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Are Sith really evil?


Ziggoratt

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I've seen this topic come up a number of times, and it's gotten me to thinking: Are the Sith really a truly evil organization, or are they just completely misrepresented by people like Palpatine?

 

I'll start this off by presenting my own opinion on the matter. I personally believe the Sith to be a morally-neutral organization, one that has a select few bad seeds scattered here and there. The Sith use passion and emotion as conduits of the Force, as opposed to the Jedi, who use Inner Peace instead. The Jedi recognize that there are areas of the Force that cannot truly be understood or entirely controlled... Areas that they dare not access. Therefore, they practice restraint, dubbing this unexplored territory the "Dark Side" of the Force, and condemning any and all practitioners of its arts.

 

Now, this next part is what really sells me to the Sith... The Jedi detested Dark Side users do much that they hunted them to near extinction, in a manner quite similar to the Crusades. The Jedi hold themselves on a mantle above the Sith, declaring themselves "Good" and their enemies "Evil." But I now present to you the question... Are the Jedi truly good? And are the Sith, by extension, evil? Let's look at the facts.

 

Jedi:

1. The Jedi cut themselves off from all physical attachment, considering emotion and attachment dangerous and dark. But last I checked, wasn't love a good thing? The same goes for joy, attachment, and many forms of passion. Take the love and attachment of a mother and child, for instance. What could be more good and pure than a love such as this? Yet the Jedi's principles condemn such a love, seeing it as a lure for the forces that they don't understand (AKA, the Dark Side)

2. The Jedi are hypocrites to their own code. They condemn pride, yet declare themselves the single good, holy force in the galaxy, and condemn their opponents as evil. Is such a declaration not prideful?

3. As Yoda himself stated in the novel-version of Revenge of the Sith, the Jedi's downfall came about because they stayed true to their old ways, while the Sith embraced change and adapted to a growing universe, taking on new ways and adapting to be as versatile as possible.

 

Sith:

1. The Sith embrace all emotions and physical affection, seeing passion as a powerful and wonderful thing. Yes, they wield Hatred, Anger, and Fear as blunt tools to master the Force, but they can also use positive emotions, such as Love, Joy, and Attachment, to wield the same powers and abilities.

2. Many look down on the Sith, seeing only individuals such as Palpatine or Malgus as representatives of the entire organization. Yes, some who wield the Dark Side of the force delve into the wrong areas, and become corrupted by it's unconteollable power.. But it seems that these individuals have cast a dark light over the entire Sith organization. Not all Sith are necessarily evil.

3. They have lightning.

 

All in all, I believe that the Sith are the true gems of the galaxy. What do you think?

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jedi and sith are the EXACT same, they turn their backs on suffering and whatever, if it is not in their interest to do something about it

 

Whoa! I have been helping the suffering from level 1-50 and since then. I object to your blanket statement and substitute my own belief system, which clearly trumps your flawed view of all things Star Wars related.

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What's 'evil'? Two-dimensional definition.

 

I've seen plenty of dark side choices that could be pretty well defined as morally *good* from my stand point; letting a corrupt politician's corruption go undiscovered because you believe they genuinely *are* doing good now, and it would do no good to disrupt that for the sake of abstract justice, or putting a blaster bolt through the brain of an imperial prison vivisectionist... or several more, for that matter.

 

Generally speaking, the Sith Empire's moral philosophy is further from the one 21st century human culture aspires to as 'right', than the Republic's philosophy is.

 

The Sith philosophy is about embracing passion, letting it fuel and drive you, whereas the Jedi philosophy seems to be largely about denying, channeling, restricting that.

 

Now, from several points of view, the Jedi philosophy's just plain *wrong*- passion is a far greater fundamental of human nature than compromise and control.

 

To a certain extent, it feels as if Jedi thought is influenced to a massive amount by fear of the Dark Side- not so much that they deny that a Sith could be influenced and driven by positive passions, to be a great force for good... and, after all, wasn't it *love* for his son and *hate* for the man who'd destroyed 90% of his whole life and was just about to destroy the last 10% that gave Anakin the strength to kill Palpatine? The Emperor was killed by a Sith using his passion and making what would almost certainly be a dark side choice- and I doubt anyone would call that an evil act, even though "Kill the old man" would probably be at least 50 DS points in game.

 

The Jedi's fear seems to be the- quite understandable- one that it tends to be the stronger, more violent passions, that predominate... so they try to block out and screen off *all* passion, even including those that could be to their benefit, and for a good cause, to stop the dam from bursting, and letting emotion rule them.

 

Neither philosophy is good or evil. The Jedi philosophy is appallingly repressive and self-destructive- look at Anakin again. Had the force been balanced, had Palpatine's Sith teachings been well-meaning rather than self-serving, and had Mace Windu not been so much of a bully, Anakin could well have grown up to become an amazingly gifted and heroic light-side Sith, if people had taught him to *moderate* his passions, rather than shut them up and be ashamed of admitting they existed.

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Take a gander at the Sith code real quick will ya?

 

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.

Through passion, I gain strength.

Through strength, I gain power.

Through power, I gain victory.

Through victory, my chains are broken.

The Force shall free me.

 

This says nothing about rage, anger, fear or anything of that nature really. This seems to me more like a creed, declaration, whathaveyou of someone who refuses to be enslaved. This could mean by the jedi, by their emotions, whatever, but you get my point.

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Whoa! I have been helping the suffering from level 1-50 and since then. I object to your blanket statement and substitute my own belief system, which clearly trumps your flawed view of all things Star Wars related.

 

really? because my JK quest mentioned ignoring those twilek until they actually had something the jedi needed...

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Take a gander at the Sith code real quick will ya?

 

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.

Through passion, I gain strength.

Through strength, I gain power.

Through power, I gain victory.

Through victory, my chains are broken.

The Force shall free me.

 

This says nothing about rage, anger, fear or anything of that nature really. This seems to me more like a creed, declaration, whathaveyou of someone who refuses to be enslaved. This could mean by the jedi, by their emotions, whatever, but you get my point.

 

True, though it starts with "Peace is a lie" so it stands to reason they'd prefer perpetual war.

 

I don't believe that all Sith are evil, especially in this time-line, but at the very least, most seem self-centered and only concerned with their own goals and ambitions. Which would not make them all that different than people we know in real life. I'd say the difference is what they are willing to do to meet there goals -- murder, steal, destroy?

Edited by HanzoV
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True, though it starts with "Peace is a lie" so it stands to reason they'd prefer perpetual war.

 

I don't believe that all Sith are evil, especially in this time-line, but at the very least, most seem self-centered and only concerned with their own goals and ambitions.

 

I'm not sure that "Peace is a lie" is actually a bad thing to start with, it's not pretty, but it's honest. I see it as more of a reality then a declaration of war.

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Nothing in the Sith code says "Kill all the things!"

 

I agree with the Spartan assessment. The Sith govern their world view through a "Might is Right" lens with the direction and ambition being left to the individual.

 

 

Evil is also very hard to define. Evil is really just the breakdown of morality and morality is really just the societal standard of right vs wrong. To a Spartan it wasn't really all that wrong to get downright genocidal on their enemies.

 

Was Darth Nihilus "evil"? Dude was just hungry, imo. Sure he was the harbinger of wanton destruction, but his motivations were pure. No more different than you eating that tasty burger.

 

Was Darth Malak evil? I would say yes. His modus operandi was deceit and betrayal for personal gain.

 

 

So I would say no. Sith are not intrinsically evil.

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What's 'evil'? Two-dimensional definition.

 

I've seen plenty of dark side choices that could be pretty well defined as morally *good* from my stand point; letting a corrupt politician's corruption go undiscovered because you believe they genuinely *are* doing good now, and it would do no good to disrupt that for the sake of abstract justice, or putting a blaster bolt through the brain of an imperial prison vivisectionist... or several more, for that matter.

 

Generally speaking, the Sith Empire's moral philosophy is further from the one 21st century human culture aspires to as 'right', than the Republic's philosophy is.

 

The Sith philosophy is about embracing passion, letting it fuel and drive you, whereas the Jedi philosophy seems to be largely about denying, channeling, restricting that.

 

Now, from several points of view, the Jedi philosophy's just plain *wrong*- passion is a far greater fundamental of human nature than compromise and control.

 

To a certain extent, it feels as if Jedi thought is influenced to a massive amount by fear of the Dark Side- not so much that they deny that a Sith could be influenced and driven by positive passions, to be a great force for good... and, after all, wasn't it *love* for his son and *hate* for the man who'd destroyed 90% of his whole life and was just about to destroy the last 10% that gave Anakin the strength to kill Palpatine? The Emperor was killed by a Sith using his passion and making what would almost certainly be a dark side choice- and I doubt anyone would call that an evil act, even though "Kill the old man" would probably be at least 50 DS points in game.

 

The Jedi's fear seems to be the- quite understandable- one that it tends to be the stronger, more violent passions, that predominate... so they try to block out and screen off *all* passion, even including those that could be to their benefit, and for a good cause, to stop the dam from bursting, and letting emotion rule them.

 

Neither philosophy is good or evil. The Jedi philosophy is appallingly repressive and self-destructive- look at Anakin again. Had the force been balanced, had Palpatine's Sith teachings been well-meaning rather than self-serving, and had Mace Windu not been so much of a bully, Anakin could well have grown up to become an amazingly gifted and heroic light-side Sith, if people had taught him to *moderate* his passions, rather than shut them up and be ashamed of admitting they existed.

 

I applaud this post. Thank you for seeing straight into the heart of what I believe :D

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Actions are evil, but the sith and jedi ideologies are not.

 

Embracing passions, is not evil, nor is ignoring them. Embracing your anger to murder babies would be evil. Persecuting and killing others because their beliefs are different (looking at you jedis) is also evil.

 

Whether one group has a predisposition towards a certain alignment over another is something else entirely. But as to whether Sith are inherently evil, I think it is pretty easy to definitively say no.

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Sith act naturally, like animals.

 

They fight and kill, the strong survive, thrive, and dominate, the weak serve or get killed.

 

This behavior isn't considered evil for animals because of their lower level intelligence and awareness.

 

However if a being of high level intelligence and awareness does the same it is considered evil because of the moral code of (our/western) society, which dictates we are better/more evolved than the primitive and base behavior of animals, therefore we must act in way that is better for all of society rather than just for ourselves.

 

So are Sith evil?

 

By our moral standards: yes. - (subsequently our moral standards and the Republic's are shared).

 

By natures standards: no, evil doesn't exist in nature, and the Sith act the same as the rest of predators.

 

By there own moral standards: nope.

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Sith act naturally, like animals.

 

They fight and kill, the strong survive, thrive, and dominate, the weak serve or get killed.

 

This behavior isn't considered evil for animals because of their lower level intelligence and awareness.

 

However if a being of high level intelligence and awareness does the same it is considered evil because of the moral code of (our/western) society, which dictates we are better/more evolved than the primitive and base behavior of animals, therefore we must act in way that is better for all of society rather than just for ourselves.

 

So are Sith evil?

 

By our moral standards: yes. - (subsequently our moral standards and the Republic's are shared).

 

By natures standards: no, evil doesn't exist in nature, and the Sith act the same as the rest of predators.

 

By there own moral standards: nope.

 

And yet, as any Sith-player knows, there is such thing as a merciful Sith. It is not a prerequisite for being Sith to be a cruel, merciless killer. That's just a path that some take.

Edited by Ziggoratt
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Nearly all the Sith I know seem to care not as much for passion as they care for power. They use their passions, channel them to become mor powerful.

 

So the question is like: Is the pursuit of power at any cost evil?

 

(Personally, I would say the evil lies in the "at any cost", power itself is neutral.)

 

Look at the game: How many Sith you talk to are evil, how many are good. My count is like 40:1 or 40:2. The only Sith I remember as good was Darth Silthar on Tatooine. Well, at least he was a nice Sith ;)

Edited by Maaruin
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