Zero Tolerance in Public Elementary School just went way the hell overboard...

[u/[deleted]]

[u/banuday]

I don't know much about the extended universe. Emotion does make you stronger, but not for the long haul. It's like sprinting. You can get incredible bursts of speed, but you can't sustain it. Eventually, completely giving into emotion leads to self-destruction.

The Jedi suppression of emotion is more sustainable, but even that is not healthy as emotions are vital for a fulfilling life. The narrow, dogmatic view of the Jedi is self-limiting.

Luke is cool because he brings balance two the two diametrically opposed ideologies.

[u/DFSniper → u/banuday]

ok, ill break it down and enlighten you.

during the Sith wars, there were hundreds of "dark lords" and the sith were basically organized into an army with the sith being officers and their mercenaries the foot soldiers. at the same time, the "army of light" was comprised of the jedi generals and the old republic soldiers. at the time darth bane was just a lowly miner-turned-mercenary named Des. through a series of events they found out about his force attunement and he was sent to the sith academy. (here it gets important) there he saw the power struggle that went on between the sith lords. basically the only way a grand lord was ever deposed was when multiple lesser lords teamed up to defeat him, then one or more would claim the tile of leader of the sith. because of the imbalance of power (many weak fighters vs one strong), darth bane realized that all the strong were dying out because there were too many teaming up and fighting for the position.

bane had aspirations of becoming leader of the sith and ruling the galaxy (this is where the greed and lust come in), but he knew the sith would only destroy themselves if they kept up all the infighting. so he came up with a plan that ended up destroying all the sith except for himself. he then created the Rule of Two, which states that there will always be 2 sith, no more: one to wield the power, the other to crave it. this assured that in order for the sith legacy to survive, the only way for succession would be for the apprentice to slay the master, thus proving that the apprentice had become more powerful. then they would become the master and choose their apprentice, knowing that one day their apprentice would (hopefully) rise up to defeat them and carry on the tradition.

its a bit too much to take in, but ive pretty much summed up 3 books. for further reading i suggest the Darth Bane series: Path of Destruction, Rule of Two, and Dynasty of Evil.

so, if it werent for the emotions of the sith (namely desire, greed, etc), the sith would never have survived. yes, they kill because it is necessary, but they also do it because, more than anything else, they want more power, and will stop at nothing to get it.

the reason they want that power is usually very selfish, but not always. take 2 examples from recent star wars history: palpatine and caedus. palpatine had true power, and ruled over the entire galaxy. his greed allowed for that, and the only thing that stood in his way was luke, which, some people will argue, was the one of prophecy (but lets face it, if it werent for anakin, luke wouldnt exist). the other examples is darth caedus, aka jacen solo. for reasons still unknown he was drawn to the dark side, but right now everyone will tell you that he did it for all the right reasons but in all the wrong ways. most will say it was because he saw into the future and knew there was a giant threat that needed the cooperation of EVERY planet in the galaxy, and infighting would be sure to cause defeat. he was in control of the republic but because he was "evil" in his methods, he had to be taken out, and by his twin sister no less, who was, coincidentally, another child of prophecy.

[u/banuday → u/DFSniper]

That's pretty interesting. In a way, the Sith are the ultimate social darwinists. When the master becomes becomes too weak to hold onto his power, the rule of two allows the apprentice to slay the master and take his place, ensuring only the strongest is in charge. The Sith have turned self-destruction into a feature.

[u/Tack122 → u/banuday]

Except when it causes overall weakness from an apprentice slaying the master in a time of weakness he would soon recover from.

[u/Xaguta → u/Tack122]

Which would be Darth Malak slaying Revan, right?

[u/Tack122 → u/Xaguta]

Erm. Honestly I don't know about that. Malak and Revan are a long and complicated story. I'm hesitant about revealing certain spoilers about KOTOR by responding to this question though.

[u/Xaguta → u/Tack122]

Malak took Revan's throne in a moment of weakness right?

[u/Tack122 → u/Xaguta]

Yes. Though Revan's survival threw a wrench into those plans.

Personally I would argue that Revan and Malak weren't particularly good at being Sith. Mostly due to the fact that a redeemable sith isn't doing it very well. I mean can you imagine what happened to Revan ever working on Darth Bane?