The “Star Wars” saga has a weird tendency to tell stories out of order. Most notably, the film saga started with Episode IV. The books and comics are rife with stories that fill in the gaps of continuity, such as “Shadows of the Empire” chronicling the search for Han Solo and “Darth Plagueis” telling the story of Sidious’ master. And, of course, “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” (7 p.m. Central Fridays on Cartoon Network) is now telling stories set between Episodes II and III, many of which tie in with Episodes IV through VI as well.
That having been said, it still seems like a huge plot hole to see Darth Maul sliced in half by Obi-Wan in “The Phantom Menace” and now alive in “The Clone Wars” without so much of a word of explanation. (Even when Boba Fett pops up in “Dark Empire,” he explains that “the Sarlacc found me somewhat indigestible.”)
“Brothers,” the episode that reveals Maul is still alive, certainly isn’t a bad half-hour; “The Clone Wars” almost emotionally earns the resurrection of Maul in lieu of logic. On a garbage planet, a talking snake guides Savage Opress to his long-lost brother (notice how I resisted the urge to type “half-brother”). I’m not a Biblical scholar, but I get the sense that when a talking snake guides you to something, it’s not going to bode well. The proceedings are dark as heck as Opress dumps his pilot out an airlock and eventually strangles his guide-snake. (And this is a supposed to be children’s show?!)
And then, there he is: Darth Maul, now equipped with a spider-like cybernetic lower half that he presumably cobbled together himself. The Dathomiri Zabrak Nightbrother is mad with anger and a thirst for revenge against Obi-Wan, and presumably he’s gone bananas largely from having to tap into the Dark Side just to stay alive.
Now with longer horns that signify he’s lost track of his grooming along with his sanity, Darth Maul mutters a lot about how Obi-Wan took his legs, but I think “The Clone Wars” is seriously skimming over something here. The loss of two legs wouldn’t have killed Maul, and they could be fairly easily replaced thanks to the advanced health care of the “Star Wars” universe (to wit: Luke’s cybernetic hand). I think it’s more relevant to note that Maul was cut in half through the middle of his stomach and intestines. I’m no doctor, but I do know that the body needs a functioning digestive and bowel system in order to live.
However, this doesn’t mean the idea of Darth Maul surviving is absurd from an in-universe standpoint. Both General Grievous and Darth Vader lived on by becoming cyborgs; neither of them needs to eat or drink (or, ahem, go to the bathroom), because their mechanical systems keep their organic parts functioning. As such, there exists a plausible explanation for Maul’s survival: Darth Sidious finds him and immediately gets him to a top-notch secret hospital, as he later does with Vader.
However, “The Clone Wars” doesn’t seem to be playing it that way, as suggested by the do-it-yourself nature of Maul’s lower half. If Maul cheated death entirely on his own, that shows him to be much more powerful in the Dark Side than even Darths Plagueis, Sidious or Vader (all of whom were obsessed with cheating death, no less). Sidious eventually cheats death by transferring his essence into a clone body in “Dark Empire,” but even he couldn’t keep his dying body alive.
Showing Maul to be so powerful isn’t necessarily a bad storytelling choice, but it is a curious one.
So next week, in the Season 4 finale, it looks like we’ll get a rematch between Maul and Obi-Wan. And we may yet see the story of how Maul survived — most likely in books or comics, though, rather than on “The Clone Wars,” which doesn’t do flashbacks. But, even with “Star Wars’ ” history of bouncing around the timeline, this feels like a case of jumping a little bit too far ahead: It’s going to be hard for me to focus on this Darth Maul arc when the whole time I’m thinking “How the heck are you alive?”
What are your thoughts on Darth Maul’s return? Do you like how we are suddenly meeting Maul again 10 years later, or would you like more details on how he survived in the first place?