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Not knowing much about the story I really enjoyed reading this article. I had assumed the Sith were just about power-hungry evil villains.

by nnutter 17y ago

bad_user 17y ago
Actually, while watching Star Wars ... I always thought that there was a mismatch between the Dark Side and pure evil ... are emotions (love, hate, agony, fear) evil? ... well putting aside the Emperor/Darth Vader duo building an empire and a big-ass spherical ship that could destroy planets, which was also a familiar story since at that time I was learning about the Roman empire in school, which went from monarchy to republic which then was subverted :)
- sliverstorm 17y ago
  > are emotions (love, hate, agony, fear) evil? I am not a Star Wars guru, but I always took it as allowing your emotions to control you led you to do evil deeds and become evil. After all, a purely emotional being will be selfish, vengeful, and a whole host of other negative things. Love, anger, hate and fear are selected in the movies because they are typically the most powerful emotions, and the most capable of consuming you and causing you to act rashly and out of character. The Jedi went to the extremes in their personal beliefs (avoiding love and anger etc) to avoid the 'slippery slope' downwards. This is, of course, just my take on the matter.
  - bad_user 17y ago
    Yeah, but isn't the other extreme (cold-blooded, heart of stone) just as dangerous or even more so? What's stopping us from killing our neighbors even when instincts of self-preservation kick in? I mean, while watching documentaries on serial-murderers, it's always baffling noticing how disconnected with their victims or other human beings they are or how little regret they have. I think moral standards are highly interconnected with feelings, and that's why it seemed weird to me.
    - deleted 17y ago
      [deleted]
- philwelch 17y ago
  I don't think there's any deep meaning to it, just that strong emotions will upset one's connection to the Force. There are a lot of emotional, willful heroes in Star Wars--Han and Chewie, for instance--but they aren't Force adept so they can be emotional with no side effects.
zephjc 17y ago
I'm not sure I'm down with this "explanation" in the article. I have no problem calling the Sith, or at least their behavior, evil. The Sith - or at least those we have seen in the movies - are power hungry, and practice behaviors that are inherently chaotic, unsustainable and ruinous: murder, deceit, using people as a means-to-an-end, etc. They are behaviors we find in sociopaths. Since (at least in our culture/race) such behavior is generally seen as problematic and bad, we rightly call the Sith/Sith-like behavior "evil".

Not knowing much about the story I really enjoyed reading this article. I had assumed the Sith were just about power-hungry evil villains.

by nnutter 17y ago

Not knowing much about the story I really enjoyed reading this article. I had assumed the Sith were just about power-hungry evil villains.

bad_user 17y ago

Actually, while watching Star Wars ... I always thought that there was a mismatch between the Dark Side and pure evil ... are emotions (love, hate, agony, fear) evil? ... well putting aside the Emperor/Darth Vader duo building an empire and a big-ass spherical ship that could destroy planets, which was also a familiar story since at that time I was learning about the Roman empire in school, which went from monarchy to republic which then was subverted :)

sliverstorm 17y ago
> are emotions (love, hate, agony, fear) evil? I am not a Star Wars guru, but I always took it as allowing your emotions to control you led you to do evil deeds and become evil. After all, a purely emotional being will be selfish, vengeful, and a whole host of other negative things. Love, anger, hate and fear are selected in the movies because they are typically the most powerful emotions, and the most capable of consuming you and causing you to act rashly and out of character. The Jedi went to the extremes in their personal beliefs (avoiding love and anger etc) to avoid the 'slippery slope' downwards. This is, of course, just my take on the matter.
- bad_user 17y ago
  Yeah, but isn't the other extreme (cold-blooded, heart of stone) just as dangerous or even more so? What's stopping us from killing our neighbors even when instincts of self-preservation kick in? I mean, while watching documentaries on serial-murderers, it's always baffling noticing how disconnected with their victims or other human beings they are or how little regret they have. I think moral standards are highly interconnected with feelings, and that's why it seemed weird to me.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
philwelch 17y ago
I don't think there's any deep meaning to it, just that strong emotions will upset one's connection to the Force. There are a lot of emotional, willful heroes in Star Wars--Han and Chewie, for instance--but they aren't Force adept so they can be emotional with no side effects.

zephjc 17y ago

I'm not sure I'm down with this "explanation" in the article. I have no problem calling the Sith, or at least their behavior, evil. The Sith - or at least those we have seen in the movies - are power hungry, and practice behaviors that are inherently chaotic, unsustainable and ruinous: murder, deceit, using people as a means-to-an-end, etc. They are behaviors we find in sociopaths. Since (at least in our culture/race) such behavior is generally seen as problematic and bad, we rightly call the Sith/Sith-like behavior "evil".