Matthew
Welcome back to the Star Wars Generations Podcast. Today we are talking about Maul episodes 7 and 8. We’ve got Skeletor as an Inquisitor. We’ve got tough decisions being made by Two Boots, Lawson, his child, and all the others. We’ve got Erin McGowan. Erin, what do we think about these episodes?
Erin
Oh my God. These were peak. So much of it, I just was thinking, wow, we have reached absolute peak media. It’s weird to say camera work because it’s an animated series, but just the angles and the way that they frame the picture is so beautiful. And the fight scenes — the fight scenes in these episodes were incredible.
Matthew
Yeah. I feel like as animation gets better and better and it’s being taken more and more seriously — and a whole bunch of huge anime fans and animation fans are yelling at me, and I get it. That’s kind of the point. Like, there are people who’ve understood that it should be taken seriously for generations. I’m just saying that as it’s entering more of the wider scope of conversation, we need to start coming up with a language, or at least adopting a language, for how to talk about this. Because it’s not camera angle, but there’s a conscious choice of at what angle do you draw, how do you create the animation, and how does that affect how you see it — the directorial choices and stuff like that. And all of that is going into creating the story and it’s just incredible how it’s happening.
Erin
It is. It’s so beautiful. I knew Dave Filoni wouldn’t let us down, but every episode is better and better.
Matthew
Yeah. First of all, I just have to say — we’re closing in on having only two episodes left. Are we going to get a Filoni show that does not have an Order 66 flashback?
Erin
I think so. I don’t think it matters at this point.
Matthew
No, I think Daki mentioned it and got the emotional beat from that. And I think it’s actually okay that we don’t have it. One of the questions we were discussing — myself, Pete, and AK last week — was whether Darth Sidious is going to show up. On the one hand, Sidious is such a part of who Maul is, and his quest for revenge and acceptance. But also if Sidious shows up in person, it kind of sucks all the air out of the room. I hadn’t even thought about it, but what’s the way to square that circle — with flashbacks. What did you think of that whole journey through Maul’s psyche?
Erin
It was beautiful. It was everything I was hoping for from the show. I just wanted a little bit more insight into Maul’s background, because between the extended universe and canon there are so many different ideas — different versions of the story of how Maul came up, who his family is, is Talzin his mother, is she his adoptive mother, is it just a title. So I really liked that we got to see some more background — especially seeing that he knew Savage personally before he went with Sidious, whether or not they were true brothers, because the Nightsisters and Nightbrothers just call each other sister and brother. They knew each other, and that’s something I don’t think was made clear when Savage was first introduced. I don’t think it was meant to be made clear — I think it was meant to be a little ambiguous.
But I did love seeing that flashback, and it brings so much more depth to Maul’s hurt surrounding that. Because watching through The Clone Wars, it’s like, yes, Maul and Savage were partners, they were brothers — but only for an episode or two. Maul really took the lead and kind of made Savage the apprentice unwillingly in The Clone Wars, and it didn’t seem like he had that much respect for Savage. So I like being able to see that he did really care for Savage. And there was something — I think it was Devin talking to him about, “Your master betrayed you.” And he said, “Yeah, but that’s not the worst thing he did to me.” And I think that was implying Savage’s death, and furthermore the Nightsisters as a whole.
Matthew
Like what you’re saying about — is he treating Savage with respect or not? In the same kind of way that people who grew up in houses where there’s a lot of domestic abuse internalize that.
Erin
Okay, y’all. Matthew’s internet cut out. It’s just me now. I’m here to riff about the episodes. I hope you didn’t want to hear Matthew’s wisdom because it’s just me now.
So yeah, these episodes — really great. I mentioned briefly at the top some of the fight scenes. We saw most of those in the first episode, episode 7. And something I loved at the very start of the episode: when Maul, Devin, and Riley went back to meet with Maul’s crew, Riley’s like, “Yo, you trust this guy?” And Devin’s like, “No, but do we have a choice? We’re being hunted, and I don’t think we can leave — he’s probably going to kill us.” And Riley’s like, “Dude, I’m just a kid. I’m supposed to be playing lacrosse” — like, whatever space lacrosse it is he plays.
Anyway, so they returned to Maul’s area, and Spybot — who I mentioned in one of the first episodes about this series, I was really excited for that character, he seemed very endearing — when they came back, Spybot was like a little puppy. He goes, “He’s back! Maul was worried.” And it’s just so sweet. With villains or anti-heroes, and especially with the character of Maul — he is so quote-unquote evil or dark — we don’t often see affection directed toward him at all. I just thought it was so sweet that this little droid, who is a menace and can kill people so easily, is just like his little dog. He just nuzzles up to him and is like, “Master, you’re back.” It’s so sweet. And after getting so excited about Maul, Devin walks by and Spybot goes, “Jedi.” So he does not mess with her, which I just thought was very cute.
So yeah, we saw some cool battles there. The Empire found Maul and his stronghold and were after them. Some of the Mandalorian commandos were pretty unhappy with how things were going — they were there for the money, they were being paid, and because of this emergency evacuation they didn’t have time to take the credits. Some of the mercenaries were very grumpy about it. And Rook Kast — I believe that’s her name — the female Mandalorian was like, “Y’all just shut up and get in line. Come on, it’s Maul. Y’all trying to die here?”
And they clearly didn’t have respect for him. So halfway into this battle, they make their move. The Mandalorian commandos who aren’t happy run to the ship, steal the getaway ship, and start to fly away. And Rook is furious. Maul at this point I think is fully engaged in battle against the Inquisitors, so I don’t even know if he clocked that happening. The commandos go to fly away and then immediately get wrecked by incoming gunships — just blown to bits. And it’s like, well, what you deserved, I guess. Not that I wanted to see Mandalorians die, because there are fewer and fewer of those every day, especially the warrior type, but they kind of deserved it.
We also got to see the different sides of Maul’s organization. There are the Mandalorian commandos, many of whom were just there for the money. Some of the commandos stayed and were loyal to Rook Kast and Maul — not everyone was in on this plan, maybe three of them that stayed. And then Maul has had these Nightbrothers with him this whole time. Initially there were maybe three or four, but as battle goes on there are fewer and fewer throughout the season until we’re down to just these two. There’s a bigger-built guy — the one who always has the machine gun and a mask covering half his face, with yellow Zabrak markings — and then another brother who is more slight, similar to Maul. It’s pretty similar to Maul and Savage as far as big-built yellow markings versus slimmer-built red markings.
And Maul is honestly getting his ass handed to him by the Inquisitors for a bit there. He’s having some trouble with his electronic legs. I can’t remember if the initial injury was from jumping really far or if an Inquisitor caused the damage, but his knee gave out. So he’s struggling with that. Lots of Maul growls and howls in these episodes — some growling screams. Great work by Sam Witwer.
Anyway, we see the bigger Nightbrother notice that Maul is in peril, kind of outnumbered against these Inquisitors, his legs failing him. It’s looking real bad for him. And the brother says, “Brother, cover me,” and goes down to help Maul. And this is where I’m like — dude, I get it, but why would you go down there to attack Inquisitors and then not use your gun and just hit them? Of course you’re getting stabbed immediately. You have to stay further away and shoot at them. But whatever — he gave enough of a distraction that Maul was able to sneak away and formulate a new plan.
We do see the red-marked Zabrak really lamenting and mourning that his brother was killed. He sees it happen and cries out, and it’s sad. And it definitely harkens back to Maul and Savage. I think that was very intentional, because in the next episode we have flashbacks of Maul thinking back on his time as a child, as an adolescent, and his time with Savage and losing Savage. Whether or not Maul notices it, it was a really nice way to remind the audience of what had happened to him.
So the yellow-marked Nightbrother gives Maul enough time to formulate a new plan. He sneaks away. We see Maul on his knees, hands up, as though surrendering. And the Eleventh Brother — aka Skeletor, aka according to Wikipedia, The Crow, which is really cool — turns on his Inquisitor lightsaber and it does the spinning circle thing. Maul puts his hands up and the Eleventh Brother goes, “There is no surrender for you. The Emperor wants you dead.” And he’s moving toward Maul with his lightsaber. And the First Brother — I think that’s Marrok — is walking alongside him. And Maul looks up and says, “Likewise,” and pulls the roof down on top of them.
So the Inquisitors scramble, because he’s literally pulling these cave systems down on top of them. Maul had an escape plan — he shoots through this little exit hole, and in an ode to Sidious in Revenge of the Sith, he does that thing where you jump and you’re flying but you have your lightsaber out above your head and you start spinning really fast to kind of burrow your way through things. We see Maul do that, and I believe the first episode ends with him slamming into the ground and just letting out a groan. That’s Maul’s story for the first episode.
At the top, I mentioned some of these fights being so cool, and it’s really Maul versus the Inquisitors. On the approach to Maul’s area, Devin and Maul fight the Inquisitors some more. She actually chooses — and this is a big moment for Devin — she chooses to help Maul fight the Empire rather than taking the opportunity to escape with Riley. That’s huge. That’s huge for what Maul wants.
And in this episode we see Maul really, really pressuring Devin. He’s like, “I have given you the chance. You are taking your time and the time is up. Come with me.” And she just keeps saying no, my master this and that, keeps trying to run away. That was before the battle, and then the battle starts and she ends up helping Maul fight the Inquisitors in some of the best lightsaber work I’ve seen in a long time.
Part of their fight goes through this area with waterfalls all over it. And I’m trying to find a good word, because the commonly used word in photography or filmography is the word “shot” — and our dear friend Alex Korman has explained to me, and I’m very thankful, that using a term that invokes violence and specifically gun violence can be seen as harmful to the film and photography community. So I try not to use that word and I’m trying to think of better ways to say it. But for lack of a better word — when those Inquisitors jumped through the waterfall, that image was insane. They came through the waterfall slightly staggered from one another and they both kind of looked up at the same time. And whatever music was happening in the background — if you’ve seen Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, hopefully you agree that the Prowler has some of the coolest music. When he enters on scene the music just goes — wow. It evokes emotion, it gives you goosebumps, this uncomfortable bit of awe. And this is exactly what they did with the Inquisitors. There was a beat with the music that was just gorgeous. That’s when I wrote down: “The Inquisitors jumping through the waterfall, the music, and the angle — we’ve reached peak media.” And I stand by that. I cannot wait to watch these episodes again because they are so, so cool.
One thing we saw — while Maul’s battling the Inquisitors, Devin escapes and finds her way back to Daki and Lawson. And Lawson’s like, “Where’s my kid?” And Devin’s like, “I lost track of Riley.” And I wrote down: “Lawson’s about to become Liam Neeson” — because he’s like, “I don’t care that they’re expecting an attack. I want my kid. I’m doing what I need to do to get my kid.”
Hopping over to the Jedi storyline. I’ve talked quite a bit about Maul in that first episode. Daki, Devin, and Lawson are trying to think of a plan — how to get Riley back, what to do, how to escape the planet, all of this. And Lawson reaches out to Two Boots. And Devin and Daki are kind of like, “Didn’t Two Boots already betray you and bring the Empire here in the first place? Why are you calling him?” And Lawson’s just like, “This is the only choice I have. This is the only person I know — we’ve been partners for so long. I do still have trust for him. I understand that what he did was because of protocol, because he’s a droid and because he’s naive.” And Lawson is so desperate that even though this droid betrayed him, it’s all he has, so he’s going to try anyway.
And Two Boots initially ignores the comms, but I think he was going to help anyway — Captain or Lieutenant Blake walked by, so he had to hide the communication and stop responding to Lawson. Then eventually — what seems to be maybe 30 minutes to an hour later — he finally gets back to Lawson. And in that time, Lawson received a message from his contact Rena, who is a Nautolan — I believe that’s the species, same as Kit Fisto, the one we saw earlier in the series. She has the purple skin tone and her head-tails are pretty short. Anyway, she calls and says, “There’s a transport leaving with or without you. Get here on time.” And Lawson’s like, “I just have to get my kid first.” And she says, “You better hurry up.”
Two Boots gets back to them. He goes to Riley and says, “Riley, I’m rescuing you. Let’s go.” And he escapes with Riley — not without raising some alarm and stunning a few stormtroopers. They sneak out the back, though not very sneakily, because they are immediately followed.
And Daki had sent Devin to find them some transport. She comes by with this speeder that is all tricked out — the way they made it seem is like she knocked out a couple of bikers and stole their souped-up ride. And so it’s got super speed and it’s got thumping music when she first takes it. And so just in time, Devin comes flying over, they all hop in, and now they’re racing across the planet. And there’s this chase that ensues — some shooting, some cool moments with Devin and Daki where they share this look. And then, as there are speeders with troopers behind them and a gunship full of troopers in front of them, Devin flips the transport 180 degrees. Daki Force-pushes one of the stormtrooper speeders down, which causes the other stormtrooper’s speeder to jet up over it, and she uses the Force to slam it into the gunship — everything explodes. It was really cool. I was like, okay, maybe an Order 66 flashback-level move. It was just cool to see Daki and Devin so on the same page. I loved that.
So they escape, they make it to the elevator, they’re on their way to meet Rena. And Devin seems uncomfortable and says, “Something’s wrong. I can feel it.” And Daki says, “I feel that too. I can relate. This isn’t right — we need to stop the lift. This is a trap.” And Lawson’s like, “What? So you just want no plan, no transport?” And they’re like, “Well, no plan is better than walking into a trap.” And they find the elevator has been hardwired to not stop. So instead they cut a hole through the ceiling and escape up that way.
Rena pulls some crazy smuggler-mercenary stuff — she attacks the trooper closest to her, uses him as a body shield to shoot like seven or eight other troopers, and then shoots out the engines of a ship, exploding everything. I believe Captain Blake was there, so there’s a chance he’s dead because that explosion was huge — the kind of explosion where you assume Rena’s alive because she’s one of the good guys, but it looks pretty fatal to a lot of people. Our heroes were half a city block away and the explosion rocked everything. So they know they’ve got a little bit of a head start because their pursuit was just wrecked.
As far as I can remember, that’s where the Jedi storyline leaves off at the end of episode 8. And honestly, episode 8 to me was about Maul. I loved the way they structured this episode — it doesn’t go quickly from one scene to the next. There are these rest periods in between where the screen just goes black, and then it goes from Maul back to Devin, Lawson, Riley, and Daki. And then that scene ends, it goes to black, and it goes back to Maul. I really loved that. It almost felt like chapters in a book — you’re given a little breathing room in between to lock back into the other storyline. I thought it was beautifully done and it worked really well.
The name of the episode is “The Creeping Fear.” And wow, this episode is just Maul struggling through the underworld, trying to find his way back to his people. We see some of his torment from what I want to say is season 4 of The Clone Wars when Savage first finds him — he’s half spider, just yelling to himself, so deep in his own head, just lost. He hears his own voice of that torment in his head.
And this is where I — as a nursing student — think Maul may be living with schizophrenia. And I don’t say that derogatorily. I don’t mean anything negative about it. There’s nothing wrong with people who have schizophrenia, and it doesn’t make you a villain — Maul is just also a villain. But the voices in his head, the unstable emotions, the poor impulse control — it’s suggesting schizophrenia. And I think he might benefit from some medication and some therapy. But this is Star Wars and that’s not going to happen.
And Maul is a villain. But coming from that perspective, I have so much empathy for him. I think this entire eighth episode was made to build your empathy for Maul, because it really tells his backstory. And especially looking at it through the lens of mental illness — I want to be a psych nurse. I always think about things this way, whether I like it or not. Nursing school has kind of taken over. Everyone becomes a patient in my mind, unfortunately. But that’s something I noticed — this really does invoke an experience of mental illness.
Anyway, Maul keeps struggling and his leg isn’t working. I think my note today was “Maul’s broken leg” or something like that. It keeps short-circuiting and there are sparks flying everywhere. And he’s just trying to do the Kylo Ren thing from The Force Awakens — punching wounds to make himself get through it. And I’m like, bro, that’s not going to help the electronics. But he thinks it’ll help, so he does it.
And then every time his leg gives out and he falls or stumbles, he often ends up looking down into a puddle. And we see in the puddle himself as a child — probably somewhere between the ages of seven and ten. He looks into the puddle and a water drop from above falls into it, meant to look almost like a tear. And we see his face contort — he looks sad, he almost lets out this sob. And then we see him take that emotion and twist it into hate. It is so cool to me that the power of voice acting and animation has gotten far enough to portray that kind of minute emotion from a character. It was so cool.
He looks at his younger self and he says, “I hate you.” And then he smashes through the puddle and it turns back into his own reflection. He gets back up and keeps moving.
And then we see that happen again — he looks into a puddle and sees himself as a child, but this time he sees Savage as well. And Savage is begging him not to go with Sidious. “Brother, please don’t go. Brother, stay with me.” And there’s nothing Maul can really do — he goes with Sidious anyway.
And then throughout the episode, in these flashbacks, we see Sidious torturing Maul as a child. If he can’t fight well enough, he just gets Force-lightning — build that hate, classic Sith teaching methods. And there are a lot of things in the flashbacks. I’ll just try to run through them: we see himself as the spider. When Savage first found him. We see Savage’s death and how Sidious did that. And he has a flashback to when Kenobi kills him. And that was really cool — he looks up and he’s almost like, “Kenobi?” And it’s this question, because we realize at this point Maul thinks Kenobi is dead. This source that has been such a driving force of hate for him suddenly has no object to hate. Kenobi’s dead. So I thought that was very interesting.
We see Maul looking like he’s fighting a sandstorm — trying to walk forward as wind and dirt and dust whip around him. And it was difficult to tell, but I think the storm was not real. I think it was meant to show the storm in his mind, what he’s perceiving, what he’s going through. I don’t think that was necessarily a physical underground gust kicking up all that debris, but it could be. I like to think of it as a beautiful way to portray his inner state.
And we see Spybot continuing to look for him. Rook Kast is like, “He’s out there, he’s alive, he’s going to find us.” And some of the other mercenaries are like, “Is he though?” And I wish I had taken more detailed notes on the conclusion of the episode, but I didn’t. Maul fights, somehow centers himself. And at the very end of the episode, we see him walk up to Rook Kast, the rest of his organization, and Spybot. And it felt like a rebirth — or a second coming of some kind. Maul went through this huge emotional and mental battle, everyone thought he was dead, they were starting to doubt him, and he returns just in time.
And I am so excited for the finale episodes next week. This was some really, really good media. So yeah, those are my thoughts on the episodes. I didn’t write down any specific quotes, unfortunately. So this is going to be kind of a non-traditional ending to this episode. But thanks for joining us today. I hope you enjoyed. Please give us a follow on social media, and stay tuned for next week when we’ll be talking about the finale of Maul.
Shout out to Maul. “Stay classy.” “I hate you.” That’s going to have to be good enough. Okay, bye.
