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Star Wars is officially back on top with the latest addition to its pantheon of animated series, Maul -- Shadow Lord. The spinoff series follows the former Sith Apprentice as he builds a criminal network under the nose of the newly risen Empire. His journey includes several surprising twists, including the introduction of an apprentice primed to carry on Darth Maul's legacy.
Star Wars: Maul -- Shadow Lord is a bona fide hit, holding an impressive 98% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and 93% from audiences. The series offers a dark, gritty perspective on the galactic underworld that fans have been hoping to see for years. In so doing, it beats another Star Wars Disney+ series that tried to do likewise by a long shot.
Maul -- Shadow Lord Is Everything The Book of Boba Fett Was Not
Maul -- Shadow Lord's success only highlights just how big a missed opportunity The Book of Boba Fett was. The long-awaited Boba Fett spinoff aired from 2021 to 2022, following the former bounty hunter as he works to take over Jabba the Hutt's criminal empire. Although there was considerable excitement for the series leading up to its release, most fans agreed by its finale that it was ultimately a disappointment. Shadow Lord follows a similar premise with much better success.
Both The Book of Boba Fett and Maul -- Shadow Lord follow a notorious villain as they try to build a criminal empire in the wake of a massive shift in the galaxy's political climate. After the rise of the Empire, Maul works to gain allies and eliminate rivals in an increasingly stringent dictatorship. Decades later, Boba Fett does likewise in the wake of the Empire's fall. However, only one of these character arcs actually delivers on the promise of its premise.
The Book of Boba Fett quickly becomes distracted with diverging plotlines that don't contribute to Boba Fett's rise to power in the criminal underworld. Two full episodes of the seven-episode season are devoted to following Din Djarin on his quest to relocate Grogu. Large chunks of the remaining five episodes are devoted to Boba Fett's brief history with the Tusken Raiders. The Book of Boba Fett is largely uninterested in telling a crime story, or any linear narrative.
Maul -- Shadow Lord, on the other hand, proved to be a better crime story than The Book of Boba Fett. The animated series outpaces its inferior predecessor, showing how Maul recovers from his defeat during the Siege of Mandalore and begins rebuilding his Shadow Collective. Targeting traitorous former allies and earning respect from new friends, Maul is a much more powerful leader than Boba Fett ever became in his own spinoff series.
Much of The Book of Boba Fett's disappointment is anchored in its representation of Boba Fett himself. The former bounty hunter's characterization is the final nail in the coffin of the Star Wars series, and it's something from which the iconic Mandalorian may never fully recover.
Boba Fett May Never Recover From His Botched Star Wars Spinoff
At the center of The Book of Boba Fett's disappointments is Boba Fett himself. Temuera Morrison returns as the iconic character after his previous appearance in Season 2 of The Mandalorian. Although audiences had waited years to finally get a Boba Fett spinoff, the Disney+ series struggles in its characterization of the iconic bounty hunter.
The Book of Boba Fett can't decide if Boba Fett is a hero or a villain. In previous projects, the character was a morally grey assassin without any qualms about getting his hands dirty to make a quick buck. It wasn't until his return in The Mandalorian that Boba Fett was portrayed as a more honorable individual. By the time he appears in his own spinoff, Boba is practically a full-blown hero, fighting to protect the vulnerable and only taking what he needs.
This, however, proves to be a major problem for Boba Fett as he claims Jabba the Hutt's territory. One cannot be morally upstanding and rule over a criminal empire. This is an issue that Boba Fett quickly discovers, as his morals clash with the job. While this could have been an interesting moral dilemma to unravel throughout the series, The Book of Boba Fett doesn't seem interested in doing so.
Boba Fett's softer methods don't work until they suddenly do, without any learning or change on his part. There's no arc here, just a series of things going wrong until they finally go right.
Boba Fett's character struggles as a result, as he becomes the proverbial immovable object that meets the unstoppable force that is the narrative. All the disappointment of The Book of Boba Fett is channeled through its main character, and he therefore gets a heavy chunk of the blame for its failures.
This is a shame, especially given just how popular Boba Fett was in the Star Wars community. Years after The Book of Boba Fett, it's still unclear whether Boba Fett will ever return to Star Wars. After the failure of his spinoff series, the world may never see the iconic bounty hunter again.
Star Wars Is Finally Learning From Its Mistakes
Years after the disappointment of The Book of Boba Fett, Star Wars is finally learning its lesson. Maul -- Shadow Lord is every bit the dark crime story that it is meant to be. It also doesn't shy away from the Sith's dark tactics, leaning into Darth Maul's history as Darth Sidious's apprentice. There is a darkness to the animated series that The Book of Boba Fett never achieved, much to its own detriment.
Best of all, itdoes an excellent job of exploring new facets of its main character. Unlike Boba Fett, Maul is allowed to be both a villain and a protagonist; the series never once compromises his characterization. Instead, Maul is tested by even worse villains than he, as the Empire and its Inquisitors arrive to put a stop to his power grab.
Maul -- Shadow Lord solves the problem that the previous Star Wars series had when focusing on iconic villains. Rather than forcing its main character into a heroic role, the animated series embraces Maul's villainy every step of the way. While The Book of Boba Fett's failure was a disappointment, the series at least provided a roadmap of what not to do with futureStar Wars series.
In effect, the showis the "anti-Book of Boba Fett," fixing everything that was wrong with the 2021 Disney+ series. It has already achieved great success to this end, earning a Season 2 renewal before its premiere. Star Wars is finally learning from its mistakes, even if the franchise had to sacrifice one villain to save another.
