

 

Because Darth Maul could obviously take them he has the force and is more skilled than them they just had the guns while Maul had the talent to either quickly attack them or make a quick escape.


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Kinda hard to determine if he's a Sith Lord, or not if he's dead. The point in the duel was the Jedi were going to see who and what he was and if possible, take him alive. That didn't work out that way.

The Jedi weren't expecting an attack. Maul is expecting it. Besides, one Jedi/Sith is worth one hundred warriors. That's the reason why Luke could take on Jabba's goons, why Anakin and Obi-wan could take on Hondo's men. And so on.

 

Both of these. Not much else to add on to it, so kudos' to you guys.

 

The soldiers would all be killed. It would buy Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon maybe 10 seconds at most. Then, after he kills them all and engages Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, who is left to go capture the Viceroy?

 

OOU explanation: it wouldn't be Star Wars without a lightsaber duel

IU: the guards had no idea who he was, could have been the long lost sage of Naboo for all they knew, it wasn't until Qui-Gon said "we'll handle this" they cottoned on and "took the long way".

 

The Jedi were taken by surprise, and most were gunned down from behind. Darth Maul knew he was walking into a fight, knew who his enemies were, and was ready for what lay ahead. Big difference in these two scenarios.

 

If they had tried to shoot him he would have immediately activated his lightsaber and killed them all.