Star Wars Rebels: Why Maul Was Looking For Obi-Wan (Not To Kill Him)

Here’s why Maul was motivated to find Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: Rebels, and it’s not so that he could kill his arch-nemesis. Since their initial encounter in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Maul and Obi-Wan’s paths crossed several more times, with each instance chronicled in Star Wars animated TV shows. They were first reunited in Star Wars: The Clone Wars where Maul exacted revenge on the Jedi by killing Empress Satine Kryze while Kenobi watched helplessly. It would be several more years before they met again for the final time on Tatooine after Maul tracked down where Obi-Wan had been hiding.

At this point in time, Maul had gone through a lot. After being slashed in half in The Phantom Menace and believed to be dead, he physically rebuilt himself, but the work he had to put to regain a sound mind was far more extensive and intense. With no allies, Maul had operated alone for years following the end of The Clone Wars, though that had never dissuaded him from seeking revenge on the people who made his life a living hell.

Obi-Wan was understandably part of Maul’s hit list given how close the Jedi came to killing him during their initial encounter. Because of this, it made sense that Maul was bent on locating his rival for another confrontation, which was the general idea implied as he tracked Obi-Wan down in Rebels. Looking closely at their brief and final encounter, however, it doesn’t appear that Maul was actually looking for Obi-Wan in order to simply kill him. As Maul explained during their encounter in The Clone Wars, he didn’t want to kill Obi-Wan; he wanted the Jedi to live through the pain of seeing a loved one die, which was why he opted to kill Duchess Satine. It’s also worth noting that when the Dathrominan learned that Obi-Wan survived Order 66 and was in hiding in Rebels, he wasn’t angry that his arch-nemesis continued to live – instead, he was jovial about it, cheerfully shouting “he lives!” So if he’s not interested in ending Obi-Wan, why was Maul even looking for him?

It appears that Maul went to Obi-Wan for an entirely different and unexpected reason. Chances are that he’s more interested in forging an alliance more than anything else. By this point, Maul had realized that his real enemy isn’t Obi-Wan or the Jedi, but is in fact Emperor Palpatine – who flippantly discarded him after everything he’d done for him as his apprentice. This was emphasized in his final words to Obi-Wan, which he uses to ask about the existence of Luke Skywalker who’s rumored to be the one who will avenge him and all who were wronged by Darth Sidious.

For a while, Maul sought revenge against the powerful Sith himself, but he knew that he couldn’t do it on his own. This is more likely the reason why he was motivated to take young Jedi Knight Ezra Bridger as his apprentice. Unfortunately, with the likes of Kanan Jarrus and the rest of the Ghost Crew guiding Ezra, Maul failed in tempting him to join his endeavor. This made him realize that perhaps it wasn’t in the cards for him to personally hand his former master his defeat but he was content enough knowing that Emperor Palpatine would ultimately meet his end.

Assuming that this was the case, why didn’t Maul just reached out to Obi-Wan, sparing both of them the verbal and physical pain that ensued after their reunion in Star Wars Rebels resulting in his own death? Given their ugly history, there’s very little chance that Obi-Wan would have agreed to talk casually about potentially forming an alliance with Maul. If anything, the Jedi might even be more suspicious of his actions if he approached the situation this way. Additionally, while Maul genuinely wanted to work together, he didn’t want to look like he was begging for it. Maul had already lost so much in his life that the last he wanted to do was also lose his pride for something that might not even work if Obi-Wan refused his advances.

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