Fear.
Fear attracts the fearful The strong
The weak The innocent
The corrupt Fear.
Fear is my Ally.
Hey YouTube, Urban Acolyte TV, and my name is Prince.
Hey guys, in this video, I’m going to get into some spoilers for the Rebels season finale,
so if you want to go in completely spoiler free, save this video and come back to it
at the end of the month.
Okay, so moving on to the business…
In the Star Wars Rebels Midseason trailer, we got a glimpse of a character who asked
Ezra to refer to him as “Old Master.”
Now Dave Filoni has not officially confirmed that the Old Master is Maul, but other YouTube
channels have confirmed that Maul will be making an appearance on Rebels based on a
new Maul action figure that was displayed at the New York Toy Fair last month.
From the comments, I can tell that there is a bit of confusion about Maul— where is
he?
Did he die?
So if you did not watch the Clone Wars at all, the last time you saw Maul was on Naboo
when Obi Wan cut him in half and dumped him down a long tube in an engineering space.
We later learn that Maul actually survived when he is found by Savage Opress.
What Maul says is that his hatred and desire for revenge is what kept him alive, but I
think it was actually dark side magic that preserved his life.
Mother Talzin repairs Maul’s damaged mind and gives him new mechanical legs, and he
sets out to get his revenge against Obi Wan.
I’m not going to go into the full details of that storyline, but you can watch those
episodes on the Clone Wars— they’re actually really good.
What I will say is that in the process of getting his revenge, Maul becomes the head
of Clan Vizla and the Death Watch.
He puts himself in a position where he has an army of Mandalorians and crime syndicates
under him.
When Maul and Savage Opress are confronted by Palpatine, it is because Maul has established
himself as a rival.
There’s a double meaning to Maul being a rival.
As the leader of the Shadow Syndicate, Maul is literally a political rival.
Recall that Palpatine is playing both sides of the Clone Wars as Chancellor Palpatine
leading the Republic and as Darth Sidious giving commands to Count Dooku who is the
leader of the Separatist Confederacy.
Maul is also a rival because he has taken on Savage Opress as an apprentice.
The Bane Rule of Two philosophy teaches that the power of the dark side is finite and must
be contained to a single being who wields the power and an apprentice to crave the power.
Now the full philosophy of the Rule of Two is not completely canon— I said this in
another video, and I meant that we don’t know if Bane developed his philosophy from
Revan’s holocron.
Bane and the Rule of Two are canon— I needed to make this clear since there is some confusion
about my statement in that other video.
Getting back to Maul— After Palpatine gets rid of Savage Opress, he defeats Maul in single
combat and the last thing we see is Palpatine telling Maul that he has other uses for him.
This story was not covered in the Clone Wars because the series was canceled when Disney
took over Lucasfilms, but Maul’s story continues on in the Son of Dathomir comic book series.
We learn that Palpatine wanted to use Maul to lure Mother Talzin out of hiding.
By the end of the series, two major things happen— we learn that Maul is actually the
son of Mother Talzin, and Mother Talzin is basically executed by General Greivous.
Now the fact that we find out that Maul is the son of a Nightsister completely changes
the way that I look at Maul’s character.
Notice that throughout this video, I’ve not referred to him as Darth Maul.
The fact that his mother is executed due to Palpatine’s desire to eliminate all his
rivals causes irreparable damage between Maul and his former master.
Additionally— what does it say about Maul’s force abilities when he’s been trained as
a Sith, but he is also the son of a Nightsister who has a different way of knowing the Force
than how we’ve seen it manipulated by the Sith or used the Jedi?
I would like to think that in the 15 or 16 years that pass from the death of Mother Talzin
until the events that cause the Rebels to cross paths with Maul, that his understanding
of the Force has expanded beyond just being an assassin.
So this sets us up for Maul meeting up with Ezra potentially in the season finale on Rebels.
Let’s look at what Maul and Ezra share in common—the Empire killed Ezra’s parents.
Maul lost his brother and apprentice, Savage Opress, at the hands of Palpatine, and his
mother is murdered as part of Palpatine’s scheme to eliminate his rivals.
The last time we see Ezra, he asks Yoda if it’s wrong for him to fight to protect his
friends.
Maul is on the opposite end of the spectrum—he has lost his friends, and he’s seeking vengeance.
So we have this situation where Ezra is looking for power to defeat his enemies, and Maul
is more than willing to teach Ezra to become powerful to eliminate his enemies—and it
just so happens that Maul and Ezra share the same enemies.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
If Maul is waiting at this Temple on Malachor where the Rebels are headed, and I do believe
Maul is there, could Yoda be sending Ezra there as a test?
The visions that everyone saw in the Jedi Temple on Lothal where all orchestrated by
Yoda.
Yoda is telling Kanan that Ezra has a strong affinity for the dark side of the Force, and
Kanan has to stand by and let Ezra make that choice.
We do have to investigate those statements, though— In Kanan’s vision, the Grand Inquisitor
appears to him as a Temple Guardian.
His words are that the dark side pulls at Ezra and that Ezra will eventually be consumed
by it.
In the vision, The Grand Inquisitor tells Kanan to stand aside because Ezra must be
eliminated before he embraces the darkness.
Kanan is told that he will never be strong enough to protect Ezra, and that he will perish
for his failure.
Is this all just part of Kanan’s trial where he must face his fears, or is Yoda foretelling
the future of Ezra and Kanan through this vision?
These aren’t questions that I’m able to answer at this time, but they are questions
that we all need to sit with for the time being as events unfold on Rebels.
The truth is that I don’t know if Maul will turn Ezra, but I can say with a high degree
of confidence that Ezra is going to take his first steps towards embracing the dark side.
I know that I have said in previous videos that I began having my doubts about Ezra turning,
but after the Shroud of Darkness episode, I am starting to believe that the Shroud of
Darkness is actually descending upon the Rebel cell from Lothal.
I think that Ezra will begin to explore new powers and abilities not because he is evil,
but because he genuinely wants to help people and prevent what happened to his parents from
happening to anyone else.
There’s a saying that goes the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
I am purely making a speculation here—but we will possibly learn exactly what the Scourge
of Malachor is in the new Star Wars canon.
If there is any connection to the Jedi Revan, I can see Ezra becoming enamored with Revan.
For those not familiar with Revan’s story from the Knights of the Old Republic games—
he went to war against the wishes of the Jedi Council to stop the Mandalorians.
His decision was not to chase after adventure or to satisfy some type of bloodlust— it
was to genuinely end suffering.
Revan did not agree with the decision of the Jedi to sit idly in their Temples meditating
on the Force while the Mandalorians were raiding and conquering planets belonging to the Republic.
We have no idea, at this time, what the Great Scourge of Malachor was—but I suspect this
is one of several reasons Yoda sends the Rebel Jedi to Malachor.
Recall Yoda’s answer to Ezra about how to win the war—“How Jedi choose to win is
the question.”
The path to the dark side is always the easy way.
Yoda told Luke that he had to face and defeat Vader.
The easy way was to kill Vader, but by doing so, Luke would have replaced his father.
The hard way was to risk death by forcing Vader to choose between his Son and his own
life.
Perhaps Ezra will learn the lesson that Yoda is trying to impart to Ezra.
Because Rebels is a children’s show, I think that Ezra will eventually learn the lesson—but
not after getting a taste of the dark side.
I think that Season 2 is going to end with a question mark about Ezra’s future.
I also think that in Season 3 we will see a more confident, more powerful Ezra—but
he will also be darker.
My question for you all is this— do you think Ezra will continue down the path of
the dark side as we get closer to the Battle of Yavin?
Could Ezra’s fall to the dark side explain why we don’t see him in the Original Trilogy
and why Yoda does not mention any other Jedi to Luke?
Where do you all see Ezra going if the Old Master becomes Ezra’s new teacher?
Let me know your thoughts down in the comment section about what you think is going to happen
with Ezra.
If this is your first time seeing Urban Acolyte TV, go ahead and subscribe so you can stay
informed when I post new videos.
I normally post every Sunday and Wednesday, but I can do anywhere from 2-4 videos a week.
The best way to know when something gets posted is to subscribe.
This week I’m going to review as many episodes of Rebels as I can, so if I’m posting a
lot more than usual that’s why.
I’m going to do my best to get all of season 1 completed before Rebels resumes on March
16th.
For more of my videos on Star Wars Rebels, you can check out this Recap I did on the
most recent episode “Shroud of Darkness,” and you can also check out this other video
that I did on the Grand Inquisitor.
That’s all I’ve got for now.
Y’all keep on breathing, and May the Force Be With You.