Episode 4: (32 BBY) Darth Maul Miniseries (1-4)

Go to page 37, link on panel 3, he literally says,

Hey John, I...

I am an honest badass.

Whether you don't believe me on your little podcast or not.

Maul hates murder balls.

Maul hates pirates.

Maul hates bar patrons.

Maul hates waiting.

Maul hates platitudes.

Maul hates cocktail parties.

Today we discuss Darth Maul 134 on this edition of the 11 Parsecs Podcast.

Hello and welcome to the fourth, maybe third, podcast of the 11 Parsecs Podcast.

I am your host Eric, I'm here with my good buddy John.

Hello.

And tonight we're recording about Darth Maul's comic, the mini-series.

And we're not going to the end of it, we're just going the first four episodes of the comic book.

But this is good, I really feel like we dipped our toes in the water of comic books last week

and this week we are full bore into one massive, really awesome arc for comics in Star Wars New Canon.

John, we talked about this in the first part, well, let's talk about this a little bit.

Let's put this to bed once and for all.

Yeah, we have what we call the prequel podcast, which in technical terms, in Apple, Spotify, Universe,

it's podcast number one. We call it the prequel podcast.

It's the podcast where we describe our project, our project being a quick summary,

is that we are attempting to read, watch, listen to, and play all of the comics, books, audio dramas,

video games, movies, TV shows of the New Canon Star Wars, and we're doing it in chronological order.

So as we progress through this chronological order, we are going to encounter different types,

every podcast is going to be a different type of medium.

This week we're on comic books, like we were last week, where we're reading the Age of the Republic series.

But again, our podcast Zero was really like a 10 to 15 minute podcast that just kind of described this project,

not really our first podcast. So John and I have been going back and forth,

is this our third podcast or is this our fourth podcast?

It is episode three. It is episode three, period.

Okay, so you're taking a hard line here.

A hard line on a trivial subject. That is my forte.

A hard line on a trivial subject. So we are ignoring podcast one, that was a mere prequel,

that was just setting up the awesomeness that was podcast number one.

Technically podcast number two.

No, no, no, no. So it's podcast number one was really episode nothing, right?

Podcast number two was Episode one. It's really quite clear when you look at it that way.

So this is technically podcast four thirds and we're going to go.

So as we normally do in our podcast, let's dive in number one with what are you drinking, John?

Tonight I am enjoying a recent discovery of mine from Cherry Street Brewing, which is a local brewery to us,

and it's their Eerie Hop Double IPA. It is, in my humble opinion, a darn near perfect beer.

And what's amazing about this beer is that we both went to pick up some food and drinks from Cherry Street about two weeks ago,

and they did not have this in the actual brewery.

And I could tell you were bummed about it because you really wanted to try it.

And you went to a local liquor store that happened to have the beer, right?

They happened to have it, and so I greedily snatched it up.

Did you snatch all of it up?

No, okay, I'm not that greedy. It's expensive beer.

How much is it?

I don't know.

They usually serve by the pint, so there's four pints for four pints per four packs.

Yeah, four pints. Honestly, I don't remember, but if I had to guess, it was in the low teens, which is not crazy.

Yeah, that's not bad. Yeah, that's not bad.

So we're really lucky where we are in that we have tons of different cool Atlanta breweries that make really good beer,

but I have found that the prices have varied so much as of recently that you can go in and get four pints for $20,

and then you can go get four pints for like $8.

And it's such a variance.

The beer, I don't feel like, coincides with that variance.

Like some of it's really good for $8, and some of it's really good for $20.

Oh, sure.

So, and again, it's subjective, but still, it's a very weird industry right now,

in that I think people are trying to make extra money, because, hey, I get it.

You're trying to make extra money because everything's shut down.

I understand it.

But also, sometimes when you go look at four pints for like $20, and this isn't at a bar or anything.

This is bring home and drink in your basement.

So kind of interesting.

I just thought it was neat, and I enjoy the fact that you're talking low teens.

I mean you're talking at $12 to $14 bucks.

We could do an entire podcast on the trends in the beer industry.

In fact, we probably should do an entire podcast series on that.

But anyway, moving on back to Star Wars.

So, all right. So we read Darth Maul.

We read the first four episodes.

I'm sorry, the first four episodes.

We read the first four comics of this five comic series arc.

This is where we are in the timeline.

So this is the so all right.

So so I felt kind of bad and I didn't feel bad.

I felt really excited about our Episode one slash two

that we talked about Master and Apprentice

because I felt like that was a really good book

that we got to read early on and was a really good thing for me

because I'm like, hey, John's not going to not going to be like,

oh, I don't know if this is worth it because it was a really good book.

And I felt like the comics that we read last week,

The Age of the Public for Qui-Gon Jinn

that we talked about on Episode two, three,

that one was kind of not they were good,

but they weren't great.

And I'm far, far too critical.

Oh, my God. Well, no, they were good.

It's balance was balance was well done.

We don't need to re-edit that.

But balance was good. The other one.

No. OK, right. So, yeah, a mix.

It's hard. It's hard to convey a story in one comic book.

So now we're on the arc.

We're on the first arc with Darth Maul.

We've got six comics.

We just read the first four.

I'm sorry. We got five comics.

We just read the four issues, first four issues.

And let's we did this in Episode one slash two

where we gave an opinion on a number one through 100.

What did you think about this this comic arc

so far in the first four comics?

And you honestly think that I would be prepared

for that question because.

No, you're not prepared for it. That's why I'm not asking.

That's exactly what I'm asking.

Oh, God. Oh, by the way, I'm drinking a White Claw.

Thank you for asking. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.

No, it's OK. I just got home from tennis practice

and I ran to the fridge and I know it's not beer.

It's not beer. But I'm drinking it.

And it's tasty.

Thank you for not asking the question and then answer it

with not a beer. OK.

Did you hear that? Did you hear that snap?

Did you hear that snap?

I did not.

That's the snap of madness. Censor madness.

OK. So all right. So let's get back.

Let's get back to the comic arc.

A one through 100.

Darth Maul.

So I have to base this on the first four.

Yeah, you totally do. You haven't read the fifth one.

So I don't know how it ends.

So I can't really judge that.

But based on the first four,

I'm going to go with with honestly like low 80s, high 70s.

OK. OK. A little lower than I thought.

I first for for these for me,

I feel like is a very good art and very good story.

All right. Let's jump into it.

I'm eager to hear where you're where you're

where your numbers coming from.

Sure. Let's start out.

Comic one. Let me set the stage a little bit.

And since we've got four to cover tonight, let's go.

We're going to go kind of quickly,

but I'm just going to kind of bring up the numbers.

I'm going to go quickly, but I'm just going to kind of bring up

the main kind of panel collections,

I guess, is the best way to say it of the comic.

Number one starts out, as it always does.

We talked about this with Master Prentice.

We talked about this with the comics last week.

Starts out in a big action adventure

in which something's going to happen very quickly

and you know it's going to happen.

So we've got what looks to be a team of bounty hunters

going on a new planet, Twan Keti.

I think is the name of it.

Twan Keti.

And they feel like they're wandering through a forest.

It's kind of like a mushroomy bioluminescence forest.

And they feel like they've been set up,

that they're almost bait,

so that the person that hired them can do something.

They don't know what's going on.

There's four of them, and then suddenly this Rathar

comes out of nowhere and just starts pummeling them.

And then you get this kind of an overdub,

kind of like a narration by Maul himself saying,

these weaklings, I'm way better than them.

I'll hunt these things down.

Thank you for being my prey type situation.

What did you think of that intro?

So first it was neat to see the,

I had to go back and look, is it Rathars?

Yeah, so they're the things that on-

Force Awakens.

Yeah, Force Awakens.

So it's neat to see them.

It's neat to see them.

They're meant to be terrifying.

They were more terrifying in the confined space

of the spaceship in Force Awakens.

Here, they look really cool, but they're not scary

because our bad boy just slices right through them

like nothing, all the while monologuing internally saying,

look how bad I am.

These guys, these creatures are nothing.

Okay.

Yeah, and I think that, so with the Rathars,

I think that I had Force Awakens

in the back of my mind the whole time,

and I know how just brutal these things are.

So I kind of enjoyed that a little bit, I think,

knowing what the aliens did.

You're saying that you,

did you remember them from Force Awakens or did you not?

Oh, I mean, immediately.

They were, yeah, they were unmistakable.

The design.

Yeah, but so they're not running through a spaceship.

They're in their own element.

They're in their own environment.

You didn't feel like they were just kind of like,

Oh, okay. They look cool.

They look cool.

It was cool to see them.

The comic is using them as a mechanism to show you how capable Darth Maul is.

Agreed.

Okay, I get it. He's a badass, right? He just slaughters everything in his path.

Unfortunately, that makes the Rastars...

Yeah, it makes them seem... Right, because it's not just one, it's a whole bunch of them.

Not just one.

Plus, well, he didn't kill the other guys, but he killed a whole bunch of those creatures.

And so it makes it seem like, you know, they're really not that big a deal.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's good.

I enjoyed it because I immediately latched on to the Rathar and I think that that was like the pivotal point in the scene where I'm like,

Oh, crap, something really big is gonna happen.

And he's not even using a lightsaber. He's using a big stupid axe thing.

Like a Vibro-Axe thing, yeah.

Right.

And then also too, I did enjoy though too, like Marvel sometimes like, they'll get bloody in comics or not bloody, they'll get violent in comics.

But the scene where the Rathar eats through that guy and leaves his shoes standing there with presumably his feet inside it.

That's a pretty cool panel for me because I'm like, I'm like, usually, usually you don't see Star Wars Marvel going that direction like that much.

And I was like, that's pretty good because that's kind of showing you like, oh, this this small guy is really B.A.

It's a good way to show a lot of gore without really showing any gore.

Yeah, agreed. Agreed.

Yeah, yeah.

But yeah, that's a great way to say it.

So, all right.

So the next scene is we suddenly shift to Coruscant where these two Jedi are like kind of wandering through the streets and Maul is kind of like, again, narration, sitting up top thinking to himself about how terrible these Jedi are.

And he kind of like hunts them, but doesn't hunt them.

He just kind of like, like gets into their feelings to where they're moving around thinking like something so cool, something so evil around here.

And they walk down different streets and everything.

And he's kind of like guiding them, but he knows he can't act because Palpatine or Sidious would get totally pissed at him.

What did you think about that?

Like, what did you think about that?

I thought I thought it was amazing that in one panel they summarized the entire Star Wars arc that we know and love.

Explain it.

You're going to have to your exposition.

You're going to have to give me some details.

So the two Jedi track him down a dark alley and he's hiding from them.

So they say, oh, there's no one here.

Wait a minute.

Can we not rely on The Force anymore?

Which is what we know happens in The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, right?

Darth Sidious, we know this, Darth Sidious clouds the Jedi's powers.

And in Coruscant, which we mentioned on our last podcast, like, like, like you, you talked about it.

And I remember whenever I was reading this comic, I remember sitting there thinking, you know, John talked about this.

Literally, the last podcast is like, why are the Jedi in Coruscant?

Why? Why is the seat of power for them?

The city that is the capital city of the Republic.

And it did randomly.

And I don't want to say randomly, because I'm pretty sure you didn't read the comic yet.

It randomly tied into this exact like series of panels.

Like the Jedi are just wandering around Coruscant like, you know, like, like, yeah, this is our city.

This is where we're at, you know, when they don't have to be there.

They're not off meditating.

They're not doing anything Jedi-esque.

They're just wandering around the city, kind of like police force almost.

So, so the, the Padawan here, the right, there's a Master and Apprentice, right?

Yep.

Okay.

So the apprentice says, wait, if we can't rely on The Force and the master shuts him up and says, trust in The Force always.

And that is, that is what we see.

The Jedi are so blinded to trust in The Force, even though The Force is letting them down.

And if somebody from outside had come in and pointed that out to them, that your, your vision is clouded, guys.

They may have avoided the downfall that we know is ahead of them.

Yeah.

Agreed, and this is, this is exactly why Qui-Gon Jinn had problems with the Jedi.

I mean, like, and we saw from Master and Apprentice, we saw from the last comic in the Age of Republic, Qui-Gon Jinn, like, he really, he kind of foresaw all this stuff coming.

It was just like, what are we doing?

What's going on?

All right.

So, so let's move on.

We're still, we're still in the first comic.

I don't want to move on.

Sidious and Pop, or Sidious, I'll just call him Sidious for right now.

Sidious gets with Maul and he says, hey, I've got a mission for you.

I need you to quit doing your stupid hunts, you know, to, to get to the Jedi.

I've got a mission for you, I need you to quit doing your stupid hunts, you know, to kill the Rathars.

I want you to go to a mining colony, and I forget the name of the mining colony, but he wants you to go to a mining colony and it's kind of to protect the Trade Federation and the miners.

And we want you to go down there and just kind of see what's going on and see what's happening.

So, he goes down, jets out, goes down to this place and basically is pretty much killing everybody until this one guy's like, hey, I've got some information you want to know about.

You know, maybe you should not kill me, you know, blah, blah, blah, I'm going to talk about.

And, and this character I had not heard of, the Zevrex, I don't even know if I'm saying it right, Zev-ez-Rex-us.

Zerexus, yeah.

Yeah, Zerexus, I think is the way you pronounce it, who is somebody that has captured a Padawan somehow.

Basically, what they, I think the way it's explained in the comic is that the ship went down, the Jedi, the Padawan were both on the ship.

Jedi didn't make it, most of the crew didn't make it on the ship.

Padawan did survive and she captured the Padawan.

She's now selling it in this big kind of like underworld, you know, like.

Obi-Wan Kenobi was a Jedi.

It would be tough to get captured? I don't know.

Like, the Jedi get out of every situation. You know what I mean?

It's like we've alluded to this in the other podcast.

They are able to get out of these situations, not magically, but using The Force, blah, blah, blah.

This Padawan is legit locked up. I mean, like, it's not... she's not getting out.

So what did you feel about that kind of turn in the story, I guess is the best way to say it?

Like, it's a very big difference in the stories we've read thus far.

I did not really... I mean, that didn't really strike much with me.

But I wanted... I'll get back to that. I want to jump backwards a little bit.

We saw Maul slaughter the whole herd of Rath... Rath... Rath-tars?

Rathars.

Yeah, on that planet.

And then he slaughtered an entire spaceship full of pirates.

Pirates, thank you.

And we then see him go into the bar, and we know, based on that, that there's not really a lot of danger, you know, again.

And he gets into a fight, and they've established he's a badass. He can take care of himself.

So the problem I have with that is it really... in trying to show how much of a badass he is,

which I guess you have to do in order for me then to think later to have concern for the Padawan, which is what we're getting to,

it makes me not care so much about Darth Maul.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, no, I totally agree with you. And I think it's actually so...

So at the end of the first book... I'm sorry, at the end of the first comic, comic number one,

we learn that there's this Padawan that's been captured.

That's like the big kind of like... like the ending of the story.

And then in the second comic, we actually see Maul go to the bar, and he goes to the bar on Nar Shaddaa,

and he's like asking all these questions, trying to figure out how he gets a hold of the...

Yeah, it's the classic cantina scene, you know, I'm here to say a name, and everybody stops and looks around.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, agreed.

Watch out, nameboard. You know, it's a classic setup.

Here's the deal, though, is like he gets into this bar fight, and this is a dude that just took out two Rathars.

Like the most like violent things in the universe.

And then he pretty much gets bested in this bar fight by like a couple of guys, right?

He kills the one guy, the dirty... what was his name? Dirty... Calgriz, Calgriz, or something like that.

Oh, right, yeah.

But the other people...

Squid Head.

Yeah, Squid Head, yeah, because he inks him in the face, and he's like,

Oh, you can't see!

Which was... that's another... yeah.

That's a whole other... like... we could have a whole podcast about inking in the face.

Yeah, it's just a weird thing. But anyways, so he gets bested pretty much by this group.

And well, I shouldn't say bested. He feels that he's not bested, but like everybody else feels that he's bested.

But then he's rescued by Cad Bane's crew.

Yes.

And that's weird to me, because you just have this guy that just like killed all these people, killed these two Rathars.

Like this inner monologue with him is like, I can destroy anything.

I'm ready to take on the entire world of the Jedi.

And then you're kind of like, oh wait, so he gets bested by a couple of dudes in the bar, and gets saved by Cad Bane.

And even he acknowledges, like, after he gets...

So basically, Arsing, Cad Bane, Venth...

Oh, I always screw up this dude's name.

Uh... Vord Helio, I think is his name?

I don't know if I'm saying it right.

Vord Helio, it's this little insect thing with a little knife, piercing things.

And so Cad Bane's crew shows up, and I'm a huge fan of Cad Bane. I like Cad Bane a lot.

Wait, do you know this character?

Yes, I do know this character. This character was in the old canon, and then we'll see him more in the new canon.

Okay, I have no idea who he's before.

And actually, I think he's made appearances on some of the...

So you know Arsing, right? From the original Return of the Jedi?

No.

She's one of the bounty hunters. Yeah, she's one of the bounty hunters.

You mean Empire?

Sorry, Empire.

She's in Empire?

Yeah, she's one of the bounty hunters in Empire.

I gotta go watch that again.

Yeah, agreed. So she's one of those. So she's kind of an older bounty hunter.

Cad Bane's been in the comics books, and then I want to say he's been in some TV shows,

but I don't know the TV shows well enough. And we'll see him as we go on.

The Vin Helio guy I have not heard of, and maybe he's in stuff that I just don't know about.

And then Tick-Tock or Tuck-Tuck?

Tick-Tack.

Tick-Tack, yeah, the little Martian guy that's the droid ripper, I think.

He rounds out Cad Bane's crew.

So, again, I did enjoy the new show.

So, there's a lot of back and forth between Cad Bane and them thinking they're so badass, or B.A.s, that they don't have to worry about Maul himself.

But Maul's like, I could destroy these guys in a minute. You know what I mean?

That was a neat dynamic for me in which he's like, I fired you guys to go help me find where this Padawan is.

We need to go kill this Padawan, or I want to go kill this Padawan without my master cities learning about it.

I just want to go kill a Padawan or a Jedi.

That was kind of interesting to me, just because he's kind of like taking these really B.A. people in the galaxy and been like,

yeah, you're my next bounty hunter party that gets wiped away just so that I can get to what I want to get to.

Yeah, and they're well aware of that.

Yeah, they are. And that's the neat part about it, is they're totally self-aware about it, and they're like, what's our next move?

So, you get this kind of like working together dynamic, and this not working together dynamic. You know what I mean?

Sure.

Like, what do we need to do to protect ourselves versus what we need to do to make him happy?

I appreciate that. I like that. I could not stand if these people who live their lives betraying each other suddenly didn't see a betrayal coming.

That's like, what?

It's totally like the other side of the coin from Han Solo. It's the same character, just on a different viewpoint. You know what I mean?

Yes.

Like, it's like, I've got to protect myself. I'm willing to help you, Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, get to where you need to get.

But I also need to make sure I make money and can smuggle things and that kind of stuff.

So, it's a neat take on, in my opinion, almost a Han Solo-esque character, for Cat Bane at least, or the whole group really, is the best way to say it.

Okay. I hadn't thought about that, but it does make sense.

Okay. So, we've got Tectac working on a droid. Oh, go ahead. What were you going to say?

No, you're right. We have to cover that first. Yes, he's like creating nightmare fuel with this Phoebe droid person.

Yeah, weird droid.

Gouging his eyes out.

Yeah, basically it's a C3 droid that knows something about where to go and how to get into it to go find this Padawan that, of course, Maul wants to go to.

And this Tectac guy is kind of like, I don't know. It was kind of weird.

I feel like with C3 droids, you get the emotion of C3PO. You get the friendship thing with R2-D2. You get all that.

But then when they're popping eyes out, yeah, the droid can't see. But I feel like the droid is just going to be like, yeah, I can't see.

Well, that's a question I had actually is why my first question was who in their right mind would program very strong emotions, strong fear into a droid like that?

What good is that? And then the only thing I think of is, well, I guess that does make them obedient if they're afraid of being discovered.

I mean, I think that the best thing in the Star Wars universe from the movies that we can talk about is I think it was L3 from the Han Solo story.

It was a very articulate droid, a very emotional droid. But I still at this point in the timeline, I feel like we're not seeing that in C3 droids.

And this is totally described as a C3 droid. It's drawn as a C3 droid in the comic.

And it's weird to me because like, I don't know. I guess in the last movie, you know, Skywalker, you get to see C3PO, you know, I'm looking at my friends.

You know what I mean? Like you get that kind of like he's got emotions, even if they're not necessarily human emotions, there's still emotions there.

If they're not productive. I mean, what good is that?

Yeah, but again, the fear emotion is just kind of like what good is giving him fear? I don't know. It's a weird thing.

As much as it might make him obedient, it would also seriously hinder his productivity in certain cases.

Yeah, I totally agree. Yeah. Like I'm scared to go there to do this certain job.

So that's why I hired you. I need you to go translate. He's too afraid. OK, well, what good is that?

So OK, so so so they end up, you know, this droid ends up getting them an invitation to go to whatever the system is that this auction is going to have for this Padawan.

The Padawan was a neat character to me. I really like the fact that she's very strong and she's almost like even Maul says he can feel it like she's really not a Padawan.

She's almost a Jedi Knight. Like I like the fact that they didn't make her cowardly, I guess is the best way to say it.

Like they really made her a very strong character and which leads us up to kind of the end of the third comic, which is where.

Well, let's go. Let's go. Let's go a little bit, a little bit more exposition.

So her name is Eldra Katis. She is a Padawan. Of course, her master died in the crash.

And she was captured. Zex Zavaros or whatever her name is, is the one trying to sell her at this party.

Maul and crew show up at the party during the party.

Maul and his little like kind of cool like spy droids that we saw in the prequels kind of go find her and where she's out on the ship.

Maul gets busted, kind of almost like going in there and killing her right then and there by Zex Revis.

And they have this kind of like weird moment where they're like, let's not tell anybody about this because we don't want anybody to know about it.

We won't want you to not know about it. And I don't want anybody to know about it that you were able to get in here.

And that was a kind of a weird scene to me. Did you?

That was a very weird scene and I want to talk about it at length, but I do have to point out

that that is the second time, Eric, that you have skipped over the part of the comic where we learn

of the atrocities that the Jedi committed. What? I don't remember. What atrocities?

The Jedi in Darth Maul when Darth Maul is meditating and he's flashing back to...

Are you bringing up the wood people from Qui-Gon Jinn's thing again?

No, it's right there. I don't know the page number. It's right there when he's meditating.

They say he's meditating.

I'm asking if him cutting down all the wood people when he was meditating,

was that the first time that I missed the atrocities of the Jedi?

Oh, no, no, no. In this podcast, that is the second time you have jumped over the atrocities

of the Jedi to get to the Padawan just so you can talk about the Jedi. You know what? We need

to talk about the ugly parts of the Jedi too. All right, let's talk about the ugly parts.

Let's talk about it.

So he's experiencing in his meditation some kind of flashback at the behest of Sidious

where the Jedi portrayed as monsters with glowing eyes slaughter all the Sith people,

which I don't know anything about because, right, that's not really covered.

So this is something we're going to get into as we get further in the canon because I see

things that refer to it a lot. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know yet. Let's wait until we

get further in the canon before we pass judgment on.

You don't you want to pass judgment on the Jedi at this point?

I mean, it shows them killing all these people. Look at those poor people. They're being slaughtered.

Yeah, in a dream. I'm not. Look, I'm not going to defend the Jedi. I'm not going to defend them.

I'm not going to defend them. I'm not going to defend the Sith. I don't know. I don't know.

I just know that like.

I just noticed for the first time, going back and looking at the panel,

they all have Kylo Ren lightsaber styles. That's that's curious.

Do they really have to go? Yeah, they have a crossbars.

OK, so so so. That is strange.

They do. That's very weird.

But they're but they're well formed. They're not the the flurry things that.

So in comic book two, before we Flash back to the actual bidding war type situation where

Cad Bane and Maul and them are going into the thing, there is a panel that's that's a weird

panel to me, like Maul's drawing looks kind of weird, like he's like a kid, like freaked out a

little bit. Like he's flashing back to a session when he was a kid where Sidious took him into

this vision. That's what's. Yeah, but that's a flashback to a flashback. Yeah. But Sidious

has also modified this a bit. I think I'm not defending the I'm not defending the Jedi yet.

I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. No, I'm playing with you. That's that's how

exactly how I interpret this. This is Sidious. It's a zombie. They look like zombies. Yeah.

Yeah. Zombies in this panel. That's the Sith that are being slaughtered by the Jedi.

Or except for those. No. Yeah. On the right. Like a plucoon looking Jedi guy. Like they all

look like they're right. Everybody looks zombie-esque. So this this I read this as this

is a manipulation by Sidious to turn Maul to twist Maul into what he has become.

Agreed. I was just having fun with you because, you know, it's portrayed as the Jedi

slaughtering all these people. Yeah, I did. I did skip it. And I agree. And you can totally

see the grin on Sidious's face as he's standing above the young Maul being like, oh, my gosh,

look at all these people. But, you know, that's how that's how you get to kill Rathars, man.

That's what you got to do. Sure. Yeah. You got you got you got to you got to take the hate,

you know. And let's let's speak to that, because unfortunately for me, that that makes Darth Maul

come across as one dimensional. I was really excited about reading this this comic series

because I wanted to know more about this character that shows up in very few scenes of Phantom

Menace. But but but to be fair, though, the first time I watched that, the first time you probably

watched it, I think you think he is a very mean and badass character. Like he just the look,

the moves, like the way he's portrayed, like he looks crazy. And and this I don't think this

humanizes him any, but but it makes him a little bit more like, yeah, I agree, like like one sided

characters and like he's been raised to do this one thing and this one thing only by Sidious.

And that's not I mean, that's a tiny bit of coloring in the details of the of the personality,

but it's really still just he's a badass. I mean, that's that's all we know about him. And

one other thing I've wanted to mention is you've mentioned the the internal dialogue or monologue,

rather, that narrates through a lot of the panels that really for me that got really old after a

while because the classic mantra of show don't tell we have endless telling in this comic where

he is telling us directly. Yeah, no, no, no, no. And that's and that's I think with comics,

I think I think you're you're looking in his brain of what he's telling himself versus what he's

actually expositioning to other people. I know, but they're using it as an expository mechanism.

Yeah, the author is, but I don't know.

And it gets older. I'm just saying it's it's don't keep telling me. I understand the the the the trope of yes is his internal monologue to himself and we're listening in. I get that. I know he's not talking to me the reader but the.

No, no, if you look at the go to page go to page 37 look on panel three he literally says, hey, John, I am an honest badass and whether you don't believe me on your little podcast or not, I really am. I really am, John.

No, I understand what you're saying. There's too much exposition. There's a little too much of the little boxes popping up. And I think that I think that to like the first the first two stories like the sorry the first two kind of like panel sets where he's going the wrath are which are like, okay, he's a badass.

And then the next one you're like he's alluding to the fact that he's tricking these Jedi walking around Kurasan but he's not actually doing anything. He's still a badass. And then Cad Bane and I were like worried the whole time whether he's going to like come up and kill them and stab them in the back when they're doing this mission.

Yeah, I get it. And I don't. Let me ask you this. What other dimension could you give Darth Maul like.

I don't know. I don't know the character. And I still don't know the character after four issues of this comic. All I know is that that he was twisted into being a weapon by Sidious.

I already knew that anyway. Right. Right. You can get a surmise that from Phantom Menace. Right. And and he's he's he's a really sharp weapon. He can take out anything.

And and that's it. One of the reasons that the the little dialogue or what do we call that monologue boxes. One of the reasons they get old is he's saying the same thing over and over.

And that is I'm an I mean I'm a caged animal and I can't wait to be in cage. And these people understand how bad I am. I hate them so much. I mean it's the same thing over and over again.

And it just it's your drones on a little bit toward the metal. Yeah. I understand where you're going from there. I do. And I think that number one he's proved that he's kind of a B.A.

I do think that like like like he's proved that he is the weapon but it is overdone to where you're just like OK I get it man. Yeah I get it. You're the Zala. You really fully.

Yeah. We get it. We get it. And yeah you're the one you know apprentice to this one master. We get it. You are the chosen one. But I yeah I understand. I understand.

And that's part of why I think this panel like makes me laugh a little bit like it's bad because I like the art in the book. I really do like the art in the book.

I think that I think that Rod Reiss's cover was amazing for number one. I love that cover. That's one of my favorite comics that I have.

But that one panel where it like where it shows Maul with the we're just talking about the zombie panel where they're killing all the all the Sith and the Jedi are slaughtering and killing all the zombies.

You see him like the panel like it's like oh no. Like it's like it's like a weird it's a weird panel.

It's trying to convey a certain yes certain emotion. Yeah. And I don't think that one specific drawing of Maul works but all the other ones do.

But yes I agree. I did skip over that. I apologize. That was good conversation. Twice twice you skipped over it. I know I'm sorry. I apologize. I apologize. I'm sorry.

I just when they're at the party at the at the auction party. I just I had this this humorous image because he's just always droning on internally about they don't understand you know how I want to kill all of them.

And you just you have this this image of this this waiter coming up say you know sausage canapé. He says one day I will kill all of them.

He's like literally about to get the one thing that he wants by killing this Padawan like like saliva dripping from his mouth.

And this lady comes in and she says you can't do that. He's like oh yeah I can't.

Like you know what I mean. It's like it's like it like so so to describe what we're talking about and again our podcast is spoiler full.

He sneaks off into the side is one of his little drones has gone and found this Padawan and he literally sees her on the other side of I guess what is this barrier type force.

Yeah force shield or something like that. And he's like he's like he's like oh I'm ready to kill her. I'm ready. This is it.

This is what I literally like stopped my mission that my master gave me and went on a side mission just to kill this Padawan.

And he's about to kill her. And then Zevrexis who is just like surrounded by some droid Eekas.

I mean that's like she doesn't really have that many defenses like like it's not like she's like some powerful human.

I don't know. Whatever. I don't know what. But he's like oh sorry. My bad.

And she's like you know and OK let's not let that happen again. It just comes off as really odd.

Yeah I could totally agree with that. Yeah. And that's that's probably like my my. Yeah. That's one of my problems with this story thus far.

And I like the story actually. I really do. But I'm just kind of like he's balls like oh my master would be bad.

I need to use my manners like it's like a weird like transition to where he's like oh sorry.

We just check it out the goods you know. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to bid on her. It's good.

And then.

This person whose name we apparently can't pronounce,

she's been set up as this ruthless, I mean, who does this?

Who auctions off a living human being?

So she's this ruthless person and in the moment she says,

you know, just let me wag my finger, let's go back upstairs, come on.

It really deflated everything in the room.

This never happened for either of us.

Like, we both don't need this.

And I'm like, what are you talking about? He's Darth Maul.

He's like the apprentice of the Sith, the one apprentice of the Sith.

And he's like, yes, ma'am. Let's not do this anymore.

I wasn't here.

Okay, so anyways, all right.

So Maul finds her, she, Zebrex's fault, finds her, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Maul's like, I like the goods, I'm going to bid on her, we're good.

They go back up to the party, you know, stuff happens, you know,

whatever these cool, highly elite parties happen, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Then finally the auction comes up.

So some dude, and I don't know what, like a trait, I don't know what,

I'm not going to, I don't know what this person does, but this person bids like 2.5 million or 3 million credits

and ends up buying the Padawan.

Okay, the Padawan then is being escorted to his ship and guess who's there?

Cad Bane and crew and Maul and they take her.

So they kind of hijack the ship, they kill people on board, grab the Padawan and just make a go for it.

And then, so it's supposed to be the twist in the third comic where it's like,

hey, Zevrexis knew this might happen.

You know what I mean? Like this kind of like...

Yeah, I actually like that. I thought that was a neat twist.

You did? Okay, so Zevrexis...

I did, I really did, yeah.

So Zevrexis has planted a bomb...

It was too easy up to that, it was way too easy up to that point.

Okay, okay, so she, assumably, she planted the bomb because she knew that this wealthy person,

whoever this person is, was going to end up being the winner of the bet and wanted to fry the ship.

What happened was she happened to get Maul and company because they took over the ship

before the guy could get back with the Padawan.

So the bomb goes off and it blows outward instead of inward, so it doesn't hurt anybody on the ship,

but instead makes the ship crater toward the moon in which everybody was doing the bid...

I think it is the moon that this bidding place happened at.

So the ship comes back down and lands.

Now, I will say that I kind of did enjoy this part of the story. Zevrexis, or let's call her Jenny,

Jenny was smart enough to say, hey, I knew that this bomb was going to go off.

Basically, what now that I'm doing is that now that this ship has crashed,

I'm going to sell hunting license to go hunt down and kill the Jedi yourself for 350,000 credits

or something like that.

And she starts going around the party and being like, hey, you want to go down there and kill them?

Well, you'd still do it for a lot cheaper than you were going to do it when you bid, 350k.

And that's kind of a neat twist. I enjoyed that. I thought that was a good part of the story.

I thought it was very good. Very well done.

It's one of those chess move, step ahead type things that I like.

And then anyway, so she starts selling these licenses to random...

I don't know what authority she has to sell these licenses, but whatever. It's part of the story.

So these groups of people at the party are like, yeah, let's go kill the Jedi, or let's go kill the Padawan, blah, blah, blah.

What they don't know necessarily is that Maul and company and Cad Bane and his crew, Arsene and all those guys

are down there with the Jedi running around the planet.

I think that's the end of book three is where we see them crash onto the planet.

Tick-Tick is the poor droid that he was tormenting the whole time is now crawled off with that droid

and everybody has left him for dead.

Cad Bane, Arsene, and Vahelio or whatever his name is, is now walking around the planet

separately from Maul and the Padawan.

And the last panel, which I kind of liked, I thought it was really good, the last panel of comic three

is basically her being like, hey, take these shackles off me.

We're in this together for right now until all these hunting parties come down

and we defend ourselves against the hunting parties and then maybe you can fight it out.

And I thought that was kind of a neat twist on the comic.

I felt like she felt that she could actually combat Maul because she doesn't know his background

and she knew he's Sith at this point, she could feel that he's Sith.

And he's like, you know what, I want to kill this Jedi fair and square, I'm going to give you back a lightsaber

and we're going to go at it.

I think it's cute that you thought that was a twist.

Oh, cute! You called that?

That was a force!

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

You called the crashing of the ship on the planet a hunting party?

No, no, no, no, no.

So you're saying you called that they'd be forced to fight with each other.

You're releasing what's-her-face from the really elaborate, like, behind-the-back shackles thing

so that he could first use her to kill all the bad guys

and then have a real and proper showdown, you know, Sith versus Jedi

and finally prove his true worth as a Sith warrior.

Of course! Of course it's going to happen.

Okay, okay, okay, so let me ask you this.

Is the fact that he thinks she's almost a Jedi Knight him making himself feel better about killing her later?

Or is it more of along the line?

I know I think that's played straight. I think that he senses that she basically was pretty much a Jedi Knight

She was on the cusp of being whatever the

It's fair to say she survived all this stuff so far she's very strong-headed very strong-willed

Okay. Yes, so you think that he really does think of her almost as a an equal

I mean, this is a guy that was just expositioning like killing Rathars be like, I'm the God I can destroy you. Yeah, they're nothing

Yeah

Now he's kind of like like

Finally, this is a Jedi. This is this is the the big enchilada and if he had if she had been instead some little

Little baby Jedi, you know

Then it would have been as hollow and he would have had he would have taken some maybe some small measure in slaughtering a child

but

Hello Anakin, but

I'm bringing up child slaughter

But the fact yeah that only happened in my head apparently so the the fact that she wasn't a little little Jedi

But she was pretty much a full-blown Jedi that he sense that it's not him. He's not

Betraying or not betraying. He's not fooling himself. He really does think at least that's the way what I get

Yeah, no, she pretty much is a

Jedi Knight and so

I couldn't I couldn't tell if like he finally got to his goal and he was like, you know what?

I'm gonna boost this person up as much as I can for my own son. No, that would be lying and lying is wrong

He's a Sith John

He's a Sith. I don't think I don't think

You you feel that he was honestly feeling that she was a worthy adversary and that she's betrayed that way

Okay, so let's make sure that everybody this listening is fine what we're talking about

so so basically they get away from all these different groups and then finally at the very end of the fourth comic where we

John and I have stopped reading we have not read the fifth comic. That's for the next episode of the podcast

So basically they've slaughtered all these people they've killed everybody that they need to kill that's coming down to hunt them

Anyway, that's had the license or at least that's close to has a license. They've both worked as a team. They've worked together

They've killed all these people and then suddenly both of them turn on each other in the last like five panels of the last page

And they're actually really well drawn. Yeah, that's really good. Yeah, really good. Really good art. Really good. Really good storytelling

There's only like five words, but there's only like really good storytelling

Like you see both of them rip out their lightsabers, but look each other in the eye. They both know hey

This is about to go down now. It's the real deal and

And and the end of the end of comic for where we're at right now. They've they've turned on each other

They're about to go to battle and and I I don't know

I'd like like both of them seem very strong capable warriors in the comic themselves

I don't know that much background on her you see so much exposition on him though during this whole series

Which of course it's called Darth Maul

So, you know, I don't know which way it's gonna go

but I kind of enjoyed those last like four or five pages of the

Comic for where they're like fighting together and then now they're gonna have to battle each other

I like I think it was very well done. I think it was done in a in a way that continues

Continues his journey and also is shows that she's pretty strong to that

She's not just some weakling Padawan's gonna like back down on him

Yeah, no episode issue four is the strongest of the series so far. I have high rates for number five

I want you to comment on on that that last page of panels there the panel the second panel from the top with her in it

Describe that panel. What is that? Look? I know his look his look is pure rage and hatred. What is her look?

Yeah, I

This is gonna sound bad and I love the art in this book, I really do I think it was like a just a

I think it goes back to the same panel that we talked about earlier with the zombie Jedi

It's just a not so great drawn panel to where I think the artist is trying to convey that

She's ready to go that she knows he's about to attack. I just don't think that the panel is drawn that well

You don't you don't get any

Sad apprehension. She knows where this is going and she's sad that it has to come to this

There is a little bit of like like like like maybe

Are we really doing this like yeah, it's not it's not I'm afraid for my life

It's you know, why why why must know and I'm saying no because the first panel the first panel shows her

Hunched down ready to fight. Oh, yeah

Yeah, it shows him ready to fight and I think that she's like bring it on like I really think it's supposed to be a

Bring it on panel. I don't think not but doesn't get conveyed that way. I do. Yeah, I don't see bring it on at all

I see

Resolution and confidence. She's not scared. She's very confident

Sadness, there's a sadness to it and I actually the more I'm

Using as the eyes do you think it's cuz the way the eyes are drawn? Well that her lips really kind of betray some sadness

To how but it's it's it's really it's a I love that panel. I really do his his mind is just

Glare in contrast. Oh, that's a pure Maul glare. That is like that is like that is that is like like you see like in

Episode one where he's like walking back and forth when Qui-Gon's meditating. Yes when that whether they strike

Yeah, that's that's his that is like that is like the epitome of like or epitome of like just like perfect like Maul

You know, I mean that's like that and that's again why you really can't develop this character my opinion like overall

It's just it's just pure hate it is. Well, yeah, it is one dimensional and that that third panel

Is that hatred like you could say it is very well drawn. I think that the second one

You know, I think the second one was supposed to be like, okay, we're doing this now like like alright, let's bring it on

Like I really feel like it's not a sadness panel. I think it's supposed to be like a like, alright, let's do it

you know to me like I

Dove into this and I'm ready to go. You know what I mean? Hmm. It's it's it's

You know, I don't think it's Twilight characters

Personally because like like the horns don't really

Mess with the emotion in it, but it's just it just doesn't convey. Well, you know what I mean?

Okay conveys well to me

You see a sadness there you see like I thought we were gonna be partners like

Maybe she since the good in him

There's no good in Maul. There's no good in Maul. There's what they said about don't know

No, no, no, no Maul has been like like

No, no Maul has been like like no, I don't think there's I don't think there's any good in Maul. I

Know there's any I don't think there's none. I think it's pure hatred and I think that he is

ready and willing to die

for his beliefs I

There's no good in Maul. I don't think we'll ever see a spark of good Maul

Well, if it is it if it is it's to his own advantage. It's to it's to move forward his plan

It's to move forward his plan to defeat

the entire Jedi

There's no good. So, all right, so now there's no redemption no redemption panel for

Panel for I'm looking at it. She's lighting up her lightsaber lightsaber lightsaber first. Yep. Why?

She knows it's on

She's not okay, so I just said bring it on she's ready to go

She's not attacking that right? She's not she's not making the mistake that Qui-Gon made in

Balance where she's not attacking

He it's oh, she no. Yeah, she knows he's coming. Yeah. Yeah, it's she knows he's coming. Okay, she's defending

She knows the battles about that

No, she's not. No. I don't think she's she's yeah, we're on the same page. It's fine. Okay, I was just verifying

Yeah, she lights her lightsaber first. I agree with that. I think the comic it

presents that very well

I

That second panel is very weird

I agree like the more I look at the more I'm kind of like

Like like a more like a like you're gonna bring yourself in me like kind of like a but but to be fair her character

throughout the whole comic has been like

Hey, man, bring it on and to be fair most the Jedi that we've read about, you know so far have been like, you know

We'll get out of this

We're Jedi. I

You know, that brings up a good point. I wonder if we will see

And if you know this you can't say anything

but I wonder if we will see in the canon somewhere a cowardly Jedi a

Jedi with really well, we see Jedis with bad judgment all the time. But yeah a cowardly Jedi

I'm trying to think if I have we seen a cowardly Jedi and what I know of the canon not not that I know of

Can you be a cowardly Jedi?

Is that even?

Well based on like Master Apprentice with obi-wan you're supposed to put put all that away like like yeah

You're you're supposed to be able to you're supposed to be able to topple that

You know, I mean like you're you're supposed to yeah, you may be in the inside

But you have to present no feelings on the outward side

You know what? I mean? Like you have to you have to be able to move that away and do what you need to do

We've seen Jedi be completely wrong though. Oh

Very much. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean we've seen that and again though. I don't think she's wrong here

She's about to defend herself. She knows what's up. It's about to happen

The panels are strong where the second panel is drawn weird

Like the more like a little more I'm kind of like like I thought it was like a bring it all let's go

She's sorry that it has to that

I don't I don't buy that part though. I don't buy that

I don't but I don't buy that she thinks you can like turn them all or like she she is just discovered

Let's say this. She's just discovered the first Sith in millennia. Yeah

And she's like, oh I couldn't turn you and I'm a paddle one. Well, maybe she's sad because the Jedi killed all of his people

But that no BS. No, that's beep. I'll beat that out. That's BS. She's not sad in any way whatsoever

She's ready to fight. She's totally ready to fight

She's ready to go and she knows she's got a fight mall and it is what it is. But no, no, no, no, no

Incorrect. She's not sad for his people. She knows nothing about the people. She knows nothing about quite God's tree people

No, she doesn't sad for the people. She's sad that the Jedi killed them all

She regrets what the Jedi had to do to his people.

So, um, that brings us to the well-belabored conclusion of issue four.

All right, so let's start to think about what do you feel really quickly?

What is your 30-second opinion on what you think the last comic is going to show us in this series?

Well, right, and I have not read issue fives. I am very much looking forward to seeing the conclusion of the story.

She can't kill him. We know she can't kill him. So that's off the table.

Will he kill her? I mean, will they really show him like, I don't know, cutting her in half or something crazy?

I don't think so. I don't think that's going to happen.

But she can't know that he's... she can't get back to the Jedi. So yeah, I guess she's got to die.

Yeah, I think she's going to die. I agree with that.

And I think that... I don't think it'll be as violent as like we saw with Rathar with the dude's boots just kind of sitting there.

But I do think that it's going to be an emotional death. And I think it's going to register on him a little bit more than we think it will.

But again, I don't think he's a good guy. I think he's just going to be like, yep.

If it registers on him at all, well, we will talk about that next time because that would be... I got to think about that.

Yeah, I got to think about that.

So we've already seen him rebel from Sidious a little bit. Like this whole Padawan mission is his own thing.

Like he's like, don't come at me.

But not regret killing something. I haven't seen that at all.

No, but I'm saying he's slightly disenfranchised with the system as it stands now.

I feel like he's like, I want to go do this. I can't go do this because of my master. He'll get pissed at me when I do it.

And there's a little bit of rebellion there.

He's a Sith of course. That's in the job description. Of course he hates the situation as it is. They all do.

Yeah, but I'm saying he... Okay, well, we'll discuss this next time based off of what happens in the fifth comic.

I'm excited to read the fifth comic. We're also reading the Age of Republic Darth Maul, which is going to be pretty good.

I have a feeling. And I'm wondering, so if you look at the timeline, it lines up with the same timeline as this story.

But I wonder if it's either... I doubt it's going to be a summary of the story.

I think it's going to be more along the lines of a side story or something like that.

I'm excited. I have to admit, the very first four issues were really good.

I'm excited to read the fifth. I haven't read it yet and I'm pumped.

I'm waiting for us to get this podcast out so I can go read it because I want to know what happens.

Yeah, I'm there with you.

Be sure to join us for our next podcast. We're going to be discussing the fifth and final book of this arc in the Darth Maul series.

I'm really excited about it. I like this comic a lot. I'm eager to see where his character goes.

I have a feeling that Jedi is going to go the way out.

But we're also going to be covering the Age of Republic, which is the Age of Republic Darth Maul specific comic.

It's a one-shot. I don't have a lot of faith in it, but we'll see what happens.

This is the 11 Parsecs podcast, episode number three or four maybe.

If you enjoyed this podcast, please take a moment to subscribe and leave us a good review.

And be sure to check us out at 11parsecs.com and Discord.

I'm Jonathan Smith with the Maleficent, Eric Thompson. Thank you for joining us.