The Maul – Shadow Lord finale gave Star Wars fans what we’ve been waiting almost 30 years for: a showdown between Maul and Darth Vader.
Vader appears at the very end of episode 9, and then he fights against Devon Izara, her Master Eeko-Dio Daki, and Maul throughout episode 10. They prove to be no match for this Sith Lord, however – and that’s all without Vader speaking a single word.
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“The key to Vader for me is that he’s not Anakin,” Filoni explained (via io9). “He doesn’t recognize that. He can’t. Anything that reminds him of Anakin, he’s going to destroy. So when he sees a Jedi, he’s going to destroy the Jedi, because the Jedi would remind him unconsciously or consciously that he betrayed all of his friends and everything he knew and the life he grew up with. For what? For nothing. He lost everything. He made a bad trade. He was lied to. He was deceived. He can’t accept that truth. So he’s even farther down the path than Maul.”
Filoni’s explanation is very bleak, but also fits Vader perfectly. “Maul is struggling to let go of hate, but Anakin got consumed by it,” he added. “If he were to face what he did, it would destroy him more. I find a lot of pity for him because of what he did and the depth of his treachery. And that’s Darth Vader. Anakin’s trapped in there somewhere, and Darth Vader won’t let him surface. And so to me, the key is not to actually give him a character. He’s devoid of it because he doesn’t care. Darth Vader does not care. He does not have compassion. He does not see you. He sees the thing he wants to destroy, and he will do that. It’s like the same feeling you got in Rogue One when he comes down the hallway. He doesn’t talk to those guys. He’s going to destroy them. He has one mission, and all of his remorse and all of his anger and all of his hate is in every swing that he does. That’s how it’s resolved.”
Finally, Filoni referred to Vader’s battle with Ahsoka Tano in Star Wars Rebels, as well as his eventual redemption. “And [when] he saw Ahsoka, he wants to destroy her,” he said. “She, of all people, would remind him of who he was. He’s like, ‘I gotta destroy that. I can’t face that.’ Obi-Wan, he wants to destroy him. So he is a destroyer, Darth Vader. And critically, only his son, only his offspring, could make him spark, could make him see something. But at first, selfishly, [he said] ‘You and I can rule the galaxy.’ That’s where he goes. He doesn’t come all the way back. It’s a long process.”
All of this explains very well why Vader wouldn’t speak: he’s purely in destroyer mode, with no room for anything else.
The Maul – Shadow Lord ending saw Maul betray Daki and Force push him closer to Vader, essentially sacrificing the Jedi Master to ensure his own escape. Naturally, Vader killed Daki, which Devon witnessed – and which cleared the way for her to finally accept Maul’s training. That leaves things open for Maul – Shadow Lord season 2, and it also might be pointing to Devon eventually becoming Talon from George Lucas’s original sequel trilogy plans.
“We can’t give away too much,” supervising director Brad Rau told us of Talon speculation before the show aired. “We have heard a lot of the fan theories and speculations, and we are fascinated by them. We’ll just put it at that, leave it at that.”
You can stream all episodes of Maul – Shadow Lord on Disney Plus now. For more, check out our Maul – Shadow Lord review, or our guide on how to watch The Clone Wars in order.
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