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    It’s Taken Me 25 Years (And A Surprising Retcon) To Realize How Powerful One Phantom Menace Line Really Is

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    It’s Taken Me 25 Years (And A Surprising Retcon) To Realize How Powerful One Phantom Menace Line Really Is


    One ominous line from Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace has become so much more meaningful in Star Wars, and a recent retcon in Star Wars movies and TV shows has only proven that so much more. The Phantom Menace had significant ground to cover as the first addition to Star Wars following the original trilogy—largely considered Star Wars’ best movies, even to this day. Thrillingly, Star Wars managed to set up the original trilogy while also bringing plenty of new ideas and characters to the table.

    Among those new characters was Darth Maul, the third-ever Sith Lord shown on the Star Wars screen. While Darth Maul isn’t necessarily high on the list of Star Wars’ most powerful Sith, he has proven to be a brilliant Star Wars character. In addition to his many surprising returns to Star Wars, this line from The Phantom Menace proves that Darth Maul was much wiser than he may have seemed in the first Star Wars prequel movie.

    Darth Maul’s Line Foreshadows Order 66

    Darth Sidious And Darth Maul’s Conversation Subtly Referenced What Was To Come

    Darth Maul on Coruscant, speaking with Palpatine.

    In The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul and Darth Sidious spoke about their plans, and Maul said, “At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have revenge.” At the time, this seemed daunting enough. In the years following that declaration, however, the reality of Darth Maul’s meaning became so much more devastating. When Darth Maul spoke about the Sith’s plan for revenge, he was really foreshadowing all that was to come with Order 66.

    When Darth Maul spoke about the Sith’s plan for revenge, he was really foreshadowing all that was to come with Order 66.

    This is why the third installment in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, has the title it does. Order 66 was the titular revenge of the Sith, as it was retaliation for the Jedi nearly entirely eradicating the Sith and sending them into hiding for centuries. While that meaning of Darth Maul’s Phantom Menace comments became clear relatively quickly, Star Wars’ recent TV shows have proven how profound Darth Maul’s comment really was.

    Star Wars' Darth Maul in live-action

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    Star Wars’ Count Dooku Retcons Make TPM Even More Powerful

    Palpatine’s Plan Was Already In Motion When Darth Maul Made This Statement

    Star Wars has added to the context of this line even more with the 2022 show Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi. In Tales of the Jedi, there were two distinct arcs, each of three episodes. One arc followed Ahsoka Tano, and the other followed Count Dooku. In Dooku’s case, this primarily included his fall to the dark side and his christening as Darth Sidious’ new Sith apprentice.

    These episodes also had some overlap with The Phantom Menace in the Star Wars timeline, which revealed so much more about Palpatine’s Clone Wars plan and, ultimately, Order 66. Specifically, Tales of the Jedi confirmed through conversations with Dooku and Palpatine that Palpatine was plotting the Clone Wars as early as The Phantom Menace. As the events of The Phantom Menace were unfolding, Dooku was already killing Jedi Master Syfo-Dyas and having the clone troopers commissioned.

    This Tales of the Jedi plotline only proved Palpatine’s genius that much more. Palpatine knew the Jedi would be distracted by the crisis on Naboo, and even the emergence of this terrifying hooded figure who Qui-Gon Jinn believed to be a Sith Lord, and it was therefore the perfect time to strike. The timing enabled Palpatine to hatch his clone plot, going almost entirely undetected as he prepped the troopers to become the ultimate weapon against the Jedi.

    The timing enabled Palpatine to hatch his clone plot, going almost entirely undetected as he prepped the troopers to become the ultimate weapon against the Jedi.

    Darth Maul Was Right About Palpatine’s Plans, Too

    Maul Even Knew The Proper Sequence Of Events

    Star Wars' Mace Windu pointing his lightsaber at Palpatine.

    In the end, Maul even accurately predicted the order in which these events unfolded. His exact wording was “At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have revenge.” In Revenge of the Sith, it was only once Mace Windu had discovered Palpatine’s true nature and identity that Palpatine initiated Order 66. All the way back in The Phantom Menace, Maul anticipated the exact pattern of Palpatine’s larger plan.

    Maul even accurately predicted the order in which these events unfolded.

    This is also far from the only example of Darth Maul being surprisingly intuitive, especially when it comes to Palpatine’s plans. In the Star Wars: The Clone Wars finale, Maul told Ahsoka Tano all that he believed about what was transpiring with Order 66, the Jedi, and the Sith. This included Maul’s perception that everything that had happened up to that point was simply Palpatine manipulating Anakin Skywalker to the dark side. Quite accurately, Maul described Anakin as the key to all of it—and he was absolutely right.

    As Palpatine’s Sith apprentice, Maul undoubtedly had access to Palpatine’s larger scheme, but it is nevertheless surprising how precisely he predicted all that would come to pass. The fact that Maul then realized he, Dooku, and countless others had been played by Palpatine as he made his moves to turn Darth Vader only further proves how perceptive Darth Maul really was. This line from Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace has therefore become all the more significant in Star Wars and reveals Darth Maul’s impressive insight, 25 years later.



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