Darth Maul

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Darth Maul is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He was introduced in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace where he is portrayed by Ray Park and voiced by Peter Serafinowicz.

[edit] In the Star Wars films

During the events of Episode I: the Phantom Menace, Maul's master, Darth Sidious, sends him to capture Queen Amidala and eliminate the two Jedi, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Maul just barely fails in this task on Tatooine, and he thirsts for revenge.

Upon arriving on Naboo, Maul goes straight at the two Jedi, ignoring the queen and allowing her to escape. In a vicious duel during the film's climactic battle scene, Maul fends off both of his Jedi opponents with the help of his double-bladed lightsaber. After separating the Jedi Master from his Padawan, Maul finally succeeds in slaying Qui-Gon. He then challenges Obi-Wan. The young Padawan, enraged at his master's death, strikes out at Maul with a furious assault, during which he cuts the Sith's lightsaber in half. However, Maul holds his ground, and eventually Force-pushes Obi-Wan into a pit. He taunts the Padawan, who dangles helplessly by a ledge, and kicks his lightsaber down the shaft. However, Obi-Wan calms himself and connects with the Force. He makes a spectacular leap out of the shaft and Force-guides Qui-Gon's lightsaber into his own hands, and cuts the astounded Maul in two before he can react. Maul barely has time to grimace as his body tumbles down the shaft in two pieces.

[edit] Expanded Universe

Aspects of Maul's character biography are revealed in the Star Wars Expanded Universe of novels, comic books, and video games.

As portrayed in the Expanded Universe novel Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, Maul was kidnapped from his Jedi training by the Sith Lord Darth Sidious at an early age. Maul was told to forget what he had learned from the Jedi and was indoctrinated in the ways of the dark side of the Force from youth. Maul had no memories of his homeworld of Iridonia, and was incapable of emotion aside from bloodlust and rage. During his training, any show of fear was severely punished by Sidious and any hint of mercy was rewarded with cruelty. By the time Maul reached adolescence, his master had forged him into a weapon of pure hatred. Marked by Sith tattoos that cover his entire body, Maul was now the ultimate tool of the dark side.

One day, Sidious abandons Maul on an isolated Outer Rim world, forcing him to survive alone while being hunted by hordes of assassin droids. After a month's time, his master returned and challenged him to a duel, which, already weakened, Maul quickly lost. Sidious then told Maul that he had failed and is soon to be replaced. Overwhelmed by hatred, Maul nearly defeated his master. When Maul's emotions were finally spent, he prepared to die, only to be met with Sidious' satisfaction. By wanting to kill his own master, Maul had in fact passed the final test. His master proclaimed him Darth Maul, Dark Lord of the Sith, and took him to a new home on Coruscant.

According to Star Wars Insider #62, Darth Maul is trained by Darth Sidious to be a master of lightsaber combat. Maul combines his swordsmanship with incredible acrobatic and hand-to-hand combat skills, making him a nearly unstoppable dervish of destruction. When fighting multiple opponents, Maul extends the second blade of his double-bladed lightsaber to form a saberstaff. Maul constructs this weapon himself, using ancient plans stored within one of the Sith Holocrons.

His master gives Maul the funds and schematics he needs and provides him with a secret facility on Coruscant in which to work. There, Maul constructs his signature speeder bike, Bloodfin, and his Dark Eye probe droids. Sidious also gives Maul a powerful transport — a Sith Infiltrator called Scimitar, which features a cloaking shield generator.

Maul initially goes on countless missions of terror for his master, killing politicians, crime bosses, merchants and warlords. His victims includes Trade Federation lackey Hath Monchar, the Black Sun leader Alexi Garyn, the Nightsister Mighella and all of the Black Sun vigos and their bodyguards. As depicted in the story "Resurrection" from 2001's Star Wars Tales #9, a dark side splinter group called the Prophets of the Dark Side resurrects Maul at about the same time that A New Hope takes place. Darth Vader is chosen as the first target for the resurrected Maul. Vader ultimately wins the resulting duel, however, by stabbing his lightsaber through himself into Maul, who is standing behind him.

The story "Phantom Menaces" in Star Wars Tales #17 depicts a post-Return of the Jedi Luke Skywalker visiting Maul's home planet of Iridonia in an ambassadorial capacity.

In his guest quarters, Skywalker is attacked by a ghostly but evidently solid apparition of Darth Maul, which fades away after a short fight. He is informed by his hosts that it is supposedly the ghost of their infamous former countryman. Doubting this explanation, Skywalker hunts for the source of the phenomenon. Skywalker is confronted by the spirit once more before finding a hidden laboratory where the mad Iridonian scientist Drell Kahmf is tending to a cyber-wired brain suspended in a vat of liquid. Kahmf reveals that he regards Maul as "Iridonia's greatest champion" and had salvaged the Sith's brain, resuscitated it, and installed it in his lab with a device granting it the ability to generate a "solid-state hologram" projection of its former body. Skywalker declares that "artificially keeping him alive is causing an unnatural disturbance in the Force" and scares Kahmf away before switching off the life support system sustaining Maul's disembodied brain.

Subsequently, in 2005, Dark Horse Comics published Star Wars: Visionaries, a compilation of comic art short stories written and illustrated by members of the Revenge of the Sith art department and ILM artists.

The opening story, "Old Wounds" by Aaron McBride, is set three years after the events of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and begins with Owen Lars trying to teach new words to a toddler-age Luke Skywalker. They see a strange figure on the horizon running towards the Lars homestead, and Lars instructs his wife Beru to bring him his rifle and take the boy inside. The figure dodges warning shots with ease and uses the Force to disarm Lars before smashing the weapon over his head. Standing on triple-jointed droid legs and concealed by a dark hood, the figure calls out through the Force to an unseen enemy. The voice claims to have been tracking this adversary for years, just missing him by two days on Kamino, Geonosis and Mustafar. He had then killed witnesses on Polis Massa before finally gaining crucial information on Mos Espa from an aged Watto, whom he beheads for his greed. The creature declares that he knows threatening Luke would bring his adversary out into the open, to which the hidden voice finally asks through the Force, "Does Palpatine know?" The cyborg-legged monster replies, "No. There is no Palpatine. No Empire. No Jedi. There is no Light. No Dark... Just you and I here now." At this point, Obi-Wan Kenobi bursts out from the sand. The dark figure casts off his hood and reveals himself to be Darth Maul, his severed lower body replaced by a pair of large cybernetic legs and abdomen, and his cranial horns having grown, crown-like, to over three times their original length. The two engage in furious combat, in which Maul loses an arm and four horns before being held at Kenobi's mercy. With his lightsaber hilt to Maul's forehead and his finger on the blade-ignition button, Kenobi hesitates to execute his helpless opponent, but has the decision taken out of his hands when the revived Lars blows the former Sith's head apart with his damaged rifle.

[edit] References

• Darth Maul (Star Wars: Episode I Journal), 2000. Jude Watson, ISBN 0-613-24763-9
• Star Wars: Darth Maul, paperback (Graphic No edition), 2001. Ron Marz, Jan Duursema, Rick Magyar, ISBN 1-56971-542-4
• Star Wars Jedi Council: Acts of War, paperback (Graphic No edition), 2001. Randy Stradley, Davide Fabbri, Christian Dalla Vecchia, ISBN 1-56971-539-4
• Star Wars Tales: Volume 6, paperback (Graphic No edition), 2006. Robert Williams, Thomas Andrews, Ian Edginton, Lucas Maragnon, ISBN 1-59307-447-6
• Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Novelization, 1st edition paperback, 1999. Terry Brooks, George Lucas, ISBN 0-345-43411-0
• Darth Maul: Saboteur, e-book, 2001. James Luceno, ISBN B-000-05AAM-X
• Shadow Hunter (Star Wars: Darth Maul), paperback, 2001. Michael Reaves, ISBN 0-345-43541-9
• The New Essential Guide to Characters, 1st edition, 2002. Daniel Wallace, Michael Sutfin, ISBN 0-345-44900-2
• Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: The Visual Dictionary, hardcover, 1999. David West Reynolds, ISBN 0-7894-4701-0
• Star Wars Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook, 1st edition, 2000. Bill Slavicsek, Andy Collins, ISBN 0-7869-1793-8
• The Dark Side sourcebook, Wizards of the Coast, 1st printing, 2001. Bill Slavicsek, J. D. Wiker, ISBN 0-7869-1849-7

[edit] See also

• Darth Sidious
• Exar Kun
• Sith
• Sith Infiltrator
• Star Wars Kid

[edit] External links

• Darth Maul in the Star Wars Databank
• Darth Maul on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki

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