Well i for one, thought that Darth Maul was one of the best characters of the whole movie. he, at the time, was the complete opposite of how Darth Vader was. instead of being slow and easily force choking people, Maul is fast and an awesome light saber duelist. on top of that the race of Zabraks step from Maul being EP1, without maul those people would not be in SW canon.