The true meaning of DARTH... (spoilers from "Darth Bane: Path To Destruction")

SPOILERS for Path of Destruction.

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You have been warned.

(MODS) The PT Forum relevance is at the bottom.

The Jedi never knew of Bane's existence. He was an outcast amongst the Sith as well. The Sith Masters underestimated him, but Bane studied the old texts and later on found a holocron from Revan. He outsmarted the Sith who were incredibly like the Jedi and the rest is retcon heaven... from a certain point of view.


The meaning of Darth...


"...to understand why the title no longer used, you must understand what it truly represents. The Darth title was more than a symbol of power; it was a claim of supremacy. It was used by those Dark Lords who have sought to enforce their will on the other Masters. It was a challenge--a warning to bow down or be destroyed."

Bane already knew this from his studies, but he didn't think it was wise to interrupt.


"Of course, few of the Dark Lords would ever submit to another's will for long," he continued. "Wherever one of our order took up the Darth title, deception and betrayal were always close at hand to snatch it away. There can be no peace for a Master who dares use the Darth name."

"Peace is a lie," Bane replied. "There is only passion."

Kas'im raised an eyebrow in exasperation. "Peace was a poor choice of words. What I meant was stability. Those Masters who chose the Darth title spent as much time guarding against their supposed allies as they did battling the Jedi. Kaan wanted to put an end to such wastefulness. Kaan wanted us to focus all our resources on our true enemy instead of one another," Kas'im asserted. "That is why we are all equals in the Brotherhood of Darkness."

"Equality is a myth to protect the weak," Bane argued. "Some of us are strong in the Force, others are not. Only a fool believes otherwise."

"There are other reasons the Darth title was abandoned," Kas'im insisted with a hint of frustration. "It attracted the Jedi, for one. It revealed our leaders to the enemy; giving them easy targets to eliminate."

Bane was convinced the Jedi would know who the Sith leaders were; whether they called themselves Darth or Lord or Master made no difference.

***

"Honor is a fool's prize, glory is of no use to the dead."


***


The Sithari...



"I--I don't understand," Qordis gasped, barely able to speak as the bretah was squeezed from his lungs.


"That has always been the problem," Bane replied. "The Brotherhood must be purged. The Sith must be destoyed and rebuilt. You, Kaan, and all the others must be wiped from the galaxy. That is why I have returned." (Bane was outcast by Qordis earlier)


Dawning horror spread across Qordis' long, drawn features. "Please," he groaned, "not... like this. Release me. Let me... draw my lightsaber. Let us fight... like Sith."


Bane tilted his head to the side. "Surely you know I could kill you just as easily with my lightsaber as I could with the Force."


"I... know." Qordis' skin was truning red, body trembling as the pressure mounted. "More... honor... in... death... by... combat..."


Bane gave a indifferent shrug. "Honor is for the living. Dead is dead." A final push from his mind tightened the invisible vise, snapping and cracking Qordis' bones, he simply let the corpse fall to the ground.


***


Out of all the Prequel Sith Lords, which ones do you feel truly fit the title of Darth?

Sidious and Maul in TPM both personified the definition. Sidious even introduced his apprentice as "Darth..."

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I find it interesting now after the fact of course, that Dooku was called Lord Tyranus when he returned to Coruscant in AOTC. The more I think about it, Dooku never gave the impression of "Bow or be destroyed." Maybe that's why he went by Dooku instead of his Sith name.

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ROTS? Sidious was spot on, and though clumsy,

 

Interesting revelations.

 

There are quite a few more.


But these were the two, best suited for posting here.

 

Love to see live action (TV or a pre-prequel) with Bane appearing (real or holocron). Much to learn, have we.

Thanks, SSS!

 

I think that the Darth term is most exemplified by Darth Sidious and Darth Vader.

 

^^^^

Agreed! But I must admit when I first saw Maul in action, I thought GL outdid himself for the first prequel. His appearance on Tatooine picked up the action in TPM. This dude was the penultimate Sith! And the two-bladed saber . . . . whoa!

I was both shocked and disappointed that Maul was killed off with no possible escape clause that could allow him to appear in the following films. While Dooku was a great character, Maul was awesome. He was as physically unique as Vader was in ANH.

 

Oh, don't get me wrong, Maul was definitely an impressive Sith. I just don't know that he had the ambition that is implied in the Darth title.

 

Anytime.

The book sucks, really.
I mean, because there is very little new information, the author is a Bio-ware guy so he went out of his way to retcon more of Revan into the Star Wars mythos...

but I still liked it enough to read it in six hours.



The best DARTH scene of the entire saga is when Sidious is seated while on the holocam, "This is my Apprentice... Darth Maulll. He will find your lost ship."

--When Maul steps up and folds his arms all the way, you can almost smell the Nemodians $h#tting-in-their-pants. That! The exact moment then, IS the best example of: Kneel or be destroyed. The stupid Nemodians were so tweaked after seeing Darth Maul they second guessed their involvement/dealings with the Sith... priceless.

 

I'm buying this book, ASAP.

I think Maul and Vader best suit the darth title. 'Bow down or be destroyed' not so much Sidious because he spent most of his years hiding his sith abilities even though he could've well taken out Mace himself. Sure he was plotting, but its the fact that he even has to plan to turn Anakin to do his bidding for him.

Maul and Vader give the impressions if you stand up against me, I'll make you limbless in seconds.

 

Sidious bowed to Plagueis, but he was already defying him by training Maul in secret. Then he made it clear when he opted to kill him in his sleep, thus assuming the mantle of Dark Lord for himself. Vader did start out this way, but he was trying to move beyond being ordered around all the time. Hence his quest for Luke. Just as Dooku was faced with the prospect of betrayal, when Asajj Ventress brought it up on Vjun.

I do like the explaination for why the Darth surname disappeared in "Jedi vs Sith". Course this retcon is important given the creation of the two KOTOR games which established it's use after Exar Kun's death and before Lord Kaan came into existence.

 

The form of polite address for any Sith Lord appears to be "Lord X", or "My Lord". Darth X is used rarely, and never to their face in the movies (except by Jedi).

 

After reading Path of Destruction, the Novel Dark Lord is better because of it. There are lines that Sidious attributes to Bane and they come full circle with this new book.

It is clear to me, that the failure Sidious experienced in ROTJ is because he deviated to far from Bane's plan. In Sid's (weak) defense, the Jedi, Qui-Gon and Kenobi were the ones who disrupted the operation. Nevertheless, Sidious took the easy route in converting Dooku to replace the unexpected loss of his first Apprentice. It was a mistake to convert a Jedi, one he should not have repeated with Skywalker, no matter the boy's potential.

The only way Skywalker should have been trained to be a Sith is if Sidious repeated what he did with Maul.

***

Sidenote:

Funny that Yoda and Sidious were both wrong about whether someone could switch back, they even say almost the same thing to Luke regarding the fact.

Yoda : "Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny."

Sidious : "By now you must know that your Father can never be turned from the dark side!"

They both STILL had much to learn, even at the end of the saga.

 

Well, Lucas even said that Palpatine should not have put himself in the position he did with his Apprentices. That's probably why he went the route he did with Maul to Tyranus to Vader. Aside from continuity, this shows that Sidious unwittingly brought about his destruction.

 

You are correct Sinister. As I posted elsewhere, Sidious brought about his own demise by deviating from what Bane had passed down. Instead of doing the right thing, and pull back to re-group, he turned a Jedi and took the easy route.


Sidious, like the OLD Sith, got too big for his britches and was blinded by his success.

 

Another spoiler is that teh Sith were "using Vaapad" a thousand years before Mace supposedly finished it. Interesting...

 

Continuity errors are always fun.

And really...Bane's order was the one that was hiding from the big bad Jedi for a thousand years, while those Sith who organized many Sith together were more successful in actually conquering the Galaxy and all. In any time.

There are many powerful force users in a generation. If only two of them are Sith (the two that the "secret order" can find, which will usually be the less powerful ones that the Jedi miss), and there are many Jedi, the Sith will die if they reveal themselves. At least if they aren't both clever and lucky. And there will always be powerful force-users that aren't Sith.

 

Exactly.
This is why I look at Dooku as a worthless phony.

When Sidious chose to go with Dooku as his apprentice (instead of starting over) he started a dominoe effect that eventually led to the end of the sith.

Darth Sidious/Darth Maul= The last true sith lord duo.

 

The "last true Sith Lord duo" got thwarted by a Jedi Master who wasn't even on the Council and his padawan. What does it matter if the Sith Order survives if it doesn't accomplish anything?

Sids trains another apprentice from birth = oh, whoops, term runs out. No emergency powers to suspend term limits for you!

 

The problem with the Sith from before Darth Bane, was that while they did succeeded in taking the galaxy by force, they began turning on each other which between infighting and the Jedi, was enough to destroy them. By having two Sith, they could build their resources and prepare. Without the infighting, they were capable of organizing the end of the Republic and the Jedi. What undid them was that Palpatine became too blind and arrogant to what was going on around him. He failed to see that the Alliance would become a genuine threat. And he became blinded by his greed in having the strongest Sith Apprentice, which is why he decided to convert Luke rather than stick to his initial concern of killing Luke. And he failed to sense that Vader was in conflict which lead to his undoing.

 

In one of the ROTS novelizations, Yoda reflects that the Empire Sids thought would last for thousands of years would be lucky to outlast it's Emperor because the Sith were masters of destruction and little else. He was brilliant at keeping his eyes on the prize, but once it was won, Sids proved to be fairly inept at the business of ensuring the Empire's survival. His arrogance blinded him just as much, if not more, than Yoda.
So to go along with the stormtrooper reference, we also have a "thousand year reich" that barely managed to hit double digits (if you go by 1933-1945).

 

It's one thousand years of fizzle. And the fizzle's as much Bane's philosophy as Sidious's incompetance (Sidious is not that incompetant)

One of Darth Maul's major failings is his apparent inability to focus on anything other than killing Jedi.

 

And one could easily lay the blame about Maul's short-sightedness at the feet of his Master. He was broken as a child, and remade as Sidious saw fit.

Brilliant as Sid's was, he was even more full-of-himself... a trait that reared its ugly head in EACH one of his Apprentices as well.

 

Considering that the Republic has been around for millenia, and that Bane's little secret plan only resulted in some 25 years of Sith dominance.....I'd say that the Galactic Empire doesn't look all so impressive anymore.