As the title suggests, when was (Darth) Maul in his prime? With prime I mean his combative prime, when he was at his peak in skill? When were his force abilities the strongest and when was his saber technique most skilled and powerful? If and how does his mental state during either period affect his combative prowess? Maybe some of you are interested in laying out a reasoning of why Maul is at his strongest.
Was it Darth Maul during Episode I: The Phantom Menace, during either Season 4, 5 or 7 of The Clone Wars, during the Son of Dathomir comics or perhaps during Season 2 or 3 of Rebels? Perhaps some of you even argue that his prime was sometime else, pre-TPM, during the 2017 Maul comics or during Solo: A Star Wars Story.
This thread discusses the Canon version of the character.
I know this is probably going to spark a rather large debate, which has been held before under several other threads but I just wanted to provide a place where you guys can engage into a proper discussion. I am interested to hear what you guys have to say!
spider Maul<<<S4 chicken legs Maul<S5 chicken legs Maul<=>TPM Maul<regular legs TCW Maul<Solo Maul (probably)
Rebels Maul is hard to place because he was stranded on Malicore for a while during his first appearance, and in his battle with Kenobi he was lost in a desert for a while and the fight ended too quickly. Force wise he should be better than ever, but physically he seemed worse than before. So overall his prime should be before being stranded on Malicore, so like around Solo or a bit after. I would say the prime moment we saw him in was when he was amped against Sidious after Savage's death and using two lightsabers.
His best feats were during TCW, but i would say somewhere between then and Rebels actually. I'm not of the opinion that he declined that much, if at all, in anycase. TPM Maul is his least powerful version
Probably SoD Maul. If we had more knowledge of it, I might say Maul somewhere between Fallen Order and Solo, but as it stands, we do not have enough info of him during that time.
Rebels Maul is indeed inferior to his CW incarnation, physically and in terms of combative prowess:
The likes of Dooku & Yoda increased with age because they continued to hone their abillties, not even to maintain their current level, but to expand their knowledge. Maul simply neglected his skills, failing to practice sufficiently.
Shadow Conspiracy claims that Maul's exile strengthened him, and that Talzin restored his powers. Both of these concepts are expressly rejected by Filoni during interviews on Maul's return, rendering the C-canon novel irrelevent. As for canon...
It cannot be stressed enough that in canon, The Phantom Menace is Darth Maul's prime. Full stop.
Outside of comic vine, among the wider fanbase, this concept is much more widely acknowledged. Even amongst the current Lucasfilm Storygroup, such a viewpoint persists:
Because really, it's obvious. Maul was chopped in half, then spent 12 years in a state of insanity. He has only about a year during the Clone Wars to try and recover.
But most importantly -- it's officially confirmed by those who handled bringing him back. TPM Maul vs TCW Maul was compared to OT Boba vs adolescent, teenage Boba in TCW, with supervising director Dave Filoni agreeing:
IGN: With Maul, I felt it was a bit like you approached Boba Fett. Maul got rebuilt, he got back his sanity and focus -- but he still wasn't quite Phantom Menace Maul, flipping all over the place -- and he didn't have a double-sided lightsaber. Was that something else where you thought, "He can't just instantly be that badass again"?
Filoni: Definitely. In my opinion, he did really well for being out of the business for about ten years. To come back in and take down Obi-Wan, leaping around on velociraptor legs, he did pretty good. It's an interesting dilemma having him on these weird legs, because he can't instantly fight in the style that you remember Maul fighting in. So Sam really had to bring it through voice and through expression of animation in the face. But there's some twists coming up for Maul, that's for sure. He's far more cunning and well-trained in how to be a Sith than people think. He's not just all about being an enforcer. He got a good education from his master, and we're going to put that into effect next season for sure.
Filoni additonally notes the disadvantage of having been inactive for over a decade, then, in an attempt to be positive, mentions that they're going to emphasize Maul's cunning and intelligence, which will make things better for him. Extending this state of inferiority to Mandalore Maul.
In TCW, they wanted to emphasize Maul's mental ability over his combat ability.
And no, Mother Talzin did not restore Maul's power. This scene right here was specifically added to demonstrate that Maul isn't as strong in the Force as he was in TPM, as pointed out by Sam Witwer, and affirmed by Filoni:
Witwer: By the way this moment where Darth Maul reaches for his lightsaber and actually has to concentrate to make it happen...
Taylor: Yeah uh, I actually, I was thinking about that too. That's...
Witwer: The greatest little touch, it's like, he's not quite the same and he's not quite as connected as he once was.
(Filoni & Lucas nodding in agreement)
Witwer: Funny enough, this was something that someone said to me years ago, and they said 'if they ever brought Darth Maul back there should be a scene where he tries to use the Force, and it doesn't work the first he tries'.
And no, Maul's 12 year exile did not strengthen him. It's been confirmed by Lucasfilm Storygroup member Matt Martin that said period of insanity weakened him:
TPM is Maul's strongest base incarnation(by far). However, even TPM Maul is blown out of the water by TCW Maul when enraged over Savage's death. Said circumstantially incensed version of Maul was nearly equal to Sidious.
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