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The writers took maul who was supposed to only last one movie and made him into one of the most depressing yet beautiful villains star wars has ever seen.

No matter how evil Maul was or how much blood he spilled. He was a 100% honest during the whole Star Wars franchise.

Darth Maul was that conspiracy theorist that no one believed until it was too late in Clone Wars.

To quote a line from Kung Fu Panda that I think fit's Maul: "The cup you choose to fill has no bottom"

In the Prequels, we were so hyped at him especially with his looks and lightsaber. We thought he was gonna be awesome but then immediately gets killed off. But here CW brings him back on screen and instantly gets the complexity we wanted and became one of the best fan favorite character in the franchise. They straight up saved his potentials from being wasted. Basically the definition of the “OH NO! anyway” trope.

He doesnt even say the chosen one will avege "me" as he is dying he finally understands that sideous was the root of his mistrust. He ways he will avenge "us" finally understanding his flawed logic.

In Star Wars Rebels, Obi-Wan finally freed Maul from all the pain and suffering he endured.

i can't believe the most complex star wars character is a horned demon guy named darth maul who had like 3 lines in his first appearance

One of the most tragic parts of their final fight is that Kenobi seemed to be trying to tactfully talk Maul down. He genuinely didn't want to kill him. But as soon as Maul figures out Luke exists, Kenobi ignites his lightsaber. Perhaps if there had been no Luke, no Chosen One, the two would have ended their days fighting together, instead of against each other.

His last words, how the chosen one would "avenge us" showed that, again, Maul knew exactly what would happen, but still saw through the lenses of the sith. Through revenge, and his last words were about revenge, I loved that detail

It was said that Maul's story can be compared with Sisyphus. Sisyphus is cursed by having to push a giant boulder to the top of a mountain and if he fail he must push to the top over and over, symbolizing his arrogance in thinking he could cheat death and his pointless goal Maul's desire for vengeance always leading him to his rise and downfall. So everytime he failed, he keep climbing to reach his goal over and over again. Edit: thanks for the correction AwesomeChameleon

"Through Victory *my chains are broken!*" "....and then, *you* shall be broken." I've loved Maul's story, from beginning, to end...the struggle of misdirected passions, of seeking solace in one's own darkness, only to bury themselves deeper into it....I love these stories.

I loved the battle between Ahsoka Tano and Maul. The battle of Fallen Apprentices.

Maul yelling after being defeated by Ahsoka is genuinely so chilling Sam Witwer is such a fantastic voice actor

I really appreciate this essay's focus on his desire for companionship and loneliness, it often feels overlooked that he does seem to genuinely care about those he tries to take on as an apprentice; savage, ahsoka, Ezra. He desperately wants someone he can count on but it's warped through the abuse he suffered, making for a very compelling character.

Sam Witwer is an immensely emotional VA, and I love him for it. He was perfect for Maul.

i believe that one of the main reasons Maul hung onto Kenobi for so long was because it was the longest and most consistent relationship Mauls ever had, and there's safety in consistency. Suffering the abuse and rejection that Maul has, trying to find safety in anything, Kenobi is the only constant in his life. Amazing video, really in depth and accurate. Maul has been my fave since the phantom manace (rule of cool) and with all the additions in the animated series and comics, he has become one of the most established and in depth characters in the entire franchise.

Truly shows the tragedy of being raised as a Sith. He was a product of how he was raised and there was very little that could redeem him to the light. Anakin was able to return to the light and capable of returning to the light because he had people who loved him like his son. But Maul, he had no one. No friends. No love. Nothing. His whole life is a tragedy and shows the reality of being raised in evil

What makes Maul's final words better is the exact word he uses: avenge. Avenge is the more heroic version of revenge, meaning in that moment, he was finally free from the Sith way and could accept that for all the pain they all suffered, it would be worth it.

I really feel like if anyone had a chance of actually helping Maul was Savage. Like you said Savage only wanted to help his brother. At the end Maul didn't get to fully embrace that brotherhood. He probably wouldn't have gone full lightside but he would probably be... Happy... Or as much as he could be happy.

Maul was against The Sith, The Jedi, The Separatists, The Republic, Mandalore, The Rebellion, The Inquisitors, and deep down himself. He put up a damned good fight and can hold his head high, and imo he is the best character in all of Star Wars.

I truly believe the mercy Maul was begging for was simply death. He KNEW what Palpatine was capable of, and he was terrified...

Maul doesn’t get as much credit as he deserves Clone wars and Rebels turned him from a 1 dimensional character with 2 (maybe 3?) lines to one of the most complex and tragic characters ever written. Love your work man. Please keep it up

Even though he was a sith, I still feel bad for him especially with all the years he's lost for being a tool for the dark side he's reminds me of starkiller since sam witwer voices him.

Maul has a very curious character. I'm happy that he was brought back, because his hatred for Sidious was one of a kind and couldn't have been utilized with any new character. And they did indeed utilize that potential successfully. Maul's character is an invitation for casual fans to go beyond just films, because when we say "Maul is a fascinating character", it's not The Phantom Menace that made him so, rather The Phantom Menace is only the beginning.

Can we just appreciate Sam Witwer for his immaculate voice acting as Maul as well? I truly believe that Darth Maul would not have left such an impact on fans of not for the way Sam delivered his lines. He always brought so much more to any given scene than he ever had to.

It’s funny how similar Maul is to Boba Fett when you think about. Both characters were introduced with basically no personality but became popular off cool looks alone which led to others expanding on them down the line and turning them into interesting 3 dimensional characters… ya know… in Maul’s case at least

The story of Maul is so well done, he was a villain worth finding hope in, even when he could never be at peace

Maul always treated his potential pupils with respect, imo because he was never given it by his masters. He was projecting

Maul perfectly represents that Palpatine isn't just evil on a grandiose Hitler/Satan level, but he's also evil on a very realistic and personal level as well. He's the worst kind of parental figure

Maul became one of my favorites in all of Star Wars I really loved how much Clone Wars fleshed him out and getting so much insight into his story. Made his appearances in Clone Wars and Rebels all the more memorable.

Maul was my favourite character in the whole of Star Wars, I miss him

At 15:30 Luke isn't actually the chosen one. Luke is simply a catalyst that obi wan had believed was the chosen one after seeing anakin turn to the dark side. Luke didn't really do anything. He pushed his father closer to the light but everything that happened in the end was all anakin. Luke would have just died if Anakin hadn't intervened. Anakin Skywalker is the chosen one. This event even shocked obi wans spirit and it was obi wan in quick shock and desperation to try to save his long lost friend from darkness that helped him become a force ghost in his final moments. Anakin was so powerful that he learned a lengthy process in a matter of seconds. Also on Mortis Anakin controls two gods of the force which only the chosen one can do so there is that also lol.

Fun fact: George Lucas wanted Maul to be the main villain of the sequel trilogy instead of Snoke and Palpatine, he would have become the most powerful crime boss in the galaxy with his new apprentice Darth Talon going against Luke Skywalker and his friends. Imagine if this actually happened? I would have loved that to see.

The best character breakdown of Maul to ever exist.

I went from rolling my eyes of seeing Maul return out of nowhere to absolutely loving him and demanding more Literally made a guy who said some lines, stood there gruff and growled to one of the most well developed, deep and honestly one of the best villains in star wars history. I actually rooted for him when Sidious came on Mandalore. Maul is a man who was betrayed and abandoned to rot, and suffered for it. I don't blame him for being pissed and crazy all the time.

It's tragic how some lives are just born to be doomed in life but it's even worse when you're too weak to destroy the sole reason why you are how you are. If he could beat Sidious or at least prove to be an actual threat like Mace then he probably would've began letting things go and had a better ending.

Bringing Darth Maul back was definitely the best decision Star Wars ever made

As much as I love Maul's character, I was relieved for him to die. His life has been misery and torment. For it to finally end for him, and especially in the manner that it did, brought his story to satisfying and beautiful end.

Maul had a PERFECT redemption in my eyes. He stuck to what he believed despite all the pain and agony he endured

Never in a million years did I think Sage’s Rain would make a Star Wars video. This’ll be good.

19:32 If you pause here you guys will see an interesting sight, not sure if the animators or story boarders meant to do this but as the two moons on Tattoine hang in the sky you'll notice that the bigger moon is on Obi's side and Maul has the smaller one. *But there's a twist.* Maul's moon is hung higher than Kenobi's, indicating he's finally risen beyond his pain in death, where as Kenobi's burns brighter than Mauls' showing his hope in Luke and the future.

It is sad how in Rebels he wants to teach Ezra so badly. It's like an older brother.

Just imagine if Maul agreed to help train luke. His insight into Darth Sidious was missed out on. Not many people fight Sidious and live to talk about it.

It is like what Anakins thought in the revenge of the sith novel. “It is in this blazing moment that you finally understand the trap of the dark side, the final cruelty of the Sith - Because now your self is all you will ever have. And you rage and scream and reach through the Force to crush the shadow who has destroyed you, … and in the end, you cannot touch the shadow."

"I know where you're from. I've been to your village. I know the decision to join the Dark Side wasn't yours. The Night Sisters made it for you." *- Obi-Wan Kenobi*

Maul is like an abused puppy. No matter how much abuse he gets he always keeps on going back to his master. And only in the end when he gives up these feelings does he die in peace.

I like how after Maul is cut down by Kenobi on Tattoine, instead of cursing him out or screaming and kicking, reopening that wound even further, he lets it go. In his final moments he relates with Obi-Wan.

Luke once said through his experience with the Dark Side, in Legends, that he found a great sadness and loneliness. No doubt that this was what Maul was feeling. The worst and final stage of deep immersion of the Dark Side is the feeling of isolation & depression on a massive scale.

I love this detail when Obi uses Qui-Gon's stance, and Maul falls for it, even though he probably knew Obi Wan's usual fighting style very well. Hatred and rage have truly blinded Maul. Another small detail is that Obi Wan somewhat knew the environment of Dathomir, so it's not surprising he had a level of understanding

Interesting perspective. I used to see Obi-Wan as the reason for Maul’s lust for revenge, but seeing him as an outlet instead makes their dynamic a bit more interesting. I knew he hated Sidious, but I also felt like he hated Obi-Wan just as much until his last duel with him in Rebels. Dying on the planet of the one chosen to bring down the man he had this immense hatred for probably brought him some sort of peace. We need a what if story that shows Mail actually receiving the full vision he shared with Ezra. I would assume he’d have more motivation to want to win that battle against Obi-Wan.

I love how the show runners took one of the most unexplained major characters in the entire franchise and gave him a really compelling backstory and character arc, complete with his own tragic perspective and moral system.

The crazy thing is that the sith of old would've considered maul to be a success story. Darth bane said that power is its own purpose and the pursuit of it is the highest goal one can achieve.

Maul really wanted that unconditional love like you said more than anything. It’s represented in his shrine to the Dutches Satine on Dathomir, he preserved a painting of her just to desecrate it because he heard her final words and knew that even in his life-long-rival’s solitude, that love was part of the peace he found comfort in.

I never liked his time with Savage, but I also entirely missed this entire aspect you described. I need to rewatch those episodes with this in hand. It brings new light to "I'm not like you, I never was." Savage was never Sith, and Maul hadn't known any other state of being for most of his life

It’s so nice to see Clone Wars finally getting the attention it deserves. It didn’t have the street cred of KOTOR or Thrawn trilogy, the popularity of Battlefront and the original trilogy and just had a lot of roadblocks in the way for new fans becoming the ultimate watchlist show. I’ve seen it snubbed from the best animated shows, and animation can hard sell for many Star Wars fans, making it really underrated

There were so many points during the clone wars that I cried for maul just because of how lonely he is:(

Darth Maul went from a one off villain to one of the greatest Star Wars characters ever

Another thing to add is that Maul was probably jealous of Ezra and Kanan's Master/Padawan relationship. Maul saw Kanan as a direct threat to him connecting with Ezra because 1) Kanan didn't trust him with Ezra. 2) Kanan was Ezra's master while simultaneously having a father/son dynamic with him. Maul never had a healthy Master/Padawan relationship with Darth Sideous unlike Ezra and Kanan. That's why Maul directly targeted Kanan multiple times to either kill him or blind his eyes. He thought that by getting Kanan out of the picture that he would have claimed Ezra's loyalty. But like you said in your video, he doesn't know how to form healthy relationships because of his past with Darth Sideous. He doesn't know that by hurting Kanan, he is simultaneously making himself a threat in Ezra's eyes. He is basically doing what Darth Sideous did to Savage, but at least Kanan survived then. Like that scene where he asked Ezra to come with him. Maul is definitely projecting himself onto Ezra, but Ezra actively rejects that narrative to Maul's face because he does have deep connections of unconditional love with his found family that he can't just leave behind. Exactly what Maul craves (unconditional love/support like Savage had for him) but doesn't know how to aquire that type of relationship in an healthy way. Maul was craving that type of bond, but his past clouded him to even creating those kinds of connections. But Ezra already knows the importance of those relationships because he was alone once like Maul for years. But because of his connections he formed with his found family, he knows those relationships are way more important. He learned to open up and heal from his own trauma. He learned its better to have people by your side than trying to survive alone. But because of Maul's traumatic past, he can't see the importance of being vulnerable and allowing himself to connect with others. He never learned those tools thanks to Sideous. Basically, Ezra demonstrated the importance of connections while Maul struggles with his need for those supportive connections yet not knowing how to reach out in a healthy way.

Maul was the only villain in Star Wars I cried for. 😭

Such a great analysis, that part about Maul losing something every time he took something from Kenobi was a brilliant catch!

Maul is how you bring a character back from the dead and do it right.

I love that the final episode for Maul and Kenobi was called Twin Suns. It's sort of perfect. Sure, the binary suns of Tatooine but also Two Mirrored Sons of the Clone Wars. Maul is such a pivotal character, it's a shame that the Solo plotline for Crimson Dawn hasn't been able spool out. I feel like a lot of people that wouldn't watch the cartoons would really appreciate and enjoy Maul's story. He's only been a rare few live action stories.

My god the last two minutes made me cry… It’s truly beautiful how the story of Maul ends. Thank you Sage.

It’s a good day when Sage uploads.

I didn't know why I loved Maul so much until this video, and I realised it was because I related to him a lot. I have just gotten out of a toxic relationship with my parent and have had huge struggles with mental health and trauma as a result, and have been really reluctant to actually being able to let go of that pain and anger I have and seek help and start healing. Watching this video and how you compared Maul and Obi-Wan in terms of what can happen if you don't try to heal gave my the confidence and hope honestly to seek professional help. tl;dr subbed, cus you helped me start my journey to heal

When Maul begs Sideous for mercy, he’s not asking him to spare his life. He’s asking him to kill him quick and get it over with. But Sideous is too evil for that, and wants to drag out Mauls suffering

What I love about Maul's story is how its the perfect showcase of how to do a Star Wars story that isn't centric to the Skywalker family, yes Obi-Wan is part of it but ultimately the majority of Maul's story occurs outside the main story, and I think it is through characters like this in which the future of the franchise is best.

Darth Mail will always be my favorite Sith Lord. He use to scared the hell out of me as a kid.

Maul is my favorite character in starwars, always has been, and I am have never been more thoroughly please with a story than the story of darth maul. His ending was perfect, dying in the arms of his greatest rival, the man who caused him decades of pain and who he in turned caused decades of pain, dying not as a hated adversary, but as a poor, abused man finally receiving a modicum of the respect he deserved.

Maul took Obi-Wan's Master and love Interest. And yet, he failed to make Obi-Wan join the Dark Side.

That was a powerful last line. "At least he didn't die alone". That is so beautiful and while I understood everything else in Maul's story I never quite caught that. And it makes that scene 100x better than the perfection it already was.

As a kid,I liked Maul beacuse of his cool design and lightsaber. Now,I like Maul for how layered and deep they made him in The Clone Wars,Rebels and the Marvel comics.

There's a reason why maul is one of my favorites

I mentioned the same thing about Maul on one of the comment sections somewhere. Glad someone else noticed about Maul's longing for companionship and/or family. Before season 7 of clone wars, I noticed it on Ezra. He was mostly patient with him and has a degree of actually caring about him

Maul to me seems the most likely to be a cycle breaker. He had every chance to treat his “apprentices” the way he was treated and he didn’t.

Darth Maul is perhaps one of the best examples of bringing a character back from the dead

So sad. Maul one desire was to find companionship and the only moment he has true....is when he has someone to hold him in his last moment.

Maul should've gotten more lines in the Phantom Menace.

If Maul was never found by Sidious, he would of likely been conditioned to be a temporary breeding slave and then disposed of along with his brothers. He was destined to be a slave from day one.

his character is amazing the story and how he was just a throwaway villain, an awesome one at that, and how he just became one of the greatest characters in the whole franchise

Maul is honestly a near perfect example of how the jedi and the sith who fought each other for eons dragged so many into their war for squat. mual who did nothing but was born and at the wrong place and the wrong time was tortured and bestoed hundred, if not hundreds of thousands of souls filled with hatrated for folks he never new.

As a famous Count once said... "I've been looking forward to this!"

This brought a tear to my eye, ngl. Your videos always find a way to make me feel. Thank you.

oh boy. oh BOY do i have some feelings. i love Maul with my whole ass heart. tar wars has always been about tragedy and about how the galaxy is not kind and very few are allowed actual lasting happiness. Maul's story began with tragedy and he was never allowed to grow from it. This hurts on levels that I can't even put into words. I sometimes think about what might have happened had he been taken by the Jedi. how he might have thrived and flourished and maybe known some kind of peace and comfort. His is a character who never had a destiny. i read a post on tumblr that said he died because he tried to put himself back into the narrative, which is such an interesting take. he has lived through things that no mortal should be able to survive, mentally and physically, he's powerful courageous and strong... he *belongs* in the narrative. but dear gods, i dont care if he's done terrible things, *everyone* deserves some measure of comfort and even a *chance* at redemption. you've basically, in this glorious video that i am *not* ashamed to have cried most of the way through, summed up my entire TEDtalk on Maul. I love him and his tragedy and i honestly just want to give him a big hug and a mug of cocoa. i just. have a lot of feelings.

One of best characters in the star franchise brilliant analysis, Sage. 👏

There’s a reason this guy was and is still my favorite character and it’s all presented here!

It's been a while since I read Darth Plageus. However, a far more harrowing part of Maul's backstory was that he wasn't stolen, he was given to Sidius by his mother in the hope he's have a better life. As the culture on Dathomir at the time was that males were the below "human" and treated like animals. As early as they were sexed they were usually taken and became slaves, where the women would be far better treated.

It’s also great writing to have Maul die on the same planet where he first crossed paths with qui gon and kenobi.

Bringing Maul in at the end was an ambient way to end the clone wars series. . It takes the former limelight off of Skywalker and Obi wan, and instead, into their reflections of themselves.. Ashoka and Maul. Brilliance.

There is this compilation video called "Old Wound", I think, that puts the relationship between Maul and Obi-won nicely into a six-minute video. It is a good watch

Maul always reminded me of Vegeta. The way Frieza abused him but kept him around giving him this inferiority complex. He's tragic character.

I would've paid to see Maul fight Anakin during the Clone Wars.

Amazing how good writers take a one dimensional villain and turn him into a tragic character you can empathize with

Maul is probably the truest representation of the Sith way he's consumed by anger unable to forgive and let go and he's empty for it fueling his rage even more in perpetual cycle of wrath and vengeance ultimately leading to self destruction.

He is my favorite Star Wars Character and I have to thank Clone Wars and even Rebels for fleshing out his character.

*Maul ruling Mandalore* Maul: I'm on top of the world! *Sidious breathes* Maul: Master?

Darth Maul is easily in my top 3 favorite Star Wars characters. As far as the video goesI really loved this analysis of him and his character. Amazing video, and I definitely gotta download and share it.

One point i noticed is that during the seige of Mandalore, Maul openly says he wanted Kenobi, almost like he was actually willing to put hatred aside and fight along side him in order to defeat Anakin and Sidious, but because Ahsoka turned up this never happened.