Darth Maul Alive

[RA92]

All Boba Fett did was stand around looking cool, and look how popular he became.

Now, now, now, let's be fair, he also... um... delivered a... slab of carbonite.

You know what, never mind.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Just gonna point out that they have brought back plenty of "dead" characters before. Vader, Palpatine, and Thrawn all jump to mind.

Okay, Palpatine I know of, but what stories were Vader and Thrawn brought back from the dead in? I know there were some books written after the Thrawn trilogy that took place before he died, but I've never heard anything about him coming back from the dead. Same thing with Vader; I think I would have heard of it if something as major as his death was ret-conned in the EU.

As for this decision, I'd much prefer it if they made the story about Darth Maul being killed by Uncle Owen canon. I haven't actually read it, but it would fit in nicely with the early (I mean starting in 1977) EU portrayals of Uncle Owen, where he was supposed to be Obi Wan's half brother, and was pretty badass in his own right when it came to things like holding off Sand People raiding parties. There was even a line in the original novel (and the radio play) of Star Wars where Obi Wan said that Owen could hold off a whole raiding party with a single blaster. I could see a man like that putting cyborg Darth Maul back down.

With Vader, I was refering to him pretty much burning to death with the lava (main reason I said "dead"). They kind of brought back Thrawn by saying he found one of Palpatine's cloning tanks, although I'm pretty sure they killed him off again before the clone was ready.

Oh. That's different then; it's been hinted at since the very beginning that Vader's initial injuries involved burns, and there's actually some concept art from the original trilogy era of a throne room near the core of Planet Coruscant, with lava everywhere, which was supposedly an early concept for what eventually got moved to Mustafar. That's one of the few things in the Prequel trilogy that had been in some way or another planned from the very beginning.

As for Thrawn, I'm not even sure how that would work. The explanation for why the Emperor's clones had all of his memories was that he was able to transfer his consciousness using the force, and the reason it took so long was supposed to be because it took him a long time to move his soul from Endor to Byss, which is where most of his cloning tanks were located. Thrawn was not Force sensitive, and even if they ret-conned it so he was, that is a seriously high level dark side force power, and he would not have had the training to perform it. He would have been about like Kyle Katarn's dad; connected to the force, vaguely aware of that fact because of some of the superhuman things that it had allowed him to unconsciously do over the years, but unable to consciously do anything with it. So basically, any clones of Thrawn would have been about as much Thrawn as Captain Cody (or heck, any old clone trooper) was Jango Fett -- not much, in other words.

 

[Veylon]

Really? Seriously? Where has this guy been for Episodes II and III? What about that pesky "Rule of Two" the Sith are supposed to have? Star Wars is really getting to be one of those settings where any dead body not swiftly burned or decapitated will inevitably rise to strike again. Palpatine came back, Boba Fett came back, Thrawn came back.

This is so unbearably, unbelievably stupid and pointless. All he ever did was provide an excuse for a couple of unnecessary lightsaber duels. There's no reason to bring him back; the only character who would even remember him would be Obi Wan. I also refuse to believe that there was any great desire by fans to revive him, although I do think that killing off in Episode I was a mistake.

 

[Lesd3vil]

This smacks of the kind of 'People liked him so we'll put him in something else then advertise it to bump up circulation' money-making routine >>

 

[warprincenataku]

If I remember reading correctly he had cybernetic legs and spine. I think he was shot and killed by... that part I can't remember.

 

[MR.Spartacus]

oopsie

 

[MR.Spartacus]

"He is such a dynamic and exciting character," Since when does standing around scowling and getting cut in half count as character?

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

If I remember reading correctly he had cybernetic legs and spine. I think he was shot and killed by... that part I can't remember.

That would be Owen Lars, the man who raised Luke. Pity that story wasn't canon. By the way, I love your avatar; I've spent enough time on /gif/ to know what it's from, even if I've never seen the sauce.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Really? Seriously? Where has this guy been for Episodes II and III? What about that pesky "Rule of Two" the Sith are supposed to have? Star Wars is really getting to be one of those settings where any dead body not swiftly burned or decapitated will inevitably rise to strike again. Palpatine came back, Boba Fett came back, Thrawn came back.

This is so unbearably, unbelievably stupid and pointless. All he ever did was provide an excuse for a couple of unnecessary lightsaber duels. There's no reason to bring him back; the only character who would even remember him would be Obi Wan. I also refuse to believe that there was any great desire by fans to revive him, although I do think that killing off in Episode I was a mistake.

The series takes place at various points in the timeline depending on the serial in question. However, they all take place between episode II and episode III. Depending on how early it is in that gap[footnote]which was actually pretty long; there's more time shifts in Star Wars than most people realize. For example, Luke trained with Yoda for months while the falcon limped to Bespin on sub-light engines, and there were several years between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.[/footnote], it may not be too terribly unbelievable for Maul to have been biding his time in the outer rim. His miraculous recovery from being chopped in half, sure, that's hard to swallow. But the fact that he was out of the picture for episodes II and III isn't really a plothole if he really was out of things for Episode II, and was really and truly dead by the time Episode III took place.

As for the "Rule of Two," that only applies to actual Sith lords. There can be as many dark jedi as there are force sensitive individuals who make impulsive decisions, but there are only two Sith, which entails a specific tradition and philosophy about the Dark Side, at any given time. Also, it's something that was enacted at a point between KotOR and the time the movies take place; the Sith from KotOR's time had a tendency to spend so much time fighting amongst themselves that they couldn't get anything done, and since Sith practice <link=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KlingonPromotion>Klingon Promotion, the possibility of multiple apprentices ganging up on their master and overwhelming him caused another issue: a Sith apprentice is considered ready to take his master's place when he is able to single handedly kill him. It's the final test for Sith, and if they aren't able to kill their master either through open combat or successful subterfuge (which, against a force sensitive individual, is understandably difficult), they aren't ready to take his or her place. The problem with multiple apprentices is that valuable Sith knowledge can be lost if a group of apprentices takes down their master before any one of them is ready.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

i think i'll ignore everything outside of the original trilogy and KotOR so that in my mind i can keep liking star wars

 

[LostCrusader]

Just gonna point out that they have brought back plenty of "dead" characters before. Vader, Palpatine, and Thrawn all jump to mind.

Okay, Palpatine I know of, but what stories were Vader and Thrawn brought back from the dead in? I know there were some books written after the Thrawn trilogy that took place before he died, but I've never heard anything about him coming back from the dead. Same thing with Vader; I think I would have heard of it if something as major as his death was ret-conned in the EU.

As for this decision, I'd much prefer it if they made the story about Darth Maul being killed by Uncle Owen canon. I haven't actually read it, but it would fit in nicely with the early (I mean starting in 1977) EU portrayals of Uncle Owen, where he was supposed to be Obi Wan's half brother, and was pretty badass in his own right when it came to things like holding off Sand People raiding parties. There was even a line in the original novel (and the radio play) of Star Wars where Obi Wan said that Owen could hold off a whole raiding party with a single blaster. I could see a man like that putting cyborg Darth Maul back down.

With Vader, I was refering to him pretty much burning to death with the lava (main reason I said "dead"). They kind of brought back Thrawn by saying he found one of Palpatine's cloning tanks, although I'm pretty sure they killed him off again before the clone was ready.

Oh. That's different then; it's been hinted at since the very beginning that Vader's initial injuries involved burns, and there's actually some concept art from the original trilogy era of a throne room near the core of Planet Coruscant, with lava everywhere, which was supposedly an early concept for what eventually got moved to Mustafar. That's one of the few things in the Prequel trilogy that had been in some way or another planned from the very beginning.

As for Thrawn, I'm not even sure how that would work. The explanation for why the Emperor's clones had all of his memories was that he was able to transfer his consciousness using the force, and the reason it took so long was supposed to be because it took him a long time to move his soul from Endor to Byss, which is where most of his cloning tanks were located. Thrawn was not Force sensitive, and even if they ret-conned it so he was, that is a seriously high level dark side force power, and he would not have had the training to perform it. He would have been about like Kyle Katarn's dad; connected to the force, vaguely aware of that fact because of some of the superhuman things that it had allowed him to unconsciously do over the years, but unable to consciously do anything with it. So basically, any clones of Thrawn would have been about as much Thrawn as Captain Cody (or heck, any old clone trooper) was Jango Fett -- not much, in other words.

True about Thrawn, wish I could remember what book that happened in so I could go back and check. I think the plan there was just lock him in a room studying his previous self until he was a new Thrawn, but it has been a few years since I read that one.