Because Maul has taken the place of Count Dooku in this re-imagined trilogy, the opening scene of Episode III involving Dooku meeting his headless demise at the hands of Anakin had to be slightly tweaked. Instead of Anakin cutting off Dooku’s hand to better him, he cuts off both of Maul’s hands in one well-placed swipe of his saber. While Maul is on his knees at Anakin’s mercy, the supposedly held hostage Palpatine watches on with secretly evil giddy. Darth Maul understands that Anakin will finally be irreversibly on the path to the dark side if he decides to slay Maul here, meaning the Sith’s mission will finally be complete. Looking Anakin dead in the eyes, Maul commands,

“Do it!”

In my movie, due to the father/son-like relationship he’s developed with Maul, Anakin just can’t bring himself to put the poor handless Sith out of his misery. At least, not directly. He instead retracts the blade of his lightsaber and knocks Darth Maul out via a shot to the head with the brunt of his saber’s hilt, frees Palpatine of his shackles, grabs his unconscious master Obi-Wan, and hightails it out of the destructing ship they were fighting on, leaving Maul to die in the ensuing space explosions.

This setup allows the future Emperor Palpatine to assume the ‘smooth-talking Sith’ role he initially had in "Revenge of the Sith" and the movie now plays out in almost the exact same way as it originally did. This time, Anakin is motivated to report Palpatine when he discovers him to be the top dog Sith Lord not only by his duty as a Jedi but also for fear that his leaving Darth Maul to die in front of Palpatine has angered him. Anakin fears for his life, and by extension, fears for the lives of Padmé and his unborn child(ren). My ‘Maul-terations’ begin again with the pivotal scene involving Mace Windu and the other Jedi Council members attempting to arrest Palpatine. Windu gives Palpatine his galactic Miranda rights, thinking that this evil old man is obviously had. Palpatine begs to differ and stands to face his arrestors.

He’s not alone, though. From the shadows, Darth Maul, now sporting two shiny new robotic hands, ignites his dual-sided saber and steps forward to fight by his master’s side. A battle that is nothing short of epic ensues, as Maul takes on the Jedi combatively lightsaber a lightsaber and Palpatine puts up his fight with force lightning and taunts. It comes down to three survivors: Master Windu, Darth Maul, and Palpatine. Windu temporarily bests Maul and turns his attention to Palpatine.

The dramatic Palpatine’s force lightning reflecting off Mace’s purple saber and back at him, frying his face into the classic gray and wrinkly-skinned Darth Sidious’ scene is not where Anakin makes his entrance this time. Instead, Maul recovers and tries to catch Mace off guard with a blindside swing, to which Mace retaliates, unarms Maul, and decides to quickly dispose of him so that he can turn his attention back to the weakened Sith master.

Just as it looks like Maul has met his second end, a blue lightsaber cuts through Windu, and the camera pans to reveal that Anakin is at the other end of the weapon. Seeing that Maul wasn't dead after all only to be in mortal danger again, Anakin acted impulsively to save him. Mace turns in time to look his murderer in the face before being force lightning-ed off the building by Sidious, who's screaming with a combination of rage and delight. After the commotion quite literally dies down, Anakin briefly stares at Maul. The fact that Maul’s alive has him shocked. The Emperor cackles maniacally.

Anakin realizes that he honestly regrets leaving Darth Maul behind on that ship. Seeking forgiveness and relief from the sudden guilt that he’s feeling, Anakin apologetically states,

“I left you to die.”

For the first second after this is said, Maul actually seems to look at Anakin with genuine pity and sympathy. This fades fast, though, and the coldness returns to his eyes as he responds,

“You only did what you had to do.”

Darth Maul impatiently turns to his master, his lightsaber now back on, and matter-of-factly tells him,

“Anakin has slain a Jedi. He is ready.”

Maul’s intended next move was to kill Darth Sidious, take his spot as Emperor, and take Anakin as his Sith apprentice (the Rule of Two demands this be done), right then and there. Sidious tells him not to be hasty,

“You shall rule, Lord Maul. But you and I still have a few final matters to attend to…”

Join me next week for Part VI, the gripping conclusion to Darth Maul’s new saga!

(Part I: http://theodysseyonline.com/arkansas-state/feel-bad-for-darth-maul-part/190503)

(Part II: http://theodysseyonline.com/arkansas-state/feel-bad-darth-maul-part-ii/196723)

(Part III: http://theodysseyonline.com/arkansas-state/feel-bad-for-darth-maul/203753)

(Part IV: http://theodysseyonline.com/arkansas-state/feel-bad-for-darth-maul-part-iv/210516)