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Darth Maul
V.
Savage Opress
The emergence of Savage Opress into the Star Wars continuity raises an interesting question. Just who is the cooler character? Darth Maul or his previously unknown brother Savage Opress.
Maul was the coolest thing the Phantom Menace had going for it. He had epic duels with both Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi. On the other hand, he got cut in half by a very young Obi-Wan Kenobi. Not exactly something you would expect from a Sith Lord.
But the biggest knock on Maul is that outside of the EU we have very little character development. In TPM he is basically a tool of Palpatine with no character development of his own. Sure he is evil looking and awesome, but who is he, where does he come from, etc. We don't get any of this.
With Savage Opress we get a much more compelling back story and character development in his introductory episodes. He loses some coolness points because he is derivative of Maul. Basically, slap a coat of paint on Maul, make him a little bigger and give him longer cranial horns and boom, you have Savage Opress.
Fighting styles seem very different, Ray Park did an amazing job and his movements as Darth Maul are fluid yet powerful. Whereas the animated Savage Opress is much more like Vader, power attacks galore with little finesse.
While Darth Maul served his story telling purpose for George Lucas in TPM, bringing the Sith threat to the Jedi's notice, positioning Obi-Wan to take Anakin on as his padawan, etc. In many ways fans latched onto him like they did Boba Fett from The Empire Strikes Back. Unfortunately for fans, Maul was killed off and there really wasn't anywhere for his story to go except a few stories told in the past in novel, short stories and comics.
Savage Opress gives George Lucas and Dave Filoni the chance to use a visually captivating character in the mold of Darth Maul and really get to tell some stories with him. If anything I think Savage Opress is a sympathetic villain. He didn't ask to become what he did. He has great potential as a conflicted character who could either head toward redemption or total corruption.
What say you fans, who do you like better Darth Maul or Savage Opress?
Savage Opress gets my vote.
