We’ve all seen Maul and Obi-Wan clash, first in the Prequels, then again in The Clone Wars, and finally in their brief but powerful duel in Rebels. But what I didn’t know until recently is that Obi-Wan actually took the time to reflect on Maul’s death afterward. In his personal diary, he wrote about that moment on Tatooine when Maul died in his arms, and reading his words gives the whole scene an even deeper meaning.
After reading that entry myself, I want to share it with you, here’s how the story unfolds.
Obi-Wan Believed Maul’s Hatred Still Left Room for the Light
The moment I’m talking about comes from the Star Wars: Obi-Wan comic series, specifically issue #2. It begins with Ben Kenobi sitting quietly in his hut on Tatooine, writing in his diary. He explains that he keeps these journals to remain sharp and mindful — a way to keep himself from slipping into the shadows.
As he reflects on the nature of darkness, Obi-Wan recalls his final duel with Maul on Tatooine, the same one we saw play out in Rebels. He remembers the hatred that consumed Maul, a hatred so deep that it seemed to leave no chance for light to break through.
In his own words, Obi-Wan admits:
“A man too far gone to ever glimpse the light again. Despite his hatred toward me, I still felt the pull of the shadows within him like a magnet.”
But what strikes Obi-Wan most isn’t just the hatred — it’s what he saw in Maul at the very end. As Maul lay dying, Obi-Wan felt a terrible horror inside of him, something even the Jedi Masters had never prepared him to understand.
He writes:
“As he lay dying, I felt the horror inside of him. Witnessed it in his eyes. A dread that had played out in an eerie, slow-moving tempo throughout his life – carried forward by the inevitable inertia of fate itself.”
For Obi-Wan, this was more than just Maul’s death. It became a lesson. A realization that even what he had been taught as a young Jedi wasn’t the full truth. In his diary, he reflects:
“What none of my masters ever told me was that lessons learned in youth can be sometimes nearly undone later in life, only to be revealed as more layered truths. For instance, I once believed that – no matter the weight of given darkness – there was always a chance for light to break through…”
This tells us something powerful about Obi-Wan: even after everything Maul had done, he didn’t see him as just a monster. In that final moment, he saw the tragedy of a man consumed by fate and hatred, and recognized that even in the darkest soul, there might still be the faintest spark of light — even if it was too late.
Obi-Wan thinks about his final duel with Maul.
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