Dark Horse Comics/Jon FosterIn 1999, when The Phantom Menace was released, Darth Maul was positioned, at least briefly, to be the successor to Darth Vader. But after Obi-Wan Kenobi seemingly sent Maul to join the Force at the end of Episode I, Maul’s career as the next Vader was, seemingly, at an end. This meant that Maul and Vader never got to face each other in a lightsaber duel, that is, until 2001. In a non-canon comic book anthology series called Star Wars: Tales, Maul and Vader were pitted against each other in a kind of Dark Side test devised by Sidious. This duel happened in Tales #9 from Dark Horse Comics, and both then and now, this fight has never really depicted a true canonical showdown between the two Darths. But that’s changed. In the finale of Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord, a canonical fight between Darth Vader and Maul has finally happened, and it's epic. Spoilers ahead. In Episode 9, “Strange Allies,” After Maul and his followers form an uneasy alliance with Lawson, Rylee, Two-Boots, Master Daki, and Devon, they are nearly cornered by the Inquisitors — the Eleventh Brother and Marrok. But those lightsaber-wielding baddies are the least of their troubles. Because, at the end of that episode, Darth Vader emerges. As established in Rebels and explored more deeply in Obi-Wan Kenobi, Vader coordinates and controls the Inquisitors, meaning he was the person who had sent the Inquisitors to track Maul in the first place. Maul is in over his horns in the Shadow Lord finale. | LucasfilmCrucially, in Episode 10 “The Dark Lord,” the finale of Shadow Lord, Maul doesn’t know anything about Vader, and says, fearfully, “What are you?” Both he and Master Daki seem to suspect that Vader is a former Jedi, but they don’t say it outright. Oddly enough, before he became Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker never fought the reborn Maul during the events of The Clone Wars, meaning that although Maul was certainly aware of Anakin — he knows Ahoska pretty well, after all — Maul did not ever fight Anakin, until this moment.Because Shadow Lord takes place somewhere between 17 BBY and 13 BBY (before the Battle of Yavin in A New Hope), Vader has been running the Inquisitors for a while at this point, though we’re still a handful of years ahead of his confrontations with his old master in the events of Obi-Wan Kenobi, which are roughly 10 BBY. What’s interesting here is that although Maul is very knowledgeable about the galaxy, Vader’s existence and influence aren’t things he knows about at all.Shadow Lord Season 1, Ending Explained Devon is headed toward the Dark Side at the end of Shadow Lord. | LucasfilmObviously, neither Maul nor Vader can murder the other in Shadow Lord, as Vader needs to be alive for the rest of the original trilogy, as well as Rebels and Rogue One. And, Maul will survive to become a bigger leader within the crime syndicates, and won’t perish until much later in Rebels. In the Legends tale, Vader defeated the visage of Maul by ramming his lightsaber through his own body. Nothing that dramatic happens here, but seeing Maul and Vader finally face off is a huge deal in Star Wars canon, because, in a way, it makes Maul’s transformation complete. Instead of continuing to duel Vader in “The Dark Lord,” Maul shrewdly backs out of the fight, which he knows will result in Vader taking out Master Daki. And, when Vader does slay Daki, Maul gets exactly what he wants. Consumed by rage for her fallen master, Devon is now more willing than ever to learn the ways of the Dark Side. In the end, Maul wasn’t able to hurt Vader too much. But now, like Vader and Palpatine, Maul has his own apprentice. The question is, after this, what happened to Devon between this show and Rebels? Shadow Lord Season 1 streams on Disney+. Season 2 is in pre-production.