A Eulogy For Darth Maul (54 BBY - 2 BBY)

The Dathomirian Night Brother known as Maul will always be remembered as one of the greatest threats to the galaxy. Perhaps more significantly, he will be remembered as one of the greatest threats to himself.

Forged by the hatred of a single man for an entire benevolent organization, Maul's fate seemed to be sealed the first moment he tapped into the Dark Side of the Force. His border-line sadistic lust for death and suffering made him a danger to himself as well as the Jedi.

Maul has always been remembered for his first public appearance during the Naboo Crisis, where he successfully defeated the famed Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn in lightsaber combat.

Until "he" would end Maul's short lived victory.

"He" would slice the Sith Lord in half using his fallen Master's lightsaber and cause the Sith to fall down into a dark abyss, so gravelly wounded that Maul should have, by all accounts, been dead.

"He" is Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Ironically, it would be Kenobi that would keep Maul alive for the next decade. Using nothing but his incomprehensible hate and anger for Kenobi, Maul would remain at large on a trash heap of a planet obsessing over the young Jedi, plaguing his already rapidly decaying mind.

It was this obsession, this inhuman lust for revenge that would cause the once great Darth Maul to devolve into something less than an animal. He was suffering a fate worse than death.

Perhaps it was only by the kindness of the Force that Maul's long-lost brother would find him and rescue him from a hellish nightmare of insanity.

But, even as a resurrected Maul set out to claim his deserved power, dominance, and above all, vengeance, that insanity would stay with him.

Even when he came face to face with Kenobi once again and killed the Jedi's lover for sadistic pleasure, seemingly bringing closure to the fallen Sith, it was clear his shattered mind would never be satisfied.

After his successful revenge, it would seem that Maul's new obsession would be his old master, Darth Sidious, who sought to destroy Maul's plans for conquest and end Maul once and for all.

However, even as Sidious stripped Maul of his power, mercilessly killed Maul's brother, and slaughtered Maul's mother before his eyes, it would not be Sidious who was destined to end Maul.

Maul's defeat at Sidious's hands would drive him into exile. But at the return of the Jedi and Sith back into his life, Maul was ready to take the galaxy by storm and find the key that would reinstate his power: hope.

Yet, that lingering insanity, that unquenchable obsession would continue to push Maul to the edge of mental collapse.

Perhaps it did, as he faced the hated Kenobi, the guardian of the hope Maul sought, one last time.

To the credit of Maul's executioner, Kenobi didn't take any pleasure in the killing of his long time nemesis. He saw the wild look in Maul's burning eyes, the utter hate for himself and his rival, and he put a wild, purposeless animal out of his misery.

As the once great Sith Lord Darth Maul's body rests peacefully in the shadow of Twin Suns, may we remember him not as a villain, but a lost soul, whose fate was tragically chosen for him at birth.

Darth Maul, may you in death find the peace that has eluded you in life.