Maul: Shadow Lord - Episode 8, S1

[novel sedge]

Discuss Episode 8 of Maul: Shadow Lord here!

Chapter 8: The Creeping Fear

[novel sedge]

Devon beats up three Abyssins and steals their transport
Apparently the path to the dark side also includes grand theft auto. 😅

[south gale]

And as speculated, Two-Boots turns back to the good side when you take away his Two Boots

Dryden Vos in the finale. That should be fun!

Remain surprised EDD has lasted this long

And Maul’s leg foreshadowing came back into play!

Also, Sith school does not look fun

[novel sedge]

It still took him another episode and a quarter.
I deeply appreciate that Two Boots is helping, but I am never going to forget how long it took him to see what was going on right in front of his face.

[novel sedge]

https://tenor.com/view/homer-simpson-whoo-hoo-yes-yay-gif-9848298218460771056

[novel sedge]

I also thought about this lol.
Who knows, he may make it through the whole season!
…but the odds of him dying increase drastically for the final two episodes imo.

[south gale]

Well tbf he didn’t have a ton of opportunities to help between the gap of his boots being taken and helping Rylee escape

[novel sedge]

It’s not even that he didn’t do anything (because yeah he didn’t have time to). It’s that he was still like “oh I’m sure the Empire is doing everything properly and humanely” and the other cop had to spell it out for him that Chief Klyce had been murdered.
He claimed a few episodes back he needed more data to make a full assessment, but co-workers he claimed to trust kept telling him what was going on and he wouldn’t listen or look deeper based on what they said.
Even after his boots were gone he was still trusting the Empire lol.

Also do we think Crow Inquisitor got into Rylee’s head, and now he’s so scared he will sell out the Jedi and his Dad to the Empire?

Because I think there’s a possibility of that.

[novel sedge]

https://tenor.com/view/dr-cox-scrubs-it-does-not-it-doesnt-doctor-gif-16483507

[south gale]

Re our book club discussion about Jedi school vs Sith school

[novel sedge]

Gotcha.
I think Sith school with Palpatine is guaranteed to be extra worse.

Because, well, it’s Palpatine. 😅

[south gale]

And he wasn’t even bald at that point

[keen atlas]

Did the beginning of this episode remind anyone else of those old theater serials?

[solemn knoll]

At its very core, Star Wars was intended as a Saturday morning serial so…

[keen atlas]

Well, I was talking about how the recap flows directly into the episode. In some old theater serials, an episode would end with a big cliffhanger, but they wouldn't show you the entire scene. Next time, the episode would open with the same scene but altered to show how the cliffhanger ended. Shadow Lord sorta did that with Episodes 7 and 8.

[novel sedge]

Yes, the way they ended 7 and started 8 is much like how they would handle cliffhangers in old serials.
Which as @solemn knoll points out is a good nod to the origins of Star Wars, as part of George Lucas’ inspiration came from those old shows like Flash Gordon.

This show is very very good, in multiple ways.

It takes older art techniques and storytelling structures, and blends them seamlessly with newer ones.

[toxic dust]

Another couple A+ episodes

[novel sedge]

And Spybot continues to be an evil treasure.

[toxic dust]

Yes dropping a stormtrooper off the bridge was delightfully evil, made me think of playing JFO and deliberately going for the force push off ledges lol

[toxic dust]

Devon really is proving how intriguing I felt she’d be, and I like that EDD is still around to try to keep her from straying from the light

It’s nice it’s a slow burn, with it being little things. Like how she stopped defending Rylee to join Maul on the offensive against the stormtroopers

[novel sedge]

And then her clearly taking pleasure in getting to beat up the 3 Abyssins so she could steal their speeder.

She looked so satisfied.
Like she knew she was going to be able to blow off steam by doing it.
And hey, she was just following her master’s instructions to get them a car, so technically it was all okay.
Sorry Devon, that is not the Jedi way. 😅

[keen atlas]

I did the exact same thing in Fallen Order! It was fun to sneak up on enemies and push them off ledges before they even realized what was happening. But when Greez asked if the crew wanted Scazz steaks I was just thinking "Seriously? I've been launching those things off of cliffs while you could've been gathering them up for dinner?" 🤣

[novel sedge]

Lol in fairness the fridge on the Mantis might not have that much room.

[keen atlas]

Are we supposed to assume the blowing sand in the tunnel was all in Maul's head? That's what I took from it. Janix doesn't seem like it would have that much sand, especially in a maintenance tunnel.

[toxic dust]

Maybe the previous Jedi that Lawson worked with was Anakin so they moved all their sand down there so he wouldn’t have to see it

I laughed at seeing Maul performing percussive maintenance on his broken leg lol

Sparks flying out of your hip? Just whack it with your fist

[keen atlas]

Hey, it worked great in Skeleton Crew!

[novel sedge]

Hitting machinery is absolutely a valid repair method in Star Wars.

Han did it.

KB in Skeleton Crew did it.

The CMs at Oga’s do it.

[keen atlas]

But they just do it in character, right? Hitting things rarely makes them start working again, and if it does, it's probably a coincidence.

[novel sedge]

https://tenor.com/view/obi-wan-kenobi-star-wars-luck-no-such-thing-gif-7459156

The bit I’ve seen the CMs do at Oga’s (though only on video, not in person) is that at one point most of the lights behind the bar suddenly go out, and DJ Rex shuts down like there’s a power outage.
And one of the CMs will say something like “well the power’s out, we can’t keep serving you, everyone go home” and one of the other CMs will say “Oga’s not gonna like that!” and the CMs will argue amongst themselves.
And eventually one of the CMs grabs a rubber mallet and starts whacking the mechanical part(s) of the shelf behind the bar. And after a few whacks, the power comes back. DJ Rex turns back on, everyone cheers, and the drinking and music resumes.

The whole point of the bit is that in Star Wars, hitting things does seem to help fix them.

Even though it shouldn’t.

So Maul hitting his leg was a valid way to try and keep it working as he limped along. 😅

[toxic dust]

lol that hilarious they do that, sadly only got the one chance to go into Oga’s on mt4 2024 with Razgriz and they didn’t do that while we were there

But, it really did seem to make his hip/leg work for a time after hitting it

[novel sedge]

And then he got it bandaged.
And somehow that helped too. 😂

[toxic dust]

Yeah, I just think he needs to find himself a real engineer, cause whatever work the one nightbrother did on his knee after the battle with EDD didn’t seem to hold

[novel sedge]

Lol he can call Crimson Dawn and tell them to bring a mechanic.

And lots of snacks.

[keen atlas]

Why snacks?

So Vario can have an appetizer for his nerf filet? 🤣

[toxic dust]

I’m guessing the snacks had been loaded on the ship that got shot down

They were light and easy to carry, unlike a crate of credits

Which reminds me, that means there must still be a couple random boxes of credits just sitting there somewhere in the sewers of Janix. I guess this is how all those treasures end up all over the map in JFO

[novel sedge]

Because I assume they ran off with no food and are now hungry as heck lol.

[novel sedge]

Lol that works.

Curse you mercenary Mandos, getting the snacks blown up.

[toxic dust]

They were like “haha now’s our chance to get away with the snacks” but then the clone wars gunships were like “nope”

It is kinda funny how Vario is managing to set himself up as at least a henchman if not a lieutenant in the reshaped underworld under Maul

[novel sedge]

Vario has done remarkably well for a character that I think most of us expected to die in the first few episodes.

We should have known when he outfoxed Deemis in the first episode.

Vario is good at surviving.

Even if his cunning and luck runs out eventually, you have to give Vario credit for getting as far as he did.

[toxic dust]

Yep, he was so close, and seems like he’s plotting, so of course Maul loves that lol

Like, requirement of working for him is attempts on his life lol

I’m still so torn on the Rook = Armorer thing. She keeps sounding like her, and things seem to be shaping up where she finally hits her limit and is like “I’m gonna go form my own club, Mando’s only”

But each time it probably should be that limit she keeps being loyal to Maul

[novel sedge]

If she was going to be the Armorer I’d like to see a little more groundwork than just her loyalty causing her to crack under the strain.
Maybe show her repairing her armor? Or even Maul’s hip injury?
Also if she’s trained with metal and circuitry, why were the Nightbrothers working on Maul’s leg a few episodes ago, and not her?

[toxic dust]

Yeah, there’s so much that says she isn’t

https://tenor.com/view/aliens-i-want-to-believe-spaceship-mothership-ufo-gif-9472798

[novel sedge]

Lol

Oh and speaking of Maul’s leg, I watched a reactor video online where it was suggested that maybe Maul is hitting his leg to cause himself some more pain, so he can draw further on the dark side to keep himself going.
Like how Kylo Ren kept striking his injury on Ilum.

[toxic dust]

He did seem to gain a bit of a short power boost from just the annoyance of it during the fight with the inquisitors

So that would possibly make sense

Ultimately not enough of a boost though, but honestly I think his fight with them showed why Marrok has died at least once. Why the heck would you assume Maul is surrendering when he drops to his knees and raises his hands to the ceiling of the cave you’re in

[novel sedge]

It seems like he was originally surrendering.
Then when he found out that wasn’t an option, he went for the “cause a cave in, jump off a cliff and spin-drill my way through a rock platform” tactic.

[toxic dust]

I dunno, I kinda figured he was collapsing the tunnel on them right as he dropped to his knees, but that’s just my knowledge of how the Sith operate as an outside observer

As a fallen Jedi Marrok and 6th brother/crow mask dude’s first instincts might have been “ok he’s surrendering” but to me it was like “don’t kill him with words Marrok, he’s about to crush you with the roof”

But, watching the recap for ep7 there does seem to be a look in his eyes of resignation before Marrok says the emperor wants him dead

Then he gets mad

[novel sedge]

I think the crow is known as the Eleventh Brother?
Though yeah he’s kind of put into the position of Sixth Brother since he faces off with Ahsoka in the future.
Also imo the Inquisitors were only given numbers like that anyway to confuse and stress them out. 😅

[toxic dust]

Yeah I was thinking about that earlier, like how do they number themselves? Marrok is technically like 2nd brother I think? So does that mean he’s the second male inquisitor to be recruited after the Grand Inquisitor? Or is it like the NFL where they just choose their number lol

Can’t help but think of the video I watched today of a guy the Browns drafted recently and why he chose 55, he was just like “well when I was a kid I played offense as #5, but then I got too big and had to move to defense so I figured why not two 5’s” 🤦‍♂️😂

Like, total kid thinking lol

[novel sedge]

I think the Inquisitors just get assigned a number.

Probably by the Grand Inquisitor, because I don’t think Vader could be bothered.

And then the Inquisitors ask “wait why am I first brother and he is eleventh brother, but we both just got named at the same time? We’re skipping lots of numbers, what do these numbers mean?”

And the Grand Inquisitor says “wouldn’t you like to know” or “that’s not your concern”.

And thus, the Inquisitors are horribly stressed because they don’t know if there’s some ranking system going on that they can’t understand.

And the stress brings them closer to the dark side.

[toxic dust]

We did see Reva get promoted so maybe they can get promoted and demoted numbers

Quick aside but they had a banger song going during the chase scene in ep8

[novel sedge]

It’s possible.
But she just got promoted to Grand Inquisitor, so maybe that’s the only promotion.
Either you’re a regular Inquisitor or a Grand one.

[novel sedge]

They did.
The Kiners, as usual, bring us the good stuff.

[toxic dust]

My head canon is Devon turned the radio on to whatever the guys she stole the speeder from were listening to

I had a huge smile when she pulled up and was like “need a ride boys?”

Felt like a very Ahsoka-esque line

[analog leaf]

Holy

Shit

[novel sedge]

https://tenor.com/view/jim-and-pam-yes-gif-21499107

[toxic dust]

Watching the Screencrush video about these eps and he calls crow mask 6th brother

But, googling both 11th and 6th comes up with him

And it seems credits say 11th

Seems no one knows for sure lol

[novel sedge]

It’s just gonna be a thing where he is canonically the Eleventh Brother, but he gets identified as the Sixth Brother because his role in the Tales of the Jedi show mirrored the Sixth Brother’s role in the Ahsoka book.

[solemn knoll]

I have Crow/11th Brother’s figure already 😉

[toxic dust]

This is the Wookieepedia image of 6th brother

[novel sedge]

Exactly.
They’re not the same dude.

[river yoke]

Did anyone notice that 2Boots feet are shinier and the paint is more vibrant, since it was protected by his boots?

[toxic dust]

I did not, I’ll have to keep an eye out

[river yoke]

Again, animation is amazing

[novel sedge]

No but now when I watch I will notice forever.

[toxic dust]

Yeah it’s so beautiful, maybe setting a standard going forward

[river yoke]

I expect no less 😂

[toxic dust]

Any new Tales I hope looks as good

[novel sedge]

I love this animation (and I do think Tales should keep using it too) but it doesn’t have to be the only style that Lucasfilm ever uses again.

[toxic dust]

True, it would be overkill for something like YJA

[novel sedge]

And obviously Visions is providing the most diverse selection of animation styles right now.

But if like, Genndy Tartakovsky got green lit to do another Star Wars animated show in a style more similar to his Clone Wars micro-series, I would not say boo.

[toxic dust]

I just hope if there’s a show that fixes the sequels like Clone Wars fixed the prequels, they use this style

But man, I want so so many seasons of this show

[tender flax]

I am curious how deep into Crimson Dawn season 2 will go. Hoping to get to see Maul and Qi’ra interact together and build off of Solo.

[toxic dust]

We should (hopefully) be getting a Paul Bettany voiced Dryden Voss cameo, but maybe not until season 2

There’s a lot to do to get off Janix in the next two episodes before they can go see him, but they’ve certainly teased crimson dawn stuff

[keen atlas]

Just read that Maul's vision in the sandstorm was actually a practical effect! They projected the existing animations from TCW along with new ones from Maul's past onto a fog machine and imported that footage into the render.

[vital hemlock]

There’s almost a decade between where we are now and when Qira is sold to Crimson Dawn and then another couple years before she meets Maul.

[novel sedge]

And while we don’t know exactly how Maul and Devon’s master and apprentice arc will proceed, I feel like Maul would have been less inclined to train Qi’ra if Devon were still in the picture at that time.

So while it’s possible Maul: Shadow Lord could have multi-year time skips between seasons, it would still take a bit of time to get to the Solo movie time period, and we want to focus on Devon’s story first.

[toxic dust]

Yeah, everything I’d figured about their story has been upended. I thought EDD would be dead by ep4 at latest and Devon at least forced to team up with Maul if not outright joining him. But its been a much better story than that lol

[novel sedge]

And the longer Master Eeko-Dio Daki lives, the longer he can be an imperfect person who makes mistakes and has ideas like “maybe if we leave the Empire will show mercy to Lawsons” that he realizes are dumb the second they leave his mouth. 😅

And then we the audience can simultaneously empathize with and be frustrated by his flaws.

Which will make us even more upset if and when he does die.

https://tenor.com/view/hsmtmts-hsm-high-school-musical-high-school-musical-the-musical-the-series-miss-jenn-gif-22435687

[toxic dust]

Yeah, he’s grown on me a lot. As I’ve said I kinda figured he was just there to die and give Devon a reason to be angry, which might still happen but now as you said we’ll be emotionally invested in him rather than just being a throwaway Jedi master.

I would really love to see some sort of flashback to how they survived Order 66

The way Devon sensed the trap and how EDD was like “you should listen to her” makes me think she sort of felt it coming like Ahsoka and that’s how they managed to survive

[keen atlas]

But then I'd have to update my ROTS extended edit! 🤣

[novel sedge]

https://tenor.com/view/emperor-gif-18336789254182423315

[toxic dust]

Rewatching Ahsoka’s capture of Maul and escape from order 66 really has me noticing some interesting parallels between her and Devon. Maul gave them both similar sales pitches, and I got the sense from what we’ve seen that Devon sensed order 66 coming like Ahsoka did. Also, the “need a ride boys?” line from Devon felt like pure Ahsoka

Like she’s got a lot of potential basically, I can’t wait to see where the story takes her

[river yoke]

Definitely yes! And when he gets to Ezra, he has the sales pitch perfected. 😂