matril: (Default)
matril ([personal profile] matril) wrote2022-10-20 10:14 am

A Thousand Stars: Episode I, Part 41

All the battles are resolved except one -- the one that will determine Anakin's fate. (Hence, "Duel of the Fates" for the music.) Obi-Wan, wracked with grief at his master's defeat, charged into battle with reckless anger. It didn't work out so well.



Maul kicks his weapon into the abyss, then has only to wait till Obi-Wan's grip weakens. But wait, what's this?



Obi-Wan gets a Look. Maul responds with another Look.



The lightsaber duels in the original trilogy were very, very talky. I think it becomes clear throughout the prequels that this chattiness can be attributed to Vader/Anakin's involvement. In stark contrast, not a word is spoken during this battle. It's purely physical. But this exchange of meaningful Looks is fascinating. Maul thinks he's won, and then suddenly Obi-Wan gets the slightest smile. The glimmer of hope, of reaching out through the Force in a decidedly non-aggressive way. Maul is baffled. And before he has a chance to guess what Obi-Wan's attempting, it's already being done.


Simultaneously propelling himself from the pit and summoning his fallen master's weapon, then delivering the killing blow (just out of frame). I love how we don't get the full reveal of Maul's injury right away. First we just see his facial reaction, another of those meaningful Looks.


Perhaps just a touch of indigestion?


Not quite. Actually, most of his digestive system is now a separate piece from his body. Yup, that'll do it.

Half-cyborg Maul cracks me up. You don't walk away from that, and I mean that both literally and otherwise. He could not have been killed off more definitively. Whatever. It's a great death scene, a resounding defeat of a menace -- who will turn out to have been nothing more than a puppet of the true menace.

Next time, parallels....
krpalmer: (europa)

[personal profile] krpalmer 2022-10-21 12:35 am (UTC)(link)
I remember Darth Maul's defeat raised a cheer from the opening night audience I was in. As for him eventually returning, though, while I started off with amused "give 'em what some want" thoughts I did wind up aware of the comments he would have been a villain in George Lucas's own continuation plans. That more than anything leaves me considering "perhaps the real risk now is weaving comments into what I think would work..."