Author: marcythewerewolf

Because I;m still having Star Wars thoughts, here’s one for you: 

The Dark Side isn’t a pit of mindlessness. It’s not a monster under the bed or an inhuman force. The Dark Side is ultimately a manifestation of selfishness and personal self centeredness.

Think of the Force as a river. It ebbs and flows and contains multitudes. Sometimes there’s rough spots, full of rocks and obstacles. Sometimes there’s weird currents and oddities. But for the most part the Force is going in one direction. And Jedi go with the flow. They remain aware of their spiritual surroundings, avoid chaos, and try not to get too attached to anyone place or thing because the river is always moving. They manipulate it in small ways to achieve their desired ends, to change the course of the water, but they’re moving down the river with everyone else. When they die they just keep floating. They’re in tune with the river. 

The Sith we see don’t play nice with the Force. They don’t let themselves be part of the hivemind. They sit themselves down in one place and they make the Force move around them, then take advantage of the resulting pressure. Which is scientifically sound, that’s how hydro power works. But It will mess up your river ecosystem. 

Sith are selfish. They want power. They want control. Sheev, Anakin, Dooku. These are highly self oriented people. Even low level Dark Siders brainwashed and tortured into being useful for other people aren’t exactly paragons of empathy. They’re the opposite of tapped into some otherworldly all uniting dark force. The only thing they’re tapped into is human (and alien) selfishness, confusion, and anger, and that’s what’s making an otherwise neutral force turn sour and dangerous. 

They’re not content to just drift along the river, working within the boundaries. They’re going to sit themselves down like a boulder, murder a bunch of people, feed off the resulting energy, and generally make life hard for everyone else in the river. The Force is a river and Dark Siders are making white water rapids and blocking up the path with tree branches that’ll still make trouble a hundred years later. 

The Dark Side of the Force, imo, is just the dark side of sentient beings, personal turmoil making turmoil in the Force and producing power as a side effect. Of course power corrupts, but based off of current canon dark siders I find it much easier to think that the Force itself is actually pretty “Light Side” oriented if left alone. It’s all these people clogging it up with hatred and evil schemes that makes a Dark Side.