star wars - Why don't the Jedi converse with Darth Maul?

In the movie, Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, why don't Qui-Gon or Obi-Wan ever converse with Darth Maul?

It seemed there were opportunities where they could have started a dialogue instead of swinging light sabers furiously.

Why not ask him who he is, what he wanted? Was he a Sith? Did the Jedi assume that Darth Maul only wanted to fight them or was unable to communicate? In all the other episodes, we see plenty of conversation between Jedi and Sith.

Answer

If you're talking about the movies, the only time you see communication between Jedi and Sith are when they know each other. Such as Luke and his dear old Dad, or Obi-Wan and Anakin/Vader. While they do talk with Palpitane, that's before they know he's Sith or when they have enough they think they can take him in.

From the start, when they see Darth Maul, he's on the offensive and ready to attack them. Their first encounter is on Tatooine and if Maul were interested in communicating verbally, he could have stopped before coming within dueling range of Qui-Gon.

The Sith are power hungry and it's the nature of the Sith to stop at nothing short than gaining as much power as possible. The Jedi know this; they know what the Sith want, so there's no point in discussing it.

If they did discuss it with Maul, it would be a pattern of appeasement, similar to what happened on Earth before WWII, when Hitler kept demanding more and more until he was finally ready to just start fighting. Whatever the Sith stated, there would be no reason to believe they would be satisfied with nothing less than control of the galactic government.

You can't negotiate with someone who wants it all, so what's to be gained by talking to them?

-------- Added After Comments -------

Note the situation with Dooku and Kenobi is rather different. First, there's no combat going on, and, second, Kenobi is captured and has one simple goal: to manipulate things to gain his release if possible (and possibly gain information). But Dooku is in control throughout the situation and has no desire to indulge Kenobi.

Comments

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