Welcome, my dear readers, it has been said that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, but that statement was obviously disingenuous. Just for the sake of argument, would you align yourself with forces you didn’t agree with, or in one way or another violently oppose, in pursuit of a higher purpose? Let’s say you are placed in the unwitting predicament to stop a criminal, say a bank robber, from escaping justice, but you know that they are a modern-day Robin Hood and are trying to genuinely change the dynamics of an unjust system. Would you let them go, would you join them, or would you endeavour to stop them out of principle?
What if that criminal didn’t have the best intentions and their interests didn’t include helping anyone but themselves? Would you stop them or help them? Especially if helping them help themselves ultimately helped you? Now, of course, you could also be a criminal, so helping them escape would only serve to further your nefarious master plans. It’s hard to say, but I like to think the followers of Cosmic-books are all indeed outstanding members of society and would never think of aiding and abetting.
So I ask: can you imagine a situation in which you might be lured to change your principles and align with a purpose diametrically opposed to everything you believed in, if it meant accomplishing the greater good? To legitimately join your enemy at their game. What if the purpose wasn’t so enduring but served only to profit? What could push you over the edge to align yourself with something you would normally be against, like stealing bread because you are starving? What if you were completely satisfied in life and just thought you would turn your back on everything and everyone who believed in you out of spite or greed, perhaps just out of maliciousness?
What could push you over the edge, step over the line, move to the dark side or worse, cross the floor?
So as fate would have it, this week, while searching for inspiration to create my monthly piece of art (if you’d call it that), I stumbled upon the new Disney/Star Wars series, Maul, Shadow Lord. I had heard of it a year or so ago, but wasn’t sure when it would be released. What I did hear about it was the expected backlash that all Star Wars shows experience these days, only this time, it was directed at the animation style they were using. This was surprising because the series is presented in the same style as Clone Wars, Rebels, and The Bad Batch. These were all fantastic shows, btw, and I’m sure the production costs were managed due to the ability to re-use pre-designed digital assets. Personally, I was just happy for something to watch besides the daily political drama raging on X!
In my opinion, any new Star Wars is better than none at all.
So this new series, Maul, Shadow lord (I’m a little over halfway through, ep.4) presents us with a version of Darth Maul, past his Darth days and seemingly prior to his appearance in the ‘Solo’ film. Perhaps this show takes place after his appearance in Rebels and his now-infamous standoff against Ashoka Tano. I’m not sure, I can’t keep track of the timelines anymore. Well, regardless, we now encounter a Maul who, while struggling with his political ideologies, decides to cross the senate floor and align with the rebellion against the Empire. Apparently, that do-gooder Princess Leia Orgasma, bribed Maul with more money than he could possibly imagine, enticing the previously dark lord to abandon his quest for a peaceful republic and disregard his loyal supporters by doing what any dark lord should: follow the credits.
How this will end, I’m not sure. Again, I’m not finished watching the series, but I’m sure Maul will give the rebels plenty of inside information on the Empire, if not provide them with inspiring ideas to form new draconian laws that supersede logic or reason. Perhaps it’s in some strange attempt to get the Emperor to step down? I actually heard the Empire employed a network of spies and advanced surveillance systems on the inner and outer rims to control the population, the media, and even its own senators.
I heard they are secretly developing technology capable of destroying entire planets, but that is just a conspiracy.
I’m sure the Rebels will use that information to their full advantage; they will at least benefit from an extra vote.
Anyway again, I can’t say for certain how this will turn out, we can only suspect Maul will not be killed by Obi-Wan in some lame lightsaber duel in the desert at the end…
Apart from that, I’m not sure what the fans were complaining about. So far, this series, which is conceived by Dave Filoni, who is well into his post-Kathleen Kennedy days at Lucasfilm, is freaking great stuff! The digital assets are top-quality refurbished sculpts from prior shows, I am sure, and an extra flare has been added to the background illustrations, which I’m not sure is supposed to draw our attention to the action or create some sort of psychedelic trance?
Still, the writing is top-notch, and the suspense, intrigue and drama are Star Wars at its best, and I can’t wait to watch the finale.
I hope Filoni does more series like this, I’d eat them up!
Regarding the Blog artwork, I re-purpose an old sculpt to make my Maul, a process you would think (at least according to the fans) would be easy, but I probably put 50 hours into it, no AI, all Cosmic-books, baby.