1. He Didnt Overstay His Welcome
I remember seeing a video on the Internet where this guy was insisting Darth Maul should have survived by saying that the next time they (Obi-wan and Maul) meet, its going to be epic! Except it wouldnt have been. I really cant see a way that Darth Maul could have lasted three films with the same strength as Darth Vader. George Lucas himself sums up the character in behind-the-scenes footage by saying we cast a villain who was a swordfighter. And thats really it. Maul was just there as a physical challenge, and I dont think that would have continued to impress for long. Because in A New Hope, we saw our first lightsaber battle between old Obi-wan and Vader, and the effects and sounds were new and exciting, but the choreography wasnt breathtaking. In The Empire Strikes Back, we had the main hero fight Vader, and were treated to a faster, more intense and more dramatic battle with the shock that Luke actually lost! Then Return of the Jedi surprised us again with a really personal conflict, and even more vicious swordplay. So each fight could evolve to keep our interest. Darth Mauls fight in The Phantom Menace already put out all the stops, and any redemption storyline was clearly out of the question. So the next two films would have been forced to just repeat this duel with a few variations; single lightsaber, double lightsaber, two on one, one on two, different opponent, all of the above. Just think how many, like the RedLetterMedia reviews, consider the Prequel combat to lack the emotion of the originals. Well imagine how boring it would have been to see the same pure evil warrior fight the same three Jedi over two more films! Now as you can probably tell if youve read this far, Ive thought into this a lot deeper than is probably healthy for my sanity. And along the way, I got to thinking about possible alternative directions to take the story in, and I have one Id like to run past you. So if I had my time again as Mr Lucass co-writer, here is what I would suggest to make the loss of Darth Maul a little easier to accept