Star Wars' New 100% RT Show Is Showing Obi-Wan Kenobi How It's Done

The new show in the Star Wars franchise, Maul - Shadow Lord, is showing Obi-Wan Kenobi how it's done in several respects. Obi-Wan Kenobi is often considered one of the lowest-ranked Star Wars TV shows, despite, or possibly because of, the insane hype built pre-release.

This disappointing reception is likely one of the leading reasons as to why Obi-Wan Kenobi season 2 isn't happening. A season 2 that has recently been confirmed, though, is the follow-up to Maul - Shadow Lord. Maul - Shadow Lord episodes 5 and 6 are now streaming on Disney+, ahead of four more episodes being released between now and May 4, Star Wars Day itself.

The ending of these episodes made Marrok, one of the Empire's Inquisitors, a huge threat to Maul and the show's other characters. This, as well as the introduction of the Empire as a whole in Maul - Shadow Lord episode 4, has taken two aspects of Obi-Wan Kenobi and utilized them much better.

While several aspects of Obi-Wan Kenobi worked, perhaps the most criticized were the musical score by Natalie Holt and the use of Star Wars' Inquisitors. Now, four years on from Obi-Wan Kenobi, Maul - Shadow Lord is showing the former how it's done, be it the use of both new and old Star Wars music to the threat of the Inquisitors.

Maul - Shadow Lord Proves How Star Wars Music Should Be Approached

Firstly, concerning the music, Maul - Shadow Lord's musical score was composed by Star Wars veteran Kevin Kiner. Kiner, alongside his children, Sean and Deana, has worked on all major Star Wars animated shows aside from Star Wars: Resistance and Star Wars: Visions. However, Kiner has only worked on one live-action Star Wars show: Ahsoka.

It is worth mentioning that Star Wars music is difficult to get right. Good musical scores are often described as such because you don't notice them, in the sense that they blend effortlessly with what is happening on screen. The same is true for Star Wars, only with the added contradiction that recognizable themes from the franchise's past, typically composed by John Williams, should be used where appropriate.

Going too far one way with a completely new-sounding score means the music is often noticed for the wrong reasons, while using recognizable themes too often renders the score derivative and reduced to fan service. As such, Star Wars composers need to find the perfect balance between old and new, something Natalie Holt failed to do on Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Kevin Kiner succeeds in doing with every project, including Maul - Shadow Lord.

Kiner makes the new elements noticeable in a good way, from the booming drones that convey the seedy nature of Janix and Shadow Lord's darker tone well. In all the action scenes and dialogue moments, the score is subtle enough not to be noticed. Holt succeeded at the latter aspect with Obi-Wan Kenobi, but it was in the utilization of Star Wars themes where it fell short.

Maul - Shadow Lord has done this excellently, though. This was evident immediately upon Maul's first appearance, with an epic rendition of the now-iconic "Duel of the Fates" blaring out as he ignited his lightsaber for the first time. Then, in Shadow Lord episode 4's ending, the Empire made its presence known on Janix, with John Williams' "Imperial March" being blended hauntingly into Kiner's other compositions. Rather than being identical to how they were in The Phantom Menace or The Empire Strikes Back, though, Kiner puts his own unique, fresh spins on the themes.

To put it bluntly, Obi-Wan Kenobi simply did not do this enough. Yes, some scenes included renditions of Williams' original themes, but there was not enough of it, especially for a story tied so intrinsically to the Skywalker Saga. At best, Obi-Wan Kenobi's musical score was serviceable but forgettable; the same cannot be said for any of Kiner's Star Wars scores, with Maul - Shadow Lord being the latest in a long list, primarily due to the expert balance he has found between new and old musical elements.

Maul - Shadow Lord Is Using Inquisitors Perfectly

Moving on to Star Wars Inquisitors, now, Maul - Shadow Lord is using them better than Obi-Wan Kenobi did, too. The Inquisitor named Reva was a decent character in the latter, with the hateful racist backlash she received often overshadowing this fact. Still, the show needed to be longer to make her feel genuinely compelling. Beyond that, Obi-Wan Kenobi failed in using recognized Inquisitors.

The Grand Inquisitor and The Fifth Brother, both of whom appeared in Star Wars Rebels, were part of Obi-Wan Kenobi. From both a story and visual standpoint, Obi-Wan Kenobi drastically failed to portray them well. Both characters suffered from the transition between animation and live-action, looking far too different in the latter medium than they did in the former.

Moreover, the actors chosen for these roles were either misguided or underutilized. Sung Kang played the Fifth Brother and was barely a part of the story, while Rupert Friend's performance as the Grand Inquisitor was too disparate from that of Jason Isaacs' in Star Wars Rebels. None of the intimidating presence, threat, or competence that Isaacs imbued in the Grand Inquisitor was present in Obi-Wan Kenobi, due to the miscast of Friend and the writing and direction.

Conversely, Maul - Shadow Lord, uses Inquisitors perfectly.

Even if Inquisitors cannot be written with the most compelling backstory, the least a Star Wars project can do is make them intimidating and threatening as the galaxy's lead Jedi hunters. Maul - Shadow Lord does exactly that, sidestepping the biggest issues Obi-Wan Kenobi had with the group of dark side-inclined Force users. Marrok is proof of this, with future episodes introducing the Eleventh Brother to support it.

For starters, Marrok and the Eleventh Brother are two of the coolest-looking Inquisitors in terms of design. Both wear striking, fear-inducing armor and have dark, inhuman voices. This immediately gives them a presence as genuinely menacing villains. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan Kenobi's outright goofy designs only gave the Fifth Brother and the Grand Inquisitor a sense of disappointment.

The same can be said for the lack of screentime and action-heavy moments given to the Grand Inquisitor and the Fifth Brother in Obi-Wan Kenobi. Marrok's appearance in Maul - Shadow Lord has him as the key investigator into Maul's actions, and that is without his scary interrogation scenes and exciting duels with the titular character and Devon. Where the Eleventh Brother is concerned, the trailer for Maul - Shadow Lord promises much of the same.

This will give the two an important, exciting role in Maul - Shadow Lord, which was certainly not the case for the Fifth Brother or Grand Inquisitor in Obi-Wan Kenobi​​​​​​. That show failed to adequately showcase the competence and menace of either character, all while sidelining them from the main storyline. With Maul - Shadow Lord, Star Wars is doing the complete opposite via Marrok and the Eleventh Brother.

Star Wars' Animated Shows Have Always Nailed Music & Wider Characters

What Maul - Shadow Lord proves here is that Star Wars' animated shows have always nailed music compositions and wider franchise characters. Kiner has been the composer for nearly all of these shows, with the other two even supporting how good he is. Only Star Wars: Visions and Star Wars: Resistance did not feature musical scores by Kiner, with the former instead having episode-specific composers based on which studio was making each anthology episode.

This, admittedly, may be a coincidence, as there are a lot more elements in play regarding which Star Wars animated show is the best, but Star Wars: Visions and Star Wars: Resistance have the worst ratings on IMDb out of all major animated shows in the franchise. Kiner, with Dave Filoni as the creator, writer, or director of Star Wars projects, always finds the perfect balance to elevate the shows he is part of.

When using characters from the wider Star Wars franchise, too, the animated shows often excel. Be it Asaaj Ventress' appearance in Star Wars: The Bad Batch, the Inquisitors in Maul - Shadow Lord, or Darth Vader in Star Wars Rebels, the shows know how best to use the characters at hand. Obi-Wan Kenobi did not know how to do the same with the likes of the Grand Inquisitor or the Fifth Brother.

In many ways, Maul - Shadow Lord is showing not only Obi-Wan Kenobi how it is done, but also other Star Wars projects. Concerning these two in particular, however, two key aspects of Imperial-era Star Wars are being used expertly in the former, while the latter fumbled them drastically.