Darth Maul was retconned to have survived Obi-Wan Kenobi cutting him in half in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, but his Clone Wars resurrection allowed him to menace Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Republic as a dangerous third party during the Clone Wars. Maul’s tenacity and dark side powers allowed him to survive what would have been a fatal lightsaber strike and enter a manic exile on Lotho Minor.
The Clone Wars and the post-2014 canon Canon reimagines Maul as a Dathomirian, a Zabrak-like species who come from canon’s version of Dathomir.
According to the canon sourcebook, The Star Wars Book, Maul endured his near-fatal injury thanks to the unnatural powers of the dark side, which Sith used to cling on to life at all costs. The Clone Wars tie-in comic The Clone Wars: The Sith Hunters shows Maul’s dismembered form falling into some sort of container that was transported by ship to the junk world of Lotho Minor. From there, Maul continued to sustain himself with the dark side, driving him mad until his brother, Savage Oppress, found him and brought him back to Dathomir, where he was revived by Mother Talzin.
Why Savage Oppress Revived Darth Maul
The decision to revive Maul was an odd one, considering that Savage Oppress was created to serve as a stand-in for Maul during the Clone Wars, but the retcon is attributed to George Lucas. With Maul alive once more, Obi-Wan Kenobi gained perhaps his greatest and most personal nemesis, who tormented the Jedi Master throughout the war after being revived. Kenobi’s ultimate victory over Maul would be preserved, however, as the two dueled one final time in Star Wars: Rebels, in which Maul was truly slain by Kenobi.
Maul’s survival of his bisection seems impossible, considering the fundamental similarities between human, Zabraks, and the Dathomirian physiology, but Maul sustaining himself with the dark side shows a fundamental difference between the selfless Jedi and self-absorbed Sith in regards to death. Moreover, Maul isn’t the first Star Wars character to survive such a wound. The Imperial dark side-using Boltrunian (and former Jedi) Maw from the Legends continuity was similarly bisected but sustained his ruined body with the dark side.
Having Maul survive his duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi may not appeal to all Star Wars viewers, but it did allow the former Sith Lord to be characterized more onscreen. Maul’s defeat and subsequent abandonment by Darth Sidious took everything away from him but made him into an obsessed and dangerous adversary for Obi-Wan. Thanks to his mastery of the dark side and a degree of happenstance, Maul lived without his lower half and escaped Naboo to Lotho Minor, eventually returning in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.