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Has a fan film finally made the Empire scary again? CJ and Luke think so! Watch their in-depth review of Star Wars: Maul Shadow Lord episodes 5 and 6. From the stellar animation to the introduction of a new Inquisitor, they cover all the highs of the latest installments.
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Short filmTranscript
00:03well hello there everyone and welcome to another star wars mall shadow lord review this time for
00:11episode 5 and episode 6 i am cj and i am joined by my partner in crime the chewbacca to
00:19my hand
00:19that's right i chose to be hand but you look slightly more hairier than me and the name has
00:25wookie in it as well so hi luke how are you doing how are you feeling after episode 5
00:30and 6 yeah man exhilarating ending is how i'd say it's exciting times and more and i'm gonna jump
00:39straight into it i'm just gonna say the consistency of this series is pretty good the quality is pretty
00:45good um episode 5 i feel was a bit of a lull like you had a really exciting episode 3
00:51and 4 and i feel
00:52episode 5 was just a little bit foot off the pedal which is fine at times i feel like they
00:58were doing
00:59that to build the story again and then we got episode 6 but what did you feel about these two
01:06episodes to begin with yeah i think you're right about episode 5 mate calm before the storm putting
01:12that little bit of dynamics in place you know you can't go full tilt non-stop um but yeah
01:18but why don't we go full tilt and non-stop we need action action mate if you go full tilt
01:24non-stop you'll
01:25never appreciate how hard it's going you know um i love i love when they take those moments to bring
01:30it down a little bit just to sort of go full throttle again oh i'm i'm saying i think character
01:35development is really important and i do feel like episode 5 is possibly the weakest of all of the
01:42episodes so far i feel episode 1 and 2 i did say originally was quite slow but that was building
01:48the story which makes sense but i feel like maybe they shouldn't have amped it up in episode 3 and
01:544
01:54for action to then just like sideswipe us a bit i guess when the empire come in you know we've
02:01just
02:01had the luxury of sort of four episodes introducing the scenario introducing the area the characters etc
02:07but as the empire come in they then sort of have to reintroduce them and how they're going to interact
02:11in that scenario and what tact they're going to take so uh again because he's got logistic reasons
02:16why it might have sort of just come down a little bit just to go again but saying that though
02:20credit
02:21episode 5 i feel like maul for the first time in a long time and it might be because this
02:27is more
02:28aimed at an adult audience has actually made the empire terrifying oh yeah now i don't know about you
02:34but like in the movies and andor it's like the empire is bad the empire is bad and even in
02:40andor
02:40i didn't really get the menace of the empire as much like there were bad guys like massacred people
02:46but didn't have like that menace that scare tactic whereas in this i really felt like the empire is
02:53something you really need to fear you don't want to run into them and i've really got that in maul
03:00compared to i don't know if you felt that way but i've really felt like this is terrifying i felt
03:05it
03:06in andor personally but i think what you're sort of alluding to is because from the off in this story
03:11they're saying you know let's not get the empire here let's not bring them here and you've got that
03:15sort of tension of oh don't don't don't and then they arrive and then it's the anxiety about how
03:21that's going to play out you know it's sort of um they're taking more they're taking more ups and
03:26downs than just sort of like hey we must not let the empire here like in andor and then they're
03:30there
03:30and then it is sort of hard and fast with like essentially the the empire taking over everywhere
03:35but yeah no i can it's the it's the dynamics like we're talking about here that really play with
03:39that and make you feel it more and i feel was it episode five where i've got my note here
03:44because
03:44i just want to check i'm not going to say it in episode i said i said to you before
03:47we started
03:48filming the way i watch these i end up grouping five and six one and two three and four into
03:53one
03:53episode so i'm having to really sort of focus and make sure i remember which is which
03:57yeah so on my notes here that this is how um literical i am um inquisit out of a real
04:04holy
04:05poop that is literally my note holy poop terrifying that was an amazing reveal you'd think it's going
04:12to be a full action but just stepping out the shadows hand on the shoulder more brilliant reveal
04:19it's almost like a horror film you know that's what i mean about the menace the empire has the
04:25menace there not just because they include that but just there's menace there's fear there you can
04:29how fast they've taken over the city looking for people it was a really good production me it really
04:37help it in a way that things like and or don't make is that because it's animated the use of
04:41light
04:42and shadow and color really aids with that right hmm oh indeed 100 and i thought the stormtrooper has
04:50looked amazing in this art style i know it's kind of similar to some of like previous work but they
04:57have really adapted it and changed it to give more its own unique sort of style and i've actually been
05:04really enjoying the art style i thought the stormtroopers especially looked really cool when they're coming
05:08out the ship at the start i thought that was really really cool looking um but um also interesting
05:16um and the inquisitor using force echoes a very rare force skill we only really see it with uh good
05:25good guys don't we i think ahsoka and cal kestis i don't think i've ever seen any of the dark
05:31side use
05:32it before yeah so it's quite interesting that this inquisitor is using the force echoes to track
05:38them down i thought that was really cool thought was a really um interesting way of introducing them
05:44um i do like that ducky is realizing that devon is starting to edge towards maul i thought
05:53he's very he's very aware really good quote there wasn't there i can't remember exactly but he says
06:00something along the lines of you know that's your voice but those are maul's words or something like
06:04that that is exactly pretty much what he said yeah um riley stepping up as well the sun
06:09um obviously getting the confidence from lawson and um the mom sucks that's what i'll put down
06:16there the mom sucks the um everything's fine there was a there was a quote as well mate i think
06:21it
06:21might be my favorite quote of the entire show that i've seen so far in this episode where um i
06:27think
06:27it's rook cast says to maul she tried to kill you and he goes yes she'll make a fine apprentice
06:36it's like yeah i'm willing to take the risk and i did actually make a note the fact that maul
06:39is
06:39willing to take the risk to get devon i think that was actually i think that might be in episode
06:46six
06:46where they had the conversation of wanting to go for that but let's talk about episode six i feel
06:51episode five was a bit of a slow burner bit of a character development one nothing major um
06:57vero living the fight another day most like yeah i'm done with you see you later
07:02um lieutenant blake sass and the finger snap
07:06yeah that's good clicking the fingers i did i did like that just someone in the empire like
07:12dude do what i say love that um episode six i thought had a great opening maul training now
07:20his legs are working again fully i just thought it was very interesting the way he was training and
07:24prepping himself it was interesting to see him get a little bit of a repair job going on there as
07:29well um i didn't know if that was supposed to um insinuate something or if it's supposed to be
07:38sort of like uh like a metaphor for something i wasn't really sure because we've never seen him
07:44before apart from when he's been cut in half have problems really mechanically with those legs i think
07:49it was probably just plot device saying like in a few episodes time for someone running about because
07:52obviously they need to have his legs ready to fight the inquisitor this is just kind of a
07:57yep that was a plot device we'll fix that plot device move on got you it's kind of the way
08:02i was
08:02looking at it um i thought it was quite funny that we had the father bonding time and the kids
08:07bonding
08:07time i thought that was kind of nice saying well i'm doing this protect my son well i'm doing this
08:12protect devon who is de facto his daughter that that's what they're basically saying because of
08:18everything that's happened it's a father daughter dynamic i know you're not meant to have that dynamic
08:22as a jedi but technically the jedi don't exist anymore so those rules kind of go out the window
08:28a little bit and i feel like daki is even though he's old school and very much following the jedi
08:34order
08:34i think he's kind of realizing you can't be that way anymore you have to look after each other he
08:40needs
08:40that well you say he's old school mate and he looked very through the previous episodes he's very
08:47sort of like slow and ambling and decrepit but when he pulls that saber out he had a few moves
08:53didn't
08:53he oh yeah it was kind of like the yoda thing when you see yoda fight like he comes across
08:58his walking
08:59stick but then as soon as he gets his lightsaber out what walking stick yeah but i had the injury
09:04i feel like maybe playing a part in it as well he's very badly injured but then still fighting could
09:10it be something internal obviously we don't know yet um talking about inquisitors more of the
09:17inquisitor how great was that both visually action there's something about like the movement as well
09:25mate we'll jump into the house the house was the first one sorry when they when they go to the
09:29house
09:29yeah um what a what a daft move though really to be fair turning up at their house i know
09:36they
09:36they wanted to hide and stuff but it was never going to work was it the moment that i saw
09:41them
09:41at the door i knew they were doomed you know i think that's not really their fault i think it's
09:46lawson believing the empire were just going to let him walk away yeah because i think obviously we saw
09:53the inquisitor for sensing what had happened had they sensed what lawson did and informed them like
10:02they're gonna go to them i'd assume that he picked up echoes off of that and of the conversation and
10:08stuff yeah um but yeah that was that was really impressive sort of in that tight space to have
10:13such dynamism in that fight in the little flat really cool and it was a bit because it's so
10:21not not the word compact that's it because it's so compact it really changed their like fighting style
10:27as well and adapt and again i feel like if you compare devon now to devon episode one in terms
10:34of confidence attitude like she was scared to take on maul she stepped up to maul and inquisitor has
10:41arrived and she's just going into it her confidence is really building which is i'm finding interesting
10:49and is it some arrogance coming into play very possibly the most arrogant uh other than her actions
10:55was in that i think it's just after the or during the quote i said earlier when she says something
10:59like um uh like hiding seems a waste of our powers you know and again there's that little bit of
11:06sort
11:06of entitlement creeping in that little bit sort of well i could be doing so much more you know but
11:11that's a young person thing isn't it remember she is very very young but it's maul in the back of
11:18her mind he's just always there kind of whispering but that's why it's so hard mate because he is
11:24manipulating he is whispering but he's right he's right that they have to unite to bring down the
11:31greater evil even if it means compromising on their values between the two of them so it's part of why
11:37i really love this show at the moment like the nuance of that like there's no good or bad between
11:43devon and maul it's just what we've got to do to get it done and again the comparisons of and
11:51or
11:51that quote in and or about um taking on the weapons of my enemy uh to essentially to win
11:59this is what they have to do here and it goes completely against the jedi code but it's it's
12:05the right thing to do it is a good and someone and i'm i'm can't remember who they are but
12:09i am
12:09going to give them a shout out because while fighting for the word in the said anti-hero which um
12:13yes it is the perfect word so whoever that was apologies i can't remember in the comments yeah
12:18thank you for that but yes it is a good anti-hero story you kind of want maul to win
12:24but you know
12:26that's not right and i feel like i'm cheering on maul more than i'm cheering on the jedi
12:32yeah and you you want him a win but you also want him to learn some lessons you know you
12:37want him to
12:37maybe win in the right way if you know i mean something something happens that changes him maybe
12:43and obviously we know we've got a season two now that is confirmed so now we know that the way
12:49this season ends is going to leave some wiggle room it's not going to be open and shut story there
12:54is
12:55going to be more to it which i'm both happy and sad about because i like to have a definitive
13:00ending
13:01to like the story but them leaving bits open to a second season and now we've passed halfway i'm
13:08actually really happy about that there's a long way to or a lot of play with mate when you consider
13:14his appearance in uh the end of the clone wars all the way up to when we see him right
13:19at the end of
13:20solo i mean that's what 15 years 10 years something like that so there's a hell of a lot of
13:25story
13:25potentially there and we obviously know his fate with obi-wan at the end so we we know it's one
13:32of
13:32those plot armors that i hate so much whitworth said a really interesting thing about that
13:38he was saying look you know where he ends up and you know what his characterization is there
13:43when he's sort of pretending to be old and trying to maneuver ezra into a certain position
13:48and you know him from before in the clone wars and he was talking about how all the work
13:52in uh shadow lord is getting from that one place to the other sort of like slowly carefully
13:59deliberately with purpose you know and i just love the fact that we we feel like we know him but
14:05we don't know him and i feel like this show is showing a different side the more than we've seen
14:10previous we're getting more time more in depth and i love this version of maul yeah yeah he's um
14:17i'd like to anti-heroes the is the perfect way we're rooting for him uh but it doesn't mean he's
14:22necessarily good we want what he wants but it doesn't mean that necessarily the way he'll rule
14:27afterwards if he was to win spoiler he doesn't obviously we know the empire maintain um but
14:34he'd probably still do evil things if he was to win you know this is really interesting but the
14:38question is are you wanting devon to turn to maul's side or do you want to stay with daki that
14:44is the
14:45point now where we're at where it's kind of like story-wise i want to see what devon does with
14:50more
14:50i want to see collaboration between all of the parties there you know including uh lawson i want
14:59to see moral uh i want to see like people putting aside their morality their ethics to defy defeat the
15:09the greater evil that's what i like to see because again i think it's so interesting and the the the
15:14conflict within that team is what makes the story you know so as many different complications that
15:21we can have as possible we just make for any more interesting story to me so daki alongside maul
15:26that'd be interesting it'd be fun and also i love the fact like devon was ready to fight maul like
15:32holding the saber and maul's just like nope just turns it off there's no fight here yeah it's so funny
15:38there's never been a fight here no like daki if you think was the one that kind of went for
15:42maul
15:43but devon even when she was standing up against him maul wasn't even putting up much of a fight
15:49he wasn't ever in danger he was actually being defensive like when they stood in that walkway
15:54he never really attacked fully it was all defensive play to push her on the offensive i think that you
16:03know although we won't have seen all of this on screen i appreciate some of us in a comic so
16:07not
16:07everyone will be aware of this but like obviously the way that maul was treated by palpatine and the
16:14violence he experienced at his hand and the way he was just thrown away like rubbish i feel like that
16:20all impacts upon who he is now because before he gets to this point he has uh savage oppressed his
16:27brother as an apprentice and he's kicking him he's unkind to him he's horrible to him very sort of
16:33palpatine-esque and it just ends in palpatine murdering so i feel like all these things from
16:39before have informed the direction he's in now who he is now and while he's not being like kind in
16:47the
16:47way he's giving them cuddles and asking them how they are the kindness that he's showing is relative
16:51to like the starting point that we saw him at you know yeah it's really interesting i am loving the
16:57story development um i love the fact that we got soul back and i i was saying that i think
17:04lawson
17:04used to be a bounty hunter from how good a shot he is and then we found out soul was
17:10a bounty hunter
17:10back in the day and they looked after each other lawson used to be a bounty hunter i think it's
17:15very
17:15possible it's very possible isn't it i wonder if his wife was someone that was tracking him and
17:21i was thinking this watching it because again that is the second time i've seen or like third time
17:25i've seen that episode where she's in the uh hologram and she's like checking back have you
17:31noticed when she's talking to her son she keeps looking behind her like like someone's watching
17:36her or someone's coming for her or whatever and i was like i wonder what her job actually is in
17:41the
17:41empire it's interesting i'm sure we'll probably get more of it in future episodes because they won't
17:47leave us hanging on that unless it's a season two story um but are they gonna do the cliche like
17:53obviously i know you probably can't answer but um do you think they're gonna do the cliche where
17:57riley might be force sensitive himself and that's kind of passed from lawson that's why lawson's such
18:03a good shot are they gonna go that cliche i hope not i say how would you feel about that
18:07if they did
18:08go that route i feel like it's making people force sensitive for force sensitive sake we don't need
18:14everyone in the show to be a force wielder sometimes it's just awesome for the fact that lawson kicks
18:20ass yeah no i haven't seen any hints of that yet but you know the force essentially is open to
18:29everyone you never know um but yeah i i don't think that that will be a thread a final few
18:36notes from me
18:37um i've just put it's visually stunning i thought that fight on the train just looked amazing um i did
18:45like the lawson ducky quip off where each of them had to make like a little funny quip like i'm
18:51gonna
18:51out dad joke you then you can with me yeah um i do want to see more of soul um
18:57i think it's really
18:58interesting to see how she will be as a bounty hunter and if she escapes the um the empire which
19:04i'm sure she will um devon's got some points for the landing i thought well done devon that was
19:10really really good um spy bot just being spy bot he's great um and yeah more shiny imperials or
19:18something he's shiny impies impies that's what he likes to call them um but yeah just passed halfway
19:27next week is where you are fully caught up with everybody else so we're halfway how are you feeling
19:37about it cj overall obviously we've been through the ups and downs you do your ups and downs videos
19:42but if you were just if someone asked you now oh is it any goods or what do you think
19:46of it what would
19:46you be your broad sort of assessment at this it has surpassed my expectations i thought it was going
19:51to be good enjoyable um but it has been better than i expected i personally think personally think
20:00and a lot of people might disagree with this i might actually prefer this over and or wow yeah
20:06well this is the great thing about star wars mate we've all got our little areas that we prefer things
20:10in um yeah no it's perfectly valid for it i know it's shorter and like 23 minute episode animations and
20:19stuff but i just feel like the dialogue in the story is just being fully quality really well for out
20:29it's being dynamic it's being good to watch and yes they've got 23 minute episodes so it's
20:36way more than half the time ando has and because it's animated they do have a bit more kind of
20:42wiggle
20:42room and the kind of action that they can do and everything like that yeah well just looking at
20:47individual shows i feel like i'm enjoying more more than i was enjoying ando and i loved ando
20:53yeah you're saying about the different uh like the limitations between live action and the animation
20:58stuff anymore i'm really interested and i hope they do like a little behind the scenes thing even
21:03if it's on youtube or whatever that battle we saw on the train i want to know which bits were
21:09motion
21:09captured and which bits were animated and because there is and how they did it because there are certain
21:16bits where it looks like i've sped up the footage a little bit because the movements is so sort of
21:19stark and striking almost like uh like a big cat sort of thing um yeah i'm really interested in
21:26because it's such a a mishmatch of different techniques i've brought this together i really
21:31would like to see how and where they compiled the bits together to make it what it is you know
21:37that'd be really cool to see hopefully we'll get that they might do like a making of at the end
21:41of
21:41the series because obviously they're keeping a lot of things secret even the press have not seen the
21:46final two episodes and it's sad to say we are two weeks away from the end of maul shadow lord
21:54that
21:54that is getting to say and i think it ends just before it ends on may 4th may 4th yeah
22:03yeah maybe
22:04there's a big there's a big thing they're doing because at the two episodes from the press and the
22:10air in the final episodes on may 4th could they be doing a darthada well it ends on a cliffhanger
22:15who's he talking to is he talking the veda is he talking the sidious i don't think we'll be
22:22disappointed whatever it is not like i said i don't know i haven't seen those last two either
22:26um but i've got high hopes mate uh the the next week is yeah one of my favorite episodes is
22:35in next
22:35week uh but i but it's interesting because obviously we like different things it's more of an
22:40introspective episode on maul so i'm i'm wondering how you'll feel about it whether you'll think it's a
22:44little bit slow uh but for me but no i like i love character development i'm big fan of story
22:51and
22:51character development the only reason i was down on episode five a bit was i don't feel we actually
22:56got that much character development it was more placing the chess pieces where they needed for
23:02the next bit rather than we didn't have any big character revelations in episode five or anything like
23:08that with maul especially there's lots of things which maybe as the show's gone on you might you
23:14might remember you might not but with this episode that i'm talking about where it's basically him
23:18focusing on him um you'll be like oh yeah no i saw that oh and you're some of these things
23:24that
23:24maybe you didn't necessarily think were big or important they'll make sense you'll go oh right
23:29yeah no because we haven't had much more time when you think about it it is called maul shadow load
23:34but when you think about it yeah we don't actually get maul on screen that i was saying this earlier
23:41to
23:41danny uh my partner like they've got to stop calling these shows after character names because
23:47like you've just said there one of the biggest things i ever see in a complaint online is when
23:52they go oh well it's it's called ahsoka and ahsoka's barely in it it's called maul and maul's barely in
23:57it they've got to get some creative names going i think but also it's the hook they get you the
24:02watch it because let's be fair as soon as i said them all shadow load everyone is invested i feel
24:08like yes we're not getting much more but when we are getting more we are getting quality and it's one
24:14of those quantity over quality i am loving this version of maul and maybe because it's dark and
24:21mysterious that's what's making more the best version that he is and if we had more on too much
24:28maybe we wouldn't enjoy him as much as a character it's it's a tough balance but i feel that was
24:33my
24:33fear coming into the show mate i think we said a couple of weeks ago like i wasn't sure if
24:38you
24:38could take him from this sort of like pathos driven uh villain who's really good in short bursts i
24:45think someone said to me the other day that he's got like 10 minutes screen time total in all of
24:50rebels or whatever and he's incredible in it but i was like how do you take a character like that
24:55and
24:55then put them into their own show so yeah i guess adaptions had to be made yeah but i'm enjoying
25:00it i think this is an absolutely brilliant series now we've passed the halfway point i am confident
25:04i'm just hoping they can deliver but obviously the higher ups are obviously confident as well because
25:11it's not a cheap show to make animation motion capture all of that it's not easy to make and
25:17they're doing it the most expensive way possible by smashing all these different techniques together
25:21it's not like they're just outsourcing it all to taiwan or wherever you know but they're willing
25:26to give it a season two which means that the second half of the season is going to be interesting
25:31i can't
25:32believe it's only hit halfway but there's only two weeks left it's a weird way of numbers but it's
25:37exciting any final thoughts i know you've said we're going to get a bit more more backstory next week
25:43yeah i guess people like yourself who are thinking um when are we going to get more more um you
25:50know
25:50just look forward to next week there's there's plenty of focus on more uh introspective as to who
25:56he is why he is and how he feels about some things that we know have happened in the past
26:01and i'm looking forward to chatting to you next week because after next week you're going to be as
26:06blind as i am and i'm looking forward to chatting some theories yeah and we will speculate a lot
26:12and thank you so much luke for chatting with me um and thank you all for watching these and
26:17commenting and tell us about your thoughts on more as well we appreciate you all and don't forget to
26:22hit that subscribe button as well i'm doing more ups and downs over the week on each episode so please
26:28check those out and of course we have a new series joining us on star wars which is called star
26:34rants where myself and sean from trek culture discuss your rants what is annoying you in the
26:42star trek and star wars universe so check that out as well i haven't seen those yet mate i'm looking
26:47forward to checking one of those out i saw that it went up on the um on the when when
26:51we're filming
26:51this this is the monday it went out today but this video comes out so technically came out yesterday
26:57guys when you see this please check it out it's gonna have to check it out after we've finished
27:01filming i reckon yeah definitely do that definitely do that but thank you luke thank you everyone for
27:06watching please take care let us know what you thought of shadow lord and we'll be back next week
27:12but until then may the force be with you
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