Was Darth Maul Ever a Jedi? His Dream Explained
Darth Maul ranks as one of the most popular Sith Lords in the storyline of Star Wars due to his cool design and tragic story. But we also know that he has a tragic past that served as one of the reasons why he became as angry as he was during the peak of his powers. In most cases, Darth Sidious used the emotions of his would-be apprentices to turn them over to the dark side of the Force. But was Darth Maul ever a Jedi?
There was never a point in his life where Darth Maul was a Jedi. Ever since he was a child, Palpatine had already groomed him to become one of his apprentices as he had already sensed the innate power within him. However, during one of the journeys that he took with Palpatine, Maul had a dream that he was a Jedi.
Darth Maul’s story is both tragic and informative about what helped shape his character. Of course, his story was given more attention in the comic book side of the Star Wars lore, wherein he could take on the role of a Jedi in a dream. So, with that said, let’s talk more about Darth Maul’s past and whether or not he did become a Jedi at one point in time.
Darth Maul Was Always a Sith Lord
There are a lot of popular characters in Star Wars, but Darth Maul has always ranked as one of the greatest Sith Lords ever created by Lucasfilm. Initially introduced as a mysterious warrior that Darth Sidious trained as an apprentice powerful enough to kill a Jedi Master, Maul went on to become one of the characters that fans truly loved when his story was given more attention in the Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series, wherein he was revealed to have survived his battle with Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Maul became an angry man who detested both the Jedi and the Sith after he survived his ordeal in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. His anger allowed him to survive what should have been a fatal attack from Obi-Wan in their first duel. He held on to that anger and used it as fuel to eventually exact his revenge on Kenobi. But Maul met his end at the hands of the Jedi Master in Star Wars: Rebels when an older Obi-Wan Kenobi killed him in one strike and freed him from his hatred.
Nevertheless, as angry of a man as Darth Maul was, the thing about him was that he was a victim of Palpatine’s manipulative nature. Maul was born the son of Mother Talzin on the planet of Dathomir. At that time, Talzin allied with Sidious and shared her knowledge regarding the Force magicks that the Nightsisters specialized in. And Sidious was already aware of how strong in the Force Maul was when he was still just a child.
To strengthen Maul, Sidious told Talzin to isolate him from his people and basically force him to live a hard life under an abusive watcher. Mother Talzin complied because she wanted to please Palpatine, hoping to become his next apprentice. Maul’s hatred and rage grew due to the hard life he had to endure as a young boy, and that was when his strength in the dark side of the Force grew to the point that Sidious was ready to take him on as his apprentice.
As such, there was never a point in his life where Darth Maul was a Jedi because he was always groomed to be a Sith Lord since he was still a young boy. Palpatine, ever the manipulative Sith Lord, used his influence to force the young Maul to live a life that he detested so that he would grow angrier and more powerful in the dark side. As such, he never got to live the life of a normal young Dathomirian boy due to the machinations of Darth Sidious.
That means that Maul took a different route as a Sith Lord. Two of the three apprentices that Sidious took in were former Jedi that he manipulated to turn over to the dark side of the Force. But Maul was groomed to be a Sith Lord from the very start, which means that the only side of the Force he knew was the dark one.
What Was Maul’s Jedi Dream About?
But while Darth Maul was never a Jedi at one point in his life, the thing is that there was a part in his story where he became a Jedi. Of course, this would make sense once we fully explain the details.
In Star Wars: Age of the Republic – Darth Maul, which is a comic book storyline that tells Maul’s story before the events of Episode I, the Dathomirian Sith Lord and his master visited the planet of Malachor, which was the site of an ancient battle between the Jedi Order and the Sith nearly 4,000 years ago. Most of the Jedi and Sith that took part in this battle were turned into stone by an ancient Sith weapon, and that’s why their remains were still on that planet.
Sidious commanded Maul to inhale the ashes of a fallen Sith warrior. In doing so, Maul had a dream wherein he was in the shoes of a Jedi Knight that wielded a blue double-bladed lightsaber. He was defending a family from a giant creature and could slay the beast using his skills.
Maul saw how the family adored the Jedi for helping them out, but he was disgusted by their adoration because he never really knew what it was to be loved and adored due to his upbringing. He perceived the Jedi as “a lie told to a desperate galaxy,” That was why he never really saw the Jedi as true heroes that the galaxy should adore. In his dream, Maul slaughtered the entire family begging for help against the giant creature he slayed.
After Maul woke up from that dream, he concluded that it was his duty to kill the Jedi and end the lies they had been telling the galaxy. He wanted to claim vengeance for every Sith warrior that they killed in the thousands of years of conflicts between the Jedi and the Sith. As such, his resolve as a Sith Lord was strengthened as this vision allowed him to hate the Jedi even more.
In that regard, Darth Maul was never a Jedi but was simply placed in the shoes of one in his dream when he went to Malachor. This vision allowed him to find a reason to hate the Jedi even more. Of course, Sidious only took advantage of Maul’s anger as a means for him to further his goals. He saw Maul as a mad dog that he could control and manipulate, which was why Maul ended up detesting his former master during the events of Star Wars: Clone Wars.
