Lit The Legendary 181st Imperial Discussion Group: Lost Tribe Of The Sith #3 - Paragon!

It's the third month of our Lost Tribe Of The Sith extravaganza! JohnJacksonMiller still hasn't shown up, so it's beginning to look a lot like he was on the other ship (see you in 4985 years!).

Paragon does not only jump ahead 15 years (I honestly expected more) but also gives us a third point of view with Seelah. It's a bit of everyday eugenics with a helping of mass murder and genocide, so nobody can complain there's no real Sith in this series.

- Seelah's character is rounded out by flashbacks to her earlier life; summaries of her coming from a slave situation in the Kressh household, which gives perspective to her exceptional hatred for the Sith species Sith. Thoughts on using flashbacks for this?

- At first, I thought Seelah's showering routine and especially her obsession with her - what out culture apparently calls, as I recently found out - 'post-baby body' come across as pure vanity. I'd actually have liked that as a part of everyday Sith evilness; small vices that open you up to a cultural frame of selfishness. And who knows, maybe one cardinal sin explored in every story? That one I should check later on anyway. As it stands, Seelah isn't just living the vain celebrity life, she's actively interested in eugenically creating optimized human beings, forging herself through exercise and hygiene as much as she's pretty openly working on a lineage system to ensure a future of a perfect Sith, well, monarchy. The twist gives her character an additional boost in evilness to achieve one's goals, so there's a nice build-up for this.

- Makes you wonder, though, why she's all-in with this little population experiment. She's apparently fiercely invested in he children, or at least protective of her daughter. She's not really sentimental for her first husband, though; she definitely isn't for her present husband. It's unclear if she values her son as "her, not his" child, or if she simply forges him into a weapon to - mythically relevant - dispose of his father.

- Ravilan, in comparison, almost makes you feel sorry for him since he's so obviously down and out on Kesh. Still, he's also happily dabbling in mass murder, so it's all lose-lose if you get emotionally invested in these characters. Beyond hating them, possibly, but there we are again with little everyday sins leading to the Sith lifestyle.

- Now, Adari, formerly enlighted heroine about to be seduced into the Sith way of thinking, has a very interesting role in this. First, she's only described by Seelah. And while Korsin's not-affair with her that sees them on long, meaningful walks with her asking the Sith about the wonders of the galaxy, is waved off by Seelah as him having the limited Kesh woman as some kind of pet, you can't help but wonder what truly goes on when Seelah's spies aren't watching; and what Korsin's and Adari's motivations are for this arrangement. Eventually, we do get to see Adari in person, and somehow she's wisened up to the fact that Sith aren't good neighbours, plotting a rebellion. Which is pretty interesting, since we hadn't seen her too opposed to the Sith arrivals before.

- The end was a bit confusing, though, since the Kesh rebels are happily talking about the demise of the 57 as a start to their efforts; they aren't acknowledging, though, that the human Sith might have strengthened their position, and might actually be worse now. It also seems as if they're celebrating all of this as their scheme, it feels like a con played on Seelah, which of course is a wrong conclusion to get from the page. But the rebels do not acknowledge the high price that the Keshiri had to pay in this episode in any way, which I think should give some context to what they're doing. A simple "I told you they're evil", a very different "so now we should start a rebellion", even a clueless "we do not know why the Keshiri died and we do not know why the Sith fought among themselves, but there you go". Well, all the more suspense for the next installment!

- I actually liked the elliptical storytelling here better than in the second story. The rebellion bookend could have connected better, but as for the main story, you get all the information and all the twists in a good package of scenes.

Here's JJM's notes about the installment. Next month: Savior!

 

Nobody biting?

I mean, since there have been multiple instances of a "Sith society" in the EU, I really love the idea of portraying such a society in all of its everyday consequences. A society that doesn't self-destruct immediately, kind of works, but is just so full of shortcomings thanks to everyone aggressively living out their weakness.

JJM's Knight Errant also showed Sith-led societies, but was there ever a 'realistic' approach to showing corrupted populations like we have in the Skyborn's microcosm? I remember over the top, Giliamesque stuff like historians rewriting history to please their master; but all in all, I think Kerra was only going to places where truly normal people adapted into apathy, not into petty malice, or vanity, or other classic sin stuff like gluttony (Darth Economist from Betrayal who looked like a good eater or something comes to mind) or anything.