Sith Related Ramblings

[4thofeleven]

When I was a kid I found an old Star Wars annual for sale at a garage sale. It’s pretty cool – it came out when the original movie did, and it’s got information on all the main actors – including David Prowse, though oddly, not James Earl Jones – and a comic book of the movie – only half of which is in colour for some reason – and a variety of bizarre comments. Example:

”It may be lying ahead of us, it may have taken place long ago – who can say? One world’s past is another world’s future…”

I’ve spent years trying to make sense of that particular comment…

Anyway, about half-way through the comic, the dialogue of which occasionally resembles that of the movie, Darth Vader curses “By the immortal gods of the Sith!”, and a helpful caption explains that Vader is the lord of the Sith. When I was a kid, I always thought it was pretty cool that I knew that, since the movies themselves never say what Lord Vader is actually lord of. I assumed Vader was pretty much the archetypal Sith Lord, that they were some sort of warrior knights, and that that’s why Vader’s always commanding from the front lines, and why he duels Obi-Wan rather than just having the storm troopers blast him – he’s following some sort of Sith code of chivalry. I even had a theory that Vader’s armour is based on ancient Sith designs, and that’s why the officers on the Death Star don’t take him seriously, any more than a modern general would take seriously a guy in plate armour who’s claiming to be a Knight Templar.

 

So it kinda surprised me when the prequels came out and revealed that Palpatine’s a Sith Lord. I’m not saying it was a bad idea, but it didn’t mesh with my personal assumptions about what a Sith is like. Vader’s a warrior; he fights with light sabre from the front lines; he personally boards Princess Leia’s ship, leads his own squadron at Yavin, leads a squad of storm troopers on Hoth. Palpatine’s practically the opposite. He stays home, sends out other people to do his work; even at Endor, he’s not giving the orders himself, he’s just a spectator. In RotS, he uses a light sabre only in an emergency, for self-defence, and he never uses one in RotJ.

Now, obviously, Vader and Palpatine are both very different men, living in very different situations, and that doesn’t mean they can’t both be members of the same sect. Vader’s an apprentice, Palpatine is the master. We see Vader in an era when the Empire rules supreme, while most of the times we see Palpatine, he has to hide his true powers and abilities. Vader/Anakin is a lot more impulsive than most people, while Palpatine is very self-controlled and looks to the big picture.

Still, I can’t help but think that Palpatine had no more attachment to the Sith order than he had to any of the other organizations he claimed to belong to or lead. Palpatine’s an opportunist; it would not be out of character for him to study the Sith and learn their skills, while viewing them with the same degree of contempt that he viewed the Jedi or the Republic. He’s very quick to sacrifice his apprentices – we see two meet their end in the PT, and I doubt Maul was his first. I also think it’s interesting that Palpatine doesn’t openly display his Sith allegiances upon taking the Imperial throne -  his goal all along was not an ideological victory of the Sith over the Jedi, or even vengeance for the ancient Sith Order, but simply the achievement of supreme power for himself, and he abandons the Darth Sidious persona as soon as he no longer needs it.

Palpatine’s not even much of a force-user; we only see him use the force twice*, both times summoning lightning, and both times arguably in self-defence. Against Mace Windu, Palpatine is defending himself, though how helpless he really was is debatable. With Luke, it’s less clear, but I think you can make an argument that once it became clear that Luke was not going to serve the Empire, Palpatine decided it would be best to eliminate him as quickly as possible before he regained his strength. Palpatine will fall back on the force in an emergency, but it’s not something he sees as his primary tool; I don’t think he identifies himself primarily as a force user.

So maybe that’s why the Jedi are so inept at identifying Palpatine as a Sith – it’s because he’s not, he’s just borrowing their reputation to instil a little fear in his underlings and to buy the allegiance of useful idiots like Maul and Dooku. The Jedi were expecting dark knights like Maul or Vader; instead, they faced a cunning politician who cares nothing for any codes of honour, even the self-serving ones of the Sith Order. If he hadn’t already recruited Vader in his Sith Lord persona, Palpatine would probably have never bothered with the Sidious identity again once the Clone Wars ended… and the Sith would have died on the same day as the Jedi. As it is, the Emperor maintains his role as Sith master apparently only to humor Darth Vader.

 

* I think. I should probably re-watch the PT someday - I haven't seen any of them since they were in cinemas... but I don't want to buy the DVDs, and the local video stores have all closed down.