The power of the Dark Side

[David]

Hey that's me! the last guest that is!

[Iceberg]

I read the SW RPG book, but I couldn't get into the game. It was bad as far as RPGs go. It simply assumed that all characters wanted to be good guys.

Not necessarily; it was simply structured around a Rebel Alliance campaign. This is nothing particularly new; published D&D adventures are structured with the basic assumption that the mean party alignment is at least Neutral, because adventures for evil characters aren't good for business, and writing an adventure for a Chaotic Neutral character is an exercise in futility. RPGs didn't get into the habit of assuming that players WANTED to play evil characters until 1992's Vampire: The Masquerade.

There's nothing stopping you from running an Imperial campaign (the 2nd Edition Revised & Expanded rule book gives some excellent pointers for doing so), but in plot-structural terms, the Empire is present to lose. The Empire's purpose in the Star Wars saga is to be defeated by the Rebel Alliance, and therefore in Star Wars, playing the Empire is an inherently self-defeating position. The Empire WILL be defeated at Endor and Coruscant, be driven from power in the galaxy, and eventually sue for peace, having been driven back to a mere eight sectors with one major shipyard and a fleet of about 80,000 ships, a mere 200 of those being Star Destroyers, and larger ships being all but denied to the Imperial Remnant. At very least, the Imperial defeat at Endor and the subsequent disintegration as the Moffs and Warlords vie for power is inevitable.

[David]

Yes, as much as I like the Empire, it is destined to lose.

[His Divine Shadow]

Wich is more powerfull? I think it's 50/50 and anyone in the movies who who says differently is just doing a bit of propaganda or is misinformed.

And this balance in the force? Think about it, thousands of Jedi, 2 Sith, where is the problem?
Anakin did bring balance to the force as we can see, furhter showing how the two need each other.

[David]

I think that they are two sides of the same coin.


The dark side is not some malevolent being and the light side doesn't wish you well. They are energy fields, and the user makes it good or bad.

[David]

Also, perhaps the midi-clorians themselves influence a person. It might be their nature to want balance. Not that they are intelligent.

[His Divine Shadow]

The dark side is not some malevolent being and the light side doesn't wish you well. They are energy fields, and the user makes it good or bad.

Well when the user wants something "bad" he must take it from the dark side, the force is created by life, the lightside is created by joy, happiness, serenity, the darkside is created by hate, fear, anger and pain.

They are both direct reflections of what spawns them so I think it's valid to call one malevolent and another one serene.

[His Divine Shadow]

Also, perhaps the midi-clorians themselves influence a person. It might be their nature to want balance. Not that they are intelligent.

I'd really like to downplay midichlorians and their influence, sofar I think they just allow someone to sense the force and thats it, unless GL says otherwise.

[David]

Here's my thought about MC's


They do not control the force rather they act as a conduate for it. Those with small amounts of MCs can only access a little of the force, and there is no visible affect on the world aroun them. Those with high amounts, sucha s the jedi, have access to a vast amount of the force. For a jedi to try to access more of the force than he has the ability to will burn him out. It's like tring to force to much water through a water hose. We see this in the Jedi Academy trilogy.

[une]

I've always looked at the force as a guy with a multiple personalities. The dark and the light side being those two conflicting personalities and the jedi and the sith are the physical manifestations of these personalities. The various wars between the jedi and sith have just been the power struggles of the light and the dark side as each fights for dominance in the force.

This is were Anikan comes in, he's the physical representation of the force itself. Previously everyone had been just been avators for different sides of the force, now the Force itself has representation within the galaxy. This means that all of the conflict within the force that would ussually be represented by a vast war between the jedi and sith is now shown through Anikan. As well as which side has dominance. THis is shown by Anikan at first being a a nice little kid when the light side has dominance, but as the dark side grows in power, in AOTC, he starts to get more and more rebellious showing more and more dark side traits until eventually the dark side has gained complete control, the OT, and Anikan has become totally evil.

Where Luke comes into play is he represents one different part of the force, the light side. ANd then one the opposite side is the emperor who of course represents the dark side. At the end of ROTJ the Vder has to make a decision, willl he save his son, thus choosing the light side, or let his sone die and continue to follow the emperor, thus choosing the dark side. THis obviously represents the decision the force has to make in terms of what side will permantly have dominance in the force. Which is what I think bringing balance means, showing which side will become permantly dominant in the force.


Well that's my theory.

[David]

I had always thought that SW was about Luke, but with the new movies comming out, it seems that Anakin is the true focus.

[Crown]

An almighty *bump* and an interesting thread...

My take is that in essense Yoda did not in any sense of the word lie. George has pretty much told us (in his movies) that the stregth of the force user lies in the abilities of that user themselves, not in which side they choose to take. For example; Anakin is the chosen one, and yet as Vader, the only thing we saw him do that was impressive was the whole blaster bolt scene in TESB, and yet we must ask ourselves if that is truely impressive at all.

Consider, the shots were being directed at him from one person, with one gun. It isn't as if this one demonstration = Vader being able to stop/deflect/absorb blaster bolts from anywhere. In essense it isn't too much more impressive that Obi-Wan's deflection of the Dooku's sith lightning to his lightsaber, or Yoda's own ability to not only dissipate that kind of attack but to also deflect it back at the caster.

Sorry Cpt_Frank but I really disagree with you on the Obi-Wan/Jango battle (although this is like 5 months ago so you have probably changed your mind about this), Jango was clearly out classed. Without his rocket pack to get him out of trouble then he would have been toast, as was demonstrated by Mace. If you think about it the scene between Jango and Obi-Wan and Jango and Mace are identical with the noticeable eception of the rocket pack, and of course Boba and Slave I.

Now, Maul managed to defeat Qui-Gon true, but that isn't necessarily an admition that somehow the Dark Side is stronger, after all the *way* Obi-Wan beat him is by releasing his anger and not acting in emotion (I think I worded that right). If you notice the one time that Maul was able to push Obi-Wan with his mind was when Obi-Wan was running on anger, giving him a clear path to beat him on. Coencidently Dooku does the same to Anakin when he charges at him.

Yoda says it right; the Dark Side isn't more powerfull. It's just quicker, easier and more seductive.