Maul Prepares His Allies For the Chaos to Come
Maul saying in the chaos, "we must seize what power we can"
Having gathered intelligence on Ahsoka Tano, Maul begins setting-up his own allies for the new chaos that is to come in the mosrt recent episode of Star Wars The Clone Wars. We see Darth Maul communicating by hologram with Ziton Moj, Marg Krim, and Dryden Vos. It is worth noting that this is the first time Dryden Vos has appeared on-screen beyond his appearance in Solo: A Star Wars Story (stay tuned for that future post on Maul in that movie). Clearly, this appearance is meant to tie-in Vos’ and Maul’s involvement in Crimson Dawn in that movie.
Maul tells the Syndicate leaders to go into hiding
After returning from having assassinated Prime Minister Almec as he was ordered by Maul, Gar Saxon returns to where the other Maul-allied Mandalorians are camped out, and Saxon asks Rook Kast, “What’s going on?” Kast responds, “Maul just told the Syndicate leaders to go into hiding.”
To some degree, this feels like a follow-up to what happened at the end of Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir, in that Darth Sidious will attack Maul and his forces with whatever he has available, so Maul, to some degree, both wants to avoid Sidious’ wrath, as well as protecting his Syndicate. It also sets up the possibility that Maul will not have them for the remainder of the Siege of Mandalore, but also able to pounce once opportunity presents itself with the fall of the Republic.
Maul rallies his Mandalorian allies
Maul, turning away from the hologram communication with the leaders of the Syndicate and towards the Mandalorians assembled with him, he says, “You once liberated me from my imprisonment by Sidious and his apprentice. At the time, I thought Dooku was an old fool, but now, now I see he and I are the same – one step behind. The Dark Side has never been stronger.”
Up until this point, this is so fascinating, as he relates to Dooku as a former apprentice of Sidious and how both he and Dooku were not able to keep up with Sidious. But instead of seeing that as a total loss, he also senses that there is a great opportunity at this moment due to the Dark Side being the strongest it has been.
At this point, Rook Kast asks, “My lord, what does it mean?” To which, Maul responds, “Soon…the galaxy will be remade and, in the chaos, we must seize what power we can. It is not the way of your people to hide, here in the gutters. If you die, I promise you it will be on the field of battle. And, if you die, you will die as warriors.”
This causes them to be excited and chanting, whipping them up in excitement. While this last piece is intriguing for his rhetorical and charismatic ability, the earlier content is fascinating. He is telling his allies that this is a strangely opportune moment and that he is particularly acute to the opportunity that no one else senses.
What’s Next?
In the next installment of the Darth Maul project, Ahsoka and Maul face-off in an epic lightsaber duel amidst the Siege of Mandalore.
