#the dark side of the Force

[jonathanrogersartist]

On the Dark Side, the Jedi, and the moral decay of Star Wars

Just a reminder folks: The Dark Side of the Force is unequivocally evil. Just because someone who's wielding it looks hot, doesn't make it 'misunderstood.' It poisons your mind, rots your soul, and makes you become the worst version of yourself. The Jedi make it their life's mission to protect the galaxy from Dark Siders, and they are right to do so. Because when Dark Siders get in power.... you get an Empire, a fascist and genocidal police state. That is their ideological endgame; it always was, always will be. Power, for power's sake. They may wrap it up in promises of 'freedom' and 'self worth,' but it's a lie they tell themselves, and others. They are nihilistic 'don't tread on me' terrorists, with super-powers. Compared to them, the Jedi truly are the 'moral authority' of the Star Wars universe, and they are not at all the same. There is no 'many fine people on both sides' with the Jedi and Sith. The only 'good' Dark Sider, is one who rejects the darkness, at which point they cease to be a Dark Sider. The Star Wars I love, that I believe has meaning and value for our species and our civilizations, is about that fundamental choice between giving into our darkness, and rising above it. Everyone has it in them, but we all must learn how to live with it, and keep it in check. I hope one day, modern Star Wars media will remember this vital lesson, and be more responsible with its depiction of the Jedi and Sith orders. Not continue down this path of forcing 'moral ambiguity' onto George's vision, that breaks the moral foundation of the universe he built, and makes it an ultimately depressing tale where the heroes are not worth believing in, and the villains are given excuses for their wickedness.

[blxkstar]

The woes of Anakin Skywalker.

I made a playlist for Anakin Skywalker, using his story and feelings as inspiration. Please check it out!

"This is how it feels to be Anakin Skywalker, forever:

The first dawn of light in your universe brings pain. The light burns you. It will always burn you."

[short-wooloo]

I think a lot of people misunderstand how the dark side works

It's all too common to see people talk about the dark side as being something which makes you do horrible things, that when you choose the dark side it will make you do evil

But it's the other way around

When you do terrible things, when you choose to hurt others, choose to be selfish, when you choose evil, you are choosing the dark side

[writerbuddha]

Understanding the Dark Side of the Force

What is the dark side of the Force?

In Episode IV, Obi-Wan Kenobi’s definition of the Force: “an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.” He quickly reveals that this Force has a “dark side” which is the culprit behind the evil deeds of Darth Vader, who was seduced by it. In Episode V, Master Yoda reveals what the dark side of the Force, that seduced and consumed Darth Vader, is: “A Jedi's strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side. Anger, fear, aggression... The dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight.” He explains, the dark side is "quicker, easier, more seductive" but it is not stronger.

"If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan's apprentice. The consciousness of Obi-Wan, manifested by the Force, warns Luke, “don’t give in to hate. That leads to the dark side.��� As a part of his training, Yoda sends Luke Skywalker into a cave, from which Luke feels death emanating, and what is “strong with the dark side of the Force”, which is “a domain of evil” - and inside, there will be nothing, “only what you take with you.” In Episode VI, Yoda repeats his warning, “anger, fear, aggression, the dark side are they.” In Episode I, he reveals how evil is created, identifying fear, especially the fear of losing the people we love as the origins of evil: "fear is a path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering" and in Episode III, he repeats: “fear of loss is a path to the dark side." He warns against not accepting death as part of life: “attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is.”

In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, there are two arcs elaborating on the dark side: the Mortis Arc and Yoda’s Arc. In Yoda's Arc, to achieve immortality, the Force Priestess Serenity instructs Yoda to face with "what in your existence some call evil, otherwise known as fear." Yoda battles with a dark creature that he can defeat only through recognizing it as his own dark side, something that is a part of himself, that is "part of all that lives." Serenity tells him afterwards, summarizing the lesson, "the beast is you and you are the beast." In the Mortis Arc, the dark side is explored as one of the two simplest parts of a cosmic construction that makes up the cosmos. The Son, himself a living being, embodies the cosmic function of destruction, death, the male line along which the form of living things develop in the womb, and selfishness, whereas the Daughter embodies the cosmic function of creation, birth, the female line along which the form of living things develop in the womb, and selflessness.

Summarizing the Dark Side of the Force

In George Lucas' Star Wars, the dark side of the Force, the energy created by all living things, surrounding and penetrating them, is part of all that lives: it's fear, anger, hate, aggression and selfishness, the culprit behind the actions and behaviors of those who we deem evil, and the causes and conditions which such behavior is the result of. "Evil" is just another name for fear, that is behind anger, which is behind hate. Fear, anger, hate and aggression are flowing very easily, arising within living things very quickly in a fight, seducing to a very easy path. However, once they give in to them, that will permanently influence how their destiny will unfold and they will consume them. Falling to the dark side of the Force is to fall under the sway of the dark side within us, causing evil and selfish behaviors towards others: fear, anger, hate, aggression. As part of a cosmic construction that makes up existence, the dark side of the Force is also the cosmic function of destruction, death, the male line along which the form of living things develop.

The Jedi Way: controlling the dark side

In Episode IV and V, Yoda and Obi-Wan are teaching Luke that "the Force is what gives a Jedi his power" and that "a Jedi's strength flows from the Force" but they warn him to be careful with the strength and power of the dark side, the fear, anger, aggression within him, since if he gives in to their seduction and starts down on the path of fear, anger and aggression, if he gives in to hate, he will turn into "an agent of evil" and be consumed by his dark side, like Darth Vader, and it will leave a permanent mark on his life, When Luke asks, "how do I know the good side from the bad?", Master Yoda replies, "you will know, when you are calm, at peace, passive. A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack."

His lesson is repeated in Episode I and II: the Jedi are telling Anakin Skywalker, "be mindful of your emotions" and also, "be mindful of your thoughts" and emphasizing the importance to be mindful. To be mindful of one's emotions is to be conscious and aware of them - generally, they are making us to respond immediately, without any conscious thought, pushing us to act upon them, driven by them. However, by bringing our emotions into the space of our conscious and passive, i.e. non-judgmental and non-reactive awareness, with calmness and inner peace, their power to kick us out of the driver's seat, to narrow our perspective and distort our perception of reality falls away: we can find the gap between the moments of our experience and the reaction, response, where we have control, and not falling under the sway of fear, anger, aggression or hatred.

In Yoda"s Arc of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Yoda confronts with the reflection of his own dark side: "Part of me you are, yes, but power over me you have not. Through patience and training, it is I, who control you. My dark side, you are. Reject you, I do."

Letting go of Attachments

Attachment, the feeling that we like or love somebody or something and that we would be unhappy without them, is infused with the fear of loss and the unreasonable and unrealistic desire to hold on to life, to the people we love - to not accept the reality of life’s passages and changes, which is to say things come, things go. As Shmi explains to Anakin in Episode I, "you can't stop change any more than you can stop the suns from setting" and when change comes, when "it's time for you to let go" what he must do is to "be brave and don't look back." However, in Star Wars: the Clone Wars, the Mortis Arc, Anakin confesses to the likeness of Shmi, "the only love I feel in my heart is haunted by what would happen should I let go" to which she replies, "Then it is not love. It is a prison."

As Yoda tells to Anakin in Episode III, repeating Shmi's lesson, "Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force" that "The fear of loss is a path to the dark side" since from fear comes anger, from anger comes hate and therefore, he tells Anakin, "train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose." For this reason, as Anakin recalls Yoda's teaching in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, "A Jedi must not form attachments." In Episode II, Padmé asks Anakin, "Are you allowed to love? I thought that was forbidden for a Jedi." Anakin replies, when it comes to loving people, "Attachment is forbidden. Possession is forbidden. Compassion, which I would define as unconditional love, is central to a Jedi's life." Whereas attachment is a path to the dark side, by definition, compassion is to feel with, suffer with, to experience with another person - it's a sense of oneness, of being parts of each other, from which the genuine aspiration to make another person happy and free from suffering arises, rather than the desire for them to be parts of our lives, stay in our lives, so they can supply us with satisfaction, pleasure, enjoyment. Thus, compassion is clean of the fear of loss.

The Sith and Using the Dark Side of the Force

In Episode V and VI, the Sith Lords, Darth Vader and Darth Sidious are both urging Luke to forsake the Jedi way, to make him to give in, to relinquish control over his fear, anger, hate and aggressive feelings, so he will experience the power of their energy and be seduced by it - to do the opposite of what Yoda and Obi-Wan taught him. “Release your anger. Only your hatred can destroy me” and “use your aggressive feelings” and “let the hate flow through you” with the Emperor encouraging him, "give in to your anger" and rejoicing, as Luke's anger and hate is "swelling" in him, saying, "with each passing moment you make yourself more my servant." He urges Luke, "strike me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!" Vader briefly manages to make Luke use the dark side by resorting to the same tactic that Darth Sidious used on him in Episode III: "Give yourself to the dark side. It is the only way you can save your friends" and "If you will not turn to the dark side then perhaps [Leia] will." As Luke gives himself to his fear, anger and hate, mutilating his father in rage, the Emperor cheers: "Good! Your hate has made you powerful. Now fulfill your destiny and take your father's place at my side!"

Fear, anger, hate, aggression, in the short term, make our minds more focused, give us a huge burst of energy and determination, and thus, make us more effective in getting things done and in obtaining what we seek, the rush of adrenaline is seductive and pleasurable. But this energy is ultimately blind: unless we meet them with conscious awareness, they will hijack us, kick us out of the driving seat, swallowing our perception and the ability to accurately appraise situations, to view things and people from different angles and points of view, fades. As Anakin describes them in Episode III, the Sith found power and strength in such state, in the quick and easy path: "The Sith rely on their passion for their strength." And this is exactly how Darth Vader and the Emperor or other Sith Knights are talking of the dark side of the Force and the power they obtain from it: "I can feel your anger. It gives you focus, makes you stronger" as Palpatine says to Anakin in Episode III. In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Ventress and Dooku are training Savage Oppress to utilize his dark emotions in the same way: "You will learn to draw your strength from your emotions. Hate will feed you." To not let this strength to fade, "never sympathize with the enemy, not even for a moment.” Furthermore, “You must connect with your hatred! Focus on your power building. Do not think anyone or anything else” and “your anger is your strength!”

Just like Yoda said, these emotions are arising very quickly when we’re facing with an enemy, they’re offering a very easy way to deal with them, they make the world appear to be very simple, they’re very, very seductive - they  would lead to immediate satisfaction but, at the same time, it strengthens and feeds the part of ourselves that is the same part that keeps our enemies under its sway. Thus, if Luke strikes down Vader, the Emperor gets a new Darth Vader at his side; if Luke strikes down the Emperor, Vader ends up with an apprentice and he can become Emperor himself.

Seeking to Stop the Suns Form Setting

"I will be the most powerful Jedi ever! I promise you I will even learn to stop people from dying!" Anakin swears to Padmé, in Episode II. In Episode III, Darth Sidious tempting Anakin with the alleged power of the Sith Lord, Darth Plagueis, who, "had such a knowledge of the dark side, he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying." Whereas the Jedi are training themselves to let go of everything they fear to lose, and accept change and death as inevitabilities of life, the Sith are seeking to find a way to stop change and death.

In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, when Yoda travels to Moraband, the ancient homeworld of the Sith, the illusions of the long-dead Sith Lords are whispering the fears plaguing the ego: "There is no life after death. Only nothingness awaits you, Jedi. Your fear feeds our hunger for power." As Yoda concludes, "Captivated by the physical realm the Sith are." Palpatine, manipulating Anakin, asserts, the Jedi and the Sith are similar in their "quest for greater power" and Anakin replies, the Sith "think inwards. Only about themselves." Seeking ultimate power over everything, due to their fear of losing what they got, and the anger and hate following from that fear, as the illusion of Darth Bane reveals, "the Sith killed each other, victims of their own greed." To ensure their survival, they created the rule of two: there could be only one Sith master and only one Sith apprentice, with the master seeking to grow more powerful through his apprentice, and the apprentice is seeking to recruit an apprentice on his own, to kill the master and rule the universe.

For a better understanding George Lucas' philosophy mirrored by Jedi teachings on the dark side and good and evil, compassion and attachment, or more quotes from him on this topic, see my essay and collection of quotes here and here.

[sithcityzine]

HELLO FELLOW LORD SITH

I hope this poll finds you well.

After a long time of Hiatus, this project is being Re-vamped!

After careful consideration we decided to start from scratch as it has been a long time since the zine went on hiatus.

For now, fellow acolytes, we ask of you:

Thank you all for your patience and for checking on this project. This is truly an important project that I am gratefull so many of you are interested and I'm truly pumped to make this become a reality.

Please share with fellow sith besties, friends and moots.

Thank you all, truly.

-M.Mystic

[pbandjeveryday]

Would Anakin have killed the younglings if Palpatine hadn’t told him to? No.

Would he have been in the screwed-up mental state required to obey Palpatine without the other messed up things that had happened to him in his childhood and during the Clone Wars? No.

Should he have killed the younglings, given Palpatine’s years of manipulation and all the other problems people had caused for him? Still no! Murder is never okay!

All this to say that there are MULTIPLE causes for Anakin’s fall (moving past just the youngling example). I mean even in real life, since when has any major historical event had just one cause? There’s always like eighty-seven reasons that bleed into each other. Saying Vader was created by One Specific Thing isn’t what the prequels showed us.

Anakin did have long-standing issues with anger and aggression and extreme attachment, and he is responsible for his actions. At the same time, Anakin was not some devil child who was beyond help and 100% destined for evil from the beginning. The Council’s actions/inactions played a role. Shmi’s unfair death played a role. Palpatine’s manipulations, which started at age nine for Anakin, played a role. Anakin’s personal accountability for his fall doesn’t take away from the external causes, nor do the external causes justify Anakin’s crimes.

Anakin’s story isn’t clear cut black-and-white, never has been. And that’s ok :)

[redcell6]

The Power of the Dark Side

by Victor Garcia

[bh-52]

Dear Darksiders: Never use a saberstaff against Ahsoka Tano.

It won't end well for you.

[ospreyeamon]

the current in the river is not the current in the sea

In SWTOR we are given a Sithly equivalent to the Jedi’s iconic parting well-wish "May the Force be with you" in the form of "May the Force serve you well." This illustrates an obvious contrast in the ways the Jedi and Sith view the Force and their philosophies more generally. The Jedi emphasise the importance of selfless service and hold the Force in religious veneration; the Sith prioritise personal goals and consider the Force as more a neutral aspect of existence rather than intrinsically divine. However, I think there is also a very practical reason for these different modes of engaging with the Force.

When the Jedi say they serve the Force and follow its will, they mean the Light-Side of the Force. Not the Dark-Side. If you asked them about allowing yourself to be guided through the galaxy by the Dark-Side of the Force acting out whatever you believed its will to be, you would be hard pressed to find any Jedi who would tell you that was anything other than a terrible idea. From that perspective, the Jedi’s difference of opinion with the Sith is as much about which aspect of the Force to engage with as how to engage with it, if not more.

The Sith would broadly agree with the Jedi that allowing yourself to be directed by the Dark-Side of the Force is a bad idea, though their explanations as to why it’s a bad idea would probably be quite different. The Sith don’t consider the Dark-Side to be some grand wellspring of Evil (barring the occasional fallen ex-Jedi in possession of Serious Issues). Rather the Dark-Side is, shall we say, wilful. A current that, if you don’t watch and correct for it, will pull you into a riptide and cast you out to sea.

Moving more into headcanon, I think most Sith believe the Force to be a thing of many wills rather than a single unifying one. The Dark-Side in particular is a giant overlapping patchwork; living people, dead people, living planets, dead planets, temples, artefacts, memories, fates, and a host of other things all reaching out through the Force exerting themselves on the universe. Some of these wills may align with your own, some of these powers will be helpful, but others are antagonistic or dangerous. Which ones depends on who you are and what you want – navigating, bargaining, and coercing your way through this landscape is a tricky business. Ultimately, the safest part of the Dark-Side to tap into is nearly always going to be the part connected to yourself, fuelled by your own passions, because the emotion and will are yours.

Following the will of the Force in this context is following the siren call of the creepy holocron whispering that you should pick it up, succumbing to the corrupting aura of the Dread Masters, or drowning in the final wishes of the restless dead. If you can’t impose your will on the Force, you run the risk the Force might impose its will on you. You need to have a firm grip on who you are and what you want if you plan on channelling the power of the Dark-Side.

That lack of the assumption of the Force’s benevolence is why the Sith’s farewell can be interpreted as "good luck staying on top of that tiger you’re riding". It doesn’t make sense to call upon the Force for guidance and protection if you believe you might have to fight the Force or whatever’s living inside it for your soul at two in the morning.

[elijones94]

“We would be honored if you would join us” ~ Darth Vader

[jonathanrogersartist]

One of the most brilliant and poignant choices Lucas made in Star Wars, was with the reveal of the man underneath the mask in Return of the Jedi. In his final moments, we get to see the real face of Vader/Anakin... and it's this broken and tired old man, with eyes full of grief and regret, and his voice a pitiful rasp. That was the reality behind the supremely badass figure of Darth Vader, and is the ultimate representation of the cruel truth of the Dark Side as a whole: on the outside, yes it looks super cool and powerful, but the interior is full of suffering and weakness. And bless Sebastian Shaw for putting so much pathos into those few seconds we got of Anakin Skywalker. It's so brief, but it's truly one of the greatest performances in Star Wars history.

[lbibliophile-sw]

Fuel to His Addiction

Also on AO3 @whumptober - day 14: “Feed me poison, fill me ‘till I drown.”

Anakin Vader is always angry now.

It is a constant heat smouldering deep inside, burning and warming in equal measure. Ready to be fanned to flame at a moment’s notice, sending strength through his body and focussing his mind.

Anger leads to hate leads to suffering leads to pain leads to anger – around and around until it all leads back to the Dark Side and the power he craves.

Sometimes… sometimes his anger runs out. Then he is just tired. And sad. And empty.

The Dark Side takes all that does not feed it.

So Vader is always angry now.

[l-bluebirdblues-l]

Maul: I live purely out of spite and barbecue sauce.

[sw5w]

Let Them Make the First Move

STAR WARS EPISODE I: The Phantom Menace 01:42:27

[jonberry555]

What does Baylan Skoll Want? | STAR WARS THEORY

What does Baylan Skoll Want? What is he after? What is he searching for in Star Wars: Ahsoka? Aboloth? Something Else? What is it?

[willknightauthor]

Star Wars Head Canon Retcon: The Dark Side

Watching Andor has gotten me back into Star Wars, and going back through the original trilogy I'm realizing again how much potential there is in what's implied about the past. But then the prequels lock that potential into a very disappointing, fixed answer, which everything now has to work around. There are some workable things in the prequels, but they only work if you fill in the gaps with head canon, or refer to questionably-canon side works. So I've constructed my own head canon based on the original trilogy about what really happened in the prequels. Since George Lucas operated as though only the original movies were canon, and any of the novels were fair game to retcon, I'll do the same (although I'll at least try to keep the good modern shows like Andor and Rebels viable).

The Light and Dark Sides of the Force:

One of the problems I see in a lot of Star Wars works is that the light side is portrayed as simplistically good, and the dark side as simplistically evil. Sith ideology and personalities get smoothed over or ignored, and any story that tries to explain how someone "falls to the dark side" while staying in canon has a lot of trouble not being facile (looking at you, Anakin). This comes from the original trilogy, but everyone leaned into the simplistic binary when there were ways to lean out of it without retconning the original movies. Basically, the Sith are extremely underdeveloped and badly structured to be anything other than villains, which makes them terrible primary character material.

So how can we fix it? Clarify the philosophies of both the Jedi and the Sith, so that they represent not good and evil, but opposing views on life and society. The Jedi are inspired by Asian religions, like Daoism and Buddhism, but in a simplistic way; these religions have multiple schools and have changed throughout history. So I say, lean into the East Asian side of things. The dark side of the force presumably exists even without the Sith, so what is it? The force is life: what is the dark side of life? In my head canon, the light side is birth, growth, life, peace, and order, and the dark side is death, decay, passion, and disruption. Both sides are inevitable parts of the universe. They're unavoidable.

Now the dark side isn't evil, it's just dangerous--and it's easy to see how the Jedi could conflate danger with evil. These two views on the force have implications for the philosophies and structures of the Jedi and Sith. The light side of the force is cultivated by developing inner tranquility, self-discipline, and a detachment from the chaotic affairs of the world. The more they develop that, the stronger they become in the force, which is consistent with the original trilogy. The dark side is cultivated through passion, direct connection with people and things around you, and force of will. The more emotionally intense and fiery they become, the more they connect with the force--which is also consistent with the original trilogy. This vaguely corresponds to the "masculine" and "feminine" paths in mysticism, one side seeking to deconstruct the mind and reality to reach ultimate truth, the other side seeking to transcend the rational to understand that which cannot be spoken.

This has implications for the Sith, because someone can be passionate and invested in the world around them in ways other than hate, fear, and ambition. There are so many ways to experience the world through passion, like sorrow, joy, and love. You could have a Sith lord literally crushing armies with the power of friendship. The stereotypical Sith, at their best, wouldn't be Palpatine, it would be someone laughing while playing music in a graveyard. Someone who understands the painful impermanence of life, but chooses to embrace the ups and downs anyway. Someone who finds the tragedy in joy, and the joy in tragedy.

But as their emotions wax and wane, so would their connection to the force, which means the most powerful Sith would also have the most inner turmoil. The Jedi have the opposite problem: disruption to their inner equilibrium weakens their connection to the force, so they must constantly discipline themselves and control their environment to ensure their inner state isn't disrupted.

This means that the Jedi would have to live mostly secluded, monastic lives, while the Sith could live among everyday people normally. This reflects a distinction in actual world religions between monastic-oriented religions and lay-oriented religions, and Buddhism has had many movements to democratize Buddhist philosophy and practice for the masses. Some of these movements have even inspired anti-aristocratic revolutions. So in this division of the force, the Jedi are the old-school conservative monks, while the Sith are the fiery populists.

But of course there is a danger with relying on intense emotions for your power. Any emotion can become destructive at very high intensity, but certain emotions are more dangerous than others... like fear and hate. While some Sith would base their power on things like joy, others would base their power on hate, and it's totally reasonable for people to not want superpowered genocidal maniacs walking around.

The other danger is the dark side itself. The light side, being focused on life and stability, extends the life of the practitioner as they grow in their force connection; their body and mind become more stable. The dark side does the opposite, corroding the body and mind of the practitioner. Some Sith masters would live shorter lives, and those who live long, live long enough to go insane and devolve into the most extreme version of whatever they were.

This is how I explain Vader and Palpatine: they were not originally like that, the dark side warped their bodies and minds further in the direction of hate and fear. Palpatine doesn't look grotesque because he was injured, but just because he lived so long with such an intense connection to the dark side. And that's why he's comically evil: no-one like that could've taken power, but he wasn't always like that. He used to be unassuming and charming, now he's a decaying husk who says evil things with no filter. Similarly, Vader's body is decaying, and his wounds won't heal, so he's had to supplement his flesh with more and more machinery to survive.

So what would a good Sith look like? One who derives their power from their passionate commitment to justice and love of their friends? Ezra and Kanan, from Rebels.

And what would a good Sith look like, once the dark side has corroded their mind? Saw Gerrera from Rogue One.