When people think about Palpatine, they see a cold schemer who treats apprentices like tools. But Maul’s “death” wasn’t something he just shrugged off. The Darth Plagueis novel shows a mix of solitude, frustration, and a quick turn toward bigger plans.
More Than Just A Weapon
Maul wasn’t like Dooku, who only filled a role until something better came along. Sidious had real hopes for him. He trained him from a young age, shaping him into what he thought was the perfect Sith warrior. That’s why the news on Naboo actually hit him harder than anyone would guess.
The novel Darth Plagueis makes it clear:
“It wasn’t until he arrived in Theed and learned of Darth Maul’s defeat at the hands of the Jedi in a power-generator station that he understood in part the reason for the sense of loss and profound solitude he had experienced following the murder of Plagueis.”
With Plagueis gone and Maul lost in the same span of time, Sidious felt the weight of being left alone as the only Sith Lord in the galaxy.
Sidious could have asked how exactly the duel played out. How did Maul manage to kill Qui-Gon Jinn but then lose to Obi-Wan Kenobi? But he never wanted to hear the full story.
“He could have pressed one of the other Jedi who had arrived on Naboo for information as to how Maul had managed to kill a master sword fighter only to be overcome by a lesser one, but he didn’t want to know, and as a result be able to imagine the contest.”
He didn’t dwell on failure. To him, Maul’s fall was final, and looking closer at the fight wasn’t worth his time.
Finding Something Else In The Aftermath
Even while carrying that sense of loss, Sidious found satisfaction in what the battle had set in motion. At Qui-Gon’s funeral, he stood among the Jedi Council with his own thoughts:
“Still, it gave him great pleasure to stand among Yoda, Mace Windu, and other Masters and watch Qui-Gon Jinn’s body reduced to ash, knowing that the Jedi was just the first casualty in a war… one in which ten thousand Jedi would follow Qui-Gon to the grave…”
So yes, he felt Maul’s absence. But at the same time, he saw the bigger picture forming right in front of him. The war had begun, and Naboo was only the first step.
However, in Sidious’s mind, the fall of his master and the fall of his apprentice back-to-back could not have been coincidence.
“That Plagueis’s death and Maul’s defeat had occurred in relative simultaneity could only have been the will of the dark side of the Force, as was the fact that, until such time as he took and trained a new apprentice, Palpatine was now the galaxy’s sole Sith Lord.”
Being left alone as the one Sith standing was not a setback to him—it was a sign that the dark side itself cleared the way for him to push forward.
Writing Maul Off
Once Sidious believed Maul had died, he considered him a failure and moved on. He had already started planning far beyond what Maul could offer.
Later, when he looked back and spoke of his apprentices, he admitted Maul had been the one real loss. Dooku was just temporary, but Maul had potential. Yet potential meant nothing if it ended in defeat. By then, Sidious already had a path toward finding a far stronger apprentice who could carry out the Sith destiny.