Maul had been trained from childhood to hate the Jedi. He killed Qui-Gon Jinn, hunted Obi-Wan Kenobi for years and tried to turn Ezra Bridger against his own Master. However, after Order 66 destroyed the Jedi Order and replaced the Republic with Palpatine’s Empire, Maul began looking at his former enemies differently.
The Inquisitors carried lightsabers and used the dark side, but Maul did not see them as true Sith. To him, they were broken Jedi who had abandoned their old principles without gaining any meaningful beliefs in return. Why did that make Maul despise them so much?
The Inquisitors Had No Principles of Their Own
While discussing Maul: Shadow Lord, Sam Witwer explained that Maul had spent most of his life hating the Jedi without ever questioning what Sidious had taught him.
The rise of the Empire forced him to reconsider that hatred. According to Witwer, Maul could now look across the galaxy and think: “Boy, we could sure use a Jedi Knight or two.”
Maul had not suddenly accepted the light side or forgiven the Jedi. He still rejected their teachings and remained willing to manipulate or kill them. However, he had begun to recognize that the Jedi followed a code. They believed in protecting others, serving the Republic and controlling their own desires.
Even when Maul disagreed with them, he knew what they represented. Witwer explained that there was something Maul could respect about an opponent whose beliefs were clear. The Empire offered him nothing similar. Its leaders pursued control, influence and power without pretending to serve a principle larger than themselves.
As Witwer put it: “There’s no reasoning with the Empire.”
The Inquisitors represented that emptiness. StarWars.com explains that many of them had once been Jedi captured after Order 66. The Empire tortured and corrupted them before turning them into dark-side soldiers tasked with hunting surviving Jedi and Force-sensitive children.
Although they wielded red lightsabers and answered to Darth Vader, they were not admitted into the Sith Order. They did not follow Sith teachings or receive the status of true Sith apprentices. They functioned as specialized Imperial soldiers kept beneath Vader and Palpatine.
From Maul’s perspective, they had lost the identity of a Jedi without becoming Sith. They fought because the Empire ordered them to, not because they were pursuing a cause or philosophy of their own.
They Reflected What Sidious Had Done to Maul
Maul’s reaction to the Inquisitors also becomes more personal when considering his history with Darth Sidious.
Sidious had taken Maul when he was young, trained him to become a weapon against the Jedi and taught him to build his entire identity around hatred. After Maul’s defeat on Naboo, Sidious replaced him and continued with another apprentice.
When Maul later returned and created his own power base, Sidious did not welcome him back. He traveled to Mandalore, killed Savage Opress in front of him and tortured Maul with Force lightning before taking him prisoner.
The Inquisitors were created through a similar system of control. Palpatine took damaged Force-users, stripped away their previous identities and placed them beneath Vader. They were powerful enough to hunt Jedi but deliberately kept weak and divided enough that they could never threaten the two Sith Lords above them. StarWars.com notes that Vader maintained their obedience and eliminated members who became a problem.
Witwer did not directly say that Maul looked at every Inquisitor and saw himself. However, it is a natural connection from Maul’s history. He knew what it meant to have Sidious turn a Force-sensitive person into a disposable weapon.
Maul eventually broke away and attempted to build power for himself. The Inquisitors remained trapped inside the same system that had once controlled him.