Some misconceptions about the master of the twin-bladed lightsaber.
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00:00 A member of the Zabrak race, the much-loved Maul first appeared as the devoted follower
00:04 of the evil Darth Sidious in The Phantom Menace.
00:07 After a brief skirmish with Qui-Gon Jinn on Tatooine, Maul then engages in an epic fight
00:11 with him and Obi-Wan Kenobi on Naboo.
00:13 After turning his master into a sheese kebab, Maul is defeated by Obi-Wan when he gets sliced
00:18 clean in half.
00:19 And that's the whole story.
00:21 Or is it?
00:22 The Star Wars universe is so expansive these days that it's impossible for a character
00:25 to be this underdeveloped.
00:27 Hell, there are some gonk droids with pages upon pages written about them.
00:31 So you better believe that there's more to our pal Maul than you could ever possibly
00:35 imagine.
00:36 So with that in mind, I'm Darth Gareth from What Culture Star Wars and here are 10 things
00:39 everyone always gets wrong about Darth Maul.
00:42 10.
00:43 Ray Park was the first choice Although voiced by British actor Peter Serafinowicz,
00:47 Maul's physical form in The Phantom Menace was portrayed by Scottish actor and stuntman
00:52 Ray Park.
00:53 Park has also appeared in the Tim Burton Sleepy Hollow movie, the G.I.
00:56 Joe series, and as Toad in 2000's X-Men.
00:59 But he's best known for his time as the horny Sith, Steady Now.
01:02 He was a natural fit for the part, which might lead you to assume he was the first choice
01:06 for it.
01:07 But alas, this is not true.
01:09 Benicio Del Toro of The Usual Suspect's fame was originally signed on to play the
01:13 role.
01:14 This was a huge get for the prequel trilogy as Del Toro's style was very much on the
01:17 rise at the time.
01:18 Unfortunately, the Puerto Rican was less than thrilled to find out that his part had been
01:22 considerably cut in the final version of the script.
01:25 He ditched the project, leaving the door open for Park to stride on in.
01:29 Clearly Del Toro regretted his decision to some degree, as he returned to Star Wars in
01:33 The Last Jedi.
01:34 Although, he may have regretted that decision even more.
01:37 9.
01:38 He only appears once Let's get a super obvious one out of the
01:41 way nice and early, eh?
01:42 If you've only seen the mainline Star Wars movies, you'd be forgiven for thinking that
01:46 Maul's character was totally wasted.
01:48 In The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul only gets a paltry six minutes of screen time.
01:52 Just to put that in perspective, Anakin's mum Shmi gets over seven minutes and did she
01:56 have a double-ended lightsaber?
01:57 No, she did not.
01:58 So why did Star Wars not make better use of such a uniquely designed, interesting presence?
02:03 Well, it did, just not in the movies.
02:05 After meeting his supposed end at the hands of Obi-Wan, Maul actually survived being cut
02:09 in half through pure hatred and dark magic.
02:12 In the animated Clone Wars series, Maul's brother Savage Opress finds him and helps
02:16 him return to full power.
02:18 Since that episode, Maul has turned up in other animated series, video games, comic
02:21 books and novels.
02:22 He also made his return to the movies when it was revealed he was playing a part in the
02:26 plot of Solo, a Star Wars story.
02:28 That was fun while it lasted, wasn't it?
02:32 The future Emperor Palpatine was not the best father figure to our young subject.
02:36 After snatching him away from his mother, Darth Sidious began moulding his new follower
02:40 into a walking weapon.
02:41 He trained the boy in physical combat, taught him the ways of the dark side and helped foster
02:46 the hatred that would come to define his character.
02:49 As detailed in Marvel Comics' Darth Maul issue #2, Sidious takes Maul on a field trip
02:53 to the planet Malachor, the site of an ancient battle between Jedi and Sith.
02:57 In order to really drive home how bad this fight went for the Sith, Sidious forced his
03:01 apprentice to inhale their ashes, giving him visions of the slaughter from long ago.
03:06 This moment helped grow Maul's resentment towards the Jedi and kick-started his ambition
03:10 to wipe them all out.
03:11 However, had it not been for Sidious' tampering with the young boy's mind, then maybe this
03:15 hostility would have never come about.
03:17 Perhaps we could be looking at Darth Maul the baker, the accountant, or the used car
03:21 salesman.
03:22 We'll just never know.
03:23 Time now for a section I'm calling Maul's Terrible Childhood.
03:28 He was born on the planet Dathomir, which is ruled over by a group of Force-sensitive
03:32 witches called the Nightsisters.
03:34 This all-female clan used the Force to rule over their male counterparts, the Nightbrothers,
03:38 and became so powerful that the evil Darth Sidious took notice of them.
03:42 Game recognises game.
03:43 Sidious travelled to Dathomir to have a nice cup of tea with the Nightsisters' leader,
03:47 Mother Talzin.
03:48 An extremely powerful being, Talzin was offered the opportunity to become Sidious' apprentice.
03:52 But that all changed when the Sith Lord discovered Talzin's gifted son.
03:56 You can see where this is going.
03:58 Yes, Talzin was Maul's mother, and Sidious sensed great potential in him.
04:01 He kidnapped the young boy, breaking his promise and setting in motion the Zabrak's rise
04:05 to power.
04:06 So Maul was not hand-picked by Sidious.
04:08 His involvement with the Sith came about through sheer good luck.
04:11 Or bad luck, from a certain point of view.
04:13 6.
04:14 He's only got one backstory We've already covered Maul's childhood
04:17 as the son of Mother Talzin, how he was taken by Sidious, raised to be a killer, blah blah
04:21 blah.
04:22 While this is the character's most commonly accepted backstory, there is another, one out
04:26 there.
04:27 In 2012, a Star Wars novel called Darth Plagueis was released, detailing a different version
04:31 of how Sidious came into possession of the young Maul.
04:33 In this story, Maul's mother is not the all-powerful Talzin, but rather a human named
04:37 Kysena.
04:38 Kysena was a Nightsister who lived in fear of Talzin, terrified that she would force
04:42 her sons into slavery.
04:43 Upon learning of Sidious' visit to Dathomir, Kysena persuaded him to take her child and
04:47 raise him far away.
04:48 Oh yeah, because that just turned out really great, didn't it?
04:51 Maul's conflicting parentage is usually ignored in mainstream conversations about Star Wars,
04:55 as the Talzin version is most widely accepted.
04:58 However, learning that our favourite Zabrak might actually be a little bit human certainly
05:02 makes for some interesting reading.
05:03 5.
05:04 He was always planned for the prequels The first six Star Wars movies weren't particularly
05:08 heavy on female characters, it must be said.
05:10 There's Leia, Padme, uh, Mon Mothma, that Jedi librarian from Attack of the Clones,
05:16 the weird CGI singer from Jabba's Palace.
05:19 Is that really it?
05:20 This was nearly very different, as the name Maul almost went to a very different character
05:24 altogether.
05:25 George Lucas originally planned for an evil witch to be the antagonist of the Phantom
05:28 Menace, but this idea was eventually scrapped.
05:31 The closest we got to this version being released was Darth Talon, a female Sith who appeared
05:35 in several Star Wars comics and the mobile game Galaxy of Heroes.
05:39 Although she was a Twi'lek, Talon had red and black skin similar to that of Maul's.
05:43 She was also going to be teamed up with the Twin Blade wielder as the main baddies in
05:47 one of Lucas' original drafts of the sequel trilogy.
05:50 These plans fell through when Lucasfilm got sold, which is a bit of a shame, because we
05:53 might have ended up seeing Darth Maul as a Disney princess.
05:56 4.
05:57 He's a weak force user We can all agree that the double-ended lightsaber
06:00 is freaking cool, right?
06:02 Hell, I spent many a day swinging my own toy version of it about, and regularly smacking
06:06 myself on the back of the head in the process.
06:08 Sure, it would be an absolute nightmare to wield, again, I'd know.
06:12 Probably isn't that much more effective than a single-ended one, and was almost certainly
06:15 designed with the sole intention of selling toys, which again, it did.
06:19 But it's neat, and I like it, so there.
06:21 Maul's most famous contribution to Star Wars has led many to believe that he is not
06:24 that strong with the Force, though.
06:26 Some feel like he uses his signature weapon to make up for this, but Maul ain't compensatin'
06:30 for nothin'.
06:31 Ever since his apparent demise at the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Maul began using the Force
06:35 a lot more.
06:36 In the Clone Wars, he busted out all the time on a variety of opponents, including his attempted
06:40 killer.
06:41 In fact, it was his Force sensitivity that attracted him to Sidious in the first place,
06:45 so it has always been strong with him.
06:47 It's impressive just how competent Maul is at deploying the Great Energy.
06:51 Maybe if he'd been a bit more willing to use it in the Phantom Menace, he might still
06:54 have his original legs.
06:56 He hated Sidious If someone kidnapped you at a young age, turned
06:59 you into an assassin, and then abandoned you in your hour of need, you probably wouldn't
07:03 be their biggest fan, would you?
07:05 After falling out with his master, Maul swore revenge on Sidious and the Sith in general.
07:09 He became a sort of rogue element in the Clone Wars, definitely not pro-Jedi, but also acting
07:13 as a thorn in the bad guy's side.
07:15 Parental figures are complicated, though, and it's always much harder to leave them
07:18 than it seems.
07:19 Maul finds this out first-hand in the Son of Dathomir series of comics.
07:23 Our subject teams up with some Mandalorians, although without a baby Yoda in sight, to
07:27 track down and capture the two men he views as his replacements, Count Dooku and General
07:32 Grievous.
07:33 When he encounters them both, he presents them to Sidious and decries their failures.
07:36 He is also desperate to show his former master that he is more powerful than his two successors.
07:41 This moment adds a fantastic layer to Sidious and Maul's relationship, and only serves
07:45 to highlight the tragic circumstances under which the latter lives.
07:49 He didn't interact with original trilogy characters Although getting sliced up like
07:53 a burger bun doesn't finish him off, Maul does eventually die for good.
07:56 But he doesn't let this teensy inconvenience get him down for long.
08:00 In the comic book series Shattered Empire, the former Princess Leia takes a trip to her
08:04 mother's homeworld of Naboo.
08:05 Leia, who recently helped secure the downfall of the Empire, wanders around the old palace
08:09 until she comes across a familiar-feeling hangar.
08:12 This is the site of Maul's duel with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan.
08:15 Although Leia wasn't even born yet, she is still somehow connected to the events of
08:19 that day.
08:20 She senses something, a presence, one that makes her feel a little bit cold.
08:23 She soon finds out what's going on when a vision of the ex-Sith appears right in front
08:27 of her.
08:28 Well, that's a bit terrifying, isn't it?
08:29 Like in the case of most powerful force users, death is far from the end for Maul.
08:32 He's able to use his great power to tangentially connect to the land of the living, through
08:37 the process of haunting someone in an old room.
08:40 Great use of those phenomenal powers, Maul.
08:42 1.
08:43 Obi-Wan does kill him, and he doesn't It was mentioned just now that Maul did eventually
08:46 die for realsies, but how did that happen?
08:49 Well, that depends on who you ask, really.
08:51 In Star Wars Rebels, Maul confronts an older Obi-Wan in the desert on Tatooine.
08:55 After it becomes clear that his adversary knows of the existence of Luke Skywalker,
08:58 an Obi cuts him down after a short duel.
09:00 However, if you go by the Star Wars visionary story Old Wounds, Maul meets his maker under
09:05 slightly different circumstances.
09:07 He still goes to Tatooine to confront Obi-Wan, only this time he does it at the Lars family
09:11 farm.
09:12 After a much longer fight, Maul gets shot in the head by Luke's Uncle Owen.
09:16 In both cases, the Jedi show some respect to his fallen foe.
09:19 In Rebels, he reassures Maul that Luke is the chosen one, while in the comics he gives
09:23 him a proper funeral.
09:24 How nice.
09:25 As lovely as this sounds, it will likely bring little comfort to Maul, as Obi-Wan was involved
09:30 in his death on three separate occasions.
09:32 Come on Kenobi!
09:34 What did he ever do to you?
09:35 Oh yeah, quite a lot actually.
09:37 And that's our list!
09:38 Know of any other things that everyone always gets wrong about Darth Maul?
09:41 Then please do let us know all about them in the comments section right down below and
09:44 do not forget to like, share and click on that subscribe button while you're at it.
09:48 Also if this kind of thing is your bag then please head on over to whatculture.com and
09:51 find some more incredible articles just like the one this video you're watching right
09:54 now is based on.
09:55 I have been Gareth from What Culture Star Wars, may the force be with you as always,
09:59 I hope to see you very very soon but in the meantime, be good to yourself.
10:03 Bye bye!