I think he's coming back but not in the same form. Maybe as like the dark side version of a force ghost. I think Snoke wanted Kylo to kill him like how the emperor tried to get Luke to kill him in the 6th one
Maul came back after Obi-Wan cut him in half. Why not Snoke?
Unlike Maul, Snoke fulfilled his narrative purpose. There’s no reason to bring him back except to coddle salty fanboys who didnt get their perfect star wars movie
Maul came back after Obi-Wan cut him in half. Why not Snoke?
Unlike Maul, Snoke fulfilled his narrative purpose. There’s no reason to bring him back except to coddle salty fanboys who didnt get their perfect star wars movie
Technically Maul did furfill his purpose, he was supposed to be a villain in Ep 1 and kill Qui got so obi wan will live to Ep4, Maul was only created to be a villain who would be killed off.
Maul came back after Obi-Wan cut him in half. Why not Snoke?
Unlike Maul, Snoke fulfilled his narrative purpose. There’s no reason to bring him back except to coddle salty fanboys who didnt get their perfect star wars movie
I'd settle for a "meh" movie at this point honestly. I don't even think the next one could bring this trilogy above the prequels even if it was the best one ever released. The first two are just that bad.
Maul came back after Obi-Wan cut him in half. Why not Snoke?
Unlike Maul, Snoke fulfilled his narrative purpose. There’s no reason to bring him back except to coddle salty fanboys who didnt get their perfect star wars movie
Technically Maul did furfill his purpose, he was supposed to be a villain in Ep 1 and kill Qui got so obi wan will live to Ep4, Maul was only created to be a villain who would be killed off.
Villain? A villain is someone who’s immoral actions force the protagonists to make decisions, therefore propelling the plot. Maul does absolutely nothing in Phantom other than kill qui gon at the end. Normally this would set up an interesting dynamic between the protagonist (presumably obi wan) and the antagonist (maul) that would initiate an arc for obi wan, but no. He just kills maul, wasting any narrative potential in the prequels for obi wan’s character (until the clone wars of course).
Maul came back after Obi-Wan cut him in half. Why not Snoke?
Unlike Maul, Snoke fulfilled his narrative purpose. There’s no reason to bring him back except to coddle salty fanboys who didnt get their perfect star wars movie
Lol ****.. snoke fulfilled no narrative purpose... just because you have read a book/comic book/watched a cartoon... you know a perfect star wars movie ?
Maul came back after Obi-Wan cut him in half. Why not Snoke?
Unlike Maul, Snoke fulfilled his narrative purpose. There’s no reason to bring him back except to coddle salty fanboys who didnt get their perfect star wars movie
Technically Maul did furfill his purpose, he was supposed to be a villain in Ep 1 and kill Qui got so obi wan will live to Ep4, Maul was only created to be a villain who would be killed off.
Villain? A villain is someone who’s immoral actions force the protagonists to make decisions, therefore propelling the plot. Maul does absolutely nothing in Phantom other than kill qui gon at the end. Normally this would set up an interesting dynamic between the protagonist (presumably obi wan) and the antagonist (maul) that would initiate an arc for obi wan, but no. He just kills maul, wasting any narrative potential in the prequels for obi wan’s character (until the clone wars of course).
A villian is just someone who commits evil actions that are important to the plot. Maul kills QGJ, which then propels the plot forward by having obi-wan kill him and then having obi-wan becoming the master to Anakin.
Maul and obi wan didn't have any further interesting dynamic in the prequels, but Mauls actions did setup an interesting future dynamic for obi-wan.
Maul came back after Obi-Wan cut him in half. Why not Snoke?
Unlike Maul, Snoke fulfilled his narrative purpose. There’s no reason to bring him back except to coddle salty fanboys who didnt get their perfect star wars movie
Technically Maul did furfill his purpose, he was supposed to be a villain in Ep 1 and kill Qui got so obi wan will live to Ep4, Maul was only created to be a villain who would be killed off.
Villain? A villain is someone who’s immoral actions force the protagonists to make decisions, therefore propelling the plot. Maul does absolutely nothing in Phantom other than kill qui gon at the end. Normally this would set up an interesting dynamic between the protagonist (presumably obi wan) and the antagonist (maul) that would initiate an arc for obi wan, but no. He just kills maul, wasting any narrative potential in the prequels for obi wan’s character (until the clone wars of course).
A villian is just someone who commits evil actions that are important to the plot. Maul kills QGJ, which then propels the plot forward by having obi-wan kill him and then having obi-wan becoming the master to Anakin.
Maul and obi wan didn't have any further interesting dynamic in the prequels, but Mauls actions did setup an interesting future dynamic for obi-wan.
Maul commits one “evil action” and its at the very end of the movie. The other events you discuss take place in the next ten minutes, hardly a satisfying arc.
What dynamic are you referring to? Qui-Gon is never mentioned again until the very end of Revenge and it never has any affect on obi-wan’s character.
Maul came back after Obi-Wan cut him in half. Why not Snoke?
Unlike Maul, Snoke fulfilled his narrative purpose. There’s no reason to bring him back except to coddle salty fanboys who didnt get their perfect star wars movie
Lol ****.. snoke fulfilled no narrative purpose... just because you have read a book/comic book/watched a cartoon... you know a perfect star wars movie ?
Snoke turned Kylo to the dark side, trained him, and provoked Kylo to seizing power for himself.
(ANH and Empire pre special edition are perfect sw movies btw)
Maul came back after Obi-Wan cut him in half. Why not Snoke?
Unlike Maul, Snoke fulfilled his narrative purpose. There’s no reason to bring him back except to coddle salty fanboys who didnt get their perfect star wars movie
Technically Maul did furfill his purpose, he was supposed to be a villain in Ep 1 and kill Qui got so obi wan will live to Ep4, Maul was only created to be a villain who would be killed off.
Villain? A villain is someone who’s immoral actions force the protagonists to make decisions, therefore propelling the plot. Maul does absolutely nothing in Phantom other than kill qui gon at the end. Normally this would set up an interesting dynamic between the protagonist (presumably obi wan) and the antagonist (maul) that would initiate an arc for obi wan, but no. He just kills maul, wasting any narrative potential in the prequels for obi wan’s character (until the clone wars of course).
A villian is just someone who commits evil actions that are important to the plot. Maul kills QGJ, which then propels the plot forward by having obi-wan kill him and then having obi-wan becoming the master to Anakin.
Maul and obi wan didn't have any further interesting dynamic in the prequels, but Mauls actions did setup an interesting future dynamic for obi-wan.
Maul commits one “evil action” and its at the very end of the movie. The other events you discuss take place in the next ten minutes, hardly a satisfying arc.
What dynamic are you referring to? Qui-Gon is never mentioned again until the very end of Revenge and it never has any affect on obi-wan’s character.
The whole reason obi-wan took over as a mentor to Anakin is because qui-gon died. Also qui-gon taught them how to force ghost. Pretty big part of the OT if you ask me...
I think he's coming back but not in the same form. Maybe as like the dark side version of a force ghost. I think Snoke wanted Kylo to kill him like how the emperor tried to get Luke to kill him in the 6th one
Maul came back after Obi-Wan cut him in half. Why not Snoke?
Unlike Maul, Snoke fulfilled his narrative purpose. There’s no reason to bring him back except to coddle salty fanboys who didnt get their perfect star wars movie
Technically Maul did furfill his purpose, he was supposed to be a villain in Ep 1 and kill Qui got so obi wan will live to Ep4, Maul was only created to be a villain who would be killed off.
Villain? A villain is someone who’s immoral actions force the protagonists to make decisions, therefore propelling the plot. Maul does absolutely nothing in Phantom other than kill qui gon at the end. Normally this would set up an interesting dynamic between the protagonist (presumably obi wan) and the antagonist (maul) that would initiate an arc for obi wan, but no. He just kills maul, wasting any narrative potential in the prequels for obi wan’s character (until the clone wars of course).
Yeah! Like how the big Russian boxer Ivan Drago killed Apollo Creed in the ring at the beginning of Rocky IV, not at the end. The whole film was motivated by that setup. The movie would have been a lot different if Rocky immediately jumped in the ring and knocked Drago's block off. Where's the fun in that?
Maul came back after Obi-Wan cut him in half. Why not Snoke?
Unlike Maul, Snoke fulfilled his narrative purpose. There’s no reason to bring him back except to coddle salty fanboys who didnt get their perfect star wars movie
Technically Maul did furfill his purpose, he was supposed to be a villain in Ep 1 and kill Qui got so obi wan will live to Ep4, Maul was only created to be a villain who would be killed off.
Villain? A villain is someone who’s immoral actions force the protagonists to make decisions, therefore propelling the plot. Maul does absolutely nothing in Phantom other than kill qui gon at the end. Normally this would set up an interesting dynamic between the protagonist (presumably obi wan) and the antagonist (maul) that would initiate an arc for obi wan, but no. He just kills maul, wasting any narrative potential in the prequels for obi wan’s character (until the clone wars of course).
Yeah! Like how the big Russian boxer Ivan Drago killed Apollo Creed in the ring at the beginning of Rocky IV, not at the end. The whole film was motivated by that setup. The movie would have been a lot different if Rocky immediately jumped in the ring and knocked Drago's block off. Where's the fun in that?
Thats why the maul/obi wan stuff in clone wars and rebels is so satisfying. Unlike the prequels, obi wan has a personal connection to the antagonist that influences how he makes decisions (you know, like the OT and ST)
Maul came back after Obi-Wan cut him in half. Why not Snoke?
Unlike Maul, Snoke fulfilled his narrative purpose. There’s no reason to bring him back except to coddle salty fanboys who didnt get their perfect star wars movie
Technically Maul did furfill his purpose, he was supposed to be a villain in Ep 1 and kill Qui got so obi wan will live to Ep4, Maul was only created to be a villain who would be killed off.
Villain? A villain is someone who’s immoral actions force the protagonists to make decisions, therefore propelling the plot. Maul does absolutely nothing in Phantom other than kill qui gon at the end. Normally this would set up an interesting dynamic between the protagonist (presumably obi wan) and the antagonist (maul) that would initiate an arc for obi wan, but no. He just kills maul, wasting any narrative potential in the prequels for obi wan’s character (until the clone wars of course).
Yeah! Like how the big Russian boxer Ivan Drago killed Apollo Creed in the ring at the beginning of Rocky IV, not at the end. The whole film was motivated by that setup. The movie would have been a lot different if Rocky immediately jumped in the ring and knocked Drago's block off. Where's the fun in that?
Thats why the maul/obi wan stuff in clone wars and rebels is so satisfying. Unlike the prequels, obi wan has a personal connection to the antagonist that influences how he makes decisions (you know, like the OT and ST)
SOME find it satisfying, some find it dumb. However the fact that's it's in tcw and not episode 2-3 is because it's irrelevant to the plot.
Maul killing QGJ is all he had to do as a villian. The plot moved on. It wssnt about obiwan, the story was about Anakin.
Maul came back after Obi-Wan cut him in half. Why not Snoke?
Unlike Maul, Snoke fulfilled his narrative purpose. There’s no reason to bring him back except to coddle salty fanboys who didnt get their perfect star wars movie
Technically Maul did furfill his purpose, he was supposed to be a villain in Ep 1 and kill Qui got so obi wan will live to Ep4, Maul was only created to be a villain who would be killed off.
Villain? A villain is someone who’s immoral actions force the protagonists to make decisions, therefore propelling the plot. Maul does absolutely nothing in Phantom other than kill qui gon at the end. Normally this would set up an interesting dynamic between the protagonist (presumably obi wan) and the antagonist (maul) that would initiate an arc for obi wan, but no. He just kills maul, wasting any narrative potential in the prequels for obi wan’s character (until the clone wars of course).
Yeah! Like how the big Russian boxer Ivan Drago killed Apollo Creed in the ring at the beginning of Rocky IV, not at the end. The whole film was motivated by that setup. The movie would have been a lot different if Rocky immediately jumped in the ring and knocked Drago's block off. Where's the fun in that?
Thats why the maul/obi wan stuff in clone wars and rebels is so satisfying. Unlike the prequels, obi wan has a personal connection to the antagonist that influences how he makes decisions (you know, like the OT and ST)
SOME find it satisfying
Some find it dumb (the way he survived and the obvious reason they brought him back was just pure fan service.)
However the fact that it's in tcw and not in episode 2 or 3 is because it's irrelevant to the plot. The story isn't about obi-wan, it's about Anakin. Which is why killing QGJ and getting defeated by obiwan was all maul had to do as a villian in episode 1. Doing that action propelled the plot forward more than any Maul-obi-wan arc ever would have or did (tcw). It really doesn't matter about whatever beef they have because at this point the plot has moved forward to focus on Anakins turn to the dark side.
Maybe if maul came back in episode 2 and killed obiwan then it would have an effect on the plot, but just having some beef with each other really doesn't affect the plot of the prequels.
Maul came back after Obi-Wan cut him in half. Why not Snoke?
Unlike Maul, Snoke fulfilled his narrative purpose. There’s no reason to bring him back except to coddle salty fanboys who didnt get their perfect star wars movie
Technically Maul did furfill his purpose, he was supposed to be a villain in Ep 1 and kill Qui got so obi wan will live to Ep4, Maul was only created to be a villain who would be killed off.
Villain? A villain is someone who’s immoral actions force the protagonists to make decisions, therefore propelling the plot. Maul does absolutely nothing in Phantom other than kill qui gon at the end. Normally this would set up an interesting dynamic between the protagonist (presumably obi wan) and the antagonist (maul) that would initiate an arc for obi wan, but no. He just kills maul, wasting any narrative potential in the prequels for obi wan’s character (until the clone wars of course).
Yeah! Like how the big Russian boxer Ivan Drago killed Apollo Creed in the ring at the beginning of Rocky IV, not at the end. The whole film was motivated by that setup. The movie would have been a lot different if Rocky immediately jumped in the ring and knocked Drago's block off. Where's the fun in that?
Thats why the maul/obi wan stuff in clone wars and rebels is so satisfying. Unlike the prequels, obi wan has a personal connection to the antagonist that influences how he makes decisions (you know, like the OT and ST)
SOME find it satisfying, some find it dumb. However the fact that's irs in tcw and not episode 2-3 is because it's irrelevant to the plot.
Maul killing QGJ is all he had to do as a villian. The plot moved on. It wssnt about obiwan, the story was about Anakin.
I like when stories have a protagonist (or two) and an antagonist (or two). Phantom Menace has neither.
Anakin isn’t a protagonist. He doesn’t show up until 45 minutes into the movie and when he does, he’s completely passive and has no comprehension of the events occuring around him.
Obi Wan isn’t the protagonist. He usually stays on the ship and complains or follows qui-gon until he has to fight a paper-mache robot that poses no threat.
Qui-Gon isn’t a protagonist, he’s a elderly mentor(?) who has no personal investment in anything he does in the movie.
Maul isn’t an antagonist. He appears in a hologram for five seconds, he fights qui gon for five minutes, he fights qui gon and obi wan for 20 minutes, he kills qui gon, and then immediately dies. He is not any sort of villainous force through out the story who affects anything thats happening until the very end. He never even does anything “evil” until the very end. Even terrible action movies show their villain abusing someone or blowing up a school or robbing a bank to introduce them and make the audience root against them.
The Trade Federation isn’t an antagonist. Sure, they cause most of the “conflict” in the film, but the droids are completely incompetent and pose no threat to the good guys. The nemoidians have no apparent motivation whatsoever, their relationship with sidious makes no sense, and they’re goofy, rascist, caricatures that aren’t intimidating.
Just because the movie was trash, or you didn't agree/like it doesn't mean you can deny the basic fundamentals lol.
QGJ is clearly the main protagonist of this film. The movie starts with him, pretty much always has him on the screen up until his death at the end. He even turns out to be the one that discovers and frees Anakin Skywalker....leading to him finding out has force sensitive etc.
Obi-wan isn't the main protagonist, but he's more of the sidekick. Think Batman and robin. He even stays on the ship on tatooine.
Antagonist - a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary
Maul is the antagonist. Since he actively opposes our protagonist QGJ. We see him being briefed and sent to tatooine to attack QGJ. Where QGJ escapes. Then at the end we are him confront QGJ again. He doesn't even try to kill the people around them. QGJ simply tells them to go on. Maul was directly opposing QGJ.
Just because Maul didn't blow up any civilians or create any random chaos doesn't make him not the antagonist. If anything, by agreeing with your logic, it simply makes him a bad antagonist..or villian.
However the way i view it is that maul isn't supposed to be "The Joker" or "Freddy Krueger." He's just a decoy, a pawn, used by the big bad. The real villian is obviously Palpatine, we are aware of this, but the movie isn't supposed to be aware. The Prequels are kind of like a peek-a-boo of different antagonists all put into play by the big bad sidious. None of the antagonist of the 3 movies really matter at the end of the day. You could interchange them and nothing would change. However thier actions matter. They are only there to oppose our main characters.
Maul came back after Obi-Wan cut him in half. Why not Snoke?
Unlike Maul, Snoke fulfilled his narrative purpose. There’s no reason to bring him back except to coddle salty fanboys who didnt get their perfect star wars movie
Lol ****.. snoke fulfilled no narrative purpose... just because you have read a book/comic book/watched a cartoon... you know a perfect star wars movie ?
Warning spoilers below. (If you haven't seen it by now, then wake up.)
I agree to an extent.
I'm not a super tough critic. I try to take things as tbey are or understand the reasonings etc. But I can say this with absolute certainty. Snoke (as of now) has not done a single thing in the sequel trilogy.
--Oh wow he told kylo to kill his father.--
Who cares. I'm sure kylo was obviously already thinking about this. It's not like kylo is trying to resist the darkside. He is infatuated with the darkside. He wants to be darkside. Also lets not take into account that his father was acting as an enemy that just broke into his base and sabotaoged it while also capturing his prisoner (rey.) At that point if kylo doesn't kill han or do something, everything he stood for would be up for question. What if he just let him escape? Father or not, they are both adults at this point and are enemies at war.
---Snoke links Rey and kylos minds--
Do we really know this for a fact? In TFA during the interrogation scene, kylo and Rey both seem to be in each other's heads. How do we know that thier link wasn't created right then and there, by the 2 of them? We have no way to prove this isn't the case because TLJ takes places literally right after TFA. So there isn't really any time between the interrogation scene and TLJ to see the outcome of them going into each other's heads like that....ok....BUT what if snoke wasn't lying? Who cares. All he did was make kylo and Rey closer. How does that make him relevant or include him in any way?
--Snoke ragdolls Rey--
Ok, ok I'll admit. It was an impressive feat, however nothing Insane. We see kylo freeze poe's blaster bolt, and effortlessly force pull a grown man across a room with 1 arm. Snoke also does some cool lightning but at what expense ? What is all this proving? What does he accomplish?
--Snoke gets wrecked--
Wow, this was the most unbelievable, anti-climatic deaths ever. It was actually pretty cool, but the fact that it's the "big bad"... aka the Palpatine to (kylo) Vader. You can argue all you want that he wasn't supposed to be the big bad and that it was always supposed to be kylo. I'll call **** all day long too. TFA Kylo or TLJ kylo even remotely come off as a "big bad".
--Snoke was setup for kylo to take over as the big bad--
Just because he kills his master doesn't make all of his actions look cooler from then on. It isn't that kylo doesn't have big bad potential, it's just that kylos character comes off as torn, regretful, hopeful, and confused. He is constantly wanting Rey to join him. Dude forget her, she is on the opposite team...kill her. He doesn't blast his mom, man you JUST killed your dad not even a week ago. He has trouble with his emotions, he even has a horribly severe ADHD problem. Directing your entire ground assault to shoot at 1 guy is terrible military strategy lol. He is so bad, I can imagine him crashing his ship into a wall trying to shoot the millennium falcon down.
Basically kylo doesn't know what he wants yet. His end goals are fuzzy, he just wants to be strong, and have high authority. He has no idea how to achieve these end goals though. That isn't a problem for kylo as a character, but it is a major problem for the only big bad we have at the moment. I imagine episode 9 will start off after a pretty big time skip. It basically has to at this point.
My main problem with snoke is they made him super mysterious and then just killed and you still know nothing about him and he didn't do anything, i really hope he doesn't make it into this game. With Maul on the otherhand actually did something, fought (and killed)Qui-gon twice and was extremely skilled. And he was just straight up cooland skilled, something snoke was direly lacking.
My main problem with snoke is they made him super mysterious and then just killed and you still know nothing about him and he didn't do anything, i really hope he doesn't make it into this game. With Maul on the otherhand actually did something, fought (and killed)Qui-gon twice and was extremely skilled. And he was just straight up cooland skilled, something snoke was direly lacking.
Snoke led the first order, turned kylo to the dark side, manipulated him into destroying the jedi temple and forcing luke into hiding, led the construction of starkiller base and destroyed the new republic, singlehandedly created a telepathic bond between rey and kylo aross the galaxy, lured rey to his ship by manipulating her empathy for kylo, and demonstrated clear skill in telekinesis and lightning. His arrogance (cause he has a personality) ultimately led to his downfall.
Maul has even less backstory than snoke. He shows up once or twice in phantom to cross his arms, then he shows up on tatooine to wave his lightsaber around (with no consequence), then shows up at the end to wave it around some more until he kills qui gon. Then he dies cause obi wan got mad. He’s never mentioned again until his survival was retconned by TCW. He has no personality and doesn’t do anything “evil” until right before his death, and that action is also never mentioned again.
Well i didnt mean to say snoke wasn't skilled even tho it came out that way, i just meant Maul was extremely skilled and cool and snoke just wasn't that good of a villain imo. The reason maul didn't need alot of backstory to be a good villain, was cuz he proved that he should be feared up until his death happened. On tattooine he didnt just swing his lightsaber in the sand, he made Qui-gon run for his life. Even just his voice and face make him to be scary and full of hate. And he was only an apprentice. Snoke was literally leading the first order i should hope he is very skilled to get to that high of a place. So he should be the most powerful darkside force wielder at the time and doesn't get one epic fight scene? Just a zap of lightning and telekinesis. Definitely didn't give of scary/epic feel to me.
HTTP://youtu.be/D2_9qUq8_B8"]HTTP://youtu.be/D2_9qUq8_B8[/url]
Replies
True. (Star Wars: The Clone Wars series)
Unlike Maul, Snoke fulfilled his narrative purpose. There’s no reason to bring him back except to coddle salty fanboys who didnt get their perfect star wars movie
Technically Maul did furfill his purpose, he was supposed to be a villain in Ep 1 and kill Qui got so obi wan will live to Ep4, Maul was only created to be a villain who would be killed off.
I'd settle for a "meh" movie at this point honestly. I don't even think the next one could bring this trilogy above the prequels even if it was the best one ever released. The first two are just that bad.
Villain? A villain is someone who’s immoral actions force the protagonists to make decisions, therefore propelling the plot. Maul does absolutely nothing in Phantom other than kill qui gon at the end. Normally this would set up an interesting dynamic between the protagonist (presumably obi wan) and the antagonist (maul) that would initiate an arc for obi wan, but no. He just kills maul, wasting any narrative potential in the prequels for obi wan’s character (until the clone wars of course).
Lol ****.. snoke fulfilled no narrative purpose... just because you have read a book/comic book/watched a cartoon... you know a perfect star wars movie ?
A villian is just someone who commits evil actions that are important to the plot. Maul kills QGJ, which then propels the plot forward by having obi-wan kill him and then having obi-wan becoming the master to Anakin.
Maul and obi wan didn't have any further interesting dynamic in the prequels, but Mauls actions did setup an interesting future dynamic for obi-wan.
Maul commits one “evil action” and its at the very end of the movie. The other events you discuss take place in the next ten minutes, hardly a satisfying arc.
What dynamic are you referring to? Qui-Gon is never mentioned again until the very end of Revenge and it never has any affect on obi-wan’s character.
Snoke turned Kylo to the dark side, trained him, and provoked Kylo to seizing power for himself.
(ANH and Empire pre special edition are perfect sw movies btw)
There's something about the black crystal ring he holds in his hand... which makes me think he will come back
The whole reason obi-wan took over as a mentor to Anakin is because qui-gon died. Also qui-gon taught them how to force ghost. Pretty big part of the OT if you ask me...
Same thought.
Yeah! Like how the big Russian boxer Ivan Drago killed Apollo Creed in the ring at the beginning of Rocky IV, not at the end. The whole film was motivated by that setup. The movie would have been a lot different if Rocky immediately jumped in the ring and knocked Drago's block off. Where's the fun in that?
Thats why the maul/obi wan stuff in clone wars and rebels is so satisfying. Unlike the prequels, obi wan has a personal connection to the antagonist that influences how he makes decisions (you know, like the OT and ST)
SOME find it satisfying, some find it dumb. However the fact that's it's in tcw and not episode 2-3 is because it's irrelevant to the plot.
Maul killing QGJ is all he had to do as a villian. The plot moved on. It wssnt about obiwan, the story was about Anakin.
SOME find it satisfying
Some find it dumb (the way he survived and the obvious reason they brought him back was just pure fan service.)
However the fact that it's in tcw and not in episode 2 or 3 is because it's irrelevant to the plot. The story isn't about obi-wan, it's about Anakin. Which is why killing QGJ and getting defeated by obiwan was all maul had to do as a villian in episode 1. Doing that action propelled the plot forward more than any Maul-obi-wan arc ever would have or did (tcw). It really doesn't matter about whatever beef they have because at this point the plot has moved forward to focus on Anakins turn to the dark side.
Maybe if maul came back in episode 2 and killed obiwan then it would have an effect on the plot, but just having some beef with each other really doesn't affect the plot of the prequels.
I like when stories have a protagonist (or two) and an antagonist (or two). Phantom Menace has neither.
Anakin isn’t a protagonist. He doesn’t show up until 45 minutes into the movie and when he does, he’s completely passive and has no comprehension of the events occuring around him.
Obi Wan isn’t the protagonist. He usually stays on the ship and complains or follows qui-gon until he has to fight a paper-mache robot that poses no threat.
Qui-Gon isn’t a protagonist, he’s a elderly mentor(?) who has no personal investment in anything he does in the movie.
Maul isn’t an antagonist. He appears in a hologram for five seconds, he fights qui gon for five minutes, he fights qui gon and obi wan for 20 minutes, he kills qui gon, and then immediately dies. He is not any sort of villainous force through out the story who affects anything thats happening until the very end. He never even does anything “evil” until the very end. Even terrible action movies show their villain abusing someone or blowing up a school or robbing a bank to introduce them and make the audience root against them.
The Trade Federation isn’t an antagonist. Sure, they cause most of the “conflict” in the film, but the droids are completely incompetent and pose no threat to the good guys. The nemoidians have no apparent motivation whatsoever, their relationship with sidious makes no sense, and they’re goofy, rascist, caricatures that aren’t intimidating.
Just because the movie was trash, or you didn't agree/like it doesn't mean you can deny the basic fundamentals lol.
QGJ is clearly the main protagonist of this film. The movie starts with him, pretty much always has him on the screen up until his death at the end. He even turns out to be the one that discovers and frees Anakin Skywalker....leading to him finding out has force sensitive etc.
Obi-wan isn't the main protagonist, but he's more of the sidekick. Think Batman and robin. He even stays on the ship on tatooine.
Antagonist - a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary
Maul is the antagonist. Since he actively opposes our protagonist QGJ. We see him being briefed and sent to tatooine to attack QGJ. Where QGJ escapes. Then at the end we are him confront QGJ again. He doesn't even try to kill the people around them. QGJ simply tells them to go on. Maul was directly opposing QGJ.
Just because Maul didn't blow up any civilians or create any random chaos doesn't make him not the antagonist. If anything, by agreeing with your logic, it simply makes him a bad antagonist..or villian.
However the way i view it is that maul isn't supposed to be "The Joker" or "Freddy Krueger." He's just a decoy, a pawn, used by the big bad. The real villian is obviously Palpatine, we are aware of this, but the movie isn't supposed to be aware. The Prequels are kind of like a peek-a-boo of different antagonists all put into play by the big bad sidious. None of the antagonist of the 3 movies really matter at the end of the day. You could interchange them and nothing would change. However thier actions matter. They are only there to oppose our main characters.
Warning spoilers below. (If you haven't seen it by now, then wake up.)
I agree to an extent.
I'm not a super tough critic. I try to take things as tbey are or understand the reasonings etc. But I can say this with absolute certainty. Snoke (as of now) has not done a single thing in the sequel trilogy.
--Oh wow he told kylo to kill his father.--
Who cares. I'm sure kylo was obviously already thinking about this. It's not like kylo is trying to resist the darkside. He is infatuated with the darkside. He wants to be darkside. Also lets not take into account that his father was acting as an enemy that just broke into his base and sabotaoged it while also capturing his prisoner (rey.) At that point if kylo doesn't kill han or do something, everything he stood for would be up for question. What if he just let him escape? Father or not, they are both adults at this point and are enemies at war.
---Snoke links Rey and kylos minds--
Do we really know this for a fact? In TFA during the interrogation scene, kylo and Rey both seem to be in each other's heads. How do we know that thier link wasn't created right then and there, by the 2 of them? We have no way to prove this isn't the case because TLJ takes places literally right after TFA. So there isn't really any time between the interrogation scene and TLJ to see the outcome of them going into each other's heads like that....ok....BUT what if snoke wasn't lying? Who cares. All he did was make kylo and Rey closer. How does that make him relevant or include him in any way?
--Snoke ragdolls Rey--
Ok, ok I'll admit. It was an impressive feat, however nothing Insane. We see kylo freeze poe's blaster bolt, and effortlessly force pull a grown man across a room with 1 arm. Snoke also does some cool lightning but at what expense ? What is all this proving? What does he accomplish?
--Snoke gets wrecked--
Wow, this was the most unbelievable, anti-climatic deaths ever. It was actually pretty cool, but the fact that it's the "big bad"... aka the Palpatine to (kylo) Vader. You can argue all you want that he wasn't supposed to be the big bad and that it was always supposed to be kylo. I'll call **** all day long too. TFA Kylo or TLJ kylo even remotely come off as a "big bad".
--Snoke was setup for kylo to take over as the big bad--
Just because he kills his master doesn't make all of his actions look cooler from then on. It isn't that kylo doesn't have big bad potential, it's just that kylos character comes off as torn, regretful, hopeful, and confused. He is constantly wanting Rey to join him. Dude forget her, she is on the opposite team...kill her. He doesn't blast his mom, man you JUST killed your dad not even a week ago. He has trouble with his emotions, he even has a horribly severe ADHD problem. Directing your entire ground assault to shoot at 1 guy is terrible military strategy lol. He is so bad, I can imagine him crashing his ship into a wall trying to shoot the millennium falcon down.
Basically kylo doesn't know what he wants yet. His end goals are fuzzy, he just wants to be strong, and have high authority. He has no idea how to achieve these end goals though. That isn't a problem for kylo as a character, but it is a major problem for the only big bad we have at the moment. I imagine episode 9 will start off after a pretty big time skip. It basically has to at this point.
Snoke led the first order, turned kylo to the dark side, manipulated him into destroying the jedi temple and forcing luke into hiding, led the construction of starkiller base and destroyed the new republic, singlehandedly created a telepathic bond between rey and kylo aross the galaxy, lured rey to his ship by manipulating her empathy for kylo, and demonstrated clear skill in telekinesis and lightning. His arrogance (cause he has a personality) ultimately led to his downfall.
Maul has even less backstory than snoke. He shows up once or twice in phantom to cross his arms, then he shows up on tatooine to wave his lightsaber around (with no consequence), then shows up at the end to wave it around some more until he kills qui gon. Then he dies cause obi wan got mad. He’s never mentioned again until his survival was retconned by TCW. He has no personality and doesn’t do anything “evil” until right before his death, and that action is also never mentioned again.