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[survivalthroughhate]

"This is Maul. State your business."

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Also always up for backdating anything specific done during events or plots that we weren't able to get to e.g. memshares, shapeshifting into other forms, etc. Just let me know what you'd like to do!

Comments

[lightthedarkness]

[Look at Maul, being self-aware! She's so proud!]

Do we know why he's so upset in the first place? Seems like everyone is treating the symptoms, not the cause.

[survivalthroughhate]

[Maul normally doesn't reveal too much about the backstories of others if he knows them well enough, as they're not his to tell, but he has no respect for Anakin so he doesn't feel any compunctions in telling Usagi what he knows.]

He seems to think that his wife is in some sort of danger and that the only way to prevent it is by using the Dark Side. Combine that with how Jedi are not supposed to form attachment, his thirst for power, and natural whiny immaturity, and it has lead to a toxic brew. He yearns towards both the Light and the Dark Sides but doesn't want to make the sacrifices that either requires. He just wants to take the easy way out. He.....what is that expression? Wants to have his cake and eat it too.

[lightthedarkness]

You know, the more I hear about Jedi philosophy, the less I agree with it. [She held up a hand to immediately stop Maul's oncoming gloating.] I think Sith's philosophy is even more bullshit. But how are you supposed to go through life without any attachments or connections? Why did he even get married if he's not supposed to have attachments?

[Usagi is... perhaps a really BAD person to talk to about this, Goddess of Universal Love that she is. She is ALL ABOUT feeling your rage and hatred and sadness and making attachments. If she hadn't had the connections she did with the Senshi, she wouldn't have been able to do half the things she did.]

But moving past THAT, I guess I'm just confused on why he's still... torn? Wouldn't he have been able to decide by now? Like, it feels like NEITHER side has been easy for him?

[survivalthroughhate]

The Jedi are normally taken to the temple as infants or a little older. The Nightbrothers derisively refer to them as babystealers for that. It prevents them from forming attachments to their birth families. They are taught to think only of the group as a whole, not of the individual. Something about being selfless and looking out for the galaxy as a whole. [Maul's never paid that much attention to their philosophy and only knows the little of what he's already talking about.] Skywalker was taken away from his mother when he was much older, so he clearly wasn't able to be indoctrinated with that lesson. He forms connections with people as individuals, not everyone as a whole. [The same way Maul himself does in a much more twisted way.] Apparently the Jedi never noticed because they live in an echo chamber and it never crossed any of their minds that one of them might think differently than the rest. And you can see what troubles it has caused.

[Maul shakes his head.]

That I cannot answer. I don't think Obi-Wan understands either. For us, the opposite side holds no appeal, and there is nothing that would give either of us an advantage or allow us to become more content by giving into it. For Skywalker, both sides hold something he wants but something he does not as well. He cannot have both but neither can he turn away from either. And so he remains torn.