Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord: Chapter 10: The Dark Lord
What is it ? : Maul and his allies face off against Darth Vader, the two Jedi and Maul attack with their sabers, while Lawson and the non force users open fire with their blasters. Vader parries all their attacks, before throwing them to the ground with the Force.
They run into some ruined buildings, but Vader catches them and Maul tells Lawson and the non force users to flee, and he, Daki and Devon all fight Vader, who easily parries all their attacks. They bring the ruins down on Vader, but he uses the force to lift the rubble out of his way and he follows.
Lawson, Two Boots, Vario and Rylee reach the rendezvous point, only to find an Imperial Shuttle dropping off troopers. The shuttle spots them and they come under fire, so come up with the plan that Vario will distract the troopers, while the others grab a Repeating Blaster Cannon that the Empire has set up.
The continue through the ruins, and Vader smashes through a wall to attack, and they retreat outside where the Inquisitors are waiting. Devon engages the Inquisitors, while Daki and Maul continue to fight Vader.
Lawsons trick works, and Two Boots takes control of the Blaster Cannon, taking down the Imperial Shuttle and a large number of the Stormtroopers, before he is damaged and Rylee helps support him as they retreat. With the shuttle out of the way, Dryden Vos ship arrives, and Dryden opens the ramp firing at Stormtroopers, while Vario, Two Boots and Rylee board, but the number of Stormtroopers is too high, so Lawson tells Two Boots to get Rylee to his mother, and grabs the fallen Blaster Cannon and uses it to hold them off, but is gunned down much to the distress of Rylee.
Maul spots that Devon is being overpowered by the two Inquisitors, so makes a decision, using the force to push Daki into Vader to distract him, and rushes to help Devon. With Mauls help they force the Inquisitors to retreat.
Turning back to her master, Devon spots that Vader has Daki on the ground, his lightsaber cutting through the Jedi Masters shoulder killing him. With that Maul and Devon sprint for the Crimson Dawn ship, and boarding it they escape into space.
Maul confirms to Dryden Vos that he will honour their deal and kill the leader of Crimson Dawn to install Dryden as it's boss, and then he returns to Devon who tells him she is ready . . . .
High Points : Wow. Just Wow. The Vader fight is absolutely amazing.
Vader is silent throughout, acting more like a serial killer from a slasher movie of the 80's. He smashes through walls, catches up with them at a normal walking pace even though they are sprinting. But his fighting style is amazing as well, people criticised the way that Obi-Wan and Vader fought in A New Hope in comparison to the flashy style of the prequels. But here we see the two styles come together, and Vader's leisurely fencing style parries the attacks from Maul's double ended lightsaber, plus two Jedi lightsabers, easily. He emanates power, far more so than Maul ever did, and we see why (as I commented yesterday) Maul asks for Kanan and Ezra's help in going up against Vader on Malachor.
Maul may be a weapon forged by Palpatine, but Vader is the chosen one.
Low Points : I know that it's supposed to be shocking, but I'm annoyed at the loss of Lawson and Daki, they were both of the more interesting characters. Rylee and Two Boots seem fairly limited, and while I'm amused at Vario, this series looks like season 2 is just going to be Maul and Devon, with the others being the angels on Devons shoulder.
So what do you really think ? : This episode was stunning, and provided a lightsaber fight we'll be talking about for a while. The geeky chats of the early 2000's, where we compared Maul and Vader, talking about a potential fight, but to tell the truth always hoped it wouldn't happen because it wouldn't live up to our imaginations. But this one does, Vader is incredible, they've given us something which matches up to Mauls fight against Obi-Wan on Tattoine. A demonstration of the power levels in the Star Wars universe, and Vader is near to the top.
Final Words : I'm worried they've peaked, unless they return to another Vader fight later, I can't see how the series holds to this standard in season 2. But I didn't expect much from this season and was very, very wrong, so fingers crossed that I'm wrong again.
Score : 9.75/10
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