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I wish Darth maul was the main villain for the Prequels.

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Guys image if Darth Maul was the main villain in the Prequels. In the second film he would recover from his injury and have a robotic lower half, only alive due to pure hate, like Anakin later on. Then he would try to track Obiwan down. He could learn more force powers and develop into a wiser Sith. He then learn about Obiwan’s young apprentice, Anakin, and with Darth Sidious orders he would murder Anakin’s mother, causing hate and fear to grow in Anakin. In Darth Mauls mind he would be getting redemption but in actually he would be playing a pawn to Palpatine. We could learn more about his backstory. He could have a similar birth story as Anakin but born to a Sith controlled world and found by Palpatine. Like a death match fighting tournament instead of a pod race. Darth Maul looks like the devil but would grow to be less evil through the two movies as Anakin slowly turns into the monster he feared. It would have more symbolism as it would ask the question “what makes someone evil the marking on the outside or the person within”.

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DARTH MAUL is vastly superior in THE CLONE WARS, and REBELS. Sam Witwer is the character official voice actor too.
You should watch those two series. THE CLONE WARS, CLONE WARS is the traditional animated LEGENDS canon animation, is recommended Chronological Story Order, not Broadcast Order.

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Maul was only interesting when he was a piece of Iain McCaig concept art, IMO. I fuckin’ hate the character otherwise.

I wish Qui-Gon and Dooku had been a single character and he had been the main villain for the prequels (and genuinely opposed to Palpatine rather than being his penultimate patsy).

“The Anarchists are right in everything; in the negation of the existing order and in the assertion that, without Authority there could not be worse violence than that of Authority under existing conditions. They are mistaken only in thinking that anarchy can be instituted by a violent revolution… There can be only one permanent revolution — a moral one: the regeneration of the inner man. How is this revolution to take place? Nobody knows how it will take place in humanity, but every man feels it clearly in himself. And yet in our world everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody thinks of changing himself.”

― Leo Tolstoy

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Superweapon VII said:

Maul was only interesting when he was a piece of Iain McCaig concept art, IMO. I fuckin’ hate the character otherwise.

I wish Qui-Gon and Dooku had been a single character and he had been the main villain for the prequels (and genuinely opposed to Palpatine rather than being his penultimate patsy).

Agreed 100%. Maul looks neat, but he doesn’t have the substance to be anything more than a one-off mook.

Dooku genuinely had incredible potential though, although I wouldn’t want him to be Qui-Gon. I wish someone could compile all of Christopher Lee’s lines in 90s and 2000s movies, so that Sidious’ TPM dialogue could be replaced with reasonable Dooku equivalents.

My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

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The Prequels needed some consistent villain (apart from Palpatine) that was present throughout (or at least in the first 2 movies), and played an active role in driving the plot.

I don’t think Maul really worked. He’s basically just like a “Generic Sith starter kit”. Yeah I know later cartoons gave him more depth, but he’s not ideal.

The Prequels needed a villain that fit thematically with the larger events/themes. Count Dooku is closer thematically to what I want, but he also sucks and is written incoherently. I like the idea that initially he seems to be taking a principled stance against a corrupt Republic, and he even outright tells Kenobi: “Look, there’s a secret Sith controlling everything, please help.” But then it turns out he’s actually just a Sith himself, so whatever.

After mulling it over in my head over the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that a character similar to something like Darth Revan would have worked best as a primary Prequel villain. The idea is that there was a formerly well-respected Jedi Master (like Dooku and/or Revan - I’ll refer to him as “Jedi X”) who was ex-communicated from the Jedi order due to a controversial but principled stance he took during a former war (e.g. how Revan went to fight the Mandalorians against the will of the Jedi.) The disgraced Jedi X goes into exile, where he by chance discovers that a powerful Sith Lord (Palpatine) is manipulating the Republic at the highest levels of government. Jedi X attempts to confront this Sith Lord and fails, and realizes the Jedi have no chance against this guy because they have no understanding of the Dark Side and nobody has even seen a Sith for thousands of years. So, with good intentions, Jedi X decides he has no choice but to become the Sith Lord’s apprentice, so that he can learn the Dark Side and eventually use it to kill his own master and save the Republic. (All this can just be backstory, it doesn’t need to be actually depicted in any hypothetical Prequel rewrite.)

But of course, the cost of becoming a Dark Side expert is that you actually become pretty evil. So Jedi X becomes a true villain, and his original intention of killing his master in order to save the Republic slowly morphs into killing his master simply to gain power for himself. But Palpatine is pretty powerful, and Jedi X (now officially a Sith) eventually concludes he can’t kill his master without help. So he starts looking for an apprentice of his own to help him take down Palpatine. During the course of the events of the Prequels, he meets Obi-Wan and Anakin. Jedi X opens up to Obi-Wan (in the same way Dooku does), essentially spilling the entire plot: “Look, there’s an evil Sith Lord secretly manipulating the Government. He’s way ahead of you and way more powerful, but I know how to take him out. Join me, etc.” Of course, since Jedi X himself has already done some pretty evil stuff, Kenobi doesn’t believe him.

Some time later, Jedi X makes the same pitch to Anakin. Anakin also doesn’t buy it. But Jedi X is able to manipulate Anakin enough, significantly pissing him off, so that Anakin eventually flips out and starts giving into his anger. Jedi X is hoping he can turn Anakin to the Dark Side by forcing him to act out of anger (in the same way that Palpatine tried to goad Luke into killing Vader.)

But… (plot twist), the plan backfires. Jedi X successfully goads Anakin into embracing anger and using the Dark Side, except Anakin is just slightly too powerful/unpredictable for Jedi X to fully control. Anakin gives into anger and murders Jedi X in a moment of rage. When Palpatine finds out, Palpatine realizes Anakin would make an even better apprentice than Jedi X. So Palpatine takes over where Jedi X left off in the effort to fully convert Anakin to a Sith.

Then, at the end of Episode 3, after everything goes to hell, Kenobi realizes Jedi X was right all along. Kenobi has a sort of “Statue of Liberty in Planet of the Apes” moment where he breaks down, realizing what idiots the Jedi (including himself) had been. He sees now that Jedi X tried to warn them, but they were too judgmental to listen, and now it’s too late because the President of the Galaxy is an evil sorcerer and Anakin turned into a fascist cyborg.

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I like Christopher Lee but the fight scenes with Count Dooku are comical. Christopher Lee was too old and the fight had to be zoomed in.

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Vader88 said:

I like Christopher Lee but the fight scenes with Count Dooku are comical. Christopher Lee was too old and the fight had to be zoomed in.

I’d say all the fight scenes in the PT are comical.

“The Anarchists are right in everything; in the negation of the existing order and in the assertion that, without Authority there could not be worse violence than that of Authority under existing conditions. They are mistaken only in thinking that anarchy can be instituted by a violent revolution… There can be only one permanent revolution — a moral one: the regeneration of the inner man. How is this revolution to take place? Nobody knows how it will take place in humanity, but every man feels it clearly in himself. And yet in our world everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody thinks of changing himself.”

― Leo Tolstoy

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Superweapon VII said:

Vader88 said:

I like Christopher Lee but the fight scenes with Count Dooku are comical. Christopher Lee was too old and the fight had to be zoomed in.

I’d say all the fight scenes in the PT are comical.

Nah, not all of them. They’re all stupid, but there’s a big difference between “stupid” and “comical”. The best fight scenes in the PT are the ones that avoid being comical by distracting the audience from how stupid they are.

My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

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I did not like the Character of Darth Maul yes he looked Cool but he wasnt too interesting except for the Action Scenes I didnt like it how Resurrected him in TCW Show it was very Forced and he was not Original Exar Kun a Character from Tales of the Jedi Comics used the Double Lightsaber first i think Dooku should have been the Villain in Episode 1 Qui Gon should not have existed Obi Wan must have been Yoda Padawan

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MinchD36 said:

I did not like the Character of Darth Maul yes he looked Cool but he wasnt too interesting except for the Action Scenes I didnt like it how Resurrected him in TCW Show it was very Forced and he was not Original Exar Kun a Character from Tales of the Jedi Comics used the Double Lightsaber first

A strange criticism. Is Lucas not allowed to take inspiration from the EU? Besides, Kun and Maul are completely dissimilar characters.

“The Anarchists are right in everything; in the negation of the existing order and in the assertion that, without Authority there could not be worse violence than that of Authority under existing conditions. They are mistaken only in thinking that anarchy can be instituted by a violent revolution… There can be only one permanent revolution — a moral one: the regeneration of the inner man. How is this revolution to take place? Nobody knows how it will take place in humanity, but every man feels it clearly in himself. And yet in our world everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody thinks of changing himself.”

― Leo Tolstoy

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A one note character who represents hate. Who is dispatched easily by Obi Wan. Even less of a character than Boba was in the OT. Boba existed to get Han to Jabba, Maul existed to be killed by Obi-Wan and to kill Qui-Gon.

Was he a better character in Rebels and Clone Wars debatable but that character isn’t the same Maul.