Review: Star Wars – Maul: Shadow Lord “Chapter 9: Strange Allies; Chapter 10: Finale”
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Maul’s crew, Brander, Rylee, Two-Boots, Devon, and Daki make an uneasy alliance to escape the planet, but the Inquisitors and an unexpected enemy block their path, and not all of them will make it out alive.
OUR TAKE
At last we have reached the first finale of Maul: Shadow Lord, with a second already on the way. It’s unclear how many seasons this will have, but I would personally put money on it being a three season deal like with Bad Batch. Though as I have been going on about, the inherent problem with stories like these, especially ones focusing on characters with set destinations like Maul and the Inquisitors, is that there isn’t much in the way of tension for what might happen to them, and dragging that story out over years just further highlights that point. But as for these last couple episodes as a finale, it’s actually pretty fine. To get the negatives out of the way, the Inquisitors, while well animated when they fight, continue to be pretty boring as characters. And while this is probably a minority opinion, I was not happy to see Vader show up for the fight. I do have more of a connection to him, and it did get an interesting reaction from Maul, who is now meeting the guy who took the job of the guy who took his job, but I also couldn’t help but feel a hint of desperation from Vadeer’s appearance here, like they’re almost pleading with the audience to keep watching. Not that it’ll be that hard to convince them, considering this show has stayed pretty consistently at the top of the top ten of the app throughout its run.
The rest, while not blowing my socks off, is perfectly okay for a finale, even if it’s nothing that surprising. We knew at least Daki was set to die at some point, though Maul basically pushing him into a fight with Vader that none of them figured Daki would win was pretty Sith of him. And of course Daki is soon cut down, adding another tiny Jedi to Anakin’s kill count (oh, spoilers: Anakin is Darth Vader), though at least this one isn’t a child. Brander’s death was a bit unexpected since I kinda thought he would at least make it out with his son, but I suppose his role in the story as a civilian’s perspective on the encroaching Empire has been completed. Not sure what happens to Rylee now, but that leaves Devon, who has lost her master and given in to her dark side impulses, fully allowing Maul (the guy who deliberately got her master killed, unknown to her) to train her, which I suppose will be the focus of the next season. And with that, we shall see you here next time to look back at THIS season!
