Maul: Shadow Lord has ceaselessly reminded us that it’s a few of the best-looking animation put out by Lucasfilm over the previous few weeks, filling its storytelling with nice visible thrives and a few sneaky further layers of element for folks paying consideration. However this week’s set of episodes went even past that—utilizing a key second in Maul’s journey to mix sensible results with its animation.
Episode eight of Shadow Lord, “The Creeping Worry” sees Maul making an attempt to choose himself up after a grueling battle with each Marrok and the Eleventh Brother, escaping into the darkish as shortly as his broken robotic legs can carry him. It makes for top-of-the-line introspective moments we’ve spent with Maul throughout the entire collection as we discover him rueing the ignominies he’s confronted throughout his life (as he so typically does, which is a part of the character’s allure at this level). How this performs out is sort of in a dreamlike haze, as we witness Maul glimpse shades of his previous and relive all of the occasions he’s misplaced and suffered by the hands of his former grasp, Darth Sidious.
It’s a cool combine of latest footage—of a younger Maul being taken away from his brother Savage to start his harsh coaching—and reused clips from The Clone Wars as we revisit all these low factors in Maul’s life that he’s nonetheless struggling to beat. However whereas they’re nice narratively, the actual enjoyable is within the visible presentation, which was apparently achieved with a sensible twist. Based on a brand new behind-the-scenes trivia dump by the official Star Wars web site, Lucasfilm Animation’s Director of Lighting, Cinematography, and Visible Results Joel Aron ready the scene by taking the animated clips of Maul’s recollections, after which projecting them over a smoke machine. So after they flicker and fade in opposition to the backdrop of Maul’s imaginative and prescient, that’s them truly doing that, reasonably than merely being animated as such.
It’s only one enjoyable flex amongst many who Shadow Lord has taken in its animation, from the painterly texture results that outline the look of its world and characters, to the methods its lightsaber blades flare up and flicker like wild flames as a substitute of the managed beams of vitality we’re accustomed to seeing. But it surely’s simply one other reminder that we’re attending to see Lucasfilm Animation’s finest work play out week by week as Shadow Lord continues, too.
Need extra io9 information? Try when to anticipate the most recent Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on movie and TV, and every little thing you have to learn about the way forward for Physician Who.
