> Darth Maul was just Ep1's Boba Fett. The character was really hyped-up as the ultimate bad-ass, background shrouded in mystery... Combined, the two characters had ten lines of dialogue, if that. They show up, look really menacing, then poof! Dead.

Your second sentence contradicts your first. Boba Fett was never hyped up as the ultimate badguy -- his popularity arose after the fact. That alone makes Darth Maul more (or just different) than Ep1's Boba Fett.

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I'm reaching back quite a bit to my youth, but I remember the hype about Boba Fett building up between Empire and Jedi. The hype that was built up around Fett was similar to the hype surrounding Darth Maul -- the ultimate bad-ass with a background shrouded in mystery. Like Maul, Fett had virtually no character development before he was killed off.

My recollection is a little vague, but I think Fett's popularity was due to the fans building him up -- Maul's popularity (pre-release) was due mainly to Lucasfilm.

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Far more importantly, Darth Maul *owned* his scenes, in a way Boba Fett never did. And I *loved* that his character died a mystery. Had anything more been done with him, I think it would have ruined the incredible aura of mystique that was built around the character.

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True enough about that first sentence, but I can't agree with your last one quoted here. He did have an aura of mystique, but he was a flat character -- even though he did jump out of nowhere, or did pace behind an energy wall, or did have a neat theme song. It was almost as if there wasn't anything behind the character except an overly-confident combat animal.

He looked like the devil. He had a double-bladed lightsaber. He was the evil Jedi. He was heavily marketed. Maul had so much potential to be a major adversary for the Good Guys to overcome. But instead of that, Maul was just another villain to fight, someone who didn't live up to the hype.

-Faux "did like Darth Maul's pacing behind the energy walls" Pas