Brander Lawson’s desire to keep the Empire out of things fails in episodes five and six, as they’re alerted by Lawson’s partner droid. Now the Empire is here and everything has become more complicated. Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord does a great job in portraying the ominous dread that surrounds the Empire as they bring them into these last two episodes. This is no longer a local investigation; the Empire is here, they’ve brought an Inquisitor, and they know Maul is around. Things have gotten serious.
Marrok is Actually Really Cool
We were introduced to the Inquisitor Marrok in the Ahsoka series and do you all remember when some people guestimated that Marrok was, in fact, Ezra in disguise? Only for the show to end him in such a lackluster fashion? The Maul series has completely righted this wrong and Marrok is possibly one of the most intimidating Inquisitors we’ve seen on screen to date. Seriously, his first moment interrogating Lawson was dreadful in all the best ways, showcasing yet again that LucasFilm’s strength is in its animated shows and not its live action projects.
We have a few interesting threads being pulled in episodes five and six. Lawson’s desire to keep everything local is gone now and we learn that his ex-wife works for the Empire, so Lawson’s poor son is stuck in the middle between one parent who sees the Empire’s involvement as a bad thing and another who sees it as a good thing. We then have Devon and her master Eeko-Dio Dak crossing paths again with Lawson, which is both the best thing and worst thing that could happen to the law enforcement officer. Now he has both Maul and Marrok in his crosshairs.
The Lightsaber Fights Are Top Tier
On top of this show being visually impressive (as always), we have some really great action scenes. Not to beat a dead horse, but [again] the animated field shows how capable it is in displaying the skill level that Maul and the other lightsaber wielders have. It was so cool seeing Marrok facing off against Maul and Devon. It showed a few things. One was that we really were robbed of Marrok in the Ahsoka show, the other was that Devon can definitely hold her own, and that Maul is and has always been the definition of aura (did I use that right?).
Seriously, these episodes are just so good and in a way, Maul orbiting someone like Lawson and Devon shouldn’t really work. He’s so different than them and while Maul is trying to get Devon to be his apprentice, it really doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen. However, the contrast in the characters and their morality does work on a level and while the show does not try to justify anything Maul has done in the past or even continues to do (we personally love that the show is not trying to redeem him), it still let’s you know that, hey…the Empire is worse.
Where to Next?
We have four more episodes to go and it’ll be interesting to see how much more the Empire becomes involved now that it’s aware of Maul’s presence and will we see Devon beginning to understand Maul’s point of view or will she hold true to the Jedi way of things?
A girl with too many fandoms to count.
