Star Wars: A Review of Maul Shadow Lord
There are some Star Wars fans out there – legitimate, sincere fans – who have never watched any of the Star Wars animated series. I’m not telling those fans what to do… But I do feel sorry for them. In the broad buffet of creative choices offered up in Star Wars, some of the very best are animated, and that tradition continues with Maul Shadow Lord.
Cartoons aren’t just for kids
For starters, there is a lot for adults to enjoy in Maul Shadow Lord. There is a depth of story telling that might surprise you, and characters who are morally grey. To be honest, I might not even recommend that young kids watch this show. It’s dark, it’s suspenseful, it spends a lot of time showing adults talking about their feelings (kids = boring!) and it has some scenes that will terrify youngsters.
Maul Shadow Lord displays a maturity that might be unexpected in a “cartoon”. This is different from, say, Star Wars Clone Wars which, especially in its early seasons, would flirt with mature themes but always retreat to the kid-friendly lightness of slapstick comedy and witty banter between heroes. Maul Shadow Lord sets the tone early and stays there. This is an adult show wrestling with adult themes.
Complex Characters
When you’re going to make a show centered around one of the biggest villains in all of Star Wars, you better be ready for some complexity. We all loved Maul when he premiered in 1999’s Phantom Menace, but I think we can agree that there was no subtlety in that presentation. He wore black. He had red and black skin, and horns. This guy was evil. And he could have stayed there in our imaginations forever, until George Lucas and Dave Filoni did something remarkable: in Clone Wars Season 4, building on their fascinating new character Savage Opress, they brought Maul – alive and well – back into the story.
Maul – the tortured soul
Since his return, Maul has become even more of a fan favorite as a tortured, multi-layered character who is both sympathetic and dangerous. He had a great run through the rest of Clone Wars and played a major role in Star Wars Rebels. To create an entire series based around him might seem like an obvious choice… Except the fact that he is pretty unambiguously a bad guy. Making viewers cheer for the villain is always a high-risk endeavor, but the good folks at Lucasfilm have walked this tight-rope with Maul with panache.
In Maul Shadow Lord, we catch up with our favorite ex-Sith at a low point in his life. He’s lost his criminal empire through betrayal and is hiding out on a backwater world called Janix with a small band of (mostly) loyal followers. He’s still capable of action and violence and seems mostly driven by revenge, but very quickly in this season we see another side to him. Maul is lonely. Maul seeks a greater purpose. Maul does terrible things because that’s what he knows, but we get the sense that he doesn’t necessarily always want to choose the violent path. We’re not shown a Maul who we would go so far as to call a “good guy” but he is sympathetic and we can’t help but root for him. And throughout, he’s just so damn cool.
Devon – the angel before the fall
This show takes place in the early years after the fall of the Republic – we’re never told exactly how many years it’s been, but the Empire has been around long enough to be established as the New Power in the galaxy. We meet Jedi padawan Devon Izara and her master, Eeko-Dio Daki, living on the streets of Janix. Devon is clearly not happy with their fate and wants to do more, but she still loyally obeys her calm and humble master.
That is, until she meets Maul. They’re drawn to each other – Maul in his quest for an apprentice and Devon in her desire to break free from her fate. But their relationship is far from simple. Devon knows that she shouldn’t trust Maul, that she should get as far away from him as possible, and yet she keeps choosing to go back. She resists his charms at a superficial level, but there’s no doubt he’s weaving his way into her soul.
Devon’s portrayal is realistic for a young person who is highly trained and highly motivated but who is facing terrible choices. Her character arc is unhurried, believable and the final payoff is extremely satisfying.
Lawson – TV cop drama meets Star Wars
Captain Brander Lawson is a world-weary detective working the district where Maul and Devon both find themselves. Everything about him harkens back to a typical 80’s or 90’s TV cop drama – he works too hard, he’s often caustic, he’s divorced and trying to raise his teenage son, he drinks too much coffee, he has a buddy detective, he has a chief who warily respects him. Lawson would be right at home in Hill Street Blues or Law & Order. This gritty, grounded motif might seem like an odd mash-up with Star Wars space fantasy, but it works. Lawson is a character we can all immediately appreciate and the banality of his world only reinforces the extremity of what Maul is. It also, on a more chilling note, makes the arrival and dominance of the fascist Empire hit that much closer to home.
Lawson is no saint, but we root for him as he navigates a case that is getting stranger and stranger while trying to hold his family together. When everything comes crashing down he responds as a hero should, but he never thinks of himself as a hero.
Supporting Characters
A quick shoutout to an outstanding cast of supporting characters.
Two-Boots is Lawson’s sidekick and brings both levity to grim situations and a sincere counterpoint to Lawson’s decisions. On the surface Two-Boots might seem like comic relief, but he displays surprising depth of character and his decisions have huge ramifications for everyone.
Looti Vario is a mob boss who gets unwittingly caught up in Maul’s schemes. In his first scene we’re almost expecting him to get killed off as a cameo, and he surprises us every step of the way as he remains relevant throughout the season. He also brings comic relief to dark scenes, but we never really like him and certainly never trust him.
Master Doki is perhaps the only straightforward character in the show. He is a wise and gentle Jedi master who is handling the post-Order 66 galaxy as best he can. He’s an excellent mentor to Devon and even when he sees her flirting with a darker path he only goes so far as to advise her, never force her. There is a sadness about him, but also an optimism that we’ve come to expect in the greatest of Jedi.
The Freedom of Animation
One of the strengths that animation has over live-action is the rich beauty that can be employed in the visual portrayal of the scene. Animated characters can be exaggerated for effect, as can their surroundings, and Maul Shadow Lord is a feast for the eyes in every shot. The huge city in Janix, with its towering buildings and vast sewers, evokes images of Metropolis or Blade Runner. The light saber duels bring a frenetic, relentless motion that easily equals Revenge of the Sith or The Acolyte. Every little detail of the police precinct, the high school sports stadium or even the pizza boxes in Lawson’s apartment bring a grounded realism that works subconsciously to make us feel at home in this space fantasy world. Cartoons have come a long way from The Flintstones or Scooby-Doo.
The animation style has depth, beauty and complexity as the Lucasfilm team continue to push the boundaries of what animation can do, building on the long legacy of Clone Wars, Rebels and Bad Batch. There is a darkness in Maul Shadow Lord that plumbs new depths of emotion and it is carried off with exquisite skill.
This show is, quite frankly, visually stunning. I encourage any fan of animation to watch it simply for that.
Considering It’s Something I Never Asked For…
If anyone had asked me what I wanted in the next Star Wars animation series, it would not have been a cop procedural starring Darth Maul. Oh, I’ve always liked Maul, but surely his story has been told. And I don’t tune in to Star Wars to watch crime drama. If anyone had asked me, I’d probably have requested a new Ahsoka show detailing her troubled early years of the Empire, or maybe an animated portrayal of Luke, Han, Leia and Lando in the early New Republic years.
But, Maul Shadow Lord is what we got. And of course I watched it, because I love Star Wars and I’m not that kind of fan who whines when I don’t get my exact head-canon. So, understanding that I wasn’t too excited about this show, believe me when I say it’s fantastic. I’ve watched the entire season twice, with a few short rewatches of this scene or that, and it is a profoundly excellent show. Is it the best animated series Lucasfilm has ever made? That completely depends on what your personal tastes are. I’m more drawn to the optimism of Rebels, but I loved Maul Shadow Lord. I appreciate it for what it is and I look forward with great anticipation for Season 2.
