The Sith code doesn't lay out anything about needing to murder everyone and be a bad guy. It just proposes that passion is a source of strength and strength is a means to freedom. What a person does with that is up to him.

You ask how the Sith establishment would react to Darth SolkaTruesilver helping the sick and poor? They might be mad, but if your passion gives you the strength to kick all their asses, then I guess they will just have to accept the fact that you are going to do it because they can't stop you.

To me, the Sith we know and love are sort of like the Objectivists of the Star Wars universe. They took a nice Jeffersonian ideal of individual freedom and corrupted it into "Who can be the biggest *******?"

But its all about Pride and self-centerness. Sith are obsessed about the fear they impose on the mundane, and obsessed about their superiority. Worse, they literally force anyone in their ranks to think the exact same.

They are slaves to each other. The only way you can escape it is turning all other Siths into your own slaves so they respect your choices. Thats hardly freedom.

Real freedom would be letting all siths do as they please. And only have conflict when two agendas are in opposition. Letd say the Noble Sith wants to help poors and sicks. But Evilz Sith wants them suffering as to be an easy target for conquest/recruitment fodder. Then there would be a conflict.

But the Siths as presented in KOTOR are prideful and arrogant. They obsess over their image, instead of actually espousing their philosophy. They fall short of their own ides.

No action should ever be alien to a Sith's mind. Or considered abhorrent. If someone WANTS to be pacifist, who the hell are you to tell him otherwise just 'cause you feel like it?

The Sith code doesn't lay out anything about needing to murder everyone and be a bad guy. It just proposes that passion is a source of strength and strength is a means to freedom. What a person does with that is up to him.

You ask how the Sith establishment would react to Darth SolkaTruesilver helping the sick and poor? They might be mad, but if your passion gives you the strength to kick all their asses, then I guess they will just have to accept the fact that you are going to do it because they can't stop you.

To me, the Sith we know and love are sort of like the Objectivists of the Star Wars universe. They took a nice Jeffersonian ideal of individual freedom and corrupted it into "Who can be the biggest *******?"

But its all about Pride and self-centerness. Sith are obsessed about the fear they impose on the mundane, and obsessed about their superiority. Worse, they literally force anyone in their ranks to think the exact same.

They are slaves to each other. The only way you can escape it is turning all other Siths into your own slaves so they respect your choices. Thats hardly freedom.

Real freedom would be letting all siths do as they please. And only have conflict when two agendas are in opposition. Letd say the Noble Sith wants to help poors and sicks. But Evilz Sith wants them suffering as to be an easy target for conquest/recruitment fodder. Then there would be a conflict.

But the Siths as presented in KOTOR are prideful and arrogant. They obsess over their image, instead of actually espousing their philosophy. They fall short of their own ides.

No action should ever be alien to a Sith's mind. Or considered abhorrent. If someone WANTS to be pacifist, who the hell are you to tell him otherwise just 'cause you feel like it?

Many, or even most, but not all. We see other sorts of Sith in the KOTOR/SWTOR era; other personalities, other approaches.

You're correct, though, that too many of the Sith are so obsessed with appearing evil and rejecting the "chains of morality" that they wallow in petty and juvenile displays. For every Darth Marr, there are many Lords Mustache Twirl and Darths Gratuitous Torment...

The Sith code doesn't lay out anything about needing to murder everyone and be a bad guy. It just proposes that passion is a source of strength and strength is a means to freedom. What a person does with that is up to him.

You ask how the Sith establishment would react to Darth SolkaTruesilver helping the sick and poor? They might be mad, but if your passion gives you the strength to kick all their asses, then I guess they will just have to accept the fact that you are going to do it because they can't stop you.

To me, the Sith we know and love are sort of like the Objectivists of the Star Wars universe. They took a nice Jeffersonian ideal of individual freedom and corrupted it into "Who can be the biggest *******?"

But its all about Pride and self-centerness. Sith are obsessed about the fear they impose on the mundane, and obsessed about their superiority. Worse, they literally force anyone in their ranks to think the exact same.

They are slaves to each other. The only way you can escape it is turning all other Siths into your own slaves so they respect your choices. Thats hardly freedom.

Real freedom would be letting all siths do as they please. And only have conflict when two agendas are in opposition. Letd say the Noble Sith wants to help poors and sicks. But Evilz Sith wants them suffering as to be an easy target for conquest/recruitment fodder. Then there would be a conflict.

But the Siths as presented in KOTOR are prideful and arrogant. They obsess over their image, instead of actually espousing their philosophy. They fall short of their own ides.

No action should ever be alien to a Sith's mind. Or considered abhorrent. If someone WANTS to be pacifist, who the hell are you to tell him otherwise just 'cause you feel like it?

Many, or even most, but not all. We see other sorts of Sith in the KOTOR/SWTOR era; other personalities, other approaches.

You're correct, though, that too many of the Sith are so obsessed with appearing evil and rejecting the "chains of morality" that they wallow in petty and juvenile displays. For every Darth Marr, there are many Lords Mustache Twirl and Darths Gratuitous Torment...

Never played KotOR and don't really know it. So am I right in reading what you say as that the Sith had their own "fallen" end times just like the Jedi in TCW were falling short of their own ideals - a weakening / dilution where they simply weren't really following their ideals... precipitating their near eradication, leaving only two behind? If so, that's a great parallel.

I inferred the general gist of the article from my first viewing of the prequels, actually. It certainly doesn't redeem them for me, but it is underlined as absolutely intentional if you take the (now canonical) The Clone Wars animated series into account, particularily the episodes dealing with the force and the various sides' public and private reception among the populace. However, the Mortis and Destiny arcs in particular show where the Jedi simply fail to understand the force at all and even with places like Ilum, don't actually realise the implications of what they're doing. The fixation on a weapon is another of the order's failings that is further brushed up in TCW. The importance of that symbol almost costs various characters their lives at different points in the series, including a bunch of children. Which leads me to point two...

Where the characterisation falls short is the depiction of the child soldier problematic. That is undoubtly something Lucas did not intend, as it does not show up in TCW either. He wanted those padawans and Anakin to be people kids can identify with and have kid heroes. He didn't want to touch the ugly reality of giving a kid an AK. Truth be told, I honestly can't blame him there. It might be a bit crass for what amounts to light entertainment.

Yoda's fall and redemption weren't an initial conception by Lucas. I believe Filoni and possibly George himself said that the crass differences between PT Yoda and ESB Yoda were noticed after the movies were done and, with 20/20 hindsight, they added a 'spiritual awakening' to the character and how he himself eventually realises the Jedi order is wrong, but he can't tell anyone, or they'll kick him off council.

Regarding KOTOR and the Sith code: The code itself is a later development and essential retcon of earlier portrayals of the Sith empire. If we are taking EU into account, note neither it nor the rule of two show up until after the fall of the Sith empire and the radicalisation of its remnants into what amounts to the lunatic fringe. TCW, and thusly Lucas himself, went to great lengths to show us that Sith and Jedi don't have the whole truth either. There are nightsisters, lightside force avatars, etc. in Lucas's canon, all of whom show different points of view. Canonical Sith as well show varying degrees of adherence or ignorance of Sith rules, underlining that, ultimately, "Sith" is nothing more than a label people take up to give weight to their individualist or cultist, but always radical opposition of the Jedi by the time the fall of the old republic is nigh. The meaning of 'Sith' going from its roots as an empire with customs, traditions etc. detoriorates over time, just like the Jedi go from enlightened mystics to boneheaded rules-lawyers.

Many, or even most, but not all. We see other sorts of Sith in the KOTOR/SWTOR era; other personalities, other approaches.

You're correct, though, that too many of the Sith are so obsessed with appearing evil and rejecting the "chains of morality" that they wallow in petty and juvenile displays. For every Darth Marr, there are many Lords Mustache Twirl and Darths Gratuitous Torment...

Never played KotOR and don't really know it. So am I right in reading what you say as that the Sith had their own "fallen" end times just like the Jedi in TCW were falling short of their own ideals - a weakening / dilution where they simply weren't really following their ideals... precipitating their near eradication, leaving only two behind? If so, that's a great parallel.

The long slow decline, fratricide, and eradication takes place sometime after the timeframe of the game, with Darth Bane eventually instituting the Rule of Two.

One can see the seeds of it in how the Sith are depicted in the KOTOR/SWTOR games... a great many of the Sith are small-minded, petty, and deliberately grandiose, freakish, and debauched.