Star Wars fans have uncovered a new dimension to Qui-Gon and Darth Maul's Phantom Menace showdown

Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace

(Image credit: Disney/Lucasfilm)

The Star Wars prequels contain countless fantastic lightsaber battles, but there's one in particular that has fans discussing.

When Qui-Gon Jinn and Darth Maul first clash blades on Tatooine, one fan has realized this is a pretty significant moment for the saga.

Another fan points out that there likely would have been Jedi falling to the dark side who needed to be battled before this particular fight. "I think people ought to remember that Jedi have and do fall to the dark side. So it's likely that saber-wielders have had to fight to the death throughout the history of the Republic. I'm pretty sure there are instances of it happening during the High Republic (I've only read the first novel so far)," they say. "The key here isn't the saber duel, it is that the saber duel is with a Sith. It's an important distinction."

Others say that The Acolyte shows Jedi doing battle with a lightsaber wielder – Qimir – but, since everyone involved died (or lied about what happened), the full story isn't known by the Jedi. "The events of the Acolyte happened 80-90 years before this, but no one out of that group knew what happened, and they all died," someone says.

Next up for Star Wars is Maul – Shadow Lord, which will fill in some blanks in Maul's story after The Clone Wars. After that, Star Wars returns to the big screen with The Mandalorian and Grogu.

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I'm the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.

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