“In a universe where Everything Is Better And Nobody Dies, Maul goes back to Lotho Minor to fetch Morley. Morley is Very...”
#darth maul #maul #the clone wars #star wars #tcw #morley #wherein Savage does not kill the devious snake #everything is better and nobody dies #how morley and maul met in the first place #would be an interesting story #why did it decide to serve maul #why was maul worth the trouble of keeping alive #why did maul never kill morley himself #he was insane #certainly that seems a dangerous arrangement #something someone as capable as morley would avoid #these are the questions that keep me up at night
And there are answers! To at least some of those questions. There’s a surprisingly little-known supplemental comic called The Sith Hunters, that gives us several flashback scenes of how Darth Maul survived being bisected, how he got to Lotho Minor, and how Morley found him (and also how Palpatine reacted to discovering Maul was still alive, but that is for another post).
So basically, when Maul ends up on Lotho Minor he finds these bug things that he’s just... tearing into, because food, even though his lower half is obviously still gone and he hasn’t Force-pulled his spider legs into existence yet (It’s Star Wars, everything makes sense) - and then he hears a scream.
Morley is fleeing one of the firebreathers, and Maul just.... decides to save him? And then promptly passes out.
So it looks to me like Morley sticks with Maul because he saved his life. I can’t quite explain why Maul never killed Morley or even why he decided to save his life in the first place, but... if I’d hazard a guess, it’d be because having someone around who could help him would be *useful*, yes, but also maybe because Maul just didn’t want to be alone. I mean... he’s alone much of the time anyway, and even when he’s surrounded by other people, he’s usually at odds with them, using them for a mission, or fighting against them. But he just got dumped on a junk planet, confused and lost and in pain. A potential ally of any kind is worth grasping at straws for.
Keep in mind that losing half of himself JUST happened, he’s not quite at the point of insanity yet. He had to have known what a dire situation he was in. And even if at that moment he didn’t quite know whether Morley would be able to help him, or even make any attempt to do so, I think he could gauge pretty quickly the potential benefits of saving the guy’s life versus the risks it might run, and he took the chance.
And if that seems at odds with Morley’s later statement of “I found him this way” - the comic also has a few panels dedicated to illustrating Maul forming his spider legs through the Force, after Morley drags him to safety and he regains consciousness. And just immediately after, the horrific look we see on Maul’s face is clearly one of a man pushed over the edge. Perhaps the strenuous effort it took to perform that feat of mecha-deru was the last push that sent him teetering, in which case, it WOULD seem from Morley’s perspective that he found him that way.
Over time, it appears that their relationship revolved around Maul killing things that Morley lured to him, and Morley getting what was left over when Maul was finished with them. Although how Morley came to call him “Master” is something I’m VERY curious about... But In any event, they both found each other worth their time, effort, and company to spend a whole decade together. And if nothing else, it gives me a profound case of the feels.
