PT How do you feel about the concept of “the Sith” as it was developed in the prequels?

I'm a big fan of the Rule of Two. Also like that we can have legions of Sith in an earlier era.

The Sith evolved beyond the concept of strength in numbers. The Rule of Two is about strength in strength. It's fascinating that the Jedi defeated the Sith 1,000 years before TPM. And it sounds like the Jedi defeated huge armies of Sith in times before that.

The Sith are so evil, powerful, and dangerous - two of them can destroy the galaxy.

 

The dialogue between Nute Gunray and Rune Haako after they are introduced to Darth Maul really sets it up. They were afraid enough when they were dealing with Darth Sidious alone. The prospect of there being more than one Dark Lord of the Sith is especially frightening to them. This is when they realize the situation is spinning out of control. Of course we learn that there was an apprentice already--their bargain with Sidious didn't allow him to gain a new apprentice. But these lines do the most to inform the viewer how big of a deal just one Sith Lord is to people who have a clue what they are.

 

I really like it.

I also like the Rule of 2. It is kind of meta, since it explains why the bad guy only has himself and his top enforcer as a threat to the heroes and he has an army of weak troops.

I think it is a cool way to explain how things work and why the bad guys act as they do.

 

I always liked the idea and portrayal of the sith in the PT, but I didn't always quite get the rationale for the Rule of Two. It seemed impractical. If they die, that's it. Reading the Darth Bane trilogy completely changed my perspective, to the point that I think it was such a clearly rational and almost inevitable outcome of sith philosophy that I think GL was genius to think of it. Sith philosophy is so expansive and there are so many story directions it can take, from the Lost Tribes of the Sith (which I love), to Darth Bane/Rule of Two (which I love), to the Revan Sith Empire (which I love). The best villains imo are those that are capable of sounding coldly logical. You can't persuade them because they have thought about it more than you and they've logically worked out how they're right. I get bored so quickly if a villain is bad for the sake of being bad and then stupid on top of it.

 

What really impressed me about the Darth Bane trilogy is that Dessel does things that are clearly morally wrong, but one has to remind oneself to feel revulsion at it because Dessel's actions seem like the logical thing to do each time. I completely agree that one does not get the sense that he is being bad for the sake of being bad at all.

 

Yep. You can trust very few people with such matters, so a master and apprentice only makes sense to me. Especially when you are working from the shadows. You need a streamlined operation otherwise word will get out.