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