SkyeWalkers: A Clone Wars Story Footnotes/Endnotes, Part 3—The Darth Maul Annotation, or How To Commit Editorial Suicide

Welcome back! You hung in there, FOUR AND A HALF whole years of Disney Star Wars! We’re about to have Episode IX dropped on us, then END OF THE SAGA. (Does anyone even understand Roman numerals anymore?) What are you doing reading the footnotes for a LEGENDS story, anyway?!? You, my friend, are clearly a Star Wars SUPERFAN.

Well, first, you should get yourself immediately acquainted with my Star Wars magnum opus SkyeWalkers: A Clone Wars Story. Then, while your facial orifice is salivating for more, you should check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this series.

To recap, this is a series of “endnotes” that actually began their lives as footnotes, specifically, the editorial footnotes I included with the original submission of SkyeWalkers to Lucasfilm during the approvals process of the project. The tenor of these notes is generally one of, “Hey, buddy! This is something that may be setting off your Spidey-sense (or otherwise should!), but please don’t trip! There’s a really good reason why this is here!” It was a practice pioneered by the legendary Star Wars trendsetters at West End Games and which was passed on to me by the likes of that ace, my pal and mentor, Daniel Wallace.

Alas, my penchant for overkill is well established.

Hence, I present you with the coup de grâce among SkyeWalkers footnotes, which is as long alone as any of the previous collections of 20-odd footnotes combined! This one, this ronto-sized mofo, which I refer to as “The Darth Maul Annotation” has as its goal the seemingly laughably simple objective: to justify a direct reference to the name of the Sith Lord in the novella. This is due to the fact that, despite being the principle antagonist of Episode I: The Phantom Menace—Darth Maul’s name is never mentioned around any of the film’s protagonists. That’s right: none of the good guys ever hear his name. This thus led to a confusing practice in Star Wars literature with many stories awkwardly referring to Darth Maul as “the mysterious dark warrior”—or something equally cumbersome—while direct references to his name slipped through in other stories, seemingly arbitrarily.

So I wrote Lucasfilm a short essay disguised as a footnote to clarify it all.

The geek flag flies high on this one—which is maybe why SkyeWalkers took so long to be published. But that’s why you’re here, isn’t it, superfan?

39 (page 74) … Padmé’s advisors had revealed overhearing the Trade Federation Viceroy refer to Qui-Gon’s murderer as Darth Maul: “Some sources suggest that Darth Maul’s identity was perhaps unknown after the Battle of Naboo: in the novel Jedi Quest, pg. 36, Anakin faces a phantom-Maul in the caves of Ilum and refers to the apparition only as ‘Qui-Gon’s murderer,’ and in the Essential Guide to the Force, pg. 29, a report filed by Obi-Wan five days after the Battle of Naboo never refers to Darth Maul by name but instead as the ‘dark warrior.’ However, because Maul’s name is repeatedly referenced by characters in several other prequel-era sources (most recently by Obi-Wan himself in the Clone Wars TV episode ‘Monster’), it’s more reasonable to assume that the name ‘Darth Maul’ wasn’t totally unknown among the Jedi but instead unconfirmed.

For example, in the earliest example of a character having knowledge of the name, on pages 108 and 109 of the first-person novel Episode I Journal: Queen Amidala, Padmé twice refers to Darth Maul directly by name: ‘Qui-Gon is dead. He died bravely. Of course he died bravely. Obi-Wan told me the details. How they fought Darth Maul down into the bowels of the power generator next door to the hanger. How Qui-Gon came back again and again to strike the dark warrior. But it was Qui-Gon who took the killing blow. It was left to Obi-Wan to kill Darth Maul.’ The novel Rogue Planet also suggests that Obi-Wan knows Darth Maul’s identity, stating, on pg. 225, ‘Obi-Wan had seen his Master impaled on the glowing, singing lightsaber of Darth Maul.’ In the post-Revenge of the Sith novels Last of the Jedi: Death on Naboo and Last of the Jedi: Return of the Dark Side, the former Jedi Padawan Ferus Olin also knows Maul’s identity. While in the Theed Generator Complex in Death on Naboo, pg. 123, Ferus states, ‘It was here … This is the place Obi-Wan fought Darth Maul to the death,’ and Return of the Dark Side, pg. 65, states, ‘[Ferus] had assumed Vader had sprung up from nowhere because Palpatine wanted it that way. He had assumed that Vader had been like Darth Maul, an apprentice trained and kept concealed until he was needed.’ The comic Purge, which takes place shortly after Revenge of the Sith, also has the Jedi Shadday Potkin mention Maul by name in relation to both the Sith generally and Darth Vader specifically: ‘Death walking. Palpatine’s mailed fist, Dooku’s successor, Maul’s inheritor, the new Sith – Darth Vader.’ Finally, on page 211 of the post-The Phantom Menace novel Outbound Flight, Palpatine’s advisor Kinman Doriana also demonstrates familiarity with the name Darth Maul.

Given these numerous discrepancies, I suggest this simple and most logical explanation: Ferus learned Maul’s name from Obi-Wan in the initial Last of the Jedi books (wherein they had frequent interaction), Obi-Wan learned the name from Padmé (possibly only after writing the report in The Essential Guide to the Force), and Padmé learned Maul’s name from her royal advisors, such as Sio Bibble. Bibble and the other advisors were likely to have heard Maul’s name for two reasons. First, they were in close proximity to Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray, who himself knew Darth Maul’s name (Sidious: ‘This is my apprentice, Darth Maul. He will find your lost ship.’) and liked to gloat. Bibble and the others were, therefore, likely to have heard Maul’s name either indirectly while Gunray gloated, or even directly. This leads to the second reason: in The Phantom Menace, Sio Bibble, in hologram form, sends a message to Amidala telling her of the catastrophic death toll the Trade Federation invasion has yielded and beseeching her to contact him. The very next scene, in which Darth Maul tells Sidious he’s traced Amidala to Tatooine, leads us to conclude that Maul (or Gunray) used Bibble to forge the trace. As such, it’s completely plausible Bibble learned Maul’s name while being coerced to send Amidala this message.[***]

Hence, even if the Jedi associate the name ‘Darth Maul’ with the ‘dark warrior’ Obi-Wan killed, the name ultimately comes from an unreliable source—Nute Gunray or the Sith. Since no one can truly corroborate whether the name ‘Darth Maul’ is legitimate, the name remains in circulation but is essentially hearsay.” ~ Abel G. Peña

[***A footnote to my footnote: not even I had the balls to mention that the idea for this Star Wars version of the telephone game has its origins in 10-odd years of meditating on copy from the Star Wars: Episode I Collector’s Edition 20-Month Calendar, specifically from the month of November. It is here that the first explanation for how Darth Sidious tracked down Padmé and her Jedi rescuers in The Phantom Menace was posited: “With the help of the Jedi, Queen Amidala, her handmaidens and key advisors have escaped their Trade Federation captors and managed to board the Royal Starship, her personal vehicle. Through skillful piloting they evade the massive blockading and invading Trade Federation fleet but the ship is heavily damaged in the battle. Consulting with the Jedi and her advisors, the Queen agrees that they should travel to the nearby planet of Tatooine to make repairs. They will then proceed to the planet Coruscant, their ultimate destination, to ask the Galactic Senate for help in stopping the invasion. From the ship, she communicates with Senator Palpatine, Naboo’s Senate representative, informing him of the invasion and their itinerary.” This implies that, very reasonably, Padmé basically ratted herself out to Darth Sidious! But the fragile legitimacy of lore found in a wall calendar being what it was under Lucasfilm’s traditional continuity standards, I remained aware—aided by some of the earliest discussions within the Star Wars Fanboy Association—that the most logical alternative to assume was that Padmé’s advisor Sio Bibble (with whom we see her communicate in the film while en route to Tatooine) was instead the likely source of Darth Sidious’ awareness, whether by coercion or as an outright spy. So this laid the foundation in my mind a decade later for the chain of causality that could serve as justification for knowledge of Darth Maul’s name among the Jedi. (It's possible James Luceno's novel Darth Plagueis suggested yet another explanation, but that was published after I submitted SkyeWalkers to Lucasfilm.—ed.]

The Tragedy of Mace Windu And The Death of The Jedi Order

Mace, how could you.

I believed in you.  You the picture of composure.  You were my hero. The absitively, posolutely baddest-ass Jedi in all the land.  All the galaxy.  When you told Count Dooku, “This party’s over,” I cheered.  Here, I said, here is proof that we can have the best of both worlds:  that I can be a good man, the best man, and still be cooler than Sith.

                      

Oh Mace.  What did you do, fool.

In Revenge of the Sith, Chancellor Palpatine is revealed to us to be nothing less insidious than the Dark Lord and evil incarnate.  Standing poised to deliver Palpatine the killing blow, Mace Windu, Senior Jedi Master of the Jedi High Council, has a choice to make:  to kill or not to kill?  Let’s review the facts.  Mace has gone to Chancellor Palpatine’s office with the knowledge that he is the Dark Lord of the Sith, and has gone with the intent to arrest him.

Again:  taking three Jedi Masters with him, Master Mace Windu has gone to arrest the Chancellor of the Republic because Mace has been convinced that the chancellor is actually the Dark Lord Darth Sidious.  This intelligence is brought to Mace by none other than the Chosen One, Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, the one who is destined to bring balance to the Force (…or “So the prophecy says,” Mace snorts).  Mace Windu, senior Jedi of the Jedi Council, senses “a great deal of confusion” in Jedi Skywalker, and denies Anakin, boy of destiny, his rightful place of prophecy in this epic confrontation.

Arguably his rightful place.  After all, difficult to interpret are prophecies, according to Yoda.

Mace and his Jedi troupe descend on Chancellor Palpatine in the devil’s lair…his office.  “In the name of the Galactic Senate of the Republic,” Mace tells him, “you are under arrest Chancellor… The senate will decide your fate.”  The Dark Lord, of course, does not go quietly.  Mace successfully subdues the Dark Lord, but three Jedi masters sacrifice their lives for the cause.  Nevertheless, Mace, with his lightsaber at Palpatine’s throat, cool as ever, reiterates, “You are under arrest, my lord.”

And we love him.

Despite all that he has gone through, witnessing his comrades cut down before him, engaging the Dark Lord in a debilitating duel, and perhaps most devastating of all, understanding that the Jedi have been tricked into compromising their most cherished principles and become warriors instead of peacekeepers for a totally made-up war, at this most desperate hour Mace Windu reaffirms his mission to arrest the Dark Lord, and let the Republic Senate decide his fate.

For the naysayers that complain that Anakin’s Fall in Revenge is not illustrated acutely enough, that his fall to the dark side isn’t convincing enough, I can’t help but cringe.  As the familiar adage goes, a person doesn’t judge good art; good art strips you butt naked.  Recall the terrible moments of choice faced by Anakin in Episodes I and II.  Remember Anakin’s tough decision to leave Tatooine?  (“I can’t do it, Mom, I just can’t.”)  Yet he does it.  How about Anakin’s tough decision to go after Dooku rather than Padmé after his true love gets tossed from a Republic chopper?  For those who have experienced the primacy of free will, who have understood their past actions as events of choice, who have in essence accepted responsibility as the craftsmen of their own destinies and therefore for both the glory and misery of who and what they are, the fall of Anakin Skywalker to the dark side in Revenge of the Sith cannot cut out your soul with finer precision or more satisfying guilt.

When Padawan Anakin decides to take justice, government, into his own hands and indiscriminately slay a community of men, women, and children in Attack of the Clones, and when Master Mace stares into the eyes of the devil, and in fear of a mere possible future, crumbles, these are choices.  “Cruel man, nearsighted man!  How can you say that?” an averagely compassionate fellow says.  Let’s call him, I don’t know…“Lando.”

“Anakin just watched his mother die before his eyes!” Lando says.  “Mace Windu was trying to kill the Dark Lord, Evil Itself, for the safety of a galaxy!  Not the world, brother, a galaxy.”

I’ll get to “evil itself” in a minute.  The great illusion here is the confusion of justification in feeling a certain emotion – feeling hatred, fear, etc. – with justification of acting on that emotion.  Is it natural to feel the impulse to chop some fools in half with a lightsaber?  Sure.  But one certainly doesn’t need to.  One always has a choice -- though, to face the less attractive of those choices is often remarkably painful, and therefore an individual will often eliminate it from the realm of possible actions that can be taken.  Thus creating the perception, and familiar excuse, that “I had no choice.”

Right Lando?

Right mindless clone troopers who backstabbed their Jedi generals?  How about you self-serving Republic Senate, which applauded the government’s transformation into a dictatorship?  Or at last Anakin Skywalker, who finally, finally, understands he has a choice when his son Luke tells him, “I feel the conflict within you.  Let go of your hate!” and “I feel the good in you, the conflict.”  Or in other words, “Yeah, Dad, you know that kinda nagging feeling you got inside?  Yeah, that’s your conscience.”

Back to the action.  As Palpatine fries Mace with dark side lightning, Anakin, destined to be present at this moment, bursts into Palpatine’s office, and Mace asks Anakin to choose.  Choose! he says, to believe me or believe Palpatine!  I believe Mace would have been comforted more by Anakin choosing to help Palpatine at that moment instead of what Anakin’s response is:  indecision.  Of all the most excruciating experiences in life, uncertainty, in all its forms, is the most agonizing.  And fear of uncertainty the most dangerous catalyst.

Not that we have anything to fear here, right Mace?  Patience is a Jedi virtue, after all.

Right Mace?

We see the tension in Mace’s face in this pivotal moment as a confused Anakin hangs onto his faith in the Jedi Order by a mere thread.  Perhaps nothing can stop Anakin’s fall to the dark side, perhaps he will become the greatest of Jedi.  Both of these possibilities are as nothing, for now there is only the reality of what happens, that is:  when Anakin, the boy of destiny needed him most, we see the good man who is Mace Windu come undone.

Consciously betraying everything he believes in, Mace at last takes justice, government, into his own hands, announcing his decision with these fatal words:

“I’m going to end this.”

And we love him.

As our hearts pound in our ears, not unlike the sound of thunderous applause, we watch Mace pull back his lightsaber like a mallet, scream down deep inside, “Yes!  Yes, kill him!  KILL PALPATINE.” and watch lustily as Mace unleashes the triphammer that will strike down the DARK LORD.

It’s fun to blame Palpatine, isn’t it?  “Look,” we say.  “See?  There is the root of all our problems.  Not you, or me.  Certainly not me…”  So-called evil incarnate.  It’s fun and cathartic because we all have bad days.  Sometimes bad years, and sometimes bad decades.  Who wants to take the blame for that?  We all want stuff, the stuff we don’t have.  A toy… food… money.

A person? 

To save a person, Anakin?  To preserve an idea, Mace?

We wish and hope that with that one deft stroke, Mace will forever end the intrusion of sadness and badness into our lives and usher in the age of happiness and perfection not only that we all want but deserve.  Detrimentally, so did Mace.

In one swift motion, Mace, who moments ago battered a Sith Lord into submission and still reasserted his mission to arrest him, ultimately betrays everything he and the Jedi believe in.  Everything except this:

The Jedi will not lose.

And of course, the instant that prideful thought drives the Jedi Master into motion, that final never-ending swing, the Emperor has already won.  As Mace strikes Palpatine the deathblow, we know the principles of the Jedi Order are bankrupt, and the Republic, democracy, is truly dead. ~ Abel G. Peña