PT Darth Maul

Dooku was extremely powerful with the Force, I believe comparable in potential to Maul. In the expanded universe novel Dark Rendezvous he was the Jedi’s most gifted apprentice. He is far more experienced then Maul and uses Force lightning. When it comes to swordfighting Dooku is a master who can beat the same level opponents as Maul can.

 

Maul used Force lightning in the Expanded Universe , both red and blue variants Maul also displayed an extreme tolerance to outright immunity to Force lightning attacks in the comics when attacked by the Dathomirian Nightsister Mighella.

Just because he does not use Force lightning on TV or elsewhere yet, does not mean he does not know how to or won't at some point. regardless thats not really a big of a thing cause not even Vader is seen using Force lightning in neo-canon outside that dream-like dimension created by Darth Momin. Plus its fatal to the user , about as much as it is to its intended victim, look at Darth Sidious/Clone Palpatine. Its effectiveness is mainly on disarmed or unsuspecting opponents .

Some beings like Maul and Luke appear to show a very high resilience to its effects without visible damage and were able to recover quickly, as its otherwise destructive on peoples flesh and able to explode armored vehicles. Sidious was unable to stop his own force lightning from injuring himself and eventually making him melt and explode. Anakin would often fall into unconsciousness from lightning attacks, yet it still did not appear to cause long lasting damage to him and he was able to recover. Savage was vulnerable to Force ligntning attacks, but began building up an endurance to its effects. Even he came dangerously close to killing Dooku had Ventress not allied to stop him. Savage would also quickly defeat both Anakin and Kenobi together while Maul easily defeated Savage very quickly. Only as a cyborg, did the lightning appear to be fatal to Anakin who was already in vulnerable and weakened state with his condition and him relinquishing the Dark Side didnt aid him either.

In SOD Maul endured Dooku's Force lightning torture attacks and still the Sith failed in defeating Maul's will.

"I've become indifferent to pain." - Maul

For Dooku, he only gets Force lightning in canon after sustaining a Dark Side attack by the Hakotei witches during a Dark Side ritual involving a strange and mysterious moss-like substance. It didnt have anything to do with experience or studying, or whatever, just being at the right place and the right time in his case.

 

Oh, I don't know. I'm expecting Dooku to come back with a mechanical body from the neck down, any time now.

 

Darth Maul still being alive is hilarious, beyond words. Did the other half of him survive, as well?

 

MAGNETS: *exist

MAUL:

 

I just remembered what it felt like to see Darth Maul back in 1999. It was almost unreal how good that character design was. You'd think there was no way they'd pull something off that would rival Darth Vader as an icon of evil - especially if they went in a drastically different direction - but that's exactly what they did.
And of course, doing something new and unexpected was the only way to do it. Unexpected, yet obvious in a way. With Maul, they went almost primeval. He's monstrous, demonlike, an absolute devil... but not imposing like his famous successor. No, this guy is pretty much the opposite; an agile master of the martial arts, a whirlwind in battle. A fierce predator that you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley - or anywhere else, for that matter.

On paper, you've got a villain that might come off as too over-the-top, with a black and red face resembling some sort of cracked skull, fiery eyes like those of the Emperor, blackened teeth and no less than TEN horns... but it's exactly that combination that makes him such an icon. It is over-the-top, it's very comic book-y, and it's just what he needed to be. He was meant to be a manifestation of our primal fears. Not to compete with Vader, but to be something different; a pure representation of the ancient fury that drives the Sith and is now being (slowly) unleashed in the first chapter of the Saga.

He is simply a very effective villain.

 

People always throw shade on Darth Maul by saying he's just the Boba Fett of the PT. I don't see the issue with that. He looks cool, serves his purpose, and he got to come back from the dead (technically never died, but you know what I mean) because people love him. No biggie

 

I also think his death is more climactic and cool and dramatic than Boba Fett's and is more prominent as a character in that movie.

 

Darth Maul is one of my favorite Sith Apprentices of all time. He in The Phantom Menace bespelled myself and my friends, his quiet and yet dark aura, anc when he dueled Kenobi and Qui-Gon, he still kept his rage silent. He is one few Sith that seemed to have mastered his aggression, and used silence as a way to unnerve and inspire awe.
It was refreshing how different Maul was from Lord Vader, where Vader had temper fits, Maul was cool, while Vader used dialouge to inspire fear Maul used the absence of speech. Even Maul design, his black robes, red and black skin and exposed orange eyes contrasted with the faceless masked machine that was Vader.
GL did not give us a Vader clone.

 

TPM and the trailer of Maul igniting his double bladed saber (which really should've been saved for the movie) was one of those nerdgasm moments we all shared. And one of the reasons many spent $ to see Meet Joe Black , watched the trailer, then left.
What a great design and character Maul was. Mysterious, a new Sith, and had that double saber. My only thoughts were he should've been revealed by books after the movie showing him dispose of prominent Jedi masters. His action figure was soo

Obi Wan defeating him did have some fortunate moves to it, but Maul showed he could've kept going if not for Kenobi and I'm glad Obi Wan had that moment.

TCW deserve a lot of credit too, even though i was among the others not agreeing with bringing Maul back, it seemed many like how his character turned out in the show. And they let him kill a few Jedi before falling in Rebels to Kenobi.

id expect we'll get to see some more of Darth Maul or ..maybe just as Maul.
TCW

This is exactly the way I would have done it. This would have really thrown us die hard fans off in not knowing Dooku allegiance. Then imagine in ROTS he tells us all that we should've believed him about Sidious.

 

Darth Maul is an interesting character, especially out-of-universe. His conception and Lucas' thoughts on him have fascinated me, because he remains largely an enigma. He was conceived quite mysteriously, and seems to have initially been nothing more than a disposable Sith warrior and assassin for Palpatine to wield as a weapon. But the character took on a life of its own, and became something much more. Before The Clone Wars, Lucas was adamant that he meant for Maul to die, but the fan response was so huge he changed his mind. Lucas has not spoken much about Maul's creation or the character in general. I tracked down any quotes from him even tangentially related to Maul as a character. He has mostly just made offhanded references to him in relation to other characters. I tried to glean as much meaning behind these quotes as possible to shed some light on his thought process when it came to Maul.



About the creation of Count Dooku he says:

"I didn't want to keep creating bigger monsters. I decided to make Dooku an elegant old gentleman."

"I was looking for a villain who was more...elegant and sinister than scary. He's a more sophisticated kind of villain."

About the creation of Jango Fett he says:

"I wanted to create a villain in this one that, you know, had a little bit of heart, had a little bit of sentimentality to him that wasn't just Darth Maul: all evil.

In the Bill Moyers interview, he gives his most extensive thoughts he has shared on Maul:

BILL MOYERS: The mesmerizing character for me is — is Darth Maul.


BILL MOYERS: When I saw him, I thought of Satan and Lucifer in “Paradise Lost.” I thought of the devil in “Dante’s Inferno.” I mean, you’ve really — have brought from — it seems to me — from way down in our unconsciousness this image of — of — of evil, of the other.



GEORGE LUCAS: Well, yeah. We were trying to find somebody who could compete with Darth Vader, who’s one of the most, you know, famous evil characters now. And so we went back into representations of evil.



(Excerpt from “The Phantom Menace”)



GEORGE LUCAS: Not only, the Christian, but also Hindu and Greek mythology and other religious icons and, obviously, then designed our own — our own character out of that.



BILL MOYERS: What did you find when you went back there in — in all of these representations? There’s something …



GEORGE LUCAS: A lot of — a lot of evil characters have horns. It’s very interesting. I mean, you’re trying to build a icon of evil, and you sort of wonder why the same images evoke the same emotions.



BILL MOYERS: What emotion do you feel, George, when you look at Darth Maul?



GEORGE LUCAS: I think the first thing you’re supposed to react to is fear. You’re supposed to go, ‘Ooh.’ You — you wouldn’t want to meet him in a dark alley. And I’m not creating a monster. You know, that’s like — I — I didn’t want to create some ugly — you know, this — somebody ripped out their intestines and threw them all over their head — and it’s — you can’t watch it. This is something …



BILL MOYERS: It’s actually mesmerizing.



GEORGE LUCAS: This is something that is more — it works in a different emotional way. It’s not repulsive, it’s just — it’s — it’s something you should be afraid of.



BILL MOYERS: Is the emotion you wanted from him different from the emotion you wanted from Darth Vader?



GEORGE LUCAS: It’s essentially the same in a different kind of way. Darth Vader was a — a composite man. I mean, he was…



(Excerpt from “Star Wars”)



GEORGE LUCAS: …half-machine, half-man. And that’s where he lost a lot of his humanity is that he — you know, he has mechanical legs. You know — and he has mechanical arms possibly and he’s hooked up to a breathing machine. So there’s not much, actually, human left in him. This one is all human. And I wanted him to be like an alien, but I wanted him to be human enough that we could identify with — with him, because he’s not a — a — a sort of a monster we can’t identify with. He’s…



BILL MOYERS: He’s us.



GEORGE LUCAS: …he’s — yeah. He’s the evil within us.

So Lucas says that Maul is like a monster, scary, all evil, and that you should be afraid of him. The fear factor of Maul is emphasized as a defining part of his character in the TPM tone poem ad:



He also says that he is a representation of the evil within us. And as far as the prequel trilogy goes, "us" is Anakin. This would support the theory that Maul is one of the three aspects of Anakin's character as Vader, along with Dooku and Grievous. Lucas' creative process with those two characters is much more well known, and he has made it clear that he intended them to mirror aspects of Anakin: Dooku is the fallen Jedi and Grievous is the cyborg. Maul would then be the pure evil part of Vader.

In creating Dooku, Lucas didn't want to recreate Maul, something that is seen in the early female Sith concept arts that became Asajj Ventress. Lucas had a clear idea for a sophisticated and elegant gentleman villain, who would be the opposite of the animalistic Maul. Also with Grievous, he had the idea for a cowardly droid/cyborg general. With Maul, his instructions for the concept art team seem to have been much vaguer, and the idea much more open to interpretation. Early concept arts dress Maul in ornate armor, reminiscent of a more traditional version of Vader's breathing suit. Later versions take on grotesque appearances, probably brought on by Lucas' solidifying ideas for a nightmarish evil incarnate.

In summary, Maul is a monster, but not necessarily monstrous in appearance. He is pure evil, and uses fear as a weapon. He is also a reflection of Anakin's anger and hate.

 

Lord Maul was a true antithesis to Lord Vader. Maul had no mask, but visible skin with tattoos. Maul is a Zabrak of few words (TPM) while Vader uses words to control and instill fear. Vader’s Makashi and Djem So style is elegant, while Maul’s Staffsaber style has some elegance, he clearly has more of beast like rage. Maul was Saber, a living weapon, while Vader was a Sith Lord who used many techniques to serve his Master. I love how Maul is not a clone of Vader in anyway.

 

Well said. Lord Maul embodied the dark side, because he was born in it. Vader really is Fallen Jedi type Sith Lord, and 9 out of 10 Jedi who convert to the dark side inevitably relapse and redeem. Notable exceptions being Lord Tyranus and Exar-Kun who died on the dark side.
Maul is an altogether different animal, his menacing spirit while hooded made him more haunting than Vader to me. It was first time we saw a real Sith, one who openly showed his devotion to the dark, Vader as aforementioned was a Fallen Jedi and Lord Sidious played double identities, no Maul was pure, he let all know he was Sith, a true Warrior of the Dark.

 

I tried to map out the creative process behind Maul.



Lucas informs the art department that the film is going to feature a "Sith Knight", something that has its origins in the early Star Wars drafts. He wants Maul to be an icon of evil on the level of Vader and like something from your worst nightmare. He tells Ian McCaig to start making concepts of what a Sith would look like and to draw his worst nightmare, which results in this artwork of Palpatine, but which would go on to inform the design process of Maul instead. This design introduces the idea of the red streaks over the face:



Lucas is shocked by this and tells McCaig to draw his "secod worst nightmare" instead, which results in this artwork of a female Sith. Here, black face tattoos are brought into the design:



The number 3 and 4 concept arts from the above image (which I can't find bigger pictures of) feature a very Palpatine looking Sith and another female looking Sith.

The Sith Knight is described in The Star Wars rough draft as "a large, sinister SITH warrior in black robes and a face mask." Probably based on this description, Ian McCaig produces this artwork, which very much emphasizes the idea that these are Knights of the Sith, like the Sith in the rough drafts:



Number 6 on the above image combines the helmeted look with facial tattoos.

Somewhere along the line, Ian McCaig starts really playing with the idea of the facial tattoos for senators. The second one's design is already starting to resemble the finished Maul's tattoos:




Ian McCaig gets the idea to overlay the design of a circuit board over a face, which results in the final tattoo design of Maul. McCaig also plays with two ideas for his wardrobe, a more traditional black dark side look and a white look they were toying for the prequels, when Jedi were meant to have all black clothes:




Ian McCaig includes feathers tied with wire to Maul's head in his final design. These feathers are interpreted by someone, maybe Lucas, as horns instead:



Lucas informs the art department that Maul will have a double-bladed lightsaber, which Doug Chiang includes in his production art:

 

The Second art piece (2.) of scarlet robed maiden was reused for Lord Maul’ mother, Mother Talizin in TCW:



The circuit board faced design should be used for a unique character.

I’d say the first design:



was reused for The Pau’uns in Revenge of the Sith, only the red cords disappear became lines:

 

Wookieepedia mentions that Cassie Cryor, the Terrellian Jango Jumper, in TCW, draws on "early Sith concepts":

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Cassilyda_Cryar

The design of Cassie Cryar harkens back to one of Iain McCaig's early Sith concepts for the 1999 film Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace.[8]

 

I am glad some of these concept designs for Lord Maul got used.

I still prefer the final design:

 

I still feel like his presence was such a magnet when watching this film. TCW kinda takes it to a whole new level, but in TPM Maul is the personification of an evil Sith hunter. So well done by the art team (as stated above). It would make more sense that Maul would have taken out multiple Jedi before TPM, but I get it that it's in the movie where we all see the big reveal. Also the defeat of Qui Gon, even though it's just one Jedi, looms larger than one can imagine after seeing the PT in full. The implications from this affect Anakin, Dooku, Obi Wan, and all the Jedi and even the Republic.