When Palpatine learned that Maul, his former Sith apprentice, was still alive and ruling the key planet of Mandalore, he decided to confront him. In the resulting battle, Palpatine soundly defeated Maul and his brother Opress, killing the latter. However, he let Maul live despite having him beaten.
Why did he do this? What did Maul do after this humiliating defeat?
Here’s what you need to know.
Contents
Why didn’t Palpatine kill Maul?
“Remember the first and only reality of the Sith: there can only be two, and you are no longer my apprentice. You have been replaced!”
―Darth Sidious
After their thrilling battle in the sixteenth episode of the Clone Wars animated series’ fifth season, Palpatine spared Maul because he knew that Maul would be of use to him alive. We know this because Palpatine says as much at that moment while plying Maul with Force Lightning.
We can be doubly sure of his purpose because the Sith Lord never wasted an action.
Everything he ever did was a well-thought-out ploy to achieve his master plan for galactic conquest.
In the case of letting Maul live, Palpatine had plans to use his former apprentice to get to his mother, the Nightsister Witch Talzin.
Palpatine and his co-conspirators had identified her as a threat to the Grand Plan that Palpatine had set in motion and, as such, needed to be taken care of. In addition to likely fearing her power, Palpatine likely also realised that her knowledge of him could prove damning at some critical future point.
Fortunately, Palpatine knew that Maul was the key to ending this threat once and for all.
Not long after Palpatine’s condescending statement, Maul played right into his former Master’s plans, kicking off the chain of events that would eventually rid Palpatine of Mother Talzin once and for all!
What happened to Maul after he fought with Palpatine?
While the Clone Wars series moves on to other events, we do get to see how this ploy of Palpatine’s ends in the Son of Dathomir comic book miniseries. After the intense battle and his defeat, Maul was taken captive by Sidious and delivered to the Separatist prison spire on Stygeon Prime. Here, he was tortured for information by his replacement, Darth Tyranus. Maul withstood the torture, refusing to give up the information even after a barrage of Force Lightning.
Tyranus eventually tired of the interrogation and left Maul alone, at which point he was rescued by his Death Watch subordinates, who attacked the prison spire and blew a hole in Maul’s cell wall to facilitate his escape.
However, this was all a part of Sidious’ plan.
Being extremely cunning was one of the main reasons why Palpatine was so powerful.
Maul retreated with his men to Zanbar to regroup. Here, they were attacked by Grievous and his own army, with Maul calling for a retreat after losing many of his troops to the attack. Grievous did not give chase, as he had been instructed by Dooku to let Maul go, once again furthering Sidious’ plan.
As the Sith Lords expected, Maul contacted his mother for help. However, she saw through Sidious’ ploy and on her orders, Maul went to Ord Mantell to regroup with his allies. Here they were joined by Nightbrothers sent by Talzin and prepared for the separatist attack.
Despite some initial losses, Maul was able to subdue General Grievous and order him to disable the droids attacking the surface.
This left Dooku alone on the ground and he was apprehended as well.
Making his way to Vizsla Keep 09 with his prisoners, Maul contacted Palpatine and informed him that he had his allies in captivity. Palpatine was unbothered, suggesting that he had no use for them. Based on this seeming betrayal, Maul and Talzin extended an offer for an alliance to Dooku, which he grudgingly accepted.
While Maul and Talzin weren’t foolish enough to believe that Dooku would actually be an ally, they were still unwittingly wrapped up in Palpatine’s ingenious plan.
The outpost was eventually attacked by the Jedi, which allowed Grievous to break free of his captivity, while Maul, Dooku and their allies barely managed to escape.
They retreated all the way to Dathomir, where Maul revealed that he had led Dooku there to be a sacrifice for the revitalization of Talzin. Talzin started using her magic to siphon off the Dooku’s life force but was interrupted by the arrival of Sidious and Grievous.
Sidious’ plan had finally worked out and Talzin was now well within his reach.
The two parties broke out into a lightsaber battle, with Maul engaging Grievous and Talzin possessing Dooku to cross blades with Palpatine.
While Maul held his own, Talzin’s puppet was no match for Palpatine, and she eventually exited Dooku’s body after a barrage of Force Lightning, now in physical form. She resisted as best she could, faltering all the more when Dooku rejoined the battle as himself.
Maul begged his mother to siphon off his own energies to grow more powerful and gain the upper hand, but she refused. Instead, she used the Force to push her son to safety as the tide of the battle finally crashed over the two.
From this safe distance, Maul watched as his mother was slain by Grievous.
Despite his best efforts and his mother’s caution in dealing with the Sith, Maul was still just a pawn in Sidious’ plan, useful to him after all.
Conclusion
Palpatine sparing Maul to play a part in the grand scheme that the Sith Lord had concocted was a great way to keep Maul in the swing of the plot, while also showcasing the kind of cunning action that makes Palpatine such an amazing villain.
This was also seen when Palpatine manipulated Fives into attacking him.
With the Clone Wars era being the most popular content source for new projects, we can reasonably hope that we get to see more of Palpatine’s puppetmaster ways in the near future!
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