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Plus, it's one of the few VPNs that fully supports peer-to-peer file sharing and torrenting. So if you are interested in using a VPN, you can use Private Internet Access, and by using the link in the description, you can get complete digital privacy for less than $2 a month, and for extra months free of charge. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you all soon. Probably like many others, I liked Maul for his cool double-sided lightsaber. But as his appearances in the Star Wars universe began multiplying and his story unfolded, the Clone Wars, Rebels, and the comics gave Maul layers and depth with those he has quickly become one of my favorite characters in that universe. There is but one man who haunts Maul, one man who torments him, who is the root cause of nearly all of his problems, and that man is Darth Sidious. Where Maul's story really begins is following his abduction by the Sith Lord. The Sith Lord kidnapped and raised a young Maul to become the apprentice we see in the Phantom Menace. Maul was raised by Sidious, abiding by the Sith way of life, abiding by a code that is ruthless, isolating, and horrifying. In the first few pages of Maul's 2017 comic, when describing himself, he is quick to mention his lack of freedom, how tight the leash is around his throat. Maul can only dream of freedom. Sidious had Maul experience first hand a defining battle between the Jedi and the Sith, where he physically felt thousands of deaths, and the burns of a thousand cuts, he says, all to direct the anger and emotion Maul had bubbling inside him to turn it into hatred for the Jedi. And from so early on, Maul would learn to fear his master. He mentions it constantly, the type of punishment he would receive if he deceived his master, the lengths he would go to to avoid the Sith Lord. Emotionally, physically, and mentally, Sidious scarred him. But time and time again, Maul only sought to please him, out of fear for what happened if he didn't. We all know what happens to Maul in the Phantom Menace, and in the Clone Wars, he is found by his brother, Savage, with his mind shattered, clinging onto one thing, his hatred, specifically for his greatest enemy, Obi-Wan Kenobi. A consistent theme in Maul's story is the idea of vengeance. Even before he met Kenobi, he sought revenge. When Sidious is making him experience the death of his fellow Sith, he specifically says, I deserve my revenge. It's a concept that is so personal to Maul, that it allowed him to survive being cut in half. It's a concept that allows him to survive any punishment. Vengeance is Maul's purpose, the only thing he knows. In the age of Republic's story, Sidious teaches Maul that anger is a tool, but he can't allow anger to be his master. But time and time again, Maul becomes a slave to it, and to retribution, and it becomes his downfall. Moving back to the Clone Wars, with Maul's mind repaired, he captures Obi-Wan, and he wants to ensure that Obi-Wan will suffer the same way he has. But what Maul has suffered throughout the course of his existence is almost unimaginable. Maul's suffering, his lust for vengeance, is his identity. The past weighs him down so heavily, and he says to Obi-Wan upon their reunion, you may have forgot, but I never will. But Maul is not only seeking vengeance for what Kenobi did to him, he uses Kenobi as an outlet to release all of his anger he has not only towards the Jedi, and to the man himself, but mostly the frustrations and the trauma he has been dealt with by Darth Sidious. The deep underneath all that rage, Maul sought companionship, and one of the reasons he could never properly pursue that was his master's doing. Sidious and the Sith not only destroyed all the relationships he could ever have, but it destroyed his ability to conceptualize bonds in ways other than the one his master showed to him, through abuse and domination. Sidious saw Maul as the perfect tool to be used by the Sith. Considering the Sith rule of two, that only two Sith can exist at the same time, Maul was paired with a master who never cared for him in any setting, who only saw others as tools, and this translated into his own relationships, this idea of mentor and apprentice. Beginning with his own brother, Maul loved Savage Oppress, but he could only see relations through master and apprentice, and so he made Savage his apprentice. Because he learned that relationships are made through domination, he established this power dynamic, yet still allowing Savage to call him brother. Though Maul was raised as Sith, and his guarded nature guided his every interaction with his brother, he does slip up, because Savage shows Maul consistent care and loyalty. There is no betrayal, no backstabbing, no ulterior motives with Savage. He scoured the galaxy for his brother, and helped fix him back up. After Savage gets his arm cut off by Obi-Wan, Maul is there to take care of him, and to ensure his safety. Finally, after Sidious impales Savage, look at Maul's reaction. He calls Savage brother, instead of apprentice. He rushes to his side, holds his brother's hand, and heartbreak was written all over his face. Shortly after Savage's death, Darth Sidious torments Maul once more, orchestrating his mother's death at the hands of Grievous on Dathomir. Sidious truly took everything away from him. After the death of these two, Maul looks towards Ahsoka. Maul and Ahsoka have the same goal, to take down the Empire and defeat Sidious, and Maul's proposal for the two of them to join forces and take down Sidious, it's believable. Maul had lost his brother, his mother, his empire, not only is he lonely, but he needs help, to the point where he even reaches his hand out to Ahsoka. Ahsoka has a master who will betray her, and a community who has abandoned her, just like the one that abandoned him. Two tools used for greater powers, he says. They now have a common goal, a shared enemy. When Ahsoka fights him, Maul fights with the intention not to kill, but to talk, and since he can't envision a relationship other than master and apprentice, he tries that with her, but Maul failed once again. Finally in Rebels, we reach Maul's final showing. A seemingly older, wiser yet withered Maul. In actuality not withered, but even more bitter than the last time we saw him. For 14 years, Maul has been alone. All that time he spent calculating his revenge, waiting and plotting, but also longing for a companion. When Ezra comes along, Maul teaches the boy about the Sith, the Holocron and his emotions. He teaches him about the Sith and the Jedi, but he still could not make out the idea that love cannot coexist with fear, manipulation and abuse, because that's all he's ever known. He manipulates Ezra from so early on in their relationship and yet continues to call Ezra his young apprentice. Because the Sith believed in manipulation and deception as fundamental parts of their relationships, Maul expected Ezra to come back to him. Though he only knows what his master taught him, he doesn't treat his apprentices as his master treated him. With Ahsoka, Ezra and Savage, there was always a level of respect. That expectation is reinforced when the two are on Dathomir and Ezra refuses to join Maul. And in one final moment, Maul lays it all out on the table. Bearing his emotions, he tells Ezra to forget his memories in his past and that their deities converge on the planet with two sons. A place where they could have walked specifically, he says, as brothers. And you can hear it in his voice, the desperation. Maul is so lonely, everything he had, every one he had, his own identity, ripped away from him. Maul had spent over 10 years alone after being cut down by Kenobi and now another 14 years scouring the galaxy alone. As stated with Ezra, he has so much to teach and to offer, but he has no one. Maul is trying to find a love similar to the one Savage had for him. Unconditional, a love that was certain. If not that, at least a friend. But Ezra is just another of Maul's failures. Savage, Ahsoka, and now the young Jedi. Despite his efforts, Maul has always been chained down by something. His past, his memories, Sidious, they've always weighed him down. Maul has felt used and betrayed by Sidious and by the Sith. And while the Sith fears no one, Maul fears his former master, the only person he fears. Not only for the way he raised him, but for his power. This sheer look on Maul's face when he realizes that Sidious is near. When Maul and Savage fight the Sith Lord, it feels like Sidious was toying with the brothers, pushing them around, laughing. When he fought Mace Windu, it wasn't a laughing matter. But when he got serious, he ended that battle rather quickly. The way he easily impaled Savage and shrugged Maul off. And it was then Maul witnessed first hand the power of his former master. So much so that Maul begged him for mercy. Maul who was raised and built in darkness and rage. Who has felt the touch of death before, who's been cut in half. One of the strongest characters the galaxy has ever seen and Maul begged Sidious for mercy. That alone shows you his power. Maul was then tortured by his former master. Again with Ahsoka he tries to hunt his master down and he's even willing to join a former Jedi to do so. Again there's that desperation. When she doesn't join him, when Ezra doesn't join him, Maul returns to the one person where he can release all of his resentment and emotion. The one battle he can realistically win. Obi-Wan Kenobi. Forget the past, forget your memories, forget your attachments. Maul said to Ezra. Almost as if he was trying to convince himself. Projecting onto Ezra what he needs to do to find peace. But he can't. His conditioning simply can't be undone. That conditioning leads him to his old nemesis. In the 2017 comic, after he kills his first Jedi behind Sidious's back, he does it as a way to quell his bloodlust and his thirst for vengeance. Throughout that story he believes that when he will finally kill a Jedi it will bring him some form of peace. But when he does it he says that he feels empty. An emptiness that he has been trained to fill by slaying the Jedi. An emptiness that he's been taught to fill with revenge. And that's what Maul has been feeling his entire life. Empty, unfulfilled. He believes that if he is able to funnel all of his hatred somewhere else into someone else it'll bring him peace. It'll satisfy him. Which is a part of the reason why he says to Obi-Wan that he wants to make him suffer just as he did. When he says that he's channeling all of the abuse and pain that he's ever experienced. Stolen away from his home as a child. Raised in anger and hatred. Thrown aside and replaced as an apprentice. His initial lust for vengeance, for the dark side. It didn't even begin as his own but as someone else's. Maul's path to the Sith was never his chosen path. Maul's fate was decided for him from so early on. And he was simply facing the repercussions. If we look at Count Dooku or Anakin. They made their choices. Maul never could. Now he wants Obi-Wan to suffer and experience these deep-seated wounds that Maul will never heal from. Killing Duchess Satine. Killing his fellow Jedi. Killing Qui-Gon. It wasn't enough for the former Sith. Nothing would ever be enough for him. He believes that through vengeance he will find healing. Again it's the only thing he knows. As Maul meets Obi-Wan on Tatooine for the final time. His goal hasn't changed. He wants to make him suffer as he did. He prods around trying to find out what exactly Obi-Wan is protecting so that he may destroy that as well after he takes Obi-Wan down. Their battle was perfect. Complimented by the dark Tatooine desert only illuminated by the stars and their lightsabers. A battle of two lifelong enemies. Two philosophies. With Maul and Kenobi, there wasn't really any more to say, right? In their old ages, they've experienced so much. The last time they fought, Obi-Wan was young, energetic, and witty. But now, with someone to protect, Obi-Wan is decisive. When Obi-Wan says that this battle is to mend an old wound, it signifies how he's moved past Maul. He's moved past the fact that this man killed his master and his love, and has affected so much of his life. He's moved on, which is why he said he had no intention of fighting him. But the fact that Maul tracked him down did everything he could to find him, indicated that he was still chained down by revenge by the past, and those chains showed in their battle. Obi-Wan was able to take advantage of Maul's chains and of his arrogance by baiting him using his master's stands, to which Maul stepped forward and used the same pattern of moves he did when he killed Qui-Gon. But this was not the same Obi-Wan that he fought all those years ago. And I'm sure Obi-Wan spent so much time replaying his master's death and the steps that led to it. He knew those patterns. As stated, this battle was quick and decisive. All those years in history they shared, and their chapter was closed in just a few seconds. Obi-Wan fighting to protect the chosen one, fighting to protect Hope, chose to end the threat of Maul right then and there. This was a fight between a man with a purpose who has made his peace with the past, and a man who had none, no purpose, but kept reopening an old wound to give him the only sense of purpose he'd ever known. Obi-Wan tells him that if you define yourself by your power to take a life, a desire to dominate, to possess, then you have nothing. He was able to read Maul's life in one line. Maul has defined himself by all of these things at one point, even if it was never a choice. Now, Maul had nothing, no vengeance, no one to protect, no one to love, nothing to hope for. There's always been a bit of symmetry between Maul and Kenobi. When Maul killed his master, he killed Maul's future. When Maul killed Satine, shortly after, Sauvage died. Maul and Kenobi were both lost for a while, but when Maul lost Hope on Dathomir, Obi-Wan found it in Tatooine. But after Maul gets cut down, Obi-Wan catches him, and in his arms, Maul tells Obi-Wan that the chosen one will avenge them. I said that Maul uses Kenobi as an outlet to release all of his anger he has, not only towards the Jedi and to what Kenobi did, but mostly the frustrations and the trauma he's been dealt with by Sidious. Maul knew that there was no exacting his revenge on what Sidious did to him, and this was one of the reasons he chose to seek out his former enemy. Could Maul have tracked down Sidious and spent his final moments at the hands of his former master? Sure. He would have been tortured, killed, and probably forgotten about, just as his master already did to him. But Maul already had the sentiments of wanting to die, and he mentions that during the Siege of Mandalore. And I think there was a part of him that knew Obi-Wan would kill him. As a master of the Force, he surely felt Obi-Wan's power was a lot greater than it once was, and he surely felt his intention to protect someone. While I do think he believed that he would defeat his old enemy, I do believe that he knew there was a chance he could die, for two reasons. The first being what he said right before his death. That the chosen one will avenge them. Maul knew that he and Kenobi were not so different. That their goals aligned at one point. That they still did. Darth Sidious was the root of both of their problems. He was the cause for everything. Everyone they've lost. For the pain they've felt. Anakin and Savage, Sidious killed both of their brothers. So the chosen one isn't only for Kenobi and the Jedi, but the chosen one is to avenge everything that Sidious and the Sith has taken away from Maul as well. And the second reason is that by dying by Kenobi's blade, at least he dies respected. As stated, Obi-Wan has put the past behind him, now focused on the present and the future of the Jedi. Though he might have cut Maul down for the second time, look at the respect he showed his enemy. Maul was a terrible, terrible person, but Obi-Wan is a Jedi before anything else, and he gives his enemy the respect he never truly got. Obi-Wan caught Maul as if he knew that there was more to this creature than just rage, and he listened to what he had to say. Kenobi closed Maul's eyes and allowed him to die in his arms. Surely he buried him as well. Maul died having hope not only for himself, but for his lifelong enemy as well. He died in the arms of the only man worthy enough to kill the Darth Maul. The only man who respected him enough to catch him. At least in the failed pursuit of vengeance and companionship, Maul did not die alone.