Darth Nihilus: A Character Evaluation

Kreia certainly talks a good game but frankly, I never got what drove her so batshavit crazy. Nihilus is a blank page. To others that may mean 2 dimensional but the character is really something waiting to be filled. Tragically, the only thing we'll never find out is whether GalactuSith had a reason for his bizarre condition or not.

My favorite theory is he's a ghost that needed planets to maintain corporeal form.

 

Or that he's Zayne Carrick.

 

I hope the writers introduce a huge number of characters wearing red armor. Then Nihilus could become the new Darth Krayt.

 

My personal favorite theory is that he's San Hill. Long story.

 

They ruined my favorite theory that he was the Jedi Exile's Force Doppleganger taking an unholy life of its own.

Of course, Darth Nihilus being Zayne Carrick ruins one of my favorite lines in the game.

"Whose behind that mask?"

"A man, nothing more."

 

I can't blame you for feeling the way you feel on the subject of Zayne/Nihilus. When a beloved character turns out to be a tragic character there's no doubt it would upset alot of people. But a great writer can take such a tragedy and make it a masterpiece no matter how much love you feel for a character. And I have faith in JJM that if it did happen, he could do it justice. And speaking on the death of Nihilus, there aren't any other Sith that I know of who've disappeared into thin air like him. I think he's special.

 

I don't feel anything regarding it. I don't think it'll happen. It's like Anakin Solo coming back from the dead or Jacen Solo is Darth Krayt. My main fact is that people who put it forward are doing so very much on what they want to happen. What bothers me is that there's no evidence at all and yet people take it as fact.

Zayne's tragedy is clear. He's a hunted man but he'll never give into the Dark Side because he doesn't have the temperament or it would have been foreshadowed.

Darth Sidious and Joruus C'Boath.

 

His vision with Raana Tey and him telling the Covenant that he's going to kill them one by one isn't foreshadowing?

Sidious was evaporated. The other guy I can't remember off hand.

 

No, that's what we call Justice.

Sidious exploded into blue flames even when he was just sitting on his throne in DE.

It wasn't reactor back draft.

Same with Joruus C'boath, he exploded when Mara killed him in the Last Command.

 

No, it's definitely foreshadowing. It might be a red herring, but it's clearly an indication of a capacity for evil in Zayne.

 

Out of curiosity, when did bringing murderers to justice become evil? Has our perception of the Jedi become so utterly warped that proactive pursuit and destruction of evil is not something good people can do?

 

We shouldn't jump to conclusions, though. It's still a long way from "If this is the only way to get justice, then so be it," to "Galactus, Eater of Planets."

 

No no, it's Galactusith

;-)

 

It's not so much the "bringing them to justice" part that concerns us. It's more the "I'm going to hunt you down and kill you all until someone does what I want" aspect of the scenario that has us worried for Zayne's soul.

 

True, but I also note that Zayne specifically points out this is seeking justice for his slain friends.

[image=http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f350/Willowhugger/353px-Starfall-1-1.jpg]

 

You have a point, but I don't think a dubiously qualified apprentice going up against five powerful Jedi masters is the best way to go about avenging those friends.

 

*waves hand*

Neither is sending a 23 year old with a month of training up against a 32 year trained Dark Lord of the Sith. Twice.
Nor is sending a bunch of snub fighters against a moon sized battle station.
A couple of air speeders against Imperial Walkers
A Single soldier against an Imperial Walker with a landmind and a lightsaber.
A not-quite Jedi Knight vs. A Rancor
A bunch of teddy bears vs. an Entire Legion of my finest troops
A small Rebel Fleet against the Death Armada

Didn't someone say "never tell me the odds"?

It boils down to the idea that Star wars is about the improbable good overcoming the powerful evil.

 

Ok, ok, you're right. Improbable odds, I get it. But even you must admit this stretches the limits of credibility just a wee bit.

I know, stranger things have and will continue to happen in the GFFA, but I guess there's just a little bit of 3PO in me, naysaying.

 

Well I think of it this way.

No one realistically expects Zayne to be able to do it. However, just the fact he openly says he's going to do and challenging them is the first sign of Rebel Defiance and the end of tyranny. He has no idea how he's going to defeat them either but he just has to focus and hopefully in the future we'll see how.

Already he's learning some pretty swanky moves from Jarael.

 

I suppose that's reasonable.

 

To get back to the creation of Nihilus, to me I think he is essentially the anti-thesis to the Exile. The Exile has a strong ability for force bonding, others follow him with blind loyalty, to their deaths if need be. The Jedi Council call this "leeching" other people's force connections to fill the infinite void/wound that the Exile is in the force because of what happened at Malachor V. As for Nihilus, IIRC at some point Kreia says that he is a creation of Malachor V, so my theory is that Nihilus was also a Jedi at Malachor V who had a strong force bonding ability, but reacts differently.

The Exile resisted Revan's will and had to shut out all the death and destruction to do so, to the extent that it became shutting out the force completely, leading to the wound in the force. Now what if Nihilus was in the same situation, but ultimately accepted Revan's will and turned to the dark side, instead of shutting out all the death and destruction, he absorbs it all into himself, effectively feeding on the death, pain, suffering and such in the force. Which leads eventually to his need to continue to feed on death through the force, which continues getting stronger and stronger until it reaches the stage where only force users can satisfy his hunger.

If Nihilus was at Malachor V, it could also explain why he bothers to rescue the Ravager and uses it as his flagship, maybe it was always his flagship.

 

They did the sith wrong in that game. Malak was much better then all three of them. Sion couldn't be killed, Kreia never acknowledge she was a sith and wanted to destroy the universe and as an earlier pointed out Nihilus was Galactus with less of a backstory.

 

Sure it did...it showed you that he was the first incarnation of Grima Wormtongue...a toady and a turncoat wussy!

__________

If they truly wanted to get creative with Nihilus...have him survive KOTOR II...show that he was superior to Traya and Sion, and that even execution by the Exile couldn't stop him. Perhaps have his technique be that which Palpatine discovers in his own extended life efforts in DE.

Bring him back...perhaps instead of being a "mindless slave", he merely was distracted by being in 2 states of reality simultaneously.

He can't really be expounded from his past, since he really is "nothing" by his end. So giving him a "future" would be most plausible...and given how he dies...most likely.

 

Uh, this may sound like a stupid question, but how exactly does this Darth Nihilus guy eat planets Is he a World Devastator or something?

Mind you, I've never played the KOTOR games, so I really know little of what happened in them; especially KOTOR II.

 

He sucks out all the Force energy in the planet and absorbs it into the Hole in his soul.

Basically, the planets are left almost completely dead.