Obi-Wan Kenobi bisected Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, but his behavior in Star Wars: The Clone Wars suggested that Kenobi knew there was a chance the Sith Lord could return. Maul was intended to die at the end of the first Star Wars prequel, but Dave Filoni, at the behest of George Lucas, retroactively had him survive his grisly wound, bringing back the short-lived yet beloved villain to further torment Obi-Wan at the end of the Clone Wars and even after the fall of the Republic. However, Kenobi’s nonchalance at Maul’s return hinted that he always suspected that it was possible.
In the Legends universe, Maul had a significantly different background and fate than in canon. The Legends-era Maul was not a Dathomirian and member of the Nightbrothers, but a Zabrak from Iridonia who was taken from his home by Darth Sidious and raised as a Sith Lord. Like all Zabraks, Maul was biologically quite similar to a human, with vestigial horns and a second heart being the only major differences between the two species. Understandably, Maul did not survive being cut in half on Naboo in Legends.
In The Clone Wars season 4 finale, “Revenge,” Obi-Wan and the rest of the Jedi Order discovered Maul’s survival, with the former Sith Lord murdering a village of innocent people to lure Kenobi into his trap. Obi-Wan took this surprising news rather causally, considering that he sliced Maul in half and left him for dead over a decade ago at that point. Kenobi even quipped about how he should have aimed for the neck on Naboo later on. This suggested that Obi-Wan anticipated the possibility of Maul returning, but not necessarily because of his species, but rather his Sith powers and philosophies.
In canon, Maul was a Dathomirian, a sub-species of Zabrak who hailed from Dathomir (a planet which canon drastically reimagined from its original Legends-era incarnation). Aside from sexual dimorphism, the only major difference between a Dathomirian and a baseline Zabrak was the former’s natural Force sensitivity and a particular predisposition towards the dark side of the Force. Maul was raised as a Sith and trained by the galaxy’s greatest Sith Lord, where he learned the order’s unnatural abilities and attitude towards death.
The canon timeline’s Sith didn’t believe in an afterlife like Jedi did, despite some instances of Sith spirits. Sith would cling to life at any cost, even if it meant using the dark side to sustain a destroyed body. Despite being cut in half across the abdomen, Maul used his master’s teachings to stay alive, proving the grotesque and unnatural abilities afforded by the dark side. Palpatine survived his death aboard the Second Death Star in both continuities, transferring his consciousness into crude and unstable clone bodies. In Legends, the Imperial dark side user, Maw, kept himself alive following a similar bisection, though he was a Boltrunian, whose biology in comparison to a human’s was never explored deeply.
Obi-Wan’s nonchalance towards Maul’s survival indicated that he, like the rest of the Jedi Order, was all too familiar with Sith Lords’ tendency to cling to life at all costs. Although the Sith were believed to have been destroyed until Maul revealed himself in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, the Jedi surely remembered their philosophies and unique powers from their historical conflicts. It made sense that Obi-Wan, likely being familiar with historical Sith, wasn’t particularly surprised by Maul’s return in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Key Release Dates
Rogue Squadron
Release Date:2023-12-22
