sl-walker replied to your post “Hey! While I definitely agree with your tags on "the unimaginable"...”
Man, everything about how they handled Maul in Rebels was lousy. The best, smartest, most INTERESTING thing they could have done with him would be to have him join the Rebellion as a way of striking back at Sidious. Instead, they nerfed him and wasted a brilliant character. Like– yay, let’s kill off the known, canonical survivor of severe abuse in the weakest, worst way we can, because it’s not like other survivors identify with him or anything.
This basically hits it on the nail for me in regards to how they treated Maul in Rebels (and perhaps in extension, The Clone Wars series as well).
(Spoilers ahead.)
I don’t understand what they hoped to achieve when they brought him back into Rebels with similar mannerisms and goals. He felt fully affected by the events of the past, yet also stuck in a rut in terms of character development. He was going through the same routines and using the same devious methods -- he was a little too predictable, and it made no sense for him to be that way.
They made him stagnant. Running down a path for a vengeance that none of the audience could really sympathize with nor understand.
I know that Maul’s life was paved with tragedy and that it would have also led down that way as well, but I wanted him to be able to fight back against the one who truly hurt him the most.
I wanted him to get back at Sidious -- or at least try to.
I wanted him to reclaim himself both from being abused at the mercy of Sidious but also someone who had been so consumed with revenge and never really had any sort of agency because of it.
Please, just...let him be able to live and die for himself.