Through its incredible 3D animation, excellent voice acting, and a devotion to creating a compelling story, “Maul-Shadow Lord” continues the recent success of Star Wars with its May 4 finale.
“Maul-Shadow Lord” began its release on April 6 with its ten-episode season, releasing two episodes per week.
This show has really lived up to its expectations, and the high quality in all aspects of its production has continued the success that season two of “Andor” created.
“Maul-Shadow Lord” takes place one year after the rise of the Galactic Empire and follows Maul as he attempts to reclaim his crime syndicate, the Shadow Collective.
“Maul-Shadow Lord’s” most compelling factor is, without a doubt, the animation. This show creates a blend between the strict, but still beautiful, 3D style of the later seasons of “Clone Wars” and overlays that with an oil-painted background.
This leads to an incredibly unique and pleasing view for the fans that draws the watcher into the story.
Maul’s return in “Clone Wars,” while it initially seemed ridiculous, became one of the most interesting parts of the show.
This is because, unlike the other lackluster, low-effort attempts that have been made since (in “Ahsoka” and in “Obi-Wan”), actual thought was put into coming up with reasons as to how Maul could have possibly survived.
This arc, which was beautifully crafted throughout the later seasons of “Clone Wars,” completed its next phase in the newest addition to the “Star Wars” franchise.
Maul is now focused on exacting his revenge on those who wronged him at the end of “Clone Wars.”
This includes Darth Sidious and the rest of the empire, along with, of course, Obi-Wan Kenobi, which we see in “Rebels.”
Maul’s other focus, and the main story of the show, is to convert former Jedi Devon Izara (voiced by Gideon Adlon) to the dark side. This plotline is incredibly compelling and almost makes you want to root for Devon to fall to the dark side.
Even more than that, the fact that this part of the story originated from George Lucas’ initial vision for the sequel trilogy makes it all the better.
Devon is also a great character, showing the struggle to avoid the dark side when essentially the whole world is against her.
The show ends with the fight that had been building up for the entire season, Maul vs. Darth Vader.
While the entire show has had incredible fights with the inquisitors and Devon and her master, Eeko Dio Daki (voiced by Dennis Haysbert), Darth Vader’s entry into the show just brings such an unmatchable iconic presence.
In the final episode, where Darth Vader kills master Eeko Dio Daki, which obviously had to happen, Devon finally decides to take up Maul’s offer and joins him as his dark side apprentice.
This scene was perfectly set up and leads into one of the most interesting stories that “Star Wars” has perhaps ever created.
The underlying factor in the entire show that makes it so great is the voice acting.
This is especially true for Maul’s voice actor, Sam Witwer.
As the voice actor who played Maul in “Clone Wars,” along with various other roles such as The Brother, Witwer had already set expectations very high.
However, the dedication he put into this role, which included painting Maul’s tattoos onto his face and providing motion capture for some of Maul’s scenes, just makes the character more realistic and true to how Witwer portrays him in the voice recording booth.
This show’s success demonstrates the ability of great animation to reach the level that shows like Andor have achieved.