Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord

[pukunui]

And honestly I’m not sure how he survived. Was his hate so strong he survived bisection? Did Sidious shove him in a bacta tank before his sell by date? No idea.

Yes to the first question, no to the second. Here's the answer as per Wookieepedia, which draws on the Clone Wars cartoon plus various auxiliary sources:

"Through his hate and rage, Maul managed to survive being cut in half as his top half fell down the reactor shaft and into a trash container. A combination of his Nightsister magicks, Dathomirian physiology and Sith tenacity served to keep him tethered to life even as his sanity began to leave him. Maul's shattered body was dumped on the junkyard world of Lotho Minor, where he lived in the bowels of the planet. There he utilized discarded metal to fashion for himself a six-limbed apparatus that allowed him to walk again."

Mother Talzin could sense that Maul was still alive, so she sent his brother, Savage, to look for him. When Savage found Maul on Lotho Minor, he was insane and resembled a cyborg drider. Savage took Maul back to Dathomir, where Talzin restored his mind and fashioned him a two-legged mechanical lower half out of salvaged Separatist droid parts and Dathomiri witch magick.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yes to the first question, no to the second. Here's the answer as per Wookieepedia, which draws on the Clone Wars cartoon plus various auxiliary sources:

"Through his hate and rage, Maul managed to survive being cut in half as his top half fell down the reactor shaft and into a trash container. A combination of his Nightsister magicks, Dathomirian physiology and Sith tenacity served to keep him tethered to life even as his sanity began to leave him. Maul's shattered body was dumped on the junkyard world of Lotho Minor, where he lived in the bowels of the planet. There he utilized discarded metal to fashion for himself a six-limbed apparatus that allowed him to walk again."

Mother Talzin could sense that Maul was still alive, so she sent his brother, Savage, to look for him. When Savage found Maul on Lotho Minor, he was insane and resembled a cyborg drider. Savage took Maul back to Dathomir, where Talzin restored his mind and fashioned him a two-legged mechanical lower half out of salvaged Separatist droid parts and Dathomiri witch magick.

That was a great storyline!

 

[MarkB]

There he utilized discarded metal to fashion for himself a six-limbed apparatus that allowed him to walk again."

I feel like the legs are less impressive than manufacturing himself a new digestive system.

Still waiting for the epic tale of Darth Maul's lower half. Maybe it managed to graft itself onto the head and torso of one of the battle droids that got bisected during the fighting.

 

[Dioltach]

Still waiting for the epic tale of Darth Maul's lower half. Maybe it managed to graft itself onto the head and torso of one of the battle droids that got bisected during the fighting.

That idea has legs.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I feel like the legs are less impressive than manufacturing himself a new digestive system.

Still waiting for the epic tale of Darth Maul's lower half. Maybe it managed to graft itself onto the head and torso of one of the battle droids that got bisected during the fighting.

Filoni frantically taking notes.

Yes to the first question, no to the second. Here's the answer as per Wookieepedia, which draws on the Clone Wars cartoon plus various auxiliary sources:

"Through his hate and rage, Maul managed to survive being cut in half as his top half fell down the reactor shaft and into a trash container. A combination of his Nightsister magicks, Dathomirian physiology and Sith tenacity served to keep him tethered to life even as his sanity began to leave him. Maul's shattered body was dumped on the junkyard world of Lotho Minor, where he lived in the bowels of the planet. There he utilized discarded metal to fashion for himself a six-limbed apparatus that allowed him to walk again."

Mother Talzin could sense that Maul was still alive, so she sent his brother, Savage, to look for him. When Savage found Maul on Lotho Minor, he was insane and resembled a cyborg drider. Savage took Maul back to Dathomir, where Talzin restored his mind and fashioned him a two-legged mechanical lower half out of salvaged Separatist droid parts and Dathomiri witch magick.

Good lord that's somehow far less plausible than I anticipated! Even by Star Wars standards that is kind of a reach!

I always assumed the retcon was someone got to him pretty quickly and shoved him in a bacta tank or similar. But no. He fell through a reactor, to the trash (which reactors are well known for being connected to ?!?!), got taken into space, flown to another whole-ass planet, dumped, stayed alive literally with with no lower half (which I dunno, I feel probably has important organs in it, even in a Dathomiri) for like, however many days or weeks it took him to build a machine to keep himself alive (presumably whilst not eating and not being able to retain liquids much if at all), whilst living in filthy trash. Also how does he even know how to build that stuff? There's no period in his backstory when he was in any way involved in learning to build medical machinery and cyborg limbs from scratch.

It's like the writers deliberately chose to make it as difficult as possible for themselves!

 

[MarkB]

Good lord that's somehow far less plausible than I anticipated! Even by Star Wars standards that is kind of a reach!

I always assumed the retcon was someone got to him pretty quickly and shoved him in a bacta tank or similar. But no. He fell through a reactor, to the trash (which reactors are well known for being connected to ?!?!), got taken into space, flown to another whole-ass planet, dumped, stayed alive literally with with no lower half (which I dunno, I feel probably has important organs in it, even in a Dathomiri) for like, however many days or weeks it took him to build a machine to keep himself alive (presumably whilst not eating and not being able to retain liquids much if at all), whilst living in filthy trash. Also how does he even know how to build that stuff? There's no period in his backstory when he was in any way involved in learning to build medical machinery and cyborg limbs from scratch.

It's like the writers deliberately chose to make it as difficult as possible for themselves!

Yeah, "somehow Maul returned" would actually feel more satisfying in comparison.

 

[Dire Bare]

Filoni frantically taking notes.

Good lord that's somehow far less plausible than I anticipated! Even by Star Wars standards that is kind of a reach!

I always assumed the retcon was someone got to him pretty quickly and shoved him in a bacta tank or similar. But no. He fell through a reactor, to the trash (which reactors are well known for being connected to ?!?!), got taken into space, flown to another whole-ass planet, dumped, stayed alive literally with with no lower half (which I dunno, I feel probably has important organs in it, even in a Dathomiri) for like, however many days or weeks it took him to build a machine to keep himself alive (presumably whilst not eating and not being able to retain liquids much if at all), whilst living in filthy trash. Also how does he even know how to build that stuff? There's no period in his backstory when he was in any way involved in learning to build medical machinery and cyborg limbs from scratch.

It's like the writers deliberately chose to make it as difficult as possible for themselves!

If implausible stories are a problem . . . perhaps Star Wars isn't the right franchise for ya!

 

[jian]

Filoni frantically taking notes.

Good lord that's somehow far less plausible than I anticipated! Even by Star Wars standards that is kind of a reach!

I always assumed the retcon was someone got to him pretty quickly and shoved him in a bacta tank or similar. But no. He fell through a reactor, to the trash (which reactors are well known for being connected to ?!?!), got taken into space, flown to another whole-ass planet, dumped, stayed alive literally with with no lower half (which I dunno, I feel probably has important organs in it, even in a Dathomiri) for like, however many days or weeks it took him to build a machine to keep himself alive (presumably whilst not eating and not being able to retain liquids much if at all), whilst living in filthy trash. Also how does he even know how to build that stuff? There's no period in his backstory when he was in any way involved in learning to build medical machinery and cyborg limbs from scratch.

It's like the writers deliberately chose to make it as difficult as possible for themselves!

Yes, I remember reading this back in the day (when Maul just popped up in front of Savage in Clone Wars) and thought "surely the writers are taking the piss". I mean, you just need a lot of things below the waist; even if it's cauterised and sealed, and you technically have a functional cardiovascular system and brain (and of course didn't die from the massive trauma because Force Hate) I really don't know how you're supposed to urinate and defaecate, as a basic starting point, and therefore eliminate toxins or deal with having eaten or drunk anything. I think "Force survival trance and Control-based biofeedback" is doing a hell of a lot of heavy lifting here.

(The Doylist reason is, of course, that Lucas said "let Maul return, somehow" out of nowhere and Filoni said, "how TF, you cut him in half?!!" but then had to make it work, and was presumably just doing it through gritted teeth. But then did an amazing job with it! Post-bisection Maul is a 100% better character despite having only 50% the body mass.)

One obvious point - Maul therefore spends the last two decades of his life not being able to have sex (at least conventionally) and this is probably pissing him off. And thus making him more powerful.

 

[Kaodi]

One obvious point - Maul therefore spends the last two decades of his life not being able to have sex (at least conventionally) and this is probably pissing him off. And thus making him more powerful.

What makes you think Maul ever had sex before being bisected?