Though I truly enjoy Luceno’s work, I wasn’t a fan of having
to buy the novelization of The Phantom
Menace. I now have three copies in
my collection. A paper-back I picked up
for a quarter at the library’s discount cart, a hardcover given to me by my
sister (she’s a librarian has been ordered by me to take all Star Wars material
off the discount cart), and now the edition which holds Luceno’s short story End Game. I only have so much shelf
space.
But enough of my complaining – on to my reactions to End Game, Luceno’s latest addition to
the Star Wars mythos. For my post today
I’m going to comment on Luceno’s inclusion of video games, Darth Plaugeis, and
the survival of Darth Maul.
To begin, End Game
was a great read, and as is the hallmark of Luceno’s style he seamlessly wove
together other stories from Star Wars mythology into his own. In End
Game, many other sources were referenced, Restraint and The Wrath of
Darth Maul being the two literary works receiving the most attention. Yet what I most enjoyed about this story was
the inclusion of the narratives from The
Battle for Naboo and Galactic
Battlegrounds, video games sources which are usually relegated to the
fringes of Star Wars canon. It's not
often that Star Wars video games receive any kind of attention in the literary
world of the Expanded Universe, but in Luceno’s Star Wars they do, and I think that’s
awesome.
The first video game Luceno makes reference to is Battle for Naboo, and what makes its
inclusion into this narrative so great is that it’s not simply mentioned with
some throwaway line, a quick wink from Luceno to the audience letting us know he’s
familiar with the source, but he included a good portion of the story of the
Security Forces’ resistance. As Nute
Gunray’s reported to Darth Maul, updating him on events outside of Theed, the
Sith acolyte paced aggressively:
“’Several members of the Queen’s
Security Forces managed to elude our battle droids,’ Gunray was saying in
wheeling Basic. ‘They rescued a group of Naboo captives, and caused us some
concern on an orbital station and at one of our plasma transshipment sites on
the surface. Fortunately for us – and
unfortunately for them – the Naboo fell in with a visiting Hutt who happens to
be in our employ. He betrayed their
plans and location.’ ‘They’re dead or
imprisoned?’ Maul stopped to ask. ‘The captain is dead. Some of the others are still at large’”
(347-348).
The Hutt mentioned here is of course Borvo, and the dead
captain is Captain Kael. Remarkably, for
some reason Luceno’s inclusion of this felt like a minor personal validation –
that yes, I’m not wasting my time on these sources – and yes, they are
important to a complete and nuanced understating of the Star Wars story.
Luceno continued in this way, bringing into the tapestry of
his narrative another string from a video game source: Galactic Battlegrounds and “The Epic Adventures of OOM-9” as I like
to call them. Amazingly, Maul held some
mild respect for this droid, impressed with the commanding droids ability to
form and lead a military operation:
“Its chest plastron emblazoned
with yellow markings, OOM-9 boasted multiple antennae and a backpack that
boosted its operational range. Maul knew
the droid had been tasked with spearheading the occupation and was credited
with having razed Naboo communications centres at New Cardiff and Vis, as well
as having secured the cities of Harte Secur, Spinnaker, and Theed. From a captured mariner in Harte Secur, OOM-9
had learned of a Gungan bubble city called Rellias, but its forces had thus
been unable to locate the city” (351).
The very specific reference being made here is from mission
2 from the game, where you as the player lead OOM-9 against Naboo’s
resistance. I can only conclude Luceno
has an intimate knowledge of the game, which is why he is such a fan favorite. His knowledge makes his works more authentic.
But it gets even better, as Luceno makes reference to a
particular skirmish in which Darth Maul was personally involved with. I can’t remember which mini quest within the grater narrative of mission 2 specifically it was (maybe
somewhere between mission 2.4-2.7), but towards the end of mission 2, you get
to play Darth Maul as he leads a battalion of Trade Federation droids against
some Gungan settlements and fortifications.
Incredibly, that skirmish is cited in End Game:
“With the S-DST approaching the
straits, Maul saw that stone fortifications had been erected on both fingers of
land, and that from behind those bulwarks spheres of faintly blue energy were
being lobbed into the sky, decimating STAP patrols. As the destroyer drew closer to the sandy
shore, hundreds of orange and purple-skinned Otolla Gungans appeared at the top
of the walls, armed with energy lances and so-called plasmic boomers that could
be hurled from baskets worn over one hand.
Surfacing from the suddenly turbulent waters came a fleet of organically
grown submersibles, whose weapons began to target the destroyer with orbs of
destructive power” (362).
The rest of Luceno’s narrative goes on to describe the
battle in accurate detail, describing Maul hacking down Gungans mounted on
Kaduu. Again, Luceno’s intimate
knowledge of the Star Wars universe
outside of just the written EU is remarkable.
He raises the bar for other Star Wars writers I think.
Moving on in my reactions, what also caught me off guard in
this story was the revelation that Darth Plagueis was still alive during the
occupation of Naboo (I have yet to read Darth
Plagueis remember) and that Maul began to slowly realize that his own
Master, which he thought controlled everything, was himself being controlled.
This revelation took me by surprise, as I thought Darth Plagueis had been
killed long ago by Darth Sidious:
“…Maul asked himself: Had Sidious
ever described himself as the only
surviving Sith Master? Was it possible
that this mysterious Muun, Hego Damask, was also a Sith Lord, and that Maul –
while given the title lord by Sidious
– was in fact something less than a true
Sith? Was that why, unlike Sidious, he
had never been granted a secret identity comparable to his Master’s guise as
Palpatine? Was Maul, then, ultimately expendable to the Sith Grand Plan – a
mere stealth agent and assassin?” (362).
The sad thing about this revelation for Darth Maul is the
truth behind his musings. He is indeed,
at least at this point in history, a mere stealth agent and assassin.
What is more, the interaction behind this
revelation is very cool as well. Maul is
sent to a former agent of King Veruna named Magneta to gather information, and
it is through this agent that he serendipitously learns of Hego Damask. When Magneta says to him “Be sure to give my
regards to the Muun” Darth Maul’s worldview comes crashing down. Truly, the Darth
Maul of 32 BBY is a pitiable character.
However, we are not to pity him forever. We now know that Maul survived his
confrontation with Obi-Wan Kenobi, and at the end of End Game, as he falls to the samber of Kenobi, he promises to not make the
same mistakes:
“The power of the darkside had
played a cruel trick on him. And that it
had, said it all…Cut in two and falling, Maul thought: If I had to do it over again, I would keep that fact foremost in mind. But he was determined to be more lenient with
himself than Darth Sidious would be. He
would survive his defeat, and grant himself yet another second chance” (375).
The million dollar question, for me at least, is how,
exactly, did Maul survive? For the
answer to this I need to turn to a source I have yet to look at, The Wrath of Darth Maul by Ryder Wyndham.
What irritated me most about reading End
Game was that I have yet to read The
Wrath of Darth Maul, and there was a lot of material from that book
referenced in this one, namely Maul’s history on Orsis that was blowing right
over my head. Yes, some of the Orsis
content was covered in Restraint, but
there were other aspects that weren’t. What
is more, Joe has yet to place this source on his timeline. There were a few
times while reading this story that I felt out of the loop, or that I didn’t
know what was being referenced. If I remember
correctly I think I resolved to read The
Wrath of Darth Maul when I get to the Clone Wars material, but for the
purposes of End Game I regret that
decision.
As it is, I had to turn to Google to get the answer on how
Maul survived, and I was brought to a post on the Old Republic forum, where a
poster there included an excerpt from The
Wrath of Darth Maul wherein he quoted the narrative of the first few
moments after Maul’s bisection. As taken
from that post:
“No. And as he fell, the upper half of his body
separated from the lower. No. As his remains tumbled down the generator
shaft, he kept his eyes open and fought to remain conscious. But then his head
struck the shaft's wall, and everything went dark. No! His mind screamed. Despite everything he had
learned about death and duty from his Master, Maul knew he was not yet ready to
die. Not after so many years of training, and with so much more to accomplish.
Not so long as he still has do much hatred within him. Obi-Wan ruined me! He willed himself to see. A moment later, his
vision returned. The shaft's walls were a disorienting blur. Across the shaft
he sighted his own black-clad legs, scissoring lifelessly at the air as they
fell. He struggled to right his torso so he could see downward. Can't die!” He
fell past an oval shadow, and then a similar shadow raced by, along with a
whooshing sound. Air vents. Maul hoped that there was at least one more vent
below, that it would be large enough to accommodate his diminished body. He
extended his arms, and his left hand's fingertips suddenly burned with friction
as they brushed against the cylindrical wall.
Must live! Hoping, wishing, praying for one more air vent...Must kill
Obi-Wan! ...he reached out with the Force.”
Since the original poster did not include the page number I’m
not sure from where in the text this is lifted, but the answer to how Maul
survived his fall is still rather murky.
What we do know is that Maul was still scheming as he fell, and like
Luke on Bespin, managed to work his way into an air vent and not come crashing
down on some cold hard surface. Once in
the vent, he “reached out with the Force”.
But to do what exactly? And in what manner did he reach out? Here I
turn to the words of Dave Filoni, and an interview he gave at starwars.com,
where commenting on Maul’s survival he quoted Sidious’ words from Revenge of
the Sith:
“The
dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities, some consider to be…
un-natural”
Indeed it is, but still, I needed more.
The poster at the Old Republic forum, after quoting from
Windham’s work, called upon two other examples of Sith Lords in history who managed
to keep their body’s in-tact after suffering being cut into pieces. The first was Darth Simus, a Sith lord from
5100 BBY who managed to survive his head being cut off by Marka Ragnos. Yet still, the specifics of his ability to
survive were rather vague as well. All it
said on his Wookieepedia page is that: “Rather than letting himself die, he
used his forgotten Sith powers to preserve his life.” But what “forgotten powers”, exactly, are we
talking about here?
The other Sith mentioned is Darth Sion – the third member of
the Sith Triumvirate from KOTOR II. At
his Wookieepedia page, a little more can be gleaned on how he has survived
certain death all those years:
“Rather than die, though, Sion
found that by calling on his pain, anger, and hatred, he could rise from
certain death and achieve immortality, at the cost of all-consuming agony. With
a body fractured and decomposing, but held together by the dark side of the
Force, Sion survived the Great Sith War.”
Did Maul call on his own pain and anger to survive? I think he did, and like Darth Sion, managed
to keep himself alive. But the cost was
his sanity. Yes, the darkside saved him,
but it also broke him.
Still, did these three Sith Lords all call upon the same “forgotten
power”? Was there more to it than calling upon their pain and hatred? I think there was, and here I proffer an idea
that Darth Maul, the “mere stealth agent and assassin” had a trick up his sleeve
– Sith Incantation.
Maybe in all that training on Orsis, and Mustafar, or wherever
else Maul may have been trained, he managed to get his hands on some forbidden knowledge
– something Sidious never wanted him to learn.
Maybe Maul got his hands on a scroll – something that would have been in
his Master’s possession. Maybe Maul got
his hands on the works of Sorzus Syn, or one of the volumes of Sith alchemy and
magiks Darth Bane gave to Darth Zannah and learned the ancient art of Sith
incantation. Maybe Darth Maul got his
hands on The Book of Sith:
“The abilities
described in the ancient Sith language are new and astonishing… When a Sith
sorcerer speaks, he gives voice to the thousand mages who went before him. If
armed with the proper commands and trappings, the darkside can be bound,
leashed, and led down any path of your choosing” (45).
Maybe these three Sith chose life in exchange for pain, and
kept their bodies intact.
These words are taken from the first section of The Book of the Sith, Dan Wallace’s
fantastic follow-up to The Jedi Path.
The section quoted above was written by Sorzus Syn one of the Jedi
Exiles who took part in Hundred-Year Darkness – an ancient Sith alchemist and magician.
Could Darth Maul have a little bit of sorcerer in him? I’m not sure, but maybe. He seems full of surprises lately, that Darth
Maul.
For my next post I’m going to look at Ari Marmell’s short
story Reputation from Star Wars
Insider’s October 2012 edition. On a
side note, I’m doing fairly well playing my way through The Phantom Menace video game.
With my Christmas money I bought a used PS2 and a PS1 memory card
(yeesh, I sound like such a kid), along with the PS1 version of The Phantom Menace from EBay. I’m currently on the Otoh Gunga level. It’s fun – more fun than I thought it would
be.
Also, my daughter was born two days ago. That makes three for me (two sons and a
daughter). She and her mother are doing
well, and I’m very excited to have a little girl. Before she knows it she’ll be a Star Wars fan
girl.
Until then my friends, may the Force be with you.
