Obi-Wan’s Darkest Duel: The Red Lightsaber and His Cruel Victory Over Darth Maul
Easily one of the most intense lightsaber battles in the canon are found in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the former Cartoon Network series set between Episodes II and III of the main saga. The most memorable of these scenes involves the normally cool Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi wielding a red-bladed lightsaber, a colour previously reserved for Sith lords and characters of the dark side of the Force. Except, the red lightsabers here are no substitutes for the standard green variety; Kenobi himself wields a red blade – and, in this scene, he is obssessed by an old, continuing, personal grudge against his former archenemy, Darth Maul.
Though The Clone Wars ostensibly serves as a kids’ show, many of its stories delve into murkier themes and more nuanced character arcs. The third season is particularly grim, introducing a dark new arc for Darth Maul, who was thought dead in the Clone Wars’ first episode. In Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Maul lost his duel with Kenobi and was cut in half by the Jedi Master’s lightsaber. But like the proverbial cat, Maul found exceptional wherewithal to shrug off his unfortunate circumstances and carry on. Three years in exile lead to a brush with the mystical dark-side creatures known as Nightsisters, a whole handy-headed guy again. The episode ‘Revenge’, in which Maul is resurrected, proves not only chilling but peculiar in its presentation of incomplete characters yearning to patch their wounds.
This animosity becomes a driving force in these characters’ interactions, from their first meeting as contenders to their final battle as master and apprentice; a conflict that resurfaces from the dark reaches of Kenobi’s past in a series of epic confrontations set throughout The Clone Wars. In one of these duels, we glimpse another aspect of the Jedi Master unravelled: namely, Kenobi picking up a red-bladed lightsaber, rather than his traditional green one, which momentarily drives away the darkness in his heart. More than a mere demonstration of great lightsaber combat, this duel is infused with a level of calm frayed by anger and frustration. Its dramatic conclusion results in what is arguably the most morally questionable action made by Kenobi, prompting the audience to contemplate the price of unbridled vengeance, even for a blessed Jedi Master.
Related: Star Wars: The Clone Wars Voice Cast – What The Actors Look Like In Real Life
The all-star live-action cast of Star Wars: The Clone Wars includes the voices of Matthew Wood (Anakin Skywalker), Matt Lanter (Anakin Skywalker), Christopher Lee (Palpatine), James Arnold Taylor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Katee Sackhoff (Captain Rex), Sam Witwer (Maul), David W Harper (Banz), Donal Gibson (Gaff), Matthew Wood (Proxy), Brooke ‘Candy’ Bowman (Newtling), John Cygan (Captain Gobi), Jim Cummings (Gungi), Corey Burton (Hondo), John DiMaggio (Jek), Corey Burton (Lama Su), Ian Abercrombie (Pando), Justin Aberlong (Backstop), Matt Lanter (Pong Krell), Tom Kane (Yoda), and Diana Maria Rivoire (Newtling).
Obi-Wan Kenobi Used One of Asajj Ventress’ Lightsabers
But Only For A Short While
Image © Lucasfilm Ltd.In The Clone Wars season 4, episode 22 ‘Revenge’ (2011), the Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi is drawn to Darth Maul in a trap to save an innocent group of people on the planet Florrum. Kenobi knows he is walking into a trap and his capture by Maul and his brother Savage Opress allows the Jedi to be overpowered and captured aboard the brother’s vessel. Asajj Ventress, originally out for revenge against Sav forces with Kenobi and rescues him. At the beginning of their battle, Ventress provides Kenobi with one of her red lightsabers, thus initiating a two-on-two engagement of red blades.
It’s an awesome fight, and Kenobi’s against Maul, and Ventress has it out with Savage, and Kenobi at one point takes Ventress’ lightsabre back and uses his own, this flaming blue one, and it doesn’t matter – the four of them are getting clobbered, they know they’re getting clobbered, and they bail right quick, slinging the cockpit off the wings. You don’t get something like that and not have a killer cliffhanger. We’re talking about the literal season four finale of The Clone Wars, meaning that people went away with this incredible duel in their heads and over the summer they were wondering: ‘Is season five ever going to come back? Is the season five going to start again?’ When it did, it was like: ‘Bam! Here you go!’
Asajj Ventress
Originally a member of the Nightsisters on the desolate planet of Dathomir, Asajj Ventress was Count Dooku’s apprentice during the Clone Wars but was betrayed by her master, eventually trying to assassinate him. She allied herself with Jedi Master Quinlan Vos for a time in an interesting role reversal, and she’s reinvented herself as a bounty hunter living into the Empire’s Dark Times.
CastNika Futterman , Grey DeLisle
First AppearanceStar Wars: Clone Wars (2003)
RaceDathomiri
It’s Fitting That Kenobi Used a Red Lightsaber While Dueling Maul
He Was Always Unbalanced Against Him
With this in mind, though many suggest that Obi-Wan Kenobi’s greatest enemy in Star Wars is Darth Vader, his former apprentice-turned-Sith Lord, I want to argue that, to the extent that he had a failure, it was Vader, to the extent that he had an adversary, it was Maul. He and Maul crossed lightsabers six times throughout the various ecologies of Star Wars, it only makes sense that the one and only time Obi-Wan employs a red blade would be against Maul. Because, forever, Maul was the darkness that represented Obi-Wan’s failure to protect his master, Qui-Gon Jinn, in The Phantom Menace. And because Maul can get under Kenobi’s skin the best, finding the things that force the good Jedi master to reveal his darker nature, or finding the things that utterly destroy the iconic hero.
He leaned into his anger and frustration about losing Qui-Gon in
The Phantom Menace
, and multiple times in
The Clone Wars,
viewers can see clearly that Kenobi takes it upon himself to take down or kill Maul.
(It is in fact arguable that Obi-Wan is unbalanced when fighting Maul – he tapped into his anger and frustration over losing Qui-Gon to Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, and throughout The Clone Wars we can see several times how the capture or killing of Maul is a personal issue for Kenobi to rectify. Maul would later kill Kenobi’s love Satine Kryze in The Clone Wars season 5 before creating madness among the Mandalorians for years, something that would stoke Obi-Wan’s hatred for the former Sith apprentice.)
Darth Maul would eventually be killed by Obi-Wan Kenobi on Tatooine in
Star Wars Rebels
season 3.
Darth Maul
Darth Maul, Palpatine’s first apprentice, was merely a predator whose role was to thin the ranks of the Jedi in preparation for Darth Sidious’ true agenda – and, after he was learnedly felled by Obi-Wan Kenobi on the planet Naboo, he was discarded. Driven mad by hate, Maul vowed to take revenge on all those who had demeaned him (including his own Jedi and Sith masters), and haunted the sidelines of the saga. He ran various syndicates, and once even became a true Jedi rival for Palpatine. He was eventually strangled to death by Obi-Wan with his own lightsaber, in a duel on the planet Tatooine.
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Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of the most canonical characters in Star Wars, which means he also has one of the longest introduction timelines.
Kenobi Using a Red Lightsaber Pairs With One of His Cruelest Victories
He Left Maul and Savage To Die
That duel also has a significance for the TV show itself – it is the only time Obi-Wan Kenobi uses a red lightsaber that we’ve seen in canon, and it is this particular red blade that complements one of his most un-Jedi-like and bloodiest victories. As Ventress and Obi-Wan were trying to get away, Maul and Savage used their lightsabers to try to force their way into the cockpit of their ship by making a hole in it, but then the cockpit of the emergency escape pod detached, leaving Maul and Savage trapped in the cargo hold of their ship with nothing but a shield to keep them from the cold vacuum of space.
And after their victory, Ventress and Kenobi left their fallen opponents, Savage and Maul, to freeze to death and could not have possibly saved themselves if left to their own fate. Perhaps by the grace of the Watchers that Maul was found by the Mandalorian Death Watch (thus, escaping his slow savage demise) and was effectively saved – but Kenobi could not possibly have known. This kind of cold hardcore pragmatism is a very terrible act, and something completely incompatible with the Jedi teachings in my book. Maul and Kenobi would meet again in The Clone Wars, but this was without doubt as close as audiences would come to seeing Kenobi give in to the dark side.
The animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars takes place between Episodes 2 and 3 of the Star Wars film saga. The fan-favorite series expands the story of the prequel trilogy through characters including Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano, and more fan-favorite jedi.
Release DateOctober 3, 2008
Seasons7
Streaming Service(s)Disney+
