Why did you fall to the dark side, dear Atris?

Why Atris!?, Why !?
Well, I still don't understand why such a wonderful jedi would fall to the dark side. When she tried to rebuild the Jedi Order, she
sought to remedy the lack of any mechanism to prevent Jedi from falling to the dark side. But she, herself, understanding that for a Jedi it was necessary to prevent being tempted by the dark side, this woman, this so-called Jedi, greatly overestimated her own ability to resist the dark side. She became corrupted by the Sith holocrons he had in her posession.
Well, so Atris talked and interacted to much with the Holocrons...I can't imagine her having a talk with a the holo-presence of a Sith Master, but she had to, because that's how holocrons work.

 

The problem was that she didn't try to rebuild the Jedi Order. She surrounded herself with a bunch of "Handmaidens" but wasn't training any of them to use the Force (if indeed they were force-sensitive at all beyond Brianna).

The point it out during the game: She's got an academy, but she has no students and doesn't show any signs of looking for them. It's one of the signs of her hypocrisy/betrayal/dark side madness.

 

I like to think of Atris as the Jedi equivalent of the Rule of Two. She didn't want lots of Jedi. She didn't think anyone but her could be trusted. She was convinced she was the only person selfless enough to commune with the Force and interpret its Will.

In short, she was arrogant.

Her character essentially showed all the flaws of the Jedi Council before the Jedi Civil War. The rest of the Council (Kavar, Vrook and Zez-Kai) embraced their own fallibility and basically disappeared out of shame of failure. But Atris kept at it. She was never wrong. She had been right. It was all Revan and Kreia who had done wrong.

What Atris never realised was it was the Council's own fault Revan and Alek did what they did. They sat out the entire Mandalorian War, refusing to intervene. They left the Revanchists no choice. But Atris never accepted that. And it was her arrogance that caused her to ultimately fall.

 

Arrogance is one way to see it.

But I suggest another...

Fear.

She was crippled by the fear of any force user, whether trained to become a Jedi or not, would bring the destruction in much the way the war had just done.

The exile is a personification of this fear...she puts on that stubborn front...but she's really making icy puddles at the fear of someone who cannot be trusted knowing the truth.

The final confrontation...with Nihilus in orbit, had to be the culmination of her greatest fears...her hiding place exposed, her enemies surrounding her, she is alone...it's exactly what her paranoia foretold...and the exile, whether light or dark, is the doom bringer.

I'm not even convinced Atris assumed she alone was powerful enough to study the force...I think she thought she was powerful enough to collect and protect the secrets of the force, both light and dark. As to their use...I think that is only something she may have moved to as a way to save herself. It seems clear she was not the most prolific darkside adept in the final confrontation...her conversing with the holocrons might have been initiated by the exile's return. One last desperate attempt by Atris to keep her hidden walls in place.

 

That's an interesting point, I'd never thought of it like that.

Was Atris just trying to "hide" the Force? She wanted to collect ALL knowledge of the Force in existence, Jedi holocrons, Sith holocrons: everything. She couldn't destroy it--burning books clearly was not her way else she'd have at least have destroyed the Sith holocrons--but she feared their use. She didn't believe anybody was qualified to study the Force; except, perhaps, her.

Given she was originally going to be the second option for Darth Traya, having a similar goal of "destroying the Force" would actually possibly fit her. Only, she would not be "destroying" it per se, she would be burying it, far, far away, in the icy wastes of Telos. Every text, every holocron, every tome; never to be seen again by any eyes but hers. Because nobody could be trusted. Because it was too dangerous.

 

Right...but again...I'm not sure if she even saw herself as "worthy"...actually, I suspect the sith holocrons told her she was as a way of corrupting her.

I think she thought the force was to dangerous for anyone...she was part of the dissolved council...and while the others were "hiding" in plain sight, continuing to act in the Jedi way, despite the doom it would bring down on them...she guarded the relics of heroes and the knowledge of foes...used the most capable "non-force-sensitive" Echani warriors...and refused to discuss with even them the horde which they were protecting.

i think Atris was riddled with doubt, about what she knew...about the order she serves...about the worthiness of her actions in the war...about her treatment of the exile...even about how best to keep the force knowledge protected.

I don't think she wanted it destroyed, even the sith stuff...because Atris saw knowledge...particularly the physical access to it, as the most powerful tool...she would be the gatekeeper.

Her failure was thinking that the force could be bottled up in books and holocrons and not be explored in other means...a very narrow very...something I would chalk up to the narrowness of life in the Order...and in particular...the temple.

The Exile's strength when she comes back to Telos shatters Atris' views...You can become powerful with the force without tomes or holocrons...and moreover, as Atris did nothing but glean from tomes and holocrons...she was ill prepared for the Exile.