Flickering Myth’s writing team are counting down to the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens by discussing their most memorable Star Wars moments. Next up is Tai Freligh with the Darth Maul/Obi-Wan fight from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace…
I fancy myself somewhat of a Star Wars originals snob. Love, love, loved IV, V, and VI and hate, hate, hated the prequels! Unleashing Jar Jar Binks on us was cruel and unusual punishment and then to further irritate us, they tossed in Hayden Christensen as the uber annoying Anakin Skywalker. We not only had to put up with him as the young Anakin, pod-racing and acting like a know-it-all kid, but we then had to endure teenage Anakin who has ultimate power, but still suffers from #teenprobs. I will find the scriptwriter and hunt them down for that scene between Obi Wan and Anakin where he drops this stink bomb…”If you’re not with me, then you’re my enemy!” If you’ve got seven minutes to waste, here’s a compendium of horrible acting as young Anakin and old Anakin.
All this is to say that I find almost everything about the prequels horrifying….except for a certain bad ass devil-horned Sith Lord that goes by the name of Darth Maul. Red and black skinned with horns and a special martial arts outfit made him stand out from other villains. He had a special double-sided lightsaber that was red. I had never seen anything like that in the Star Wars movies. Sure, the design and look of the lightsabers varied, but for the most part they looked the same and just had different colors. This lightsaber was completely out of the box and the way Darth Maul fought was completely different than the Jedi did. He was doing flips and spins and swinging that lightsaber around his body like it was a wall of energy. When I saw Kylo Ren’s unique lightsaber for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I was immediately reminded of Maul’s saber (and don’t tell me about General Grievous- that was just four normal lightsabers at once!).
My favourite scene from Star Wars (you can see a short clip from that fight here) is when after seeing his Master Qui-Gon Jinn struck down by Darth Maul, Obi-Wan aggressively engages the Sith Lord in a heated lightsaber duel beneath the palace on Naboo. Obi-Wan manages to not only break Maul’s lightsaber in half so that he has to fight normally, but he ultimately kills him after an intense battle. Nooooooo!!! Darth Maul was too cool to kill off in the same movie. He should have escaped and come back in a later movie. He was such a great villain and his time came too soon. R.I.P. Darth Maul.
What’s your most memorable Star Wars moment? Let us know in the comments below…
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Tai Freligh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=1KO8-kbSyfQ
Originally published November 27, 2015. Updated November 29, 2022.
