Maul: Shadow Lord Praises 1 & 2

This show has it ALL! Let's talk about it. You can sense the excitement, but this show really is worth the hype.

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Transcript

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I have a message from the Village Jedi. Max Rebo, hit it! Happy Friday, everybody. This is the Village Jedi Podcast. If you're new here, welcome. And if you're not, welcome back. We are officially in our Mall Shadow Lord era. How does it feel? I know I'm excited. We have some incredible content on the way as Star Wars fans. If you haven't watched the first two Mall episodes yet, you should. And then you should come back and listen to my show, as well as all the other shows out there that are covering the Mall Shadow Lord content we're getting because it is incredible. I saw a podcast, one of the hosts said that it is arguably one of the best pieces of Star Wars media, if not the best currently. I can't really dispute. I mean, it's ranked higher than Andor on Rotten Tomatoes, if you don't know, which is pretty incredible. So incredible debut. I'm gonna be using that word incredible a lot because it's incredible. It's phenomenal. Um, my name is Marina. I'm the local Village Jedi here to talk about all things Star Wars and kind of try to build a community of like-minded fans. If you're new here, first we get kind of out of the way to discuss, join the discussion a little bit about how to do that. First off, you can follow my Instagram and TikTok at the Village Jedi, um, or you can send me an email and I'll read it on air. We can discuss it together. Um, it's evjpod at gmail.com. I've yet to get one of those. We've been doing this for about two months, which is crazy. Thank you for all the support and love that the show has gotten so far. Um, but I haven't gotten an email yet. And so if there's someone out there who's maybe thinking about sending an email, you don't really know how it works. I'm kind of envisioning it's an anonymous system. I will not post your letter anywhere. I will not send your email, like I won't put it anywhere on the internet. Um, I'll it'll be completely anonymous. I'll just kind of read it and we can discuss it together because it's just a good way for fans of the show, fans of Star Wars to join in and become part of the village, as I am the village Jedi. And welcome. Welcome to the Village Jedi. I was gone last week. I posted it on my socials if you didn't know. Um, I had kind of some medical stuff come up. I'm fine now. Uh, but as always, everybody was super supportive, super understanding. Um, and I'm back and I'm better than ever, and I'm excited because as we mentioned, we have a lot of incredible buzzword media for Star Wars fans right now. If you're watching on YouTube, hi. Um I'm wearing a costume again. I actually, this one came from my dad. I'm dressed as Ray from The Last Jedi, which if you don't know from my Who is the Village Jedi episode, I discussed a little bit about that Ray is kind of my favorite character. Honestly, I think I'm just a Star Wars girly pop at my core. And the the minute I embrace that, the easier life is gonna be for me. I love the girlies of Star Wars. So if you ask me who's your favorite character, it's probably the main girl. Not gonna lie. Um, I love Princess Leia, I love Padme, I love Ray, I love Harris and Doula, I love Ahsoka, I love all the girlies. And so I'm gonna get into it a little bit about uh with the mall show. We were introduced to a girly and I already love her. Um, so anyways, this costume is from my dad, and I'm very grateful. Thank you so much. Um, dad, I've told you a couple times, but now I'm gonna put it on the internet how much I appreciate you and your support of my show and my my nerdy hobbies. Um, this makes the third Star Wars costume that I do have. I have another Ray outfit from the final movie, and then I have like an Obi-Wan Kenobi inspired Jedi outfit that I wore my last episode, kind of celebrating some of the show's milestones. And so I was thinking if there's four Fridays in a month and I have three costumes, I just need to get one more, and then I can be dressed as the village Jedi every Friday. I'll just alternate through the costumes, which I think could be kind of fun. I don't know. Let me know. Let me know what you guys think about that. If you care, you probably don't care because you're just here for for my voice, for my content, for my thoughts. Thank you. Um, what else did I have on my notes? Star Wars, y'all. Oh my word. Star Wars sent me a package. You heard that correctly. I posted a video on TikTok. Um, it was just like kind of kind of one of those rando videos where you're like, oh, I need to post today. It was one of those. So I posted the video, walked away from it. It was basically just kind of a four-second, you know, picture of my backpack. I started nursing school. And so I just put, hey, I'm starting nursing school. Here's my backpack. What are some ideas? Maybe you guys could comment about how to make it more Star Wars y. Posted it, walked away. I had a busy week. Um, two days later, I came back to the video and saw that the official Star Wars TikTok had commented. So, as you know, I just said, like, how can I make my backpack more Star Warsy? What are your ideas? And Star Wars, all they said was, we can help with that. And I I didn't even think I saw it correctly. Like, I I kind of freaked out, calmed myself down. I I replied, I was like, Are you serious? Absolutely, yes. Thank you. And then like a day went by and I sent them a DM and I was like, hey guys, like, no pressure. I saw you commenting on my video. Um, I saw maybe you would potentially send me some stuff to decorate my backpack. Like the fact you even commented on my page is awesome. Like, I love you guys so much. Um, not really even expecting anything to come of it. Again, like the way TikTok works, if you're gonna send a message to kind of a bigger creator like a company or an influencer or celebrity or something like that, it's kind of one and done. Like you send them a message and you can't send them anything else until the other party has like approved the conversation. And then they respond to you and the conversation can continue. So this was kind of my one shot. I just was like, hey, I saw you guys commented. Thank you so much. You know, I was not expecting anything to happen, but I I I low-key was like, are you serious? Fast forward like a few days later, they actually responded to me and and they were like, um, yeah, no problem. Send us your shipping information. We want to send you a package. So I did, obviously, obviously. You guys, the official Star Wars. So they sent me a package, um, and I just got another message yesterday. I gave them all my info, and I just got another message yesterday that said, here's your tracking number. Um, so I'll keep you guys in the loop. If you want, you can go follow my social media page, see that journey as it's progressing. One of my friends actually commented on the video. She was like, you need to get this framed and hang it up on the wall, the like that they commented. Which leads me to my next point that I I'm gonna redesign my set. Um, I kind of did a little bit of work to it, you know, put up these posters and my books, a couple figurines. Um, to celebrate mall, I've got like this this ominous red lamp going right now. Um, but something, Grant, my husband was saying is if you stay consistent with this hobby for a couple months, um, we should like redesign the office space to like give you a better set for for YouTube. And so it's been a couple months, and now I have a super cool comment that I want to frame in all its glory and add that to the set. My little brother and I like we want to go to different thrift stores and look for different Star Wars inspired pieces. Um, I have another fan of the show that reached out to me, super kind. He's sending me something cool, which once it gets here, I'll tell you guys about it because it's pretty awesome. So, a lot of updates, a lot of exciting things. The Village Jedi is just one of my favorite hobby decisions that I've ever made, and I'm excited to continue to see where it goes. 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 Sabermasters 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. Okay, so with all that out of the way, we have a lot to yap about. Um, my thoughts are pretty much all over the place in true the Village Jedi fashion. Y'all already know this. Um, we got two episodes this week. I'm looking down my iPad, and it really is just like a mega essay because I wanted to watch the first two episodes. We turned out all the lights, we waited, you know, till the sun went down, which this time of year is like 7 p.m., 8 p.m. So we like turned all the lights off, we sat down, we had ate dinner so that we could just like fully absorb what we were in for. And so the first watch through, I did just that. Like I just sat there and I just let it kind of sink in, really tried to just be in the moment. I was saying some of the things I appreciated out loud so that I would just kind of remind myself as I was watching it the second and third time. So the second time I watched through, that's when I got the notes, and I was just like pausing, typing, pausing, typing, pausing, like my brain was just going a bunch of different directions because it really did debut with a bang. Like, in short, I have a lot of thoughts, but honestly, no notes. Maybe one. I'm sure as we're talking, I might think of something. But like Grant was saying that he was like, honestly, like at the end, like he was like, uh, and I'm like, honestly, what? Like, what would you change for real? There is nothing that you could change to make this better. So it's mostly just gonna be a lot of glazing, honestly. Like, I'm just gonna be so real with you guys. This episode is just gonna be me rambling about how good this show is because I started to think about before we even pressed play, before it was even go time, why do we need a mall show? This character was killed off in The Phantom Menace, he was brought back in Clone Wars. We already know he's gonna die in Rebels. Like, why do we need this show? And the reason that I came up with is because Star Wars is in the market right now for um fleshing out, I guess is is a good word for it, that there are these pockets of time in between movies, in between major plot points, in between characters meeting, where you wonder how did they get there? What happened? What was going on during that time? So, this time is really, as we mentioned in my last episode where I kind of rambled about the Mall Shadow Lord trailer pre-episode debut, that the point of this show is to fill in what happened when he escaped Order 66. He's an Order 66 survivor, and then we see him again on Malachor in Rebels, which is when, you know, right before the Battle of Yavin, right before a new hope, which is a pretty substantial time period. That's basically from when we meet Luke in um Revenge of the Sith, he's a newborn baby, until we see him again in A New Hope. I can't remember off the top of my head how old he is. Y'all can scream in the comments. But that is a pretty substantial chunk of time. So we need this show to tell us what was going on with this character, what was going on with the world at that time, because even with Bad Batch, yeah, we got to follow this cool group of characters, but we also saw what it was like for an imperial, what that looked like for an imperial occupation. Same with Andor. We got a story that was kind of the whole premise of it was to show you whose backs the rebellion was actually built on. And it was crucial information that we didn't know we needed until we had it, and now we love it. And so that's kind of what I think about Mall is that it's going to offer some sort of crucial character and plot information that we didn't know we needed until we got it. And right off the bat, they are setting the stage. They know what kind of show they want us to enjoy, and they are delivering. So my second watch, I got all these notes together. Um, it's already been greenlit for a second season, which means that that second season was most likely already in production, which makes sense because these episodes are such high quality. There was not a single scene, a single second, a single line of dialogue or musical score moment where I was like, why is this here? I'm bored. Yawn. No. Every second I was entertained. I wanted more. I was on the edge of my seat. High quality content. I also wanted to write a note that I have been purposefully avoiding other shows this week as far as breakdowns. I'm recording this on Thursday. Episodes coming out for y'all tomorrow. But the show has already been out for a few days, which means a lot of podcasts right now that I listen to and creators on social media are pushing out everything they love about the show. And I've been actively trying to avoid those just because I want to avoid forming my takeaways based on other fans. Like I, this is my show, and so I want to share with you guys what I personally liked about it, what stood out to me as a viewer, as someone with my knowledge and my perception of Star Wars, why I love Star Wars. Here's why I love this show. I'm gonna catch up on all my all my favorite shows this week, especially Empire Radio. Shout out them, go check them out. They're back this week off their hiatus, and I'm excited to listen to them. Um, let's get into this. I've rambled, yapped, yambled enough. I didn't know if I wanted to do like a full breakdown breakdown because, you know, we all watch the show. If I'm not the only Star Wars podcast you listen to, I'm sure you've listened to other shows who have done, you know, breakdowns. So I didn't want to be like, okay, minute one, here's what's happening. Like, here's just kind of some generalities. I'm sure there's gonna be some sort of like breakdown-esque vibes from my ramblings, but it's only because, like I said, I was taking these notes as I was re-watching the show actively. Like I had my iPad out, had my phone propped up with my headphones, and I was like typing as the episode was playing. So we need to set the stage. If we're going to to release a brand new Star Wars animated show, we've got to set the stage for what this show is gonna be. And as we already mentioned, it's peak, it's good quality, it's an insane amount of man hours have gone into creating this show. So we open the show with a breathtaking cityscape. It honestly gave kind of like spider-verse, like across the spider-verse vibes. There's a few shots showing the cityscape. I think about like especially in the first one where Miles, like, he he jumps off the building. It's like, so what's up, Danja? Like that vibe. And we're on, I was looking up Google for some of these other facts. We are on a mid-rim planet called Janix, and it kind of reminded me of Coruscant, but Google said that the vibe is more influenced by like Gotham, um, which any DC fans out there, that's the the city that Batman kind of takes care of. Um, and all of this is happening at night, this first opening sequence, which I said in my trailer rambles, I think was a very strategic intentional choice because none of these scenes would be near as suspenseful or entertaining if they were animated during the day. So I've already seen online some people are like, it's so dark, it's so dark, I need to turn up my TV, I need to get some blackout curtains. Good. Good. Do you think any of these scenes would be half as incredible if they were not at night time? Maul is a force user with a dual-bladed laser sword. We need to see that thing glow. We need to see the shadows. It's called Maul's Shadow Lord. Honey. Duh. So I really like that. Immediately, we're just thrown into action. You're thinking, you're like, okay, what is happening? What's going on right now? There's a Mandalorian Bankheist. We see Rookcast again, who is a very loyal Maldorean. Um, if you want to learn more about her and kind of all that, I encourage you to go check out those episodes in the Clone Wars where Maul kind of takes over the crime syndicates and becomes this like mob boss. Really good Rookcast. That's where we're first introduced to her character. She is kind of Gar Saxon's right-hand man. It's a very like pre-Vizla Bo-Cotan kind of relationship that they have, but then she gives her loyalties to Maul. Um, Rookcast is actually voiced by Vanessa Marshall, who is Harris and Doula, which is very, very exciting. I love, love Harris and Doula, my space mom. Um, so we see them, and then we also see two Zabracs. Right away, I'm just gonna say these first two episodes, we don't know a lot about their characters. We know their names because of credits, um, but we don't know like anything about them. We don't know when Maul recruited them, how that process went. Like, we just know there's two bonus Zabrax here with the Mandalorian soldiers who are loyal to Maul, one of which is Rookcast, who appears to be kind of the head honcho below Maul. Um, I also wrote down that they have this new droid who kind of looks like um, he looks like a hat, like one of Embo's hats. If you don't know Embo, he's that bounty hunter character from the Clone Wars. That's kind of what he looked like to me right away. But then he kind of starts talking like Chopper times C3PO, like this very robotic voice that's kind of like groggy. And I wrote down that he sounds a lot like a Decepticon, actually. So it's a new type of droid um that we haven't seen before, to my knowledge. Um, and so he's just kind of like the bad guy's slicer, like he's the one that taps into the controls, he's the one that mans the surveillance cameras, he kind of keeps everyone tapped in with their with their comms. He's the bad guy droid, and he sounds like a Decepticon. Um we meet Maul on a platform. The bad guys are trying to get away, they've successfully acquired what they're what they're after, and we hear the duel of fates. Like the fog starts blowing, the lights go out, and we just see him. And he ignites his saber, he absolutely just decimates these guards on the platform and their droids. We cut to the intro, and it is an epic score. Like, I already know this this title is going to stand the test of time. The art, the way it's depicted, it's very like angry. I really like it. Chapter one, The Dark Revenge. Chills, chills, chills, and the crowd was silenced because we're all just in awe. Um, next we kind of meet this Pink Twilek, which Star Wars has revealed her name is Devin. And right away I noticed one of the key takeaways was she is sort of a character with a moral debate. She's obviously a Jedi. She's traveling with this other lizard-esque Jedi. I didn't get a chance to write down his name. But he's a more like peaceful, calm, tries to see the good in the world type of character. And so they're hungry, and she's like, I want to steal some food, I'm starving. And he's like, No, we're not gonna steal. We need to repl we need to rely on the goodness of others' hearts because I believe good most people are good, or whatever Luke Bryan says. That's him, he's a Luke Bryan stan. So she, on the other hand, wants to steal food, which immediately I was like, Okay, so she has kind of this morality issue, like, she she's not falling into she's not. Falling in a line. She's not happy with that decision. So, of course, she's a kid. She decides I'm gonna steal the food anyway. I know more than you. Um, gets arrested. She has to be encouraged by her master to even comply with authorities. So already we're kind of setting the tone for this Devin character, this Pink Twilek, um, that she's not, she's not um like a cookie-cutter Jedi, so to speak. Um, the cop droids, I wrote down, remind me of Treasure Planet, and their human officer counterparts have three R Arabesh guys. How do I pronounce that? Basically, the alphabet from Star Wars, they have three letters. And originally I thought on my first watch through that this was ISB, which is basically like the Imperial Security Bureau or something like that. They're like the FBI for the Empire, the ISB. And so that's who I thought this was. Um, but then I looked it up later, and the letters are actually TDF, which stands for Tactical Defense Force. They're the local authority, they're like the police officers of Janix, which is this planet. I also wrote down that the uniforms kind of reminded me of the ones that Cyril and his men wear in Andor season one, like those blue ones with the orange accents. Um, anyways, their commissioner is Captain Lawson and his droid two boots, like his buddy. Good cop, bad cop, two boots in Lawson. And so they're kind of assessing the situation, the carnage that Mall and his his crew have left behind the next day. It's morning time. So the police roll up, Captain Lawson is like, hey, it looks like someone stole from a powerful crime boss. I mean, we suspect that maybe it could be one of the crime boss's rivals. Um, but you know, that's kind of weird because wouldn't that cause a war between the syndicates? I mean, their work with what they've done last night is pretty coordinated and clean. Like it doesn't make sense. Like what's going on? They're just trying to figure out what happened. And right away, Captain Lawson he knows that something is a little different. Maybe something more sinister is at play. Um, something maybe a little crazier than these organized crime lords would know what to do. Um, because I kind of get the vibe that these officers, they have learned to navigate relationships with the kind of the town's bad guys, right? They know the MOs. They're like, yeah, okay, looks like it was him, you know, we'll we'll go after him, no big deal. But they have no idea what they're working with. It's just not, it's not typical behavior from what they expect out of these local, local bad guys. Um, and going along with the Gotham vibe, I really do feel like Captain Lawson kind of plays into this Commissioner Gordon type character, right? And I love that. I'm excited to see more of him. So the two crime bosses that they the cops are trying to pit against each other that they think was involved in this whole thing is a crime boss called Demas and a crime boss called Vario. Um, basically, these two crime lords, it cuts to them. They're trying to figure out, like, hey, you stole from me, didn't you? I knew it was you, and he's like, bro, it was not me. Like, why are you thinking this was me? Mall's grand plan is working perfectly here. Perfectly. We see, we then cut to Mall, and he's kind of in his hideout, rook cast reports to him. Mall's first words of the show. This is important. When you have a key character like this, you need to shut up and listen because the first words that he utters is going to set the tone. It's it's just gonna tell you a lot when he's when he's this caliber of character. He says, the one I seek is here. I see them clearer the closer I get. Which to me means he hasn't been on Janax. Like we're wondering, where has he been? How did he get to Malakor? He has not been on Janix, he's not been camping out there. He came here for a dual purpose. Revenge, as we see later, when he pits these crime lords against each other. And two, he feels like the force is calling him possibly for a new apprentice. Um, he later then says, soon they will all pay. And that's when we see the Dark Revenge chapter title. Something Grant actually said is when Maul is dealing with the bank droid that they stole, it's kind of interesting that droids aren't breathing beings, but they still want to live. Like they still get scared for their lives. And I hadn't really thought about that. I thought that was a good point I wanted to share also. Um later, we kind of learned that Lawson has this teenage son that he lives with, and so it makes sense why he acts the way he does toward Devin, who got arrested for trying to steal food. It's more of like a casual, you know, he's calling her kid. He's like, hey, like, work with me. Like, I can't help you out if you're just like not gonna tell me anything. Like, are you sure you want to spend the night in a cell? Like, girl, like he just he's more casual with her, which you learn later makes sense because he's a dad. Like, he has a teenager, he gets it. So I liked that. Um, two boots, which is Lawson's droid, kind of runs, runs through all the security footage and stops it when they see Maul. As you as I said, like he kind of decimated all the guards and the soldiers on the platform, and so they're trying to figure out what happened. Boom, now we have a picture of Maul. And so Captain Lawson says, laser sword. I haven't seen one of those since the Clone Wars, which is kind of crazy. Like it, guys, the way these shows are just lining up, like I can't help but wonder, is there gonna be any sort of overlap with like Bad Batch and Rebels? Like, what are we going to see that later when I re-watch this show, rewatch Rebels, re-watch Bad Batch, I'm gonna be like, oh, oh, I I remember him or oh yeah, that's that planet, or oh, you know, like everything is intentional, so it's just exciting. Um, this also implies that there's no imperial occupation right now because they're trying to figure out what they want to do. And Lawson's like, don't call the, don't call the ISB, don't call the emperor, don't call the the empire. Like, we can we can figure this out on ourselves. Like, let's just let's just keep this low-key. Um, Maul's facial recognition flags their system, that the officials are actually supposed to report any sightings of him to the ISB. He is an enemy of the Empire, which obviously all force users are. But I can't help but wonder if Sidious specifically flagged Maul for a personal vendetta reason. He knows how dangerous he is, he knows what he's capable of. If you see this guy, tell someone immediately so that they can tell me. So that happens. Um, we see later Vario and Demas, their confrontation over a delicious Italian cuisine, I must say. And Vario reminds me, I wrote down he reminds me so much of this one yellow alien. I don't know if you guys remember um Lilo and Stitch used to have a TV show. It's on Disney Plus right now. I watched it as a kid on Disney Channel. But there's this yellow alien named Ruben, and he's pretty much just obsessed with sandwiches, and Vario reminds me of Ruben. He they're the same. Like his little smile, his like swagger, like, hey, hey, like he reminds me of Ruben so bad. So I had to write that down. Um, I appreciate Maul has kind of surveillance on the situation. He's like trying to watch how this is gonna play out. This is his whole plan. He wants to pit them against each other. He was thinking that Demas would come out on top, but he ends up sending Hitman to finish the job and take Vario captive. Um, Maul wants Vario, so he sends his team. Um, and even though Rook doesn't want to go, because she's like, we can't really get involved, like there's police officers with this now. Like the cops are after Vario too. If our paths cross, like this is gonna be bad. Like we can't break him out of prison, you know. I don't like this. She's like raising these concerns. But Maul believes the risk is worth the reward because he's justifying, well, we aren't just going for Vario, we're also here for a greater reason. What my visions have been trying to tell me. I need to move myself in the right direction that this path is trying to lead me. Like, I want to work in harmony with this ultimate vision that I don't know enough of. But the closer I get, the more will be revealed. So, like, I don't care that it's a risk. We need to like see this through. And she's like, I you the boss. What is this though? And he's scared, he's scared, but he says, Have you ever heard of the shadow collective? Which is the criminal alliance that Maul built and led during the Clone Wars. It's a phenomenal arc. I constantly find myself re-watching it. Um, but just that those words, guys, the shadow collective. Oh, it's so good. So Vario gets locked up by the cops. Um, and my initial watch, I actually noticed that there was aft after Vario gets arrested, there's like this suspenseful, eerie music, and it feels very tense, like something is building, but you don't know what. Because this is the first time you're watching it. You don't know what's gonna happen. You don't totally know Maul's plan. You're like, where is this going? It's just a buildup, and it tells me that things are moving quickly, like things are moving so fast that my brain isn't even even able to piece together, okay, well, maybe this could happen, or maybe this is gonna happen. Like, no, it's just straight, straight action. Like, we're here now, we're talking to him now, we're moving here now, we're saying this now. Like, and everything is so intentional. It's a lot like Andor season two, where you're just you're on the edge of your seat, you want more, and it feels like the action is not moving fast enough, but at the same time, it's moving so quickly that on your second watch-through, third watch through, fourth watch through, you're gonna catch something new and it's gonna be even more exciting. So, moving on, we get this horror-esque hallway scene when Mall's Zaborax and his squad break into the holding cells to take Vario. We see one of the Zaboraks kind of leading the soldiers into a trap. They like hold up their flashlight, and you can see one of them just like like slowly walk by. Oh no. Like, we had to rewind that part. I told Graham, I'm like, I'm out, I'm out, like I fire me. Like, I'm I'm high tailing it out of there. So I thought that was really good. Like, I got I got chills. I was like, you know, like what's this is not gonna be good. You know what's gonna happen, and it's just it's not gonna be good. And hallway scenes are always good, right? They're always good. Um, in a rare win for the good guys, I wrote this down that Two Boots beats Malls droid in a system reprogramming effort. You know, like Lawson and Two Boots get separated, and Lawson's like, you need to get the system back online, like open these doors. And so the mall's droid and two boots, they're kind of like battling one on either end trying to get the system back online, and um the good guys win. And this scene made me realize like I felt a little bummed when Two Boots beat Mall's droid. I was like, oh, but then I caught myself, I was like, not me rooting for the bad guys, like this is crazy, which shows that the directors, the creators, the artists, the voice actors, they have you right where they want you. They have me right where they want me. That I am rooting for the enemy. These are the bad guys. Why am I cheering for them? I don't know. It's very intense, very intense hallway scene. Mall is calm. He gets to hip to Vario's cell. He's calm, calculated, measured, and that's what makes him so terrifying. He's not rattled easily, if at all. Like nothing phases him. And so he just has this very solid grounding confidence, not peaceful confidence. It's like an aggressive, kind of like unsettling confidence. And so, like, they take Vario and then he walks slightly past Devin's cell, stops, and like turns. Y'all, it is nightmare fuel. The way that this shot is framed, like the red shadow is behind him, and all you see is like his silhouette and his glowing eyes, and he's just like looking through the glass. Oh my goodness, it's it's just a very like haunting presence. Mall's aura is just going straight through the roof, like all credit to the artists, all credit to the storyboard. You know, they they knew what the money shots were gonna be, and this this was one of them. Um, and that's kind of the end of the first episode. Like, he looks at Devin, and then you can see like the door slides open, and Devin knows who he is immediately. She's like, Maul, and that's how the show ends. Like, that's how episode one ends. And all you're thinking is like, next, next, like next episode, play. Because it it's giving fans what they want without being cheap fan service. Like, we are hooked, and we don't even know what we're in for, and that's what makes it so exciting. So that's episode one. We're gonna move into episode two. It is called sinister schemes, which, if you Google the word sinister, it means giving the impression that something harmful or evil is happening or will happen. So there is action with evil intent, sinister schemes. So Mall's got what he wants. He gets Devin, he gets Vario, the squad, they're trying to escape. And the cops are in pursuit. Lawson has no idea what he's gotten himself into, but he knows that time cannot be wasted. Every second counts. Like you are just in the heat of the moment with him. And it's this car chase, it feels very Gotham, very dark night, very well done. And then we pivot to the lizard Jedi. I still don't know his name. I'm gonna look it up as soon as I'm done with this. He pulls a move that just yanks the rug right out from under all of us. We look like clowns. Okay, we looked like clowns with our jaws on the floor. He force stops Maul's car and it flips, and the cop car flips. Like every everyone's just like, what is going on? Guys, it's it was so unpredictable, it caught me off guard because it wasn't in the trailer, to my knowledge. It just it was so good. He force stops the transport, Maul like climbs out of the fiery mess, and we see this micro-facial expression from Maul, and it indicates that he is still in control of this game, and that a new piece has just been added. He's intrigued, not threatened, and somehow everything is still going according to plan because Maul is in complete control. I put a little star by this because this is arguably one of my favorite scenes from both of these episodes. Favorite. Maul quickly pieces together the puzzle. You've got a group of cops and a Jedi who's supposed to be in hiding. He reads both of them like a book. Both of them. Because instead of fighting, how do you distract both of these types of people, a cop and a Jedi? You endanger innocent lives. And so he doesn't even pay attention to them. Like he's not threatened by them at all. He just uses the force, collapses this bridge with a bunch of cars and people. It works flawlessly. Panic ensues, and him and his team are able to escape unharmed because Larson and his men, along with this Jedi, predictably turn from the fight and save those who are in greater danger than themselves. I loved this scene. I cannot say enough about this scene because it just shows you how smart Maul is. He's not he what he wasn't even planning to fight. He could have left that laser sword at home. He knows how to play his enemies. And we saw it in episode one where he pitted the crime lords against each other, and now we're seeing it here where he's pitting the good guys. It's it's I love it. I love it. So then we cut to the scene. Larson's boss, did I say Lawson? Larson? Lawson, Captain Lawson. His boss is mad because they do not want an imperial occupation, understandably. And the boss is basically like, you need to handle this before it gets too much attention. What were you thinking? This is this is this is dumb. You're dumb. You're smarter than this. Figure it out. And Lawson's like, I'm on it. Because I also don't want an imperial occupation. We cut back to Mall. He's in the hideout. He's like, Devin, let the Mandalorian, you know, medical guy, like, let him help you. You're injured. And she's basically like, I don't need anyone. I don't need anyone. And he's like, I, you know, I'm not saying you can't take care of yourself. I'm just saying, like, trying to help you out. And in that moment, I just started to realize she's a teenager. She's a teenage girl. We know this from episode one, the way she was acting with Captain Lawson. And I started thinking about like how he interacts with Ahsoka, how we see him interact with Ezra and Rebels, and now how we're seeing him interact with Devin. Maul is very skilled at manipulating teenagers. They have strong emotions about everything, and they're so personally convinced that their way is the best way. Like he knows how to use that to his advantage. He just needs to direct that energy a little, a little, you know, off-center, and he's got him right where he wants him. Like, have you ever thought about this? Like, so a little bit of doubts, and and he's got him right where he wants him. So I really like that. Like it gives us more insight into why he is able to manipulate Ezra so well. It's because likely he had a lot of practice with Devin. We also have Maul, he gives the Darth Sidious name drop. Basically, he says, I'm gonna use her to help me get back at those who wronged me. The crime lords and Sidious. And Rookcast is like, I love it, let's do it. Okay, now the test begins. They obviously throw Vario in a cell, but Maul throws Devin in a cell, knowing full good and well she can escape any moment she wants. But this is this is the test. Maul doesn't want to kill her, he wants to use her, and so that is the Sith way. That much like Thrawn, we don't waste. We don't need to needlessly waste. Like if there are opportunities or tools or weapons that we can use to further our own agenda, we are gonna take full advantage of that. Obviously. Next, we cut to some scenes where Lawson is kind of humanized. He's drinking a bunch of coffee. We see some scenes with his teenage son. We hear a little bit about his marriage problems, which is very similar to Andor. Like it's humanizing these people who are just trying to make their way through the galaxy and deal with kind of the horrible things that happen in it. And we cut to two boots. He calls and says he can't find any data on the shadow collective that Vario was talking about, this like underground crime syndicate. There's nothing coming up. And part of me thought originally that this is because Sidious removed all evidence of its existence, considering he was so threatened by it. Like he personally went to Mandalore and shut it down in a 2v1 fight. Shut this down. You are not gonna be stronger than me. You are not going to outsmart me. You need to be humbled. So I think he got rid of it because he didn't want any evidence that, like, I don't know, someone outsmarted him a little bit. Yikes. Um, but then I started thinking Vario was scared to even utter the name of that organization. So maybe it's just because it's this huge secret, the shadow collective. Um, then we we have this interesting line of dialogue where Two Boots is basically he's like, we need to call the Empire. Like, I know you don't want to do that. And Lawson, he's heavily opposed. He's like, We're not. We're not. And I also wrote down that I can't help but wonder if that's because the effects of an imperial occupation are way worse for people than droids, especially people whose job it is to secure their own regions. What happens to them when stormtroopers and imperial officers take those jobs instead? He's got a kid. Also, the Imperials, the Empire, they're rude. They're not fair. They don't play by the rules. It's not a pleasant experience to have an imperial occupation on your home world. He knows that. So of course the droid is like, we should do it. We're in over our heads. And Lawson is like, boy, no. Like, we need to figure this out on our s on like on our own. We're not, we're not gonna call them. Absolutely not. So now that Maul kind of has Vario's info, he interrogated him a little bit about, you know, the pikes. He goes to exact revenge on them because they were one of the other syndicates that was under his control. In the meantime, Lawson visits an old friend who is an underworld informant. The show doesn't tell us who she is, but this is the girly I was telling you guys at the beginning of the episode that I loved. I loved, I loved. Her name is Rena Sol. Her character design, I just think is so cool. I like her voice actor. I love her outfit and her alien design. Like, I need to do more research about her, and I hope we see her again because I really do like her character. Like, they put too much work into making her look the way they did for us never to see her again. Rena Sol. She explains what she knows about the Shadow Collective to Captain Lawson, and then obviously she shoots her shot by offering to go out to dinner. And I really can't blame her, frankly. Um Devin's test while she's in her cell still continues. She's very fiery. She's got a lot of like angst, and Moll offers her power. This is the beginning of the recruitment process as a viewer. I'm like, oh, he's trying to, he's trying to sign her on. Um, he says it's not as simple as good versus evil. He says that he's already disappointed, and I agree, like, she's pretty much given up without even trying, which reveals her age. Like she's not afraid of him. She's just kind of immature and presenting this false face of confidence. And it's almost as if she doesn't fully understand like her situation and who she's in the presence of and like what he's capable of, like the fact that she's so vastly outnumbered. Like, I do not know what this little girl is thinking. She reminds me a lot of Omega, actually, where I'm just like, girl, honey. It's fine. Star Wars women's superiority, they they are never damsels in distress. Like, I I gotta give them credit. There is never once a time where I'm watching Star Wars and I'm like, oh, somebody save her. Like, no, she's gonna save herself. She can she can carry her own weight. Um, we cut to this second hallway scene where Mall's exacting revenge on the Pike Syndicate. It is even more intense than the first one, let me just say. I texted my friend who has two little girls, they're my nieces, and I was basically like, girl, this show is not for kids. Like, this this is a mommy and daddy show. Like, I if I was a mother, I don't know that I would let my my little tyke watch these hot way scenes. Like, bruh. So, anyways, the score, I don't know what they were on, something else. The opera music, incredible art style, crazy. I love that the lightsabers are like jagged, like it's animated in like a jagged instead of like a fluidity. It's like, you know, crackly. And Grant said that maybe that indicates how well Maul has bled his crystal, and I 100% agree. That crystal is being tortured every second. And if you want more information about how kyper hostels work, I did an episode on that a couple weeks ago, not gonna lie, it's pretty great. Go check it out. And if you did enjoy that episode, tell someone else how amazing it was so that they'll go listen to it because it was pretty great. Anyways, what makes Maul scary in these moments is that he is not afraid. Like, he could be facing a hundred guys and he's still in total control, and he does not come to play at all every second. He's just ready to go, ready to completely dominate, and he needs no one. Like, he is a solitary creature, a creature of solitude, a man of loneliness, but he's content in his loneliness. And he really only needs people. I wrote, he really only needs people who are willing pieces, some who are unfortunately too foolish to know that they're part of his game. So after a final motivating push to see past her current line of thinking and reasoning, Devin ends up succeeding in her simple escape. She's all proud of herself, and then the episode cuts with this look of determination that she has. Like, is she determined to learn more? Is she determined to prove him wrong? Because Maul wants to be surprised. We know this. He is con like part of the stimulation he gets is from seeing what are people gonna do. He's like a mad scientist. He wants to know how things are gonna play out, which is why I would love to see him and Thrawn interact because they think so similarly as characters as far as like the manipulation and the way they're able to just predict people. Like, I just love it. I wanted to end the episode, um, like this episode, on the note that Maul wants to be surprised. But the thing is, your level of humility actually determines how easily you can be surprised. And Maul is extremely confident right now. Which we talked about in the trailer. He's feeling a little confident, and then when we see him in Rebels, he's got his tail tucked between his legs. So, what's gonna happen during this show? Is he gonna fight Vader? Like, is he gonna fight Sidious again? Like, what is gonna happen that is gonna make this man scared for his life? Because right now he's not scared of anything. Anyways, that's kind of all I got. I hope you guys enjoyed. I enjoyed. I'm looking forward to talking about these episodes with the shows I listen to, the people I follow on socials, the people in my real life who are watching this show with me and talking about Star Wars with me. Like, it is it's gonna be something special. I mean, we all knew that, but now we know for sure this show came out with a bang, the debut was incredible, and I cannot wait to talk about it more. I don't know how many episodes for sure that we are getting, but I do know that the last episode leads right up to the um release of the Mandalorian and Grogu. So I think we've got a couple more weeks because that's coming out, I think in May. I can't remember, or maybe March, April, May, June. Yeah, it's May. Yeah. Anyways, very exciting, a lot of fun episodes coming out, a lot of good content from Maul Shadow Lord that I'm going to discuss with you guys. If you enjoyed this show, um I I'll be here, I'll be here next week. Yeah, yeah. Um, this is where I get to say my nerdy intro. This is where the fun ends. My only hope is you enjoyed, and I will yap at you guys again next Friday. 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.