Quote Originally Posted by Talakeal View Post
Everything everyone has said makes sense.

Still though...

When I look at the Jedi, I see a bunch of guys with sticks up their butts, a group who aspires to be the villains from Equilibrium.
At the same time, the Sith Code strikes me as advocating something more akin to the bohemian lifestyle.
The Jedi method is not easy or instantly relatable, because it asks something of the practitioner, namely self awareness and understanding and empathy. The Sith ask absolutely nothing, you do you, just do what you want. Their entire philosophy is just ad copy about, like, how [s]this body spray] the Force will unlock your true potential and everybody will recognize you as the protagonist of reality and you will get everything you want and be happy and everyone will live you and nothing bad will ever happen ever again.

The tricky part, one which the films do not explain particularly well, is that the Jedi are not opposed to emotions. What the Jedi philosophy delivers is not emotionlessness, but emotional liberation. You can, as a Jedi, search your feelings, because you correctly perceive and recognize them. Anakin, when he falls, cannot search his feelings because he has no space between himself and his emotion. He's a toddler having a tantrum, the only thing that exists is that he isn't getting a cookie.

From my understanding of the Jedi philosophy, I imagine their response to slavery would be "Slavery is bad, but trying to end the practice would be worse. Peace is most important. The best course of action for the slaves is to learn to be satisfied with their lot in life and give up their desires for freedom, and just hope that one day their masters also become enlightened enough to free them of their own accord."

Whereas the Sith I can actively see leading a slave revolt or a revolution against a tyrranical government. Afterall, the Sith code ends with "..my chains are broken. The Force shall free me."
Err, the Jedi are unable to end slavery in a part of the galaxy outside of their control. The end state of the Sith is enslavement of everyone. The Sith Lord's chains may be broken*, but they chain everyone else. It is not an ideology of freedom, it is the reducto ad absurdum of mistaking emotional indulgence for liberty.


*though of course they really aren't. Anakin goes as Sith as he possibly can, do you think Vader is in any meaningful sense free?

But still, whenever I play a Star Wars RPG, I find it far easier to play a passionate rebel who follows the Sith philosophy than that of the Jedi. Combine that with the fact that the Sith have a cool edgy look to them compareld to the Jedi's ascetic robes, and its a no brainer.
Of course you do, the Sith way is supposed to look easy and attractive! And RPGs are pretty much self indulgence machines anyway - you are literally supposed to be protagonist of reality - it's a natural fit.