There’s a reason Maul does not react to Rook’s death and for that we need to talk about this moment here:
Can we talk about how right at the end there, Maul’s gaze loses focus.
He looks straight ahead, then to Devon, then at nothing. How during the whole ending there, he had not said a single word since the fight in the cave, and he is standing at the far back of the group.
He supressed any kinship he had felt before because it started to weaken him.
Like he does not scoff at her words or pulls a dismissive face or even SAYS anything. He disassociates instead, and I’m also wondering if that had been the first time someone called them his “friends” to his face and he needs to chew on that. Were they his friends? Were their actions that of FRIENDS who cared about him? Might their care have went above what a crewmember’s loyalty is defined by? I don’t know, WAS IT?
... Ok, no, back to the topic:
There's a decline in reaction AND time spend on his crew’s deaths going from this:
(Scorn’s death is literally complicit in his break down in the tunnels)
(stopping mid-fight to watch, afterwards shouting out in rage)
(being more and more surrounded, having no time to dwell on another loss)
(instead of making it out, being confronted with an even bigger threat than before)
We as the audience are right there with him, and we are not given even a second to mourn. Because Maul is not given that time either.
Mind you, Devon offering her condolences is right before Rook’s death. She does not even turn around, giving him the space to process this on his own, being the more sensible and emotional collected one, sensing that he’s struggling.
Just that right then Vader attacks.
But I am so very sure he WOULD have reacted more to Icarus and Rook would the circumstances have allowed it, would their and Spybot's deaths not have happened in the span of ... five minutes?, because he IS affected.
We know Maul is not modest in using his tragedies to evoke compassion or to proof a point - but for that to work, he needs to come to terms with what happened and mould it in his favour. He could have used that tender moment to evoke Devon’s sympathy by acting on this loss. I am not surprised if he will do so in the future, alá we both lost every remaining one close to us that day, it’s on us to make it worth it.
But right then and there, he does not know what to think. This was not planned. He wanted for his crew to grow, to gain a new strong ally with Devon, not for everyone to be killed during their attempt to flee. So now it’s just an open wound that Vader makes even bigger a second later.
This also circles back to him being genuinely conflicted for a moment when he pushes Daki towards Vader and leaves to save Devon. Her loss would be the final straw, because then it was all for nothing and he CANNOT have that.
Also why his emotions jump right into the opposite direction and he's smiling like a maniac when Devon dips into the dark for the first time and agrees to become his apprentice, later on. Y’know, this lovely image of him:
Devon decided to follow him.
Meaning it - they - all served a purpose, and now he does not need to think about them as losses, but as sacrifices that were needed to be made.
The moment to mourn is gone.
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