Maul: Shadow Lord Praises 7 & 8
This week was another jammed packed two episodes exploring Maul's depth as a character. What a wild ride! I didn't expect to be empathizing with the villain, but here we are, one week away from the grand season one finale!!
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May the 4th is coming up.
Slay, I will be doing my bonus trivia episode that will be
coming out Monday, May 4th.
Duh.
Also debuting Monday, May 4th is the Maul Shadow Lord finale.
So that will be covered as per usual on our Friday episode of
next week.
Because that's how math works.
There were 10 episodes, so 2, 2, 2, 2, 2.
And we're already looking at Mandalorian and Grogu, staring
it in the face.
I got my tickets to unlock.
I'm excited to go see that.
But I want to give Maul his flowers, and so we will be
discussing that finale episode.
And whatever else they have up their sleeve that week will also
be covering.
Because May the 4th, anything can happen.
So we will see what happens.
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Alright, so with all that out of the way, we have a lot to yap
about.
If y'all are watching on YouTube, I have a little bit of
some face jemmies going on.
I really love to dress up.
That's been one of my favorite parts so far is putting on my
costumes and then, you know, doing my makeup and getting to
put like these cute little stickers on my face.
It just adds a little bit of flair, a little pizzazzy jazz to
your hostess.
And so it just builds my confidence and gets the vibes
flowing.
So I used purple today to honor Rena Sol.
I hope we see her again as we'll get into, but I don't know.
So I wanted to pay my respects to a fallen baddie.
Alright, chapter seven, call to oblivion.
I went ahead on Google and looked up oblivion.
It means the state of being completely forgotten, unknown,
or extinct, often referring to a person or thing fading into
obscurity.
And it also denotes a state of being unaware or a mental state
of total forgetfulness.
Excuse me.
So basically, it means call to we don't know what.
So y'all better be in bed by nine, or we're coming for ya.
Devin says, because, you know, as we left, her and Riley,
they're in this ominous tunnel together with Maul and these,
you know, cute little yellow lights.
Devin says, Maul is not our friend.
He's a murderer.
We're basically only following him because he's better than
running from a literal inquisitor.
I mean, the logic follows for me.
Like, this guy has been, you know, low-key nice to me.
If he wanted to kill me, he could have, but he doesn't want
to.
But you know who does want to kill us?
The helicopter blade, you know, black knight over there.
So we gotta be, we gotta be running.
The Jedi Hunter, I'm a Jedi.
We gotta stick with this guy.
And Riley's like, okay, well, as soon as we get the opportunity,
we need to try and find my dad and your master.
And she's like, okay, whatever.
We will, don't worry.
But while they're yap, yap, yapping, mall goes, if I may, if
you wish to continue on your own, do so at your own peril.
Because the longer y'all dilly dally, the longer that I'm in
danger.
So either shut up or leave.
Like, we are in a in a perilous situation.
He's just done.
If I may, I just lost it.
Great.
And I started laughing.
Also, if we see like when he turns his head, the light
catches his piercing.
Um, and I've decided I want one.
So, anyways, Ma proposes that uh they leave with him because he
has a ship that they can escape on, and so for the time being,
they're like, fine, we'll go with you, but only so far
because we low key need to go find our dads.
And he's like, whatever, we'll we'll cross that bridge when we
get there.
Devin just feels very much like this angsty punk rock teen.
I don't need anyone, and the only real plan here is mine.
So it is a phenomenal pairing of her and Maul.
Like they just have this irritated, responsible adult to
difficult teenager chemistry, and I'm very excited to see
where the rest of this show takes their journeys because
they already have a good, solid, fun, entertaining connection.
So now we cut to Dockey and Lawson, and Dockie's basically
like, you need to be patient.
Like, we're gonna find them.
Me and my Padawan, we have this special, like Peter Tingle,
we'll figure it out.
And Lawson's like, Bro, you've never been a dad.
Like, can you please just calm down with the Jedi crap?
Like, my son is in danger.
This is very serious to me, and I would appreciate if you just
went along and respected my feelings in this moment.
And Docky's just like, Well, we will proceed to sector 10, as
you suggested.
Duh! Duh.
This is your fault.
Like, I think we need to stop and think about that because how
many of us have forgotten that they are in this situation
because of Grandpa Dockie?
The son has been kidnapped, their house is destroyed, his
life is ruined, and now you're forcing me to use my only
underground friend, Rena Sol, to help you.
You're the one that put me in this situation.
So I don't know.
I applaud Captain Lawson because the patience he's been willing
to give this man is uh phenomenal.
I could never.
I could never.
Um, it did make me, I wrote down a question.
I do wonder if Dockey will die during the finale, and that's
what's ultimately gonna send Devin into his fold.
That's at least what it's setting up and looking like to
me.
But who knows?
Who knows?
The fangirl in me is saying just leave Dockie and Devin, you
should just hang out with Rook and Maul, and y'all can just be
a happy little crime syndicate Lord family.
But what do I know?
Nothing.
That's why I'm not in the writing room.
So, anyways, we cut back to the tunnel.
Maul compliments Devin as far as her going toe-to-toe with the
Inquisitor.
He says you fought well, and so they start to kind of have this
little chit-chat small talk that irritated him before, but now
it's okay because like he's the one that initiated it.
Okay.
Um, and so then Devin feels comfortable enough to ask him,
like, okay, well, who's your master?
You said that you were cast aside, so there's a story there,
and I'm here for it.
Mall says he's still alive, unfortunately, which is a
reference to Sidious, obviously.
He says that his betrayal was not the deepest wound that
Sidious would inflict, which next we watch, you know, on a
second watch through, you're able to understand, okay, this
is foreshadowing what these episodes are gonna deep dive on.
Um, Children of the Watch, actually, I was listening to
their debrief today, and they had actually said that something
I hadn't thought of is like Maul is gunning for the head of the
Empire.
So Devin is like, who's your master?
And Maul's like, uh funny you should ask.
Like, it is the big baddie boo.
Like, it is Lord Sidious himself, the Emperor.
I just feel like that would completely blow her mind.
So I appreciate him not going there quite yet because he knows
the power that that card holds for sure.
So then we cut to Merrick and he is it Merrick or Maruk?
I really don't know.
And I would appreciate someone to educate me, please.
But anyways, he's perched up on this skyscraper.
I was convinced that we were gonna see his helicopter blade,
like he was gonna decide, okay, I'm done looking ominous and
cool and mysterious up here.
Now I gotta dip, and he was just gonna like take out his
Inquisitor blade, light it up, and he'd just like spin copter
his way down to the streets.
But that's not what happened.
Um, we cut back to Maul's hideout.
Rook obviously is not happy.
She still doesn't agree with Maul's vision about Devin
putting them all in jeopardy for this girl who obviously doesn't
even seem like she wants to be there for real.
I'm not mad at her whatsoever.
She has a right to be upset because I'm starting to get
upset with this girl too.
Like, make up your mind.
But Maul says they must come with us.
And the kids are like, psych, you thought.
So they run, and Maul, you can tell he's getting so irritated.
She is just on thin, thin ice with this man.
Thin ice.
So Maul cuts them off, and you can see like he's he's starting
to just he's getting done.
He gets angry with Devin.
He says, Don't you see the situation you're in?
It matters so much to me that you are willing to at least say
that you are not in a good place.
I just need to hear these words.
He just he hates the Jedi, and and he hates the emperor, and he
hates the empire, like he's just fueled by all of these issues,
and so especially with Devin having this conversation, he's
just like, my patience is wearing thin with you and your
delusions.
And you can tell that he hates the Jedi, and one of the reasons
is because they fill kids' heads with their own beliefs and
agendas, and then the minute they begin to question or think
for themselves or maybe go into opposition to the Jedi way,
they're cast aside, they're useless, they're shoved back
into a box.
And that is just like what the Sith do.
We see that later, how Sidious was kind of training him and
manipulating him.
So what he says to Ahsoka and what he's saying with Devin, it
is true from his perspective.
So it's therefore not difficult to convince them that it's true
as well.
So this truth that he lives in about why he hates the Jedi and
their manipulations, because it echoes Sith manipulations, he
lives in that truth, and therefore it's not difficult to
push that truth on someone, especially when they're young
and um inexperienced.
So he force freezes her, she breaks it to everyone's
surprise.
Um, but Maul isn't really trying to hurt her, like they start to
kind of um spar because he's just really trying to show her
like, I'm strong, I'm powerful, and I can train you to be
powerful as well.
You just need to yield a little bit.
You're so stubborn.
Um, but you know, that's that is not what happens.
The Empire shows up, they begin this huge bridge battle.
Um, and this would have been the perfect cover for Riley to just
leave with Devin.
Like it's what she needed, and she knows that she most likely
fought in the clone wars, she knows what the heat of a battle,
the opportunities to look for to be able to escape, evade
capture.
She knows what the thick of a battle looks like.
And so the fact that she is choosing to not escape, but
instead joins Maul in the pushback of the Empire, we just
don't really know what this girl's angle is.
Like, she's constantly surprising herself and Maul to
that extent.
You can tell by his face, he's like, this girl is so
unpredictable, which on one hand is good because there's a lot of
fire and energy that I can use to my advantage if I can control
it.
Like, I don't even know what this girl's next move is gonna
be.
Never let him know your next move, and you know, the final
boss is Devin.
So this lapse in judgment eventually is the reason that
Riley is captured because she chose to stay and help Maul
fight instead of just grabbing Riley and running.
That's why he was able to get captured.
So, one of the things I wrote down that we're learning about
her character then is that she hates the Empire more than she
hates Maul, but not even she knows what that belief looks
like or what it's gonna slowly evolve into.
She's just as the show has gone on on the surface, it seems like
you can kind of tell what she's thinking, but then she does
something that's not predictable at all.
And you're just like, okay, you know, and I think that is why
Maul is drawn to her, why he thinks she would make a valuable
asset.
So she locks eyes with Maul, they have kind of this forced
connection already.
Um, they have this master and apprentice chemistry that's just
already through the roof.
Like you can tell she she's very interested in what he has to
offer her, and he's very interested in giving her that
opportunity to train her.
He's he's said it multiple times.
Um, I think it would be exciting if we got to see this dynamic
really start to come to fruition at the end of this season.
Um I'm just ready to see their dynamic, you know, start to
blossom.
And I wrote down I think it'd be cool if in later seasons we saw
Devin and Kira together because they're kind of the same-ish
age, seeing all three of them together, and then we've got
Rook Cast, we've got like Moll and the girlies.
I don't know.
I'm here for it.
I think it's fantastic.
So now we cut to uh Lawson and Dockie, and they're looking for
the kids, and Lawson reveals that he's actually worked with
the Jedi during the Clone Wars, so he never understood the hate,
which Dockie appreciates.
Obviously, anyone would appreciate that if they were
told, like, hey, I know that there's been a massive injustice
done to you, but just so you know, I don't agree with it, and
you guys seem, you know, like you were innocent, and he's very
grateful for that.
So that was that was a nice, you know, semi-redeeming part of
dialogue.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay.
I wrote that Devin says the Empire took Riley.
Dockey senses that there's more to the story by asking who else
was with you, and so she does not tell him at this time that
she was with Maul.
So we see as viewers that she's beginning to see only herself
and her own beliefs as her ally, and that's the beginning of the
Sith Wis to be heavily self-reliant and to just go on
what you think is right.
And so that is the direction that her character is starting
to go toward, which is which is kind of exciting for us as
viewers, stressful for Master Dockey.
I'm sure he's like, Oh, this is not gonna be good, and it
probably won't be, but that's why we're here.
We're here from all, we're not here for Docky.
Uh, it's okay that he's a little stressed.
Sorry.
So Dockie ends up wanting to leave because he's like, Well,
it's clear if we're here, it's putting you guys in further
danger, so we need to leave.
And Devin's like, Are you serious?
They just kidnapped his son.
Absolutely not.
I don't care what you do, but I'm gonna help Captain Lawson
get his son.
And Captain Lawson's like, I don't care what either of you
do, I'm here to get my son.
So they kind of start to formulate a plan, and we cut
back to Mall, they're still on the bridge, they are able to,
you know, get the upper hand in the battle, and then he can
sense the Inquisitors, they're they're gonna be coming.
Like, I I'm sure of it.
So we are starting at this point of the episode to build towards
something more sinister.
Riley is arrested, two boots is low-key annoying, but somewhat
redeemable after this week, I guess.
And Maul and the gang are on their slow journey toward his
escape ship, which is hidden.
Um, during this episode, they're again in these tunnels
underground, and some of the Mandalorians are questioning
Maul's grand plan, and Maul is he's starting to get a little
upset with it as well.
Um, and so Rook engages in this debate with Maul about Devon.
She's like, I think your focus and determination with her is
starting to cloud your judgment.
And Maul's irritated at first, but he's willing to entertain
the conversation because he respects her enough to have that
debate and have that conversation about the loyalties
of the Mandalorians, you know, his loyalty to his vision and
what he believes is right.
I just need you to trust me.
Yeah, well, I'm kind of starting to doubt a little bit.
So it's just nice to see them having that open line of
dialogue, which speaking to the point I made last week about how
Maul's working relationship and willingness to work with strong
women comes through.
I had someone comment on a video I posted on Instagram reminding
me that Maul actually came from a matriarchal society.
So they are raised to respect women and look to them as
advisors with deep appreciation.
So that extra level of his character did help me
understand, like, okay, this is where he's coming from when it
comes to why he trusts strong women as allies and why he's
willing to do good work with them.
So one of the things that he ends the conversation with is uh
saying allegiances can be severed because Rook is like, I
don't trust her.
Like it sounds like all she cares about is being allegiant
to her master, and that's when he's like, Well, allegiances can
be severed, like just you watch.
So I wrote down what would cause someone to sever their
allegiance betrayal, disappointment, a better offer.
Like, there's a lot of different options.
So Mall's already, he's playing the game.
He's like, Okay, this piece goes here, this piece goes there.
Well, what if this happens?
We gotta calculate for this move.
So, like, you he's smart, he knows he knows what he's working
with.
And and the longer he spends with Devin, the more things he
sees her choose and do, the easier it becomes to see those
pieces on the board and the moves that they're they're
making.
So his plan ultimately is obviously going to be to get her
away from those core beliefs that motivate her actions.
He doesn't really have an interest in killing Doki, at
least not to my, you know, opinion as a viewer.
Um Um, but more so just helping her let go of her own
allegiances because those are the things that are holding her
back, is the things that not necessarily she does believe,
but the things that she knows she's supposed to believe, is
what he's trying to get her away from.
So then we cut to Lawson, he's begging two boots to have one
single original thought in his life and help him save his son.
We cut back to Merrick and Crow so that another bridge battle
can ensue.
And I just wanted to take a moment to talk about how cool
the Inquisitor's designs are.
They are so cool.
And what's interesting, I wanted to touch on this because I think
it's interesting.
In the Empire, the way that it's structured, everyone is supposed
to be falling in line.
You have the high officials and they all wear the same uniforms.
They're all humans because there aren't isn't supposed to be any
aliens except for Admiral Thron.
And they all have a certain way of doing things, they're all
dressed the same, they all act the same, they all talk the
same.
And so it's like this conformity system, but it's totally
different with the inquisitors.
Yeah, they, you know, are stripped of their individuality
by having their name taken away, but they are given something
special by being called like the 11th brother, the seventh
sister, things like that.
Like that is you, and they all have different designs.
So if you tell me who your favorite inquisitor is, it's
typically because of their design, like they don't have a
lot of dialogue, and the dialogue they do have is
obviously like they're all angry and they're all self-serving
because they're part of the empire.
But most of the reasons that the inquisitors are cool is because
of their differences, they're different species, they have
different outfits, they have a cool way of fighting, and so it
just is interesting to me.
I hadn't really put that together until I saw these two
inquisitors side by side, just how different they are, and that
is a very different line of thinking than the rest of the
Empire and the way that it operates.
So kind of a cool little little tidbit jemmy for ya.
Um, the visuals of this scene are absolutely stunning.
We're in this underground cave waterfall, there's like this
greenery, and then when the battle starts, there's like this
red on red on red lightsaber blade clashes.
It just looks really cool.
We see Maul engaging in this battle.
The choreography is fantastic.
You catch something new every time you watch it, and the
inquisitors are sort of leading him away from the main conflict,
trying to get him alone, trying to get him out of the chaos of
the blaster fire.
And Maul's like, all right, yeah, let's take this, let's
take this dance somewhere else.
Um, when they jump through the waterfall, you can see the steam
like evaporating off the Inquisitor blades, and I think
that is just so cool.
It's such a testament because this is Clone Wars animation.
Like, if anyone asked you, like, oh, what animation style is it?
It's Clone Wars animation.
Bad Batch is Clone Wars animation.
And so it's just cool to see like how far it has come since
2008.
Like, whoa, this this is Clone Wars animation.
Like, it just looks so good, so clean.
Um, I wrote down a note about how long these Inquisitors have
been training.
Because as we see in Tales of the Empire, if they were
recruited as Order 66 survivors, such as Baris Offie or Is Kat
Icarus, which is from the book Rise of the Bright Blade, I
highly encourage you to read it.
It's all about the Inquisitors and the Inquisitories, at least
the second half is.
Um, so it's really only been however long ago that massacre
was, which according to Google was one year between when the
Clone Wars ended and when this show starts.
So you have a 2v1 fight, a you know, of two Sith who have only
been training for one year versus Maul.
And so it doesn't seem like it could be that intimidating of a
battle, at least for him.
But then you throw in all these extra factors.
He has messed up legs because in the heat of battle, like his his
mechanical legs are acting up, and so they take advantage of
that disadvantage.
He has non-ono-auto-spinning blades, that is a huge
disadvantage because he has to like spin as fast as he can with
his hands, and they just like click a little button and it's
spinning way faster than he ever could.
And then later, the emotional PTSD of seeing one of his
brothers slaughtered again trying to defend him on paper.
It doesn't look bad, but then these extra factors are what
make this fight so deadly.
So it's extremely entertaining.
So then after a little bit of time with them, we cut back to
the bridge fight, and the Mandalorian losers who were
questioning Maul's leadership end up stealing his getaway
ship.
And so now we know for sure that this fight is going to end in a
retreat because our main character's escape route has
just been compromised.
So that was their golden ticket, and Charlie just took it home
for himself.
So, yikes.
The ship, though, it gets shot down by the Empire, which stinks
for the Mandalorian defectors and of course Mole.
So this fight is just quickly getting messy, it's very ugly,
and the episode is drawing to a close.
I wrote down that Sam Whitwer is acting his heart out this week.
Not just this episode, but especially the next episode,
which I'm so excited to talk about.
He has like this whimpering and then the agonizing cries of
pain.
The face acting that the animators were able to pull off
is just absolutely stunning and phenomenal.
And so at the at the close, he like gets on his hands and knees
and he like raises up his hands, and and the one inquisitor is
like there's no surrender for you.
The Emper wants you dead.
And Maul's just like, likewise.
That's all he says.
And then we hear him screaming in agony.
And I was caught off guard.
I didn't really know what was gonna happen.
I was like, he's not, he's not surrendering, like, what is
going on?
So he like puts his hands up, four scrabs, and collapses the
cave as he's screaming, and that's how the episode ends.
And we are all applauding, and we are all so grateful that we
can just hit play on chapter eight.
Because can you imagine having to wait a whole nother week
after that incredible performance?
I couldn't.
So now we're jumping into it.
Chapter eight, the creeping fear.
Looked up on Google again.
Hello, hello.
Definition creeping describes moving slowly, quietly, or
stealthily to avoid detection, or developing by gradual, almost
almost imperceptible degrees, or feelings slash processes that
advance slowly.
So upon first reading the creeping fear, you're like, hey,
yo, what?
But this is an incredibly fitting title, as we will get
into.
Uh, we cut again to like, oh, you think you can surrender?
Well, the emperor wants you dead.
And Maul's like, yeah, likewise.
And his plan the whole time was to force collapse the cave and
then jump out just at the last second.
And he does kind of this like force yell spin move down
through the bridge and rocks in order to successfully evade.
And we see a similar move in Revenge of the Sith when the
Jedi come to confront Palpatine and Mace Windu is like, you
know, you're under arrest, and Palpatine's like, I am the
Senate.
And then like he starts like screaming, he's like, I it's
treason, then, and he's like, ah! And he does like this this
propeller spin move.
That's what we saw.
We just saw it.
So, like, master like apprentice, duh da, and it just
keeps on going.
Um, the gang decides to be on standby until Maul has been
located, and this is where the episode starts to get absolutely
phenomenal.
We cut to rock bottom, okay?
And this is symbolic.
We are at the bottom of the cave.
The bottom of the bottom.
Maul has been at the absolute rock bottom before, but he finds
himself there yet again.
How many times this character is stripped of his dignity and
reinvents himself is incredible.
It's powerful and moving to watch.
So I wrote this.
Bear with me, I'm gonna read it.
So here we go again, ready to engage in some self-reflecting,
as I'm sure he did after he was cut in half and cast aside.
Again, when Savage found him on the trash planet, again when
Sauvage was killed and his Mandalorian Underground Criminal
Empire was overthrown by Sidious through humiliation, again after
Order 66, and now again after losing most of his mobility,
falling hundreds of feet, and in the deep dark sewers, Maul is
able to confront himself yet again.
He's had practice, but this time as an audience, we get to watch.
Oh man, and and like it just the second watch through I was able
to catch so much more because the first watch through I'm just
I'm just in awe.
I'm like, what is even happening right now?
What if episode one maul could see episode eight mall, he would
be confused because that man was so confident and he had all of
these these vibes about him.
He was aura farming, and now we're at the rock bottom in the
sewer pits.
Excuse me.
So it just I cannot wait.
It is a it is a wild ride.
So he's looking down in this puddle, he catches his
reflection, and we see for the first time a non-Sith-eyed
adolescent Zabrak.
It's Maul's younger self in the water, and he can't bear to
look.
He slowly picks himself up, assesses the physical damage, he
makes a mini plan to keep going one foot in front of the other,
and starts taking those steps.
He's entirely alone, but fueled with hatred.
So then we open to the chapter credits, chapter eight, the
creeping fear, and we actually hear Maul's echoed screams and
then the haunting laugh of Darth Sidious.
Like, I'm getting chills just thinking about this right now,
you guys.
It is so good, especially when you think about it in that way,
that we are with this character and he is about to take a very
vulnerable emotional journey through this.
So what a treat that we get to watch it.
So we cut to Riley, his heart literally drops into his butt
when the crow emerges to interrogate him.
Like he's sitting in this room all by himself, the door slides
open, and this like haunting silhouette thing of nightmares
that barely fits in the door way.
It's just nightmares for the rest of this kid's life, and I'm
pretty sure like an intense phobia of birds for sure.
Um, we learn later, and it makes sense now, but one of the things
that the crow is able to get out of Riley is that Rena Sol is
expecting them at a transport.
Because the next thing that we hear Lieutenant Brett Blake say,
he like takes a little calm call and he goes, Okay, we'll keep
the squads in position.
We're on our way.
On the way, obviously, to Rena Soul's docking bay three to set
their trap.
Like, it's so obvious now, re-watching it, because you know
it's gonna happen, but in the moment you're like, what did
they what did they get out of him?
Like, they know where Maul is.
What what?
Like, oh, do you think Devin's cute?
Like, what are they gonna what are they gonna inter at this?
What are they gonna get from this kid?
He has nothing to hide.
So it makes sense when you look at it that way, like, oh, that's
how they were able that's how they were able to set the trap.
Um, two go two boots gets mad because Lieutenant Blank isn't
following protocol.
Duh, it's the Empire.
Like, can we please rewire this with this droid?
Is that rude to say?
I'm sorry.
He's annoying me.
Um, but Lawson gives him a call and recruits him to help save
Riley, so then that plan begins to take shape.
Docky says, you know what?
If we're gonna be able to pull this off, we need a faster
vehicle.
He asks the right girl.
Let me just say this was her moment, and she took it.
Two Boots helps take Riley out of prison, and then we cut back
to the real reason that we're all here.
We're all back on the edge of our seats, and we see Maul's
therapy session continues.
The dust in the tunnel is billowing, which symbolically
stirs up old memories and an unresolved past.
So then we start to see the full picture.
Young Savage is pleading with young Maul.
Please don't go, don't go, please.
And then we see Hooded Sidious appear, and we hear the death
knell.
Now, according to Google, this is a solemn, slow ringing of a
bell to announce a death or a funeral, and it is called a
knell or a death knell.
According to Wikipedia, a death knell is the ringing of a church
bell to announce the death of a person.
Historically, it was the second of three bells rung around
death, the first being the passing bell to warn of an
impending death, and the last was the corpse bell, which
survives today as the funeral toll.
If you rewatch the scene, the funeral bell rings more than
three times, but the sound is the same.
Which symbolically, I don't know if that gave you guys chills as
much as it gave me chills when I put that together, but you can
hear it as Savage is like watching Maul go with Sidious.
You hear the bell ring, and it has to do with like the
transportation of someone who's dead.
Cinema.
Absolute cinema.
There's some geniuses cooking at Disney, okay, because the plate
was served, and we all just absolutely devoured this up.
Like, we cannot get enough of this show, and I think there's
just gonna be a ton of things like that that we continually
pick out as the show ages.
So once I caught on to that, you already know re-watching that
scene hits even harder.
We see Sidious as he's torturing Maul during training, calling
him pathetic.
We see all these horrible flashbacks and even this
pleading tone toward Kenobi.
He says Kenobi's name, but this time it isn't said with
malicious intent or hate.
It's almost like like pleading, like there's some sort of hope
in his tone.
And so I wrote down that Maul's hate toward Kenobi is obviously
because he cut off his legs, but maybe it's also because he's
jealous seeing that Kenobi flourished without his master.
So when you think about it, what happened?
They both lost their master on the same day, but only one of
them was able to pick themselves back up and make something of
themselves.
It took Maul a long time before he was able to do that.
And so I think he low key was very jealous of Kenobi for being
able to just get back on the horse and keep riding into the
sunset while Maul was left in the dust all by himself.
So pretty sad.
During this intense scene, you you hear like a heartbeat in his
ears.
He's having this panic attack, a PTSD episode when he sees his
brother die again, he's holding him in his arms, and Savage's
dying words are, You must have your revenge.
So now we see that Savage's undying loyalty toward Maul was
always because he cared for him and wanted to see his brother
become stronger than the monster who separated them so long ago.
Again, there are just so many moments in this series that you
you see and you're like, whoa, that that's crazy.
You re-watch it and it sinks in a little deeper.
You re-watch it, and then you begin to kind of understand,
like, there is just so much heaviness in this episode that
none of us could have predicted.
The direction that they took with this character is unlike
anything we've ever seen with any Star Wars villain, and it is
so incredibly enjoyable to watch fold out in real time.
Like, what a treat that we get to be here for this.
If you stop and think about that.
The fans who are gonna watch this show after you, they get to
just watch it in all one full sitting, but we get to take one
week at a time and digest and talk about what just transpired.
What a treat to be here live.
Um, Maul's hate for Sidious is reignited, it's burning stronger
than ever.
And Sam's performance is chilling as always.
Maul keeps moving in spite of the storm.
We cut to Devin, she's stealing a hot rod, she's a car junkie,
gearhead, grunge, syntho girly pop, whatever you want to call
it.
She's got the radio dialed up to a million so she can go pick up
the boys.
We cut back to two boots in his single grand act of rebellion
helping Riley escape.
And he he says this line to Lawson.
He's like, How did you know it's me without my boots?
Fool.
Who else was he on the phone with?
Who else has he been in contact?
How did you know it's me?
Like, I don't know if he was joking and it was just this dry
humor, but I don't think so because Lawson was like, Oh,
like you're my partner, like I would know you anywhere.
Like he's trying to be kind, but you can tell Lawson is like,
dude, seriously, like you're the only one I've I'm being in
contact with.
Like, who who else who else would it be?
Oh, whatever.
Okay, well, the plan goes wayward as always, but it's all
good because Leadfoot Devin is on it.
She shows up, she pulls up, and we all saw who pushed their way
through to jump in that car first.
It was Mr.
Lawson Riley.
Riley Lawson.
He's like, Okay, so then we cue this banging car chase.
Um, I like that being chased at one point, Dockie and Devin
actually share this look.
It's kind of closer to the end of the scene.
And you can tell, like, oh, they've they've pulled this move
before.
Like what they're about to do, they have done it before.
And so they she like tailspins the car and opens the door, it
slides open, and he like force pushes um the stormtroopers that
are in pursuit.
Very cool scene.
Really, really liked that.
Just the look that they share.
Um, and so something I I wrote down is I wonder how long they
were able to work together before Order 66, and that it
just occurred to me that they are not Anakin and Ahsoka,
which, upon further review, duh, duh.
But what I mean here is I was like, what's with their bond?
Like, it's not the typical bond we see, it's more so echoing
Luminara and Barris.
Kind of how the typical Padawan master relationship was.
Where if you remember in Clone Wars, there was this one scene
where Anakin was like, we gotta find Ahsoka, like I cannot leave
without her.
Like, I'm scared, like, what if she dies?
And at that time, Ahsoka was with Barris, and Luminara is
just like, Well, if our Padawans die, they die.
If they're gone, they're gone.
It's the will of the force.
I guess we need to move on, you know, or whatever, Jedi, you
know, whatever.
She just kind of spills, vomits out.
And Anakin's like, absolutely not.
Like, I love her, and so I'm gonna save her because I care
about her.
She's my Padawan.
What's wrong with you?
And Luminara's like, what's wrong with me?
What's wrong with you?
Like, you need to get that figured out.
You guys have an interesting relationship, Master Skywalker.
So I don't know why I didn't put that together.
That I'm so used to seeing Anakin and Ahsoka, Master
Padawan, that when I put together that Dockie and Devin
are more like Luminara and Barris, made so much more sense.
They're dynamic.
Okay, we cut back to Mall, and we're all about to get
absolutely devastated with Ivan realizing it.
Like the first time I watched the scene, I had no idea.
As with the rest of the population of fans, we all were
just like, do-do-do, the worst is over.
unknown: Ha ha ha ha.
SPEAKER_00: That's a good one.
The worst indeed was not over.
He collapses again, and this time he makes eye contact with
his young reflection, but he doesn't look away.
The young Maul says, trembling, I'm sorry.
And a tear falls from Maul's face as he replies kindly and
gently, it's alright, it's alright.
He shakes his head firmly after letting the tear fall and says,
I won't let him do this to anyone else.
And this is a side of Maul, and really any Star Wars villain
besides Callus that we haven't seen before, which is just this
humanizing, empathetic, wow, I'm so sorry for you.
Like in that moment, you do forget the atrocities committed.
And so that's been kind of the discourse, at least that I've
seen online, is fans split down the middle.
Like it's either, oh wow, poor mall, wham, wham, wham.
He's still a murderer, he's still a monster.
And then the other side of the phantom is like, yeah, but he
has feelings, and that's worth discussing because that was
actually heartbreaking, and we've never seen anything like
that before.
So we need to deep dive into why this was shown to us.
I fall into the latter, obviously.
Um, yeah.
I wrote down too if he were to join the rebellion, it wouldn't
really work because they play the long game to overthrow the
Empire and reinstall a new government that is for the
people.
They want justice for the galaxy, they come from a place
of sincere compassion and hope.
And Maul just wants revenge.
He wants to go straight for the head.
He wants Sidious dead.
And this episode made me sad that he couldn't have been the
one to kill him.
And even more sad that he came back to hurt more people in the
sequels.
We also see like he hurts kids, like in Project Necromancer in
Bad Batch.
I wrote down, excuse me, I wrote down that Maul would absolutely
never help Sidious kidnap children.
Never.
So he sets his eyes and continues on, and the bells
hauntingly ring again.
Once you hear it, you can't unhear it.
So I also wrote down that Maul is just too angry to die.
His greatest hope is to outlive his enemies, and I low-key love
that for him.
Like that's how you know this show is being done correctly
because you're rooting for the bad guy.
You're rooting for the villain.
Especially in this moment where it just humanized him, and you
all of a sudden, like, low-key forgot all the horrible things
he's done.
Like, what do you mean?
How am I being manipulated by Sam Whitworth's performance, by
the animators, by the music, by the storyboarders?
Like, all of these things are coming to an accumulated
picture, and the picture I'm looking at is empathy.
How am I empathizing with this crazy person?
And that's how you know that the show is doing its job.
So we cut to the gang, they're waiting at the rendezvous for
Mall.
Um, and the man of the hour, he arrives, he's ready for some
Mandalorian medical attention, no doubt.
We cut back to the good guys.
Devin checks on Riley.
She says, you know, fear is natural, we just can't allow it
to control us.
Honestly, wise words, you should be an anxiety specialist for
real.
You got him with that one.
It's okay that you're scared, just lock in.
Just lock in.
That's what the Jedi always tell me.
Okay, baby girl, calm down.
Um, then, you know, we cut to them in the elevator.
Docky and Devin, they sense danger, and Rena confirms it
with a code phrase because they're headed to the ship that
she's found.
Um, they escape through the top, which is very Revenge of the
Sith, chaotic, elevator coated, and it can an Obi-Wan.
Um, and then Rena ends up taking matters into her own her own
hands by taking out the docking bay by blasting the engine.
And we honestly don't know if she's dead or not.
I hope not.
She's a queen, and this whole show is revolving around a guy
who got cut in half and is is the main character.
So you're never really dead in Star Wars, and truer words have
never been spoken.
Um, the gang cuts to Demas's hideout.
Vario gets a call about meeting with the Crimson Dawn.
Dryden Voss, who is the leader of that syndicate, is requesting
a meeting with Maul.
He's kind of the the head honcho of the more powerful of the
criminal underground syndicate groups.
Um, and so this obviously is gonna be our connection to how
Maul ends up running his syndicate out of Crimson Dawn,
having them being directly under him, they answer directly to him
and his leadership.
So then the episode ends with him standing ominously
overlooking the city.
And looking into next week, there are a few episode scenes
that we have not seen that are from the trailer, so obviously
we're gonna see them next week.
Um, I'm not really sure what to expect other than Master Docky
passing away in an untimely death, or maybe timely, if you
ask some other fans who may be fed up with his shenanigans.
But that's it.
Chapter seven, chapter eight, and chapter eight did eat.
So let's go ahead and read our letters.
Okay, if you as a villager feel so inclined to bring a matter
before the village Jedi to be discussed at the end of the next
episode, please write in at tvjpod at gmail.com and I will
be happy to share.
Okay, let's get into it.
We have one to read this week, and this one is from Rebecca.
It says, Hey, hey, okay, I've been trying to figure out how to
put this into words since watching seven and eight last
night.
I still feel like I'm kind of rambling, but I have an English
degree, so here it goes.
I've literally loved Maul since he stepped on screen in '99.
He was just cool in that way Star Wars villains sometimes
are.
I think one of the things that stuck out to me most last night
was that he's always kind of being framed as a villain, even
post-Sith, but Maul never had a choice.
He wasn't seduced by power.
The Sith mythology often frames the fall to the dark side.
He was taken, conditioned, and basically shaped into Sidious'
weapon.
The rule of two isn't philosophical to him.
He was literally caged into it with no other option.
Oh, I love that, girl, you are cooking.
And with that comes the loss of his sense of identity and any
illusion that he was ever anything but expendable.
In 7 and 8, where we literally sit with him feeling all of
this, it changes how we as a fan base know them all.
Being aware of a character's trauma and actually being forced
to sit inside it are two very different things.
I genuinely don't know how you don't feel sympathy for him at
this point.
He's 100% the result of someone else's dark ambition.
He's what happens when a child is never allowed to become
anything but a tool in someone else's game.
To me, the real tragedy is that even when he ostensibly escapes
the Sith, he's still bound by this life of rage because he's
never known anything else.
He just channels it into his syndicates rather than being
Sidious' pawn.
That's what makes Maul so compelling in my opinion.
He's not this villain you can kind of keep at arm's length
like Dooku or even Vader.
Shadow Lord made us sit with him in a way we very rarely have to
with villains.
And I think it makes people uncomfortable in the best
possible way.
In a franchise that is all about dark and light, he's really
neither.
Those are my very not concise thoughts.
May the force be with you, Rebecca.
Girl, I literally could not have said it any better myself, so I
appreciate you putting it all into words in a nice cozy email.
I agree with every single word.
I did not read a single thing that I even remotely disagree
with.
This is all 100% true.
He has been nothing but a pawn in Sidious's game, and so of
course he doesn't know what to do without Sidious.
So his only thought is like, okay, well, I'm mad and I've
only ever known how to be mad.
It's never even crossed my mind to be the good guy because I'm
mad.
So I like what she said.
Like, I'm just gonna channel all this into the worst.
Because his crime syndicates weren't doing anything good for
the galaxy.
It's not like he was building this underground empire to help
people.
He was doing it so that he could get revenge, which is the Sith
way.
I'm so mad that I'm gonna take it out on you, even though you
are bad too, because I recognize you're worse than me.
And so I actually had someone comment that Sam Whitworth said
that in an interview.
I can't remember the exact wording off the top of my head,
but I'm sure you guys are gonna know what I'm talking about.
Where he said, This show is more so about bad versus worse.
Like, we're not rooting for Maul because he's a good guy now.
We're rooting for him because he's better than Sidious.
So, sorry, go Maul.
Like, if we're being forced in this position as a fan base to
root for one, we're never gonna pick Sidious.
We're never gonna be happy that Sidious won.
We're never gonna be happy that he tortured children.
We're never gonna be happy that he broke up families and
exterminated planets and civilizations.
But we can be happy for Maul because he is self-uh, what's
the word?
Girly.
Self uh, come on.
It's advocating.
He's self-advocating, and he's trying to go after what he needs
in order to heal.
And that just so happens to be taken, taking out the emperor.
So awesome.
Thank you so much, Rebecca, for sending that in.
And I hope that you send in another letter, because that was
awesome.
Thank you.
Well, now we get to cut to my nerdy outro.
This is where the fun ends.
My only hope is you enjoyed, and I will yap at you again next
Friday.
This has been The Village Jedi.
Thank you so much for listening.
To support this show, please leave a rating or review
wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.
Go check out the YouTube channel or send me an email to be read
and discussed on air.
You can also tell a fellow nerd to build the community.
I mean this in the nerdiest way possible.
May the force be with you.