Maul — Shadow Lord Finally Fixes One Of The Oldest Disney Star Wars Problems

Let's be honest: The Imperial Inquisitors in Star Wars have never been as cool as they should be. First introduced in "Star Wars Rebels" back in 2014, the Disney version of the Inquisitorius adapted a very different Imperial sect with the same name from the old Expanded Universe, turning them into a legion of double-bladed lightsaber-wielding dark Force warriors under the command of Darth Vader. Sounds great, right? Disney clearly thought so, because soon the Inquisitors were everywhere, from animated shows like "Tales of the Jedi" and live-action series like "Ahsoka" and "Obi-Wan Kenobi" to comic book arcs and major roles in the "Star Wars: Jedi" video games.

In fairness, some of those appearances have been better than others. The "Jedi" games, for example, put some fun narrative material behind the Inquisitors, but they still suffer from the same problem they have everywhere else: They're chumps. Time and time again, the Inquisitors show up with the goofiest lightsabers you've ever seen to get promptly throttled by everyone from Ezra Bridger to Vader himself. Until "Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord," that is. Here, finally, the Inquisitors are as imposing and capable as they should have been from the start.

Part of that comes down to "Maul" choosing the right inquisitors. Marrok, first introduced in "Ahsoka," and the Eleventh Brother, killed by Ahsoka in an episode of "Tales of the Jedi," are enigmatic and scary in the right way — distinct in vibe from the "Big Brother" contestants the other Inquisitors have been turned into over the years. But beyond the cool masks, "Maul" actually uses the Inquisitors in a way that explores their role within the Empire.

Marrok is barely a character in "Ahsoka," but not in a cool, mysterious way. He's basically just an action figure. But when he shows up in "Maul," the tone is completely different. The show actually embraces the role of the Inquisitors as hunters, rather than Force-sensitive thugs. And beyond that, this is one of the first times we actually see an Inquisitor doing inquisition-type things.

Marrok and the Eleventh Brother are doing interrogations, visiting crime scenes, listening with the Force, and tracking fugitives. Yes, Maul manages to get the better of them in a two-versus-one confrontation, but that's to be expected. Inquisitors aren't true Sith, and they aren't supposed to be the most powerful Force users in the galaxy or the most skilled swordsmen. They're supposed to be capable, frightening, anti-Jedi detectives, and that's exactly what we get here (plus, while Maul may escape from their showdown, he only barely does so).

The problem for years has been that the role of the Inquisitors within the Star Wars franchise has not been the same as their in-universe role. Their job, ostensibly, is to seek out, gather information, and track. But their job within Star Wars is to give the good guys some cheap fodder so we can have more lightsaber fights.

That's fine when the characters are meant to be warriors. Asajj Ventress is an assassin and saboteur in "The Clone Wars," and her fights all fit within that frame. But in most previous Star Wars stories, the Inquisitors don't do much of their actual job on-screen before fighting, and then they just lose. Or, alternatively, they are so wildly incompetent at their task of hunting Jedi (like in "Obi-Wan Kenobi") that it's impossible to take them seriously by the time the sabers get ignited.

Yes, as "Ahsoka" proved, the spinny Inquisitor lightsabers are still kind of dumb in "Maul," but at least the worst of the helicopter jumping is gone. These don't need to be the coolest, most popular, deeply developed characters in Star Wars, but if the whole idea is that they are the agents of an inquisition, we should at least see them performing that duty. "Maul — Shadow Lord" delivers on that promise, and for the first time, it feels like these guys might actually have some juice.