Another interesting match up of two similar, yet very different characters. Both characters are incredibly skilled warriors with a blade and both choose to wield two blades simultaneously. To better understand the characters and better understand the battle, let’s look at each a little more closely.
Darth Maul, apprentice to one of the most powerful Sith Lords of all time, was crafted as a weapon with the purpose of bringing down the Jedi Order. From the time he was a child he received cruel and painful training at the hands of his master and was taught only hatred. Through his training and due to the natural characteristics of his species, Darth Maul was incredibly resistant to pain. He was instructed in the ways of the Dark Side of the Force and schooled in many forms of combat. Maul prided himself in his ability to vanquish his enemies using only his physical prowess in battle. Though he was a Dark Lord of the Sith and was fully capable of dispatching his enemies with his ability to manipulate the Force, he preferred to use his lightsaber instead. The skills he possessed made him arrogant, which is what eventually led to his demise at the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi – not viewing his enemy as a threat once he believed Kenobi defeated. His arrogance as well as his desire to dominate his enemy without using the Force is what lost him the fight against Drizzt Do’Urden.
Much like Darth Maul, he was raised in a world of hatred and deceit. The Drow are a cruel race and Drizzt was raised by his older sister, who beat him regularly for the smallest of infractions. He was taught to fight by the most skilled weapons master in his home city and eventually surpassed his teacher in his skill with a blade. When Drizzt was old enough, he attended Melee Magthere, the combat academy of the Drow city, where he was the top ranking student in his class and possibly the most skilled graduate of the school ever. Despite his cruel upbringing, Drizzt retained a conscience, and eventually fled the harsh world in which he was raised. After several years spent outside the city in the dangerous passageways of the Underdark, he traveled to the surface with his magical panther Guenhwyvar. There he became a ranger in the service to the goddess of the woodlands, attempting to rid the world of evil creatures such as orcs, trolls and goblins.
What makes these characters similar and different is the upbringing they received. Both were born into and raised in a world of hatred, deceit and evil. Darth Maul accepted this world as his own because it was virtually the only thing he knew. Drizzt Do’Urden was shown compassion and even love from Zaknafein Do’Urden, his father and weapons instructor. This little ray of light in his life saved Drizzt and gave him the strength to flee what he knew was a terrible world rather than to accept his fate and become a part of it. Does this in any way translate into strength on the battlefield for either of them? I don’t think it does, or at least isn’t contrastable. Neither of them gains an advantage over the other from this, but it just makes them more interesting to pit against one another.
When first looking at the two characters I was completely expecting that Darth Maul would walk away the victor, but after looking into their psyche’s a bit, I began to understand that the way Darth Maul actually died was because of his arrogance, not because Obi-Wan was more powerful. Even in his battle against two powerful Jedi, Maul barely utilized his impressive arsenal of Force powers. Despite that, I presume he would use his powers if faced with the need to (assuming he saw the need.) Thus, having one warrior be able to hold the other in the air and choke him to death did not seem like it would make for a very good pairing. That was the reason I decided to allow Guenhwyvar as part of Drizzt’s arsenal. At first it seemed unfair to allow one warrior to essentially be able to add another into the arena on his side, but then I considered that against the advantage of Darth Maul’s Force abilities. I thought the two powers were close to balancing each other out, though not directly comparable. The difference was that Drizzt is not opposed to using Guenhwyvar to the cat’s full potential, whereas Maul heavily restricts his use of the Force in combat. Speaking in terms of skill with a blade, Drizzt is possibly superior, but that would be difficult to say considering the skill Maul possessed with his double-bladed lightsaber, especially when coupled with his use of the Force.
What puts Drizzt just past Darth Maul and allows him to claim the victory was the state into which he can sink when angered or frightened beyond control, becoming “the Hunter.” At the absolute apex of his skill, Drizzt is unquestioningly superior in physical combat to Darth Maul and with Maul’s seeming need to finish a fight with only his skill, he underestimates his opponent and ensures his own defeat.
It made sense to me that Darth Maul would die in this fight in much the same way he did in The Phantom Menace. Just as Obi-Wan became angered by the death of Qui-Gon Jinn and skirted on the edges of the Dark Side for power against his Sith opponent, so did Drizzt when he believed Guenhwyvar dead. The anger made them lose control to an extent, while Maul had learned to use his anger and focus it long before. Thus, Maul gained the upper hand, but in his arrogance believed his enemy defeated and refused to finish them off quickly as he should have. Had he not had the need to defeat his enemy in physical combat, he would have most certainly been the victor.
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