As a person, can a sith feel the need to love, or to be loved??

We all know that love is one of the main needs of a sensitive being. To give it or to receive it.
The siths feed their dark side powers trough powerful feelings like anger, hate, lust. But if they are enough sensitive to feel these emotions, why wouldn?t they feel love??
Think about Darth Maul, at some point in his life, his heart must craved for love. Think about the siths, Exar Kun, Ulic, Revan, Malak, Kaan, Kopecz, Kas?im, Qordis, Githany, Darth Bane, Darth Plagueis, Darth Sidious, Darth Vader, Darth Caedus, Darth Krayt, Darth Wyyrlok, Darth Nihl, Darth Talon............. perhaps after all they did, after all their schemes, plots, machinations, in their very hearts, all they wanted was to be loved, to be appreciated, to feel that someone in the galaxy cares for him/her.
We can say that they just wanted power, fame, glory, control, but I think that they sought for those things because they were desperate to fill their hearts with something.
They suffered, the dark side was and is suffering, and they would be happy to leave it, but they couldn?t because in all the cases the dark side becames their lives. Out of the sith, without the power they relied on, they didn?t know anything, and they were conscious about it. Just like Darth Sion said before dying: "I am glad to leave this place?at last."

 

well a few and I mean a very few amount of sith came to regreat their path, for the most part those sith were pleased with their choices.

I would say a sith can not feel the need to love, thats the whole point of being a sith. They dont care about anyone but themselves. Look at Darth Zannah. She eventually made the choice between the love of her cousin versus power, and she makes a cold choice in that regard to get more power.

The darkside destroys the sith's ability to love...the ones that give in at least.

 

Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. I believe his love for his mother and padme contributed to his fall.

 

Anakin's fall was so poorly written and illogical it shouldn't even be discussed. At best you could say his fear and anger at having to lose the people he cared about tilted him towards the dark side, and even then it makes no sense that he goes from "I'll do whatever you ask" to "From my point of view the Jedi are evil!!"

 

The novel was much better than the movie at explaining Anakin's mindset. He knew all about what Palpatine did, and he wanted POWER.

 

I'm getting a sense of deja vu from this topic. I get the feeling that there was a topic like this with the exact same title..

Caedus loved Allana and Tenel Ka, and wanted to be loved by them. And of course, Anakin Skywalker's fall, Padme, attachment, etc. But I think the One Sith's habit of being descended from other One Sith has a lot more to do with lust than love. I think Cade said something about that in Legacy...23, was it? About how Darth Talon had the passion, but where the love that goes with that passion should have been, there was nothing but darkness...

 

Absolutely.

 

When you think about what the Sith tombs on Korriban represent about the Sith, you get the answer to this: They don't, but they may well term the possessive impulse love. Sith wish to possess and control everything, they wish to continue doing so either after or in death - the tomb being their final statement of what they were.

 

I would say yes.
The problem I see is with the concept of love tehy have, and how close it is to what we'd call love. There's enough unhealty realtionsships called love here on earth alreday, so I'd say the Sith have no problem taking those a few levels higher.
Which then leads to them wanting love, but not understanding it. They try to get what love is to them and wonder it's not working as it's supposed to be.

Not sure I'm making any sense here.

 

But though the people in an unhealthy relationship may use the term love, do they demonstrate it? Love is more than a word or concept, it involves a certain way of being and acting that's quite alien to the Sith.

At the heart of any relationship is a spirit of compromise, of not always putting your own needs first because another's is more important to you and the continuance of the relationship you have together above that. If a person is looking at relationships through a prism of control and possession, it's unlikely they'll ever really know love and for the Sith power, control and possession are all.

 

Okay, if you see it like that.
For me, at the heart of a realtionship is committment. You commit youself to the realtionship no matter what.

What I think. But do they think the same? I wonder if a Sith might not be convinced he's actually 'loving' somebody' even if he's incapable of it. I don't think the need to love/be loved can be taken from a being. That makes a Sith's position doubly difficult because he'd long for something he doesn't understand.

 

I wouldn't see the terms of compromise and commitment being mutually exclusive, if anything what I also said is the reason for the compromises is the importance of the relationship - so in effect the commitment remains the centre of it.

As for the Sith, oh I'm sure the word can be used by them, that they might even think possession is love.

So yeah, I'd say we're in agreement - bar linguistic technicalities.

 

Yes.

Firstly, a Sith can feel the need to be loved; in fact, this is what's much more likely than for them to feel love. This need becomes the driving force for them to do some of the evil they do; further, it provides motivation for their dominance. It's not hard to imagine someone's twisted desire for love causing them to use their Sith powers to manipulate someone into loving them, and then them feeding off of that love, using it, living off it. And so, on a quiet, domestic level, they practice the very heart of Sithdom; dominance and power. I can envision many a person falling to the ways of the Sith that way...

 

Do the Sith feel love? Consider this quote by psychologist Carl Jung:

I've always considered the division between the philosophies of the Jedi and the Sith to be similar to this split of love and power. The Jedi serve the galaxy through a 'universal love' and denying themselves the opportunity to seize control with their strength of the Force, because they are concerned with letting nature take its own course and preventing others from disrupting that course.

The Sith, on the other hand, seem to feel that it is power which matters more, and so long as they have it, they will use it. Everything must be controlled. It is not how well the people are living (if at all) under their rule, but how well the individual Sith thrives over everyone else.

Take the case of Anakin Skywalker. He was under the belief that his wife was going to die, but he did not go to the Jedi for help. He did not trust Obi-Wan or Yoda or the Council, because to do so would be to reveal his secret marriage to Padme and so give the Jedi leverage over him. And by turning to Palpatine, Anakin was more than willing to sacrifice the Republic and the Jedi to save his wife, even though Padme was a staunch defender of both these institutions. He longer cared about her as a person, but as a measure of his power. If he could keep his own wife from death through sheer effort of will, then surely nothing would be impossible for Anakin Skywalker. Whether or not Padme actually wanted to live as a demonstration of his new powers was immaterial in his mind.

When Padme dies, then, all Anakin has left is the power afforded to him as Darth Vader, and so he continues to live as a servant and slave of the Emperor until his second chance for authentic love comes in the form of his son Luke, through which he breaks his addiction to power and abandons his dreams of succeeding Sidious through one final act of selflessness.

 

Love is a form of passion, and a Sith feeds upon passion as a means of accessing the Force.

 

I agree with everything said in this post.

The dark side is fueled by negative emotions. Recall what Yoda said: "Anger, fear, aggression... the dark side, are they." A Sith will draw upon his passions, yes, but only those provided by negative emotions.

However, as positive as the emotion of love is, it holds many dangers. It can breed distrust, jealousy, anger, and eventually hatred. Anakin Skywalker is a prime example. He feared to lose what he loved most and allowed that fear to control him. It wiggled its way inside of him, breeding anger and hatred as that fear increased. Eventually, that fear destroyed everything he was originally trying to protect. Love is a positive emotion, but for every wonder it can bring, there is the potential for great disaster (hence why the Jedi forbid it... but that's another argument).

 

Vader loved Padme didn't he?

 

Vader loved the idea of loving Padme. Everything he did was selfish, though.

 

In addition we were told that even Plagueis had people he "cared about".

 

Yep. In fact, he loved her to death.

 

I thought she just lost the will to live.

 

I don't see any reason that a Sith couldn't have a dysfunctional and possessive 'love.'

 

What boring villains they would be if they couldn't feel love. Star Wars as a whole wouldn't have worked if the Sith didn't love. "Love" surrounded Vader in some way for his entire life. I doubt he ever fully forgot Padme or purged her or his mother's death then Luke comes along. There was a need to control but an undercurrent of deep love. You know he loves Luke the second he knows of him even if it's combined with a desire to find a way to destroy the Emperor. But for a Sith to give into love is to let go of the dark side.

 

According to The Essential Guide To The Force, in order to access one particular Sith holocron (I think it had to do with creating monsters?), Palps had to fill 3 chambers of it with the blood of 3 people, and one of those people was "One whom you love". And he did access the holocron in the end, so he must have loved someone...

Or I could just be remembering wrong because it's late at night. I don't think I've got any Essential Guides with me, could someone quote the relevant passage?

 

Real question is can a traditional PT era Jedi feel the need to love or be loved? Love is after all an attachment and something they're meant to do away with in their pursuit to be become one with the Force. Sith are actually encouraged to have attachments.