At Odds is the very first illustration I made for Star Wars back in 2016.

Despite having shared the image on Art Station before as well as on this website, I just realized that I had not written anything about it.

Which is a shame! There is a story about this illustration, and not everyone knows it. Well, a part from the millions who watched the Clone Wars of course.
But I wasn’t one of them when I was asked to work on At Odds, so I thought it I was part of some well kept secret when I read the brief.

The brief in question read something along the lines of “Aging Obi-Wan Kenobi battles Darth Maul on the sands of Tatooine”.

After a brief externalization of puzzlement, I wrote to my Art Director at Fantasy Flight Games explaining to him that there must have been a mistake, as Darth Maul had already been killed by Obi-Wan on Naboo. I mean, come on.

It turns out that being chopped in half and being thrown down a bottomless shaft wasn’t enough to kill someone as cool as Darth Maul.

So, I was provided with the description of what happened later:

As his remains tumbled down the generator shaft, he kept his eyes open and fought to remain conscious. But then his head struck the shaft’s wall, and everything went dark.
No!
His mind screamed. Despite everything he had learned about death and duty from his Master, Maul knew he was not yet ready to die. Not after so many years of training, and with so much more to accomplish. Not so long as he still had so much hatred within him.
…
Can’t die!
He fell past an oval shadow, and then a similar shadow raced by, along with a whooshing sound.
Maul hoped that there was at least one more vent below, that it would be large enough to accommodate his diminished body. He extended his arms, and his left hand’s fingertips suddenly burned with friction as they brushed against the cylindrical wall.
Must live!
Hoping, wishing, praying for one more air vent…
Must kill Obi-Wan!
…he reached out with the Force.

Far from me to think this was a lame attempt at jumping the shark by the Star Wars writers. Darth Maul is after all one of the best characters in the franchise and well deserves his Jesus moment.

You just have to tell your brain not to extrapolate and visualize what goes on with his guts and internal organs while doing all this.

Anyway, all good, as it gave me the chance to paint At Odds.

Now, as you can tell by the hatred in the words he utters while trying to survive the fall, Darth Maul had a massive chip on his shoulder towards Obi-Wan Kenobi.

After many adventures and wrongdoings, including overthrowing the government of Mandalore and becoming its ruler, leading a bunch of criminal organizations, fighting (and losing) against Emperor Palpatine and founding the massive criminal empire Crimson Dawn, he finally tracks down Obi-Wan in his exile on Tatooine and gets there to get his revenge.

Unfortunately for him, in a scene where you can see how damn strong of a Jedi master he has become, a majestic Obi-Wan kicks his ass with a single blow of his light saber.

I mean look at that. This time I think we’re pretty sure he won’t come back.

Bonus content: I just remembered that in the effort of making a reel of my work in 2018, I had made a very primitive attempt at parallax animation with this illustration, so…. look at them move!

by Paolo Puggioni