Inquisition / The Night of the Hunt (Maul - Shadow Lord - S01E05 & E06) - Animated Series

Discuss the latest Chapter! (Discussion)

"The Empire may be our common enemy, but Maul will never be our ally!" SPOILERS.

The Empire makes its entrance in their patented asshole manner

We are now past the halfway point in season 1 of Maul - Shadow Lord and with the arrival of the Empire things promise to become more interesting. However, the fifth episode, "Inquisition" is very light on action, and even low on tension because at this point in the series you never for one second believe anyone but the Jedi master are in true danger of dying. Anyway, so the Empire arrives! They after after Maul, a high priority target! And who is sent? Vader? No, the whole operation is lead by a lowly Lieutenant who is your typical cartoon villain and Palpatine's man on location is everyone's favorite magic green gas cloud wearing a suit of armor.... Marrok. Yes, that thing returns from Ahsoka. So we already know he will not be dealt with in this series. Another character with plot armor is what this show needs.

You have seen all of this before!

About the plot: the Empire arrives in full force, locks down the city / planet, restricts all interplanetary travel, stormtroopers patrol the streets and the cartoon villain Lieutenant arrives at the police precinct, has the chief "disappeared" and Lawson is interrogated by Marrok, but Marrok is apparently not a really talented force user (he is a gas cloud, after all), and does not sense that Lawson is lying. So he's let off the hook. Meanwhile Jedi Master Daki and his spunky padawan Devon realise they can't get out of the city... we get yet another instance of "these aren't the droids you're looking for... move along, move along" routine when a stormtrooper asks for identification on a subway station, but the twist is that another stormtrooper realises that something was not right in how his buddy let the two people just go...and so we are treated to a brief chase... the two Order 66 survivors however give the Empire the slip and come up with a bright idea... why not go to the only person in town they know (other than Maul).... so when Captain Lawson returns home from a shitty day at work his day gets even shittier when he finds his son let in two strangers for whatever reason (never explained) and on his couch sit Master Daki and Devon.

Incoming migraine detected!

For a split second I had hoped that the series now turns into a sitcom where Master Daki and Devon hide behind the couch when the Imperial landlord checks in on Lawson... but nope, the Empire is already on the trail and have located the two. So Marrok and various stormtroopers force their way into the apartment. The two Jedi try to fight Marrok, Daki instructs Devon to go on ahead, he will fight Marrok on his own to delay him and what follows is a prolongued chase sequence. This is well executed and much more entertaining than the first half of the double feature which was actually quite boring and probably the worst episode so far, but the second half then has all the action. So Daki tells Devon to go ahead, she manages to capture a gunship and eventually the group manages to escape, but with various other gunships on their tail, they are eventually shot down but can still land relatively safely. They manage to slip away again. Previously Daki had asked Lawson for any help he can provide, he believes Lawson must have contacts to the underworld that could help them slip through the Imperial lockdown. So Lawson leads the group to his female friend who runs the casino, we learn a little bit about their past, she used to be a bounty hunter and they traveled together, saved each others lives and this created a bond. But before she can provide any real help a customer told the Empire about the little birdies they are after and so the Imperials enter the casino and things escalate quickly when the owner, who's had it, attacks a stormtrooper. So now the gang has to escape yet again and when more and more troopers appear Lawson tells Devon to stay with his son Rylee and to get to safety, he and Master Daki will follow as soon as they have handled things.

Lots of laserswording this week!

This gives the series the convenient plot device of separating Devon and Rylee from the adults. The two make their way to a train but Marrok is already on their trail. Devon tries to fight Marrok, and she can hold him off, but it's apparent she's probably too weak to defeat him. And in case you wonder why I haven't talked about Maul yet... he had relatively little to do this week... his pet droid serves as his eyes and ears in the city and then there's also Rook Kast who keeps him informed, so he knows what is going on and that Marrok has arrived with the Empire. When Rook suggests they leave for good Maul rejects this and the reason he wants to stay is because he really longs for Devon to become his apprentice. Maul is more or less always informed about the various goings on, and so he also knows where Devon is when Marrok and she fight on the train. So Maul arrives just in time to turn the tides, they still do not defeat Marrock, remember his plot armor, but they manage to slice the train coupling and Marrok is left behind. Maul then tells Devon that now she has seen the true face of her enemy... while the camera zooms in on Maul's face... is someone trying to foreshadow things here? Marrok meanwhile reports to Palpatine via holocall, but he is only seen from behind with hood on and has no lines. And that's it for this week.

So much laserswording

I do not want to repeat myself. So the things I said about this show in the previous two weeks still apply. It's entertaining enough. It's well made. You can have fun, it's watchable... and it's also just same old same old, been there, done that. And I have to admit I do expect more from Star Wars these days.

Rylee is way out of his depth here

I said it before, I say it again.... this show feels a lot like a Star Wars mixtape set to "shuffle". The whole "you do not need to see our identification" Jedi mind routine is a meme now and showing it yet again is maybe not the best idea... does it mean to never show Jedi mind tricks? No, but this just feels too much like 1977 all over again and we've had that. Then I want to point out a weird thing that this show and The Acolyte have in common. In The Acolyte an older man had an interest in a young girl bordering on creepy, unhealthy obsession, because he was hellbent on having a padawan of his own. In Maul - Shadow Lord an older man has a creepy, unhealthy interest in a young girl bordering on obession, because he is bellbent on having an apprentice. Was Leslye Headland a script consultant here? Or is Filoni just someone who has no real ideas anymore? I mean, we've only had this not too long ago with The Acolyte, and quite frankly, it felt a bit weird and creepy in this show... both times a man in his 40s or maybe 50s shows a weird interest in a young girl and I need not point out unfortunate real world implications. Headland tried hard to portray the Jedi as creeps, Filoni does not try to do the same to Maul here, but I truly wonder if we need yet another show about the very same thing? Did Filoni really not see the similarities to The Acolyte here? Or does he want to show Headland that Sith (or quasi Sith) can be just as obsessed when it comes to young girls as Jedi are? I truly do not get it. Why do we get the same plot all over again now? Sure, some details may be different, but the fact remains that both times an adult man shows an interest in a young girl that simply is neither normal nor healthy and wants her to become his follower, apprentice, whatever. These issues could have been solved if Devon was not so young, she's 14-16 maybe, at best.

Long distance call to Palpatine

Many people apparently like this series. I can see why. It's certainly entertaining, Devon is likable, Maul is, well, Maul, lots of blaster action and various lightsaber duels throughout. But as I tried to point out I expect more from Star Wars, or any good series these days... I do not want "Rehash - The Series", I want something new. So far everything here is just a variation on a theme, and it's a theme that has been played to death in the past almost 50 years. Also, as I said, the fact that a central plot point in The Acolyte - Sol being obsessed with getting a young girl as his padawan - is mirrored here with Maul being obsessed with getting a young girl as his apprentice, is really bizarre to me. I never liked George's idea that Jedi are basically child snatchers (with consent, but still) who then tell parents and kids alike to abandon all family bonds, to begin with. But this new thing now in The Acolyte and Maul - Shadow Lord, were adult men are literally obsessed with young girls and want them to have as their "apprentice" is on a whole different level. At least Qui-Gon was always undeniably well intentioned and level headed, Sol and Maul are literally obsessed. With little girls. This is a very unfortunate plot device... and sure, maybe Devon is Talon now... as some fans hope she will be. If the series goes into this direction it's just further proof of Filoni's lack of talent. We do not need yet another "fall to the dark side". We've seen that already... in fact, The Acolyte was all about that concept and we are dangerously close to Maul and Devon being the same as Qimir and Osha with the same overall dynamics (excluding the weird romantic angle, Filoni is not as messed up as Headland)... and we all know The Acolyte left behind nothing but scorched earth, that Filoni may copy paste such a central concept from Headland is bizarre. It's already bizarre that we have yet another show now where an adult shows an unhealthy interest in a child.

What else... the inclusion of Marrok is yet another bad idea... we have so many characters with plot armor now. We not only know Maul will not succeed, we also know nothing bad will happen to Marrok in this series. The only character with some mystery is Devon, because her fate is unknown and also of some interest at least. I could not care less about Lawson or the Jedi master who is probably a dead man walking anyway, if the show copy pastes yet another Star Wars trope. I would be greatly surprised if Daki survives the show.

Anyway, if you have 40 minutes to spare you can watch this. Chances are good kids will like it. If you do not watch it you will literally miss nothing. That being said the second episode this week had fun chase sequences and nice lightsaber duels. If you care for this you can have certainly some good fun! But even in week 3 this show remains the very definition of "mid" to me. And really... what drove Filoni to take cues from The Acolyte for this series?