Star Wars has many fan-favorite villains and one of the best is Darth Maul. Ever since the first glimpses of the characters were given, fans couldn't wait to see him. His debut in The Phantom Menace was huge and although he seemingly only lasted the one movie, he was an extremely popular character with one of the best fights in the entire Saga. Eventually, a little show called The Clone Wars would bring him back and his legions of fans would rejoice.
Maul would go through a lot in the years since his return, growing and changing as a character, becoming a greater part of the Saga.
10 He Didn't Actually Die
As intimated above, Maul survived his battle with Obi-Wan Kenobi, thanks to Sith powers and his unique physiology. He would end up on Lotho Prime, where he would create spider-like new legs for himself. This one of the biggest changes since The Phantom Menace.
It's also the change that made all the other ones possible- without this return, he never would have grown as much as a character as he did and would have remained a one-dimensional henchmen. However, this change opened the character up to a lot of situations.
9 He Lost His Mind For A Time
Maul's time on Lotho Prime was yet another change for the character- he went mad. His injuries, combined with the solitude, began to drive him mad. He kept going over his defeat over and over again, blaming Obi-Wan Kenobi for all of the things that had happened to him, his hate growing greater and greater.
Darth Maul's time on Lotho Prime made him into a boogeyman of a sort. Eventually, though, he would be found by someone most unexpected- his brother, sent by his mother to find him.
8 His Family Would Be Revealed
One of the things that most fans would have never thought would have happened is for Maul's family to be revealed but they actually played a huge part in the character's new life. Debuting in The Clone Wars, his mother, the leader of the Nightsisters called Mother Talzin, and his brother, Savage Opress, played an integral role in Maul's return, repairing his broken mind and giving him new legs.
Before their introduction, the origin of Maul was that he was given to Palpatine on Dathomir by a random Zabrak but this change did a lot for the character- Opress would become rather important to him.
7 He Would Make His Brother His Apprentice
With his mind restored, Maul would decide that he wanted revenge on everyone, including his old Sith Master, Darth Sidious. As such, he would take his brother as his own Sith apprentice. He would train his brother in the Sith ways he had learned and the two would go out into the greater galaxy, trying to find and destroy Kenobi.
They would eventually encounter Obi-Wan and Jedi Master Adi Gallia in battle, a battle that would cost Gallia her life. This was the first phase of their new plan, one that would lead to some unexpected places.
6 He Would Become A Gangster
Maul's quest took him into some unexpected places, with the most unexpected being him becoming a criminal mastermind. He would take over leadership of Black Sun and other crime syndicates, founding the Shadow Collective. The Shadow Collective would form a third side in the Clone Wars, secretly involving itself so Maul could get his revenge.
Maul taking control of crime syndicates is the kind of change that no one at all expected. However, it gave him more power than his already prodigious Force abilities- power he would soon use.
5 He Became The Leader Of A Planet
Maul and his brother, along with the Shadow Collective, gained new allies- the Mandalorian Death Watch. Led by Pre Vizsla, the Death Watch wanted to wrest the planet from Duchess Satine Kryze and change the pacifist ways she had brought to the planet. Maul, with the help of the Death Watch and the Shadow Collective, was able to take the planet.
This another change that no one would have ever thought Maul would have gone through. Maul never really seemed like the leader type and seeing him take over a planet and lead it was a big change for the character.
4 He Would Lose It All Because Of Palpatine
Eventually, Maul's re-emergence on the galactic scene and power would draw the attention of the most dangerous being in the galaxy- Darth Sidious. Maul knew his secret and that was something that Sidious could not allow. He traveled to Mandalore and challenged Maul and his brother to a battle.
The two Zabrak would engage Sidious in lightsaber combat but were completely outclassed. Opress would lose his life in battle with the Sith Lord. Maul would be captured and put into a Separatist prison, one he would eventually escape with the help of the Death Watch.
3 He Survived The Clone Wars
The Clone Wars were a meat grinder in general but especially for Force-sensitive beings. The vast majority of the Jedi Order was destroyed, Count Dooku and Asajj Ventress were both killed, and the Empire was actively hunting down everyone else, whether it be to kill or co-opt them.
Maul was able to survive the war, though he lost just about everything else in the process. This is another huge change for the character- no one would have imagined he would have been alive to see the Clone War begin, let alone survive them.
2 He Regained- And Lost- A Criminal Empire
In the ensuing years, Maul would find his way back to the underworld. Using his prior contacts, he would reforge his criminal empire, creating the Crimson Dawn, a galaxy-wide criminal consortium that would make him a force in the galaxy, as seen in the movie, Solo.
At some point, though, he would lose that empire. While it's speculated that would have been revealed in cancelled sequels to Solo (it may still be revealed, but no one knows for sure), nobody really knows what happened to end Crimson Dawn and how he ended up where he was next, trying to seduce young Ezra Bridger to the dark side and make him into a new Sith apprentice.
1 He Would Finally Die
Death is the final change and Maul would eventually experience that on the world of Tatooine. Learning the location of his arch-nemesis Obi-Wan Kenobi, Maul would travel there to engage his rival in battle. Their fight would be swift and, in what is one of the Saga's greatest lightsaber deaths, Maul would lose his life.
He would die being held by his worst enemy, the night sands of Tatooine blowing around them. His death at Kenobi's hand would bring him full circle to the end of The Phantom Menace, except this time, the change would be permanent.
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