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padawanlost · 6 years

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Is it possible for the dark side to be used for good? Is it necessarily always evil? What do you think?

That’s areally good question but the answer entirely depends on what you consider theDark Side. The definitions are as broad and inconsistent as it gets. It can bedefined as evil itself, as evil abilities, by a dark/unknown side of the Force,“negative” emotions, as the power of evil beings, etc.

Let’s takeAnakin as an example:

When he was10 years old someone named Ke Daiv tried to kill him. Later he’d kidnappedAnakin and another girl he was with. Then this happened:

The BloodCarver had hurt Obi-Wan, threatened Jabitha, called Anakin a slave. For thesethings there was no possible redemption. The banked anger threatened to spill over,unconverted, pure and very raw, hot as a sun’s core. Anakin’s fingers curledtighter. Let it be done now. Anakin had made his decision, or it had beenmade for him. No matter. Anakin let the fingers go straight. Ke Daiv closed onthe boy, swinging his lance. “Stop that,” Anakin said coldly.

“Whatwill you do, slave boy?” It was theconnection Anakin had sought, the link between his anger and his power.Like a switch being thrown, a circuit being connected, he returned full circleto the pit race, to the sting he had felt with the Blood Carver’sfirst insult, with the first unfair and sneaky move that had sent Anakintumbling off the apron. Then, back farther, to the dingy slave quarters on Tatooine, to the Boonta Eve Podrace andthe treachery of the Dug, and to the last sight of Shmi, still in bondage tothe disgusting Watto, to all the insults and injuries and shames and nightsweats and disgrace piled upon disgrace that he had never asked for, neverdeserved, and had borne with almost infinite patience. Call it instinct, animalnature, call it the upwelling of hatred and the dark side-in AnakinSkywalker, all this lay just beneath the surface, at the end of its journey outof a long, deep cave leading down tounimaginable strength.

“No!Stop it, please!” Anakin yelled. “Help me stop it!” The rumbling of hisascending power drowned out this plea for his master to come and prevent ahideous mistake. I am so afraid, so fullof hate and anger. I still don’t know how to fight. [Rogue Planet by GregBear]

And years later when hefights Dooku:

But for Anakin, in the fight there is onlyterror, and rage. […] When CountDooku flies at him, blade flashing, Watto’sfist cracks out from Anakin’s childhood to knock the Sith Lord tumblingback. When with all the power that the dark side can draw from throughout theuniverse, Dooku hurls a jagged fragment of the durasteel table, Shmi Skywalker’s gentle murmur I knewyou would come for me, Anakin smashes it aside. His head has been filled withthe smoke from his smothered heart for far too long; it has been the thunderthat darkens his mind. […] now, within this ship, this microscopic cell of lifein the infinite sterile desert of space, his firewalls have opened so that theterror and the rage are out there, in the fight instead of in his head, andAnakin’s mind is clear as a crystal bell. [Matthew Stover’s Revenge of theSith]

In both cases the Dark Side is described as a power unleashed by“negative” emotions (anger, fear, pain, shame, etc.). So the question here is:does Anakin’s emotional state affects how we look at his actions. Is killingsomeone in anger better or worse than killing someone without feeling nothing? AreAnakin’s actions despicable because they are morally wrong or because he wasenraged when he did them?

In both cases he committed murder to save lives (in Dooku’s case he waseven praised for it). Some would consider that justifiable, therefore, good(or, at least, not “evil”). The Jedi approach is that yes, to draw power fromsuch emotions is inherently evil. They judge the source of power (emotions)more than they judge the actions themselves. They don’t condemn murder as muchas they condemn murder when one is feeling the “wrong” emotions.

You asked if it’s possible to use the Dark Side to do a good action, well,it depends. Personally, I separate the dark side (an aspect of the Force) from a dark side user (as in amember of a organization focused only on the darth side). I see the dark sideas part of the Force, so technically, to achieve true balance a person would’veto be using both sides. In that context,yeah, a person can use the dark side to do good. In fact, the Jedi used theDark Side in the past themselves (grey Jedi) and they were still considered thegood guys. What I don’t think it’s possible is for a dark side user (like aSith) to embed themselves in the dark side and in the politics of such organizationsand remain “a good person”™ because it corrupts.

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