#like. not *immediately* post naboo of course. maybe post savage. but this is very much. his disillusionment with the sith. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

legobiwan · 4 years

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Obi-wan, Ahsoka & Maul’s Grand Plan

Now that we’re all emotionally compromised, it’s time to really dig into the Obi-wan-Maul-Ahsoka (and by extension, Ezra) narrative.

After Phantom Apprentice, we learned that Maul orchestrated the war on Mandalore (the second one, at least) to lure Obi-wan and Anakin back to Mandalore, so Maul could kill Anakin, and ruin Sidious’s plans.

Now that we know Maul might have also had a double objective when he took Mandalore the first time, it is instructive to go back to “The Lawless” and read THAT scene and that episode in a new light.

Maul wants to lure Obi-wan to Mandalore, presumptively to take revenge on him for a whole litany of sins, including the whole cutting-Maul-in-half-and-ending-his-career-as-Sidious’s-apprentice thing. We know this is a premeditated move, that Maul is banking on Obi-wan coming to save Satine:

It’s a fascinating (and risky) gambit, but if Maul has learned one thing about Obi-wan, it’s that the man suffers greatly from attachment (even if he hides it), and through those attachments, he can be manipulated. Maul goads Obi-wan into a sloppy, dangerous, rage-fueled duel in Revenge by invoking his murder of Qui-gon Jinn.

And then again with Adi Gallia where Obi-wan nearly bisects Savage in half the long immediately after she is killed by Savage:

Now, with the knowledge we have after Phantom Apprentice, Maul *may* have been expecting Anakin to show up with Obi-wan in the Jedi shuttle and not Adi Gallia. His ultimate plan seemed to be to find a way to lure Anakin and to lure Anakin, Maul needed Obi-wan.

This unforeseen development is probably what prompted this cryptic commentary from Maul:

I would argue that Maul’s plan was to consolidate a power base as he did on Mandalore with the crime syndicates, so he would be an advantageous position after Maul presumably killed Anakin and thwarted part of Sidious’s plans. It was too early on Florrum, the Jedi (and possibly Sidious himself, sensing the threat) making a point of going after Maul, perhaps Sidious not getting in their way for once in order to snuff out this annoying relic of history. (It’s instructive to note that in a deleted scene (9:45) of Revival, Sidious intervenes so that Anakin will not go on that mission. He also seems unbothered in The Lawless (23:40) that Obi-wan has flouted Republic law to render aid to Mandalore, likely because he wants intelligence on Maul, wants Kenobi out of his hair, and wants Anakin faaaaar away from Maul, because he’s cottoned on to Maul’s plan.)

And what a plan it is. Maul’s learned through his sources that Kenobi and Skywalker are essentially inseparable and that Obi-wan is clinically attached to his former student (very much in opposition to the Jedi Code, it would seem). Now, this is interesting because Maul has been gathering information. Not just the usual strategic information, but information for psychological warfare. He already knows Kenobi suffers from attachment - he witnessed this firsthand on Naboo. He just exploits that crack in Obi-wan’s facade.

But what does Maul want *after* Anakin is dead? The thing about Maul is that he spends his entire post-TPM existence looking for a partner. It’s most obvious with Savage, who he takes as a literal apprentice, but Maul also famously offers to work other Jedi, including (infamously) Ezra Bridger, Ahsoka Tano, and yes, Obi-wan Kenobi.

In fact, Maul’s recruitment strategy with Obi-wan and Ahsoka is a fascinating mirror (and is a lot of what happens with Obi-wan and Ahsoka in Phantom Apprentice). Maul, once again, uses Obi-wan’s attachment to lure him to Mandalore, as he’s learned about Obi-wan’s past with Satine (most likely through Death Watch and Almec. No one in this Lineage is good at keeping their secret, forbidden relationships much of a secret, let’s be honest.)

This is the most instructive line of their exchange before Satine’s death:

Why not, Maul? You’ve been grumbling this man’s name for ages. And I think the answer lies both in an unspoken invitation to Obi-wan to join Maul and in one of Maul’s 5,000 plans to entrap Anakin Skywalker. I’ll address the latter idea first.

After Satine is killed, Obi-wan just...gives up. He doesn’t fight, he doesn’t try and break, he just allows Death Watch to carry him off to prison. I wonder if Maul - disappointed that Skywalker didn’t show - was going to try and use Obi-wan as bait to lure Anakin, just as he had used Satine to lure Obi-wan.

Which begs the question - let’s Maul is successful in killing Anakin. Then what? Does he just kill Obi-wan outright? While it might be more than tempting, this dialogue below makes me wonder if Maul wasn’t trying to low-key recruit Obi-wan bu ruining his life and than enticing him to the dark.

He’s actually pulling a Sidious on Obi-wan here, trying to get him to crack that Jedi facade which Maul knows is not as unbreakable as Obi-wan would like to make it seem. (If we take the novelization of TPM as a guide, Obi-wan does touch the dark during that duel on Naboo, after Qui-gon is killed, so he’s more than capable of turning, as is anyone in the right - or wrong - circumstance.)

Obi-wan rejects this, of course, and tries to reason with Maul, by introducing the fact that Obi-wan has been to Iridonia, and knows the awful conditions Maul must have grown-up in until Sidious whisked him away.

This, of course, does not work.

It’s funny, because a handful of lines from Maul in the earlier season which made sense on a larger level but seemed a little odd in context - all the pieces have come together. Like his comment on Florrum, him saying the Dark Side is more powerful than Obi-wan knows is a direct reference to Sidious, and oddly (and tragically) enough, it’s Obi-wan who is told by two different sources, however obliquely, that there’s something terrible happening in the heart of the Republic, and the Jedi are toast.

Maul’s gambit backfires, however, when Bo-Katan arrives, releasing Obi-wan, followed by Sidious having had enough of these games (and possibly realizing that Maul is the most dangerous foe of all because it he ever managed to make his recruitment speeches work and to Anakin - he, or at least the Grand Plan - was going to be in trouble).

Fast-forward to Mandalore II: Now with Extra Sadness. As stated above, Maul admits to starting this second war with the express reason to lure Obi-wan, and by extension, Anakin to Mandalore so he can finally kill Skywalker and maybe even get Obi-wan on his side.

Of course, he meets with Ahsoka and Maul nows nothing about her. What’s the first thing he does? He kidnaps Jesse not to torture him, but gain information. He wants to find Ahsoka’s weak spots to exploit, just as he had done with Kenobi.

And with that information, he hammers at her cracks - namely, her disillusion with the Jedi after her trial.

And like Obi-wan, Ahsoka tries to reason with Maul, this time playing on the idea that if he only came back to Coruscant, he could help the Jedi destroy Sidious.

Of course, it’s too late for the Jedi, too late for Maul, who has sensed that Sidious is close to executing the final part of his plan. Maybe, just maybe, if this Ahsoka Tano will team up with Maul, together they can take down Sidious (or more likely, take down Anakin). And unlike with Kenobi, Maul can ask her outright.

Which almost works. Until Maul drops the bomb that his plan the entire time was to kill Anakin, and Ahsoka, still believing in Anakin, cannot let that pass.

Chalk another one up for a failed Maul recruitment strategy.

Of course, twenty years later, he tries the exact same thing with Ezra Bridger, using Ezra’s insecurities against him to promise a brighter destiny and more power.

And then, Maul tries to get Ezra to run off with him to Tatooine to confront Obi-wan, which is...such a curious statement.

Does Maul want Ezra to kill Obi-wan? Unlikely. But Maul might want to use Obi-wan as a way of gaining information on Anakin, or even this supposed Chosen One and Maul’s madness about Kenobi’s continued existence may be as much disbelief that the actual architect of his downfall (according to him) still lives and it might be some oddly misplaced hope that Kenobi can help Maul defeat Sidious. At the very least, Maul can extract information out of Kenobi before killing him, and isn’t that what Maul’s always done? Get information, then strike at your enemy?

But with one final (heartbreaking) flourish on Tatooine, Maul ultimately fails in recruiting anybody to his side, never avenging Sidious, his plans failing again and again, and his life forgotten on a dusty, backwater planet to everyone except for the man holding him in his arms at his death (the man who was there at the beginning, middle, and end), the promise of a final retribution lulling Maul into the afterlife.

#hello there #long post #meta #darth maul #obi wan kenobi #ahsoka tano #ezra bridger #sheev palpatine #and now i'm done and going on a run #goodbye for now tumblr #tcw spoilers #siege of mandalore

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