Maul: Shadow Lord Trailer Rambles

We are one week closer to a brand new animated show and the energy is HIGH!! Let's dive in, among other exciting announcements!!

Substack Article: https://substack.com/@markyber/note/p-189724284?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=1od72c
SaberMasters: https://www.sabermasters.com/TVJ20

Send us an email! tvjpod@gmail.com

Transcript

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I have a message from the Village Jedi. Max Rebo hit it. Happy Friday, everybody, and welcome back to the Village Jedi Podcast here on a little outpost brought to you by me. My name is Marina. If you're new here, welcome. And if you're not, welcome back. So before we get started, obviously, we're gonna go over some ways that you can get involved in the discussion here on my Star Wars podcast. We've got a lot to yap about. So we're gonna go ahead and just dive right in. Right off the bat, if you want, you can go over and follow my Instagram or TikTok at the VillageJedi, or feel free to send me an email and we can discuss it on air at tvjpod at gmail.com. I'm really excited to get into all the things that I have to share with you guys today, which is why today's episode is a little delayed. I just had a lot of things to iron out, so I appreciate your patience. Um yeah. First off, if you're watching on YouTube, I'm dressed up again, which means it's a special occasion. I'm dressed up in my Jedi outfit, got my little Padawan braid right here. Very nice, very tasteful, very demure. Basically, I am dressed up because today is a very special episode. It is the first episode that I am collaborating with Sabermasters. Um, so if you don't know, you haven't been following me on socials, that's okay. But Sabermasters reached out to me. They're a lightsaber company, and they asked if they I would feel comfortable collaborating with them. They gave me a discount code and everything. So starting from here going forward, there's gonna be an ad break in the middle of the episode talking a little bit more about that. Uh, it's been really exciting. I'm only been doing this for a little while, and so the fact that a brand has reached out to me and wants to work together a little bit. I'm pretty excited, obviously. So I just wanted to dress up to show how excited I am. Um, and it just really makes me appreciate all the love and support that the show has already been getting. This is something I've wanted to do for a long time. Um, so it just it really does make me happy that so many people are already watching me and listening and want to get involved in the discussion about Star Wars because we all love it. That's why we're here is to talk about something we love. Um, it's a nice way to just take a break and give yourself something kind of fun to think about. So, yes, so excited for Sabermasters Collab. There's some nice videos I'm posting on my Instagram and TikTok, just a little bit about, you know, my experience with the company and doing videos, obviously dressed up and learning how to use the lightsabers. There's some fun stuff in store over there. So that's a good way to get involved with that saga. Very exciting. So thank you, Sabermasters. Um, another collaboration I did, you can see over on Substack. I'll put the link in the show notes. But um I'm collaborating with some other writers on Substack right now where we're sharing some of our favorite moments from Star Wars. Um, and the one that I picked was from the Tales of the Jedi series, where Anakin is training Ahsoka, and then we see that training put into practice during Order 66. So I'll put the link to that um in the show notes. It's been getting some some attention and love over there if you guys, any sub-stackers out there or if you enjoy reading. I just did a little essay kind of breaking down that moment and why it was so significant to me as a viewer and why I think it should get more love um from the rest of the Star Wars community. So we've got a lot. We've got a lot going on, and it's exciting. So um that that's kind of it. I feel like we can go ahead and open the archives on what we're gonna be discussing today, which is the Mall Shadow Lord trailer. I had this episode scheduled for next week because we'd be a little closer to the debut of the show, which is Monday, April 6th. It's a dual episode drop, so there's gonna be two, so a lot of content to discuss. Um, the episode scheduled for this week, we were gonna talk about Star Wars funny moments. And if I'm being so honest, you guys, I could not put together a good list. Like every time I would be happy with the list, I would think of a different one, and I'd have to move some things around, or like I would look on Instagram, TikTok, see the ones that you guys commented on my videos asking what are some of your funny moments, and it would jog my memory. Oh, like, oh yeah, so the master list is still in the works. And so I really do want to give justice to that episode. I had a bunch of thoughts already queued up to talk about the Maul trailer next week. Um, so I thought we could just talk about that this week, and that gives me a little bit more time to have a super exciting, funny episode um next week. So this week, we are talking about Maul Shadow Lord. If you don't know, Darth Maul is a character from the Phantom Menace. He is a Zabarak. And when I was a kid watching that movie, my dad would have to tell me when to cover my eyes because I was terrified of all those scenes. Um, and I actually didn't mind that he died as a kid. I was like, oh, phew, we don't gotta see that guy anymore. But now that I'm older, I've come to appreciate what is so important about his character, the potential that was low-key wasted, um, and just what a cool character design he does have. Um, so the fact that we're getting an entire show about his character from the end of Clone Wars to when we see him in Rebels, what happened in that time period is exciting. So many fans, including myself, are just really getting amped up for what the show is gonna be. The trailer has given us a lot to go off of, but there's in true Star Wars trailer fashion, also a lot left to see. So I just wanted to talk about a little bit with my thoughts, not doing like a full scene-by-screen, but just some things that really did stand out to me. I thought we could discuss that a little bit together today. Hello there. If you're looking to build your collection, the Village Jedi is now collaborating with Sabermasters to offer you$20 off your first combat ready laser sword. You heard that correctly, Combat Ready. The team at Sabre Masters makes it their personal mission to create lightsabers built to last using lightweight polycarbonate blades with customizable settings and simple navigation. Sabre Masters has really crafted the ultimate experience. Sabermasters is always offering a great deal for force users everywhere, but with my code TVJ20, you can save an extra$20 at checkout. Simply type in the code at the checkout screen, TVJ20, and you're done. Link will be in the show notes. So, right off the bat during the trailer, there's sort of these fast drums, it's very reminiscent, echoing the music of Duel of Fates. And right away, I feel like it sets the tone for what this show is really gonna be about. Because I had in my notes that so often, like with Anakin, um we think about this song as Anakin's fate, the duel of fates. It has to do with Anakin. I've never really thought about it about that song being Maul's fate, his duel for his fate. Um, because when you think about it, he is being sent by Sidious. It's a it's a 2v1 fight in the Phantom Menace, and Sidious knows that. It was the debut of the Sith. It had been at least a thousand years since the Jedi had fought one. I talked a little bit about that in my missed moments from the prequels episode, just how significant of a moment this was that Darth Maul was coming back. Um, but the whole time he's fighting, yeah, he has the double blade, and it, you know, you think, okay, if if one guy has two blades and he's fighting two guys with one blade each, seems like a fair fight. But in reality, how many Jedi have has this guy fought? None. I mean, he's probably dueled with Sidious a little bit for training purposes, but he's never actually fought a Jedi. And same with the Jedi, they haven't fought a Sith Lord before, so you know, you you would think it would be pretty even. But the whole concept of the duel of fates being set up for what Anakin's fate is to be, I've never thought about it as it being set up for Maul's fate as well. So that song is playing. And immediately I was like, oh, this applies to Maul. I love this. Like, this is the song that plays when we meet him and when he's fighting. Ray Park is doing his thing with the choreography, but I've never thought about it applying to his internal morality of his character as well. Because if he loses, he's out of Sidious' plans, but if he wins, he has a chance to continue a ruling out at his side for the continued part of Sidious' plans. So, anyways, I just thought that was kind of an interesting thought right off the bat, listening to the music, it just kind of gave me those thoughts. Also in the trailer, we see stormtroopers, which echo uh the design that we see in Star Wars Rebels. Um, this is the first time that we see stormtroopers kind of in this this Clone Wars style animation. We did see Stormtroopers in Bad Batch, but it was still kind of the beginnings of the Stormtrooper um program, which, if you're not familiar, in the beginning movies um with the prequels, we see clone troopers. Clone troopers are not the same as stormtroopers. Clones, they have an accelerated growth um rate, so they were starting to age out of the military, they weren't performing as highly as like this new younger wave of recruits would. So they trained the stormtroopers, the empire did, and the clones were just sort of like phased out, which is where Senator Chucci, we see her in the Bad Batch, she's kind of fighting for clone rights because it doesn't really make sense. Like, okay, they're not part of the military anymore, like that's all they know. What are they supposed to do? And Empire is like, we don't really care, we just need people who are good at fighting, so these guys are out. So, not treated very well. Um, but that's kind of where we see the beginning of the stormtrooper recruitment process. So, this is the first time that we see them kind of in that rebel's design, which is exciting. Because if you don't know, that's okay. We see stormtroopers, Darth Vader, lightsabers, certain droids in Rebels in a design that at first you're kind of like, this looks a little clunky, right? But when you do your research, they are homages to the original concept drawing drawings that Ralph Macquarie did, where he sat down with George and George was like, I have this idea for the soldiers, I have this idea for lightsabers, I have this idea for this, this, this, and this. And Ralph put together those concept drawings, sent them to George, and that's kind of when the costumes and the set design processes started to take place, was because of those original concept designs. So Rebels, to honor that period of Star Wars's foundation, based a lot of their character designs heavily, their animation style is heavily influenced by those drawings. So it's just cool seeing in Clone Wars animation these like Ralph McCory stormtrooper-esque designs, kind of rebels and uh Clone Wars coming together. It's just exciting. So I saw those and I thought that was cool. It's our first time seeing that, so that was exciting. Um, this list, just so you guys know, is gonna be kind of all over the place. Like, I'm gonna be yip-yap and rambling um in true Friday Village Jedi fashion. So you're welcome. Hope y'all are having a fantastic weekend letting me yip-yap in your ears as well. Next point Star Wars is getting a bad guy who's genuinely terrifying. Like the way they frame this trailer. There's two trailers so far, like two official trailers. And um, some more was released today as well on the store on the Star Wars uh web pages. But the red is haunting, and I don't use that word very often. There's lots of scenes I feel like would not be near as impactful as if they had been set during the day. Like they have really set the tone, just these two trailers of what they want the show to be, and they want you to be shaken in your boots. They want you to be on the edge of your seat, clinging to your popcorn, wondering what is going to happen next. They are setting up for some really exciting weeks of Star Wars where they're literally gonna force us to have to wait a whole week in between cliffhangers. And I'm not ready for it, but I'm also so excited for some genuinely peak Star Wars television because we don't even know if this show is gonna be a one and done. If it performs well with the fans, it could get greenlit for future seasons. So we don't totally know where where this is gonna end up, what all we're gonna see. We know where we left Maul and we know where we find Maul in Rebels, but we don't know what happens in between. So the tone of this show, we weren't really sure what it was gonna be, and the trailer has just solidified. It is meant to be eerie, and it is meant to kind of put you on edge, and it is meant to make you ask questions and wonder and kind of have this morality complex where you're low-key rooting for the bad guy. It has all of that while also cinemat cinem cinemographic, is that even a word girl, cinema cine while also maintaining a level of cinema that is just clean and it makes you I'm I'm just I'm kind of vomit, word vomit salad this this whole thing, but y'all know what I mean. There's a lot of scenes, specifically hallway scenes, that are designed to feel like you're being claustrophobic, you're in a confined space with Mall. And he ignites his saber, it's double-bladed, all you see is red, all he's seeing is red, and you're just like, what is gonna happen to these guys? Like, you know, it's not gonna end well, and you almost feel like you're you're trapped in there too with this guy, and that really did strike me as something exciting with the trailer, is just I'm scared. I'm scared. This guy is genuinely a bad dude. He's someone you should be afraid of, and so that's what makes it such an exciting show, is because my next point is it's the same terror I feel as when we were introduced and spent time with Dr. Hemlock from Bad Batch. Dr. Hemlock does experiments on children, he's terrifying, and like Thrawn, I feel like is terrifying because it's got the ominous organ music, but it's not terrifying in the sense that like if I was alone in a room, I don't really know what would happen to me. Um, that's how I feel with Mall. Like, it's just scary, it's kind of bringing out that same trauma I had as a little kid, low-key. So the fact that they're able to set that tone with an animated cartoon children's show just shows you the caliber of what they want to do with this character. And the voice acting, incredible. It just gives you chills because Maul is also a very collected character. We see him in the trailer like pouring himself tea while he's doing this very calculated monologue. It's totally something Thrawn would do. Like, I would love to see Thrawn and Maul interact. That would actually be kind of amazing. Um, but regardless, when I first said it feels like we're getting a bad guy who's genuinely scary, I I'm excited to see what we're what we're gonna see with this guy, what he does. Next point, I wrote Order 66 Survivor. The trailer made me think about Maul in a way that I have never thought about his character before. Because obviously, he's this bad guy, and when you think about Order 66, you think Jedi. All the Jedi were exterminated. They're Padawans, wiped out. Maul is an Order 66 survivor. And I'd never thought about it until this trailer came to mind because the way the trailer is framed, it makes it seem like the show is gonna be exploring what it's like for him to be on the run. And who are the Jedi on the run from? Sidious. Who is Maul on the run from? Sidious. And we see that even in the Clone Wars, if you're familiar. There's this whole arc where Maul kind of takes over Mandalore and he slowly starts to gain a pretty large sum of power and influence. And it's not until he reaches a certain level of control that Sidious kind of feels the vibes and the force and is like, I sense a disturbance and I need to go take care of it. And he goes, he fights Maul and his brother Savajo Press, absolutely decimates them, reminds them who's in charge. He just completely makes a fool out of Maul. And immediately Maul is like, he's bent at the knees. He's like, I'm sorry, have mercy. It's like this chilling scene where Sidious is just like, yeah, I have other uses for you. Like immediately, he's back under Sidious' thumb, right where he doesn't want to be. He's a pawn, and so that's exactly where he's at again now. He is on the same level of the Jedi where you are a threat to Sidious and you need to be silenced and wiped out. So then that's kind of where we see this pink twilight comes into play, and she is kind of entertaining the idea of having an alliance with Maul, because she's also on the run. So why don't we work together? And her friend in the trailer is like, we are not working with Maul. Are you serious? He's terrifying, he's a bad guy, he has red blades, girly, and she I think is gonna end up working with him because she agrees. Like the I I I foresee Maul giving this Pink Twilight the same spiel that he gave Ahsoka when they were in Mandalore, where he's like, You should join me, and he low-key had her, and Ahsoka was like, I mean, I guess I could, but, and then it all you know falls apart because she doesn't believe him. I could see him convincing this pink twilight into believing him, and then they work together, and the season ends with them like in cahoots, like they're they're gonna do what they can do to try and take down Sidious. Because that's his main push as a character has always been revenge. So obviously, he wants revenge after Order 66. How dare you? I cannot believe that this is what you view me as. I'm not a Jedi. Why on earth are you trying to get rid of me? I think you're trying to get rid of me because you know I know. Because, right, he had the vision of what Sidious was gonna do with Anakin, how he was gonna overthrow the Jedi Order, and he was telling Ahsoka, like, hey, if you work with me, like we can stop this. And I feel like that's the same mentality he's gonna have where he's still revenge-driven, he wants to get back at Sidious, so he's an Order 66 survivor, and we're gonna see where that takes him. But I've never thought about him in that way before. So that kind of feeds into my next point. Mall says in the trailer, together we can destroy the Empire. Which again, like I said, his main objective has always been revenge in some shape or form. It used to be high-key revenge on Kenobi. I think that's always gonna be there. He's always gonna be a little bit obsessed with Ben, but he has shifted now the blame to Sidious. He wants revenge on what Sidious has done to him. And he kind of felt like that when he was talking to Ahsoka, but it was more fear-driven. Like, yeah, I want to overthrow this guy, but I know I can't do it on my own. I need help. I know that we can do it, I can't do it on my own. So I think we're gonna see more of that is his kind of climb to um what he like, like kind of bringing in sympathizers and people who want to help him overthrow the Empire. And I'll be interested to see maybe if later on down the seasons we get a live uh uh a Clone Wars animation style Kira, because later, obviously, we're gonna see him kind of working with the crime syndicates. I'm just interested to see where this where this whole revenge plot is going with him. The next point that I had is the new trailer features a hallway scene with Maul versus the Pike soldiers, which, like I just said, crime syndicates. One of the main syndicates that he worked with was the pikes. So it was interesting to me seeing him kind of taking them out. Like, what is that about? Did they try to pull one over on him and now he's coming for revenge? Is he trying to like recruit them? And first he has to bust through the soldiers to get to the king pike or something like that. I don't know. So I don't know. It was just kind of cool to see them again. Um, the next point I wrote down is that the trailer is very likely to showcase scenes from one or two episodes. And this is a common theme in Star Wars shows, is when they drop a new trailer or two, it really only does reveal one or two scenes, major scenes, from the first couple episodes. There's still a ton of stuff under the surface that we have no idea what's coming. And so I think these amazing combat scenes, these cool framed animations, the dialogue, all of it is going to be just in those first couple episodes, which is very exciting because that means we have a whole rest of the show to see what's going to happen here. Where is Maul gonna go? Where is this Pink Twilight gonna go? They're gonna be our main two characters. Why is he pouring himself a cup of tea? You know, there's just different questions that we're gonna have that are answered just within those first few episodes, which is exciting. I feel like we're in for a lot. Um, the next thing I wrote is that this story is also a story of survival. Maul isn't trying to join the rebellion, he's trying to start his own. So he's on the run from orthy6, he's trying to stay alive, he's trying to link up with anyone who might be able to help him out. He's trying to maybe get the crime syndicates involved again. He knows what works because he was able to bring Sidious out of the shadows on Mandalore when he had reached a certain amount of influence and power. So I almost wonder if that's gonna be his MO in this show. Is like, okay, let's that worked. Like, let's try that again. Maybe if I build something big enough, it'll bring him out into the shadows and I can take him out. And I had this conversation with someone over on Instagram because I posted kind of kind of my theory of what we could see in the show. And one of the theories I posted was I would love to see a fight between Maul and Vader. And basically the conversation proceeded, and um what had came out of it was we see uh Maul in Rebels, and he's terrified of Vader. He's literally terrified. He's like, he's too powerful for me. Ain't no way. The Maul that we see at the end of Clone Wars is very confident. He knows that he can defeat Sidious as long as he has Ahsoka's help. We can stop this, and so I'll be interested to see what happens in that frame of time that made him so terrified of Vader. Like something had to happen, whether it be a 2v1 with Sidious and Vader versus Maul or just Vader versus Maul and his clan of gangs, like I don't know, but there's gonna be some sort of interaction between those two characters that results in Maul just being absolutely terrified of him, rightly so. I mean, where we're at in this in the frame of time, Vader isn't very old. He's still pretty powerful. We're talking about like Peak Vader right now. So what's gonna happen to get Maul to that point where he's just absolutely terrified of him? So I'm excited to see that. Um, I also wrote in my notes that Sam Whitwer, who is the voice actor of Maul um in Star Wars uh Clone Wars and in Star Wars Rebels, we're now gonna see him in his own show. He's been playing Maul for 15 years. And I was watching this video where he's explaining that in his dying, in Maul's dying scene in Rebels, Maul says about Luke, because Obi-Wan is on Tatooine protecting Luke. Obi-Wan and Maul have this final fight, Maul tracks him down to Tatooine, and as he's dying in Obi-Wan's arms, Maul says about Luke, he will avenge us. So Maul's entire tragic character really is built on unfulfilled revenge and shattered plans. And so the fact that he carries this narrative, this is one of the last times that we see him before we we watch the show, Maul Shadow Lord. It just shows you where he's at in the frame of mind with the character. That he all he wants is to feel fulfilled, he just wants purpose again because that purpose was stripped away in the Phantom Menace. He was the top dog's sidekick. The rule of two, he was meant to get rid of Sidious and become the new Sith Lord with an apprentice. So he his whole life after that point is really just built on. I'm just trying to get back to a place where I feel useful. I want purpose. And so we're gonna see that in this show as well. Kind of him going after what he feels like his new purpose is post-order 66. Lastly, kind of going hand in hand with that, my final note was that Sidious sends Maul to his death. A lot of the trailer really did kind of bring up how I personally view this character. Obviously, the show is gonna be amazing, obviously, the story is gonna be complex, obviously, we're gonna get a lot of new content with this, but it really did kind of force me to think about well, how do I even feel about this character going into it? Yeah, the show looks cool, duh. The budget's through the roof, it should look cool, but why do I care? Why do I care about this character? That's a big reason some other Star Wars projects maybe have not been as fulfilled for the audience, is because they don't care about the characters. People care about Maul. And so I really wanted to dive into that. Why do I care about Maul? So finally, I wrote my notes. Sidious sends Maul to his death in the Phantom Menace. We already discussed that. He knew that Maul was not going to win that fight, which is tragic all the way around. It's because he knew his plan needed to begin shifting toward politics. Maul would not be capable of running the separatists or their military. He needed a new apprentice who was calm, calculated, experienced, and had good people skills. And we already know his eyes were geared toward Dooku because of the Tales of the Jedi minisode series, where we see Dooku kind of rising to Sidious' side as his new Padawan. So kind of breaking that down a little bit. Maul really was that guy. From the first moment we meet him, he is Darth Sidious's right-hand man. And the next time we see him, after he's been cut in half, is in Clone Wars, and he's just like mentally not okay. It has really just messed him up. His story is no longer in any sort of way involved in Sidious's plans. And you really have to start to think about where this even began for him. He became an apprentice at a younger age, and he was pretty much just used and abused from the beginning. And that I think is why I care so much about his character, is because I like I was saying earlier in the episode, you are rooting for him even though he's a bad guy. And that is the epitome of a tragic hero. Someone that is constantly just trying to do what they believe is the right thing, but it never succeeds. And Maul falls into that category where you're you're thinking, like, man, this guy's gotta get a win at some point. But just when you think he's gonna he's gonna get there, it's ripped away again. That is the purpose and his whole energy of his character. That is he's just doomed to fail every time. And so kind of looking at it from that perspective, going into an entire show that's just focused on him and his character, you know in the back of your mind it's going to end with failure. At some point, he's going to reach what he feels like is just minutes and moments away from that feeling that he's been chasing since he was cast aside by Sidious, and it's not gonna work, it's not gonna happen. So, what I'm hoping that we see from this show, whether that be at the end of season one or the end of season two, I don't know how long they're planning on having the show run. At the end of the show, he's gotta end up on Malachor, which is where we see him again on Star Wars Rebels, and he's old, and he's not very confident, he's a little he's a little senile, and all he's focused on is finding Kenobi again. Something has happened yet again to send him back to that dark place that he was in after he was cut in half on the phantom at uh in the Phantom Menace. So I'm just excited to see more depth from this character. I know in the back of my mind, whatever he's gonna do, it's not gonna work. And so I'm excited to see what they do to kind of build that up. Like, oh, he's gonna make it, he's gonna win this time. He's not. That's the purpose of his character. So it's just gonna, it's just gonna be a wild ride, and I'm really excited to see where it's gonna take us. I'm ready to just hold on. We haven't gotten a lot from this show, which is exciting, um, but it also means I didn't have a lot to offer as far as breaking down the trailer, things that other creators have really done a great job diving into detail about. Um, I just wanted to throw a couple cents from the Village Jedi at you guys, the closer we get to this show coming out. And then what's crazy is as soon as this show is over, the Mandalorian and Grogu is happening. We've just got a lot of Star Wars on the horizon. I feel like I started a podcast at the perfect time. We're getting a lot more content headed our way. Um, next week, like I said, we're gonna be going over some funny moments from Clone Wars, which if you haven't submitted any, maybe you want to try to contribute a little bit more to that discussion. Again, feel free to send me an email at tvjpod at gmail.com or send me a message on Instagram, TikTok. I'm just excited to get more people involved in the discussion. Uh, like I said, the show's been getting a lot of love, and I'm really grateful for it. Check out Sabermasters, check out that collab on Substack. Um, I've just been along for the ride here, and I can't wait to spend a little bit more time with you guys next week. Thank you so much. How embarrassing. I almost forgot to say my new nerdy outro. All right, let's roll. Three, two, one, take one. This is where the fun ends. My only hope is you enjoyed, and I will yap at you next Friday. That was good. This has been The Village Jedi. Thank you so much for listening. To support this show, please leave a rating or review wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. Go check out the YouTube channel, or send me an email to be read and discussed on air. You can also tell a fellow nerd to build the community. I mean this in the nerdiest way possible. May the force be with you.