Every villain is the hero in their own story, a fact which various facets of the Star Wars saga have tackled on more than one occasion. From Anakin Skywalker’s fall to the Dark Side to the machinations of the Stranger in The Acolyte, Star Wars has proven many, many times that the Hero’s Journey doesn’t just apply to goody-goody hero types. In studies of the monomyth, there’s no such thing, really, as the Villain’s Journey, but in Maul — Shadow Lord, the Star Wars franchise is certainly suggesting that former Sith baddies might see their stories much like the heroes see theirs.
In Shadow Lord Episode 3, “Whispers in the Unknown,” a very specific moment in Maul’s duel with Devon suggests that this version of Star Wars is hyper-aware that it's taking one very relevant step in Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, and applying it to the Dark Side.
