"The Sith philosophy! Well! I would hardly think that would be an appropriate topic for..." oh, it's Kina Skywalker. "Just what kind of a research project is this?"

"I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to argue that the Sith are being idiots by neglecting the Light Side of the Force in their studies, other than 'The Force says so'.  Because it's certainly not like they'll believe that sight unseen, and...the Dark Side is very good at breaking things, even when it's trying to look like it's fixing them.  So if I'm going to pose the argument, it really must be beskar-clad."

"We have books on that subject, but - you're planning to get into an argument with Sith?" repeats Jocasta. "That sounds rather dangerous!"

"It's the way my life goes, and I'm pretty reliably informed that it's not exactly going to let up until the Force is in balance again."  She can only give a sad smile.  "At least the people I'm intending this argument for probably won't try to kill me before they start talking.  They're too fond of the sounds of their own voices.  And of their senses of intellectual superiority."

Jocasta sighs. "At the very least, do it over a holo." She shuffles through the halls, and finds a few datapad-books for Kina.

Here's a book called The History of the Sith! It's written by an ancient Jedi master who's apparently an expert on the subject - he fought Darth Revan once! And made it out with three of his arms!

The book seems to be mostly focused on the battles between the Sith and the Jedi. It starts in the earliest days of the Sith Order, when a sect of "Dark Jedi" broke off from the Jedi Order and became the ruling overlords of a primitive species to whom the name "Sith" originally belonged. It covers a lot of different Sith dynasties - apparently the Sith had a lot of civil wars and internal restructurings of power - and sort of contrasts their philosophies? Every dozen pages or so, in between the lists of names, dates, and strategic offensives that start to blur together after page four.

As represented by this book, Sith philosophy mostly consists of "we want to be powerful" and "we hate the Jedi."

"Unfortunately, the enemy gets a vote too, but I'll try."

...Skim over the battles - ooh, fascinating use of asymmetric warfare and threats-in-being - No, that's really not right.  Yes, obviously they want power, and if this book was about Palpatine she'd believe that that was his primary motive, but - neither Dooku nor Plagueis presented themselves as seeking power for its own sake.

Perhaps that was a ruse to appeal to her, on Plagueis' part, but...no, it doesn't make sense.  Dooku himself was lured by the promise of altruism.

"Madame Nu, this book says that they're evil because they're evil.  That's not how...

"Even the cruelest master of slaves flaunts his power because he fears its loss.

"Do you...have anything else."

If she looks through the other books on Sith, she'll find... basically the same thing. The Sith try to get lots of power, they get it from the dark side of the Force, and they generally use it to conquer places and kill people, especially Jedi. Who, incidentally, are the authors of pretty much all of these books.

There are some places that have a bit of nuance? The authors' desire to include as many Sith biographies as possible seems to have trumped their desire to portray all Sith as evil, so they mention the occasional Sith Lord who didn't do anything too bad. (With disclaimers that obviously they had to have been evil, they're Sith; there just isn't much historical record of what atrocities they happened to commit.) There's Darth Vectivus, for example, the leader of a mining colony that happened upon a "reservoir of dark side energy." He apparently learned how to create "dark-side empowered phantoms," studied with the Sith, and then... came back home to spend the rest of his life in peace, not doing anything particularly notable.

At one point there's a picture of armor engraved with something called a "Sith Code":

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.

Through passion, I gain strength.

Through strength, I gain power.

Through power, I gain victory.

Through victory, my chains are broken.

The Force shall free me.

...Well, that seems fundamentally more plausible as a pitch.

...Honestly, she feels like it's more complementary to Jedi philosophy than it looks, is the thing.

It stands in contrast to the Jedi philosophy, that much is certain.  She wouldn't want to try and explain this to Master Yoda.  But...

Something about it.  Something about those last two lines.

Maybe it's just her history as a Tatooinian slave, but...

She's already been acting in line with it, she thinks.

Through victory, my chains are broken.  The Force shall free me.

And look at what she's accomplished.

...She needs another perspective on this.  Dooku would likely engage with her, but, no, that's stupid and risky.  Mace Windu...She almost believes he might understand, but it's also a risk.  Just of a different sort.  She needs to have her thoughts in order before that conversation happens, and they're mostly a collection of sprung gears right now.

Where's Shmi?  Tatooine girls have to stick together.  And even if her mother wasn't her mom, she thinks she'd have valuable insight.  They come from the same place.  They know the same stories.  Shmi can tell her if this really is what she thinks it sounds like.

Shmi has actually moved out of her room in the Jedi Temple. While Kina was off adventuring with Windu, people started giving her pointed looks about why is this random person living here, and Shmi's now in an apartment in the lower levels of Coruscant. She's still only about a half an hour's flight away from the Temple, though.

Kina's going to go visit her, then!  She doesn't want to have this discussion over a comm, for so many reasons.

Kina! How have you been, it's so good to see you, do you want something to eat, various other pleasantries... and does she say anything about a "Sith Code"?

Nope!  She said nothing of the sort, in fact, because she's running - something of an experiment.

She's doing pretty well, really, now that everything's calmed down a bit.  The pleasantries can continue long enough to make sure there's nobody successfully spying on this conversation.  (She does this every time she visits, just in case.)

She's been reading a bunch of things in the Temple Archives, lately, and she found this interesting bit of - well, it's not Jedi philosophy, not in the slightest, but she kind of wants to see if it seems as familiar to Shmi as it did when she encountered it.  Because it really reads like - the mantra of an enslaved people, praying to the Force for - rain on Tatooine.  Which on the one hand is because it literally mentions breaking chains, but on the other hand - she'll just read it off?

Shmi shrugs. "It sounds nice. I guess the Force did end up freeing us, in a way, if it brought... Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan to Tatooine. What does 'peace is a lie, there is only passion' mean, though?"

"Well, that's the question, is the thing.  Because if you asked a Jedi, they'd say that the only passion the source of this Code could have meant was - for destruction and suffering.  But that's confusing to me.  Both of the people I've met who I think are following this Code have claimed they are altruists.  And certainly I think they have some very suns-scorched ways of going about it, but the thing is that I have reasons to believe they mean what they say about why they do what they do.  So I'm confused.  What does this Code have to do with suffering?  I can't figure out how it went wrong.

"Well, I mean, I can point at Senators, there's an obvious sort of failure mode of seeking power above all else - but...this is for people who were supposed to listen to the Force.  Not...

"I am so confused.  Because ultimately, it doesn't make sense that a fundamental philosophy of this, leads directly into darkness.  So what happened?"

She shakes her head.  "I don't really expect you to have an answer, but I really do have so many questions."

"So you're saying that... people who are trying to get power from their passions usually end up suffering? I can see that happening; sometimes your emotions can lead you to make bad decisions. But you shouldn't just ignore them, either."

"I didn't say that, but it does sound plausible enough that I'm kind of surprised I haven't.  But - that's not the thing that is confusing me, not really."

"Then what is it?"

"Why is this Code a Code of - only practitioners of the dark side of the Force?"

So this is a Sith Code. "I don't think the Jedi want you to be relying too much on your emotions. Yoda always says that emotions can hurt you, or... well, lead you down a darker path."

"Mhm.  Fear leads to anger leads to hatred leads to suffering, and suffering is bad, of the Dark Side - and, well, I have to agree with him on that one.  Being afraid really sucks, even before you start thinking about the metaphysics of it.  But then - are there no emotions that are good to have?  Is there nothing it is good to feel?  Compassion, courage, a deep drive to make things well?  ...Hang on a second.  We're definitely supposed to feel compassion for the galaxy in its entirety, as Jedi!  So my confusion only grows.  Why are there no Light Sith?  What is the fundamental differentiation between light and darkness as Jedi consider the Force, anyway?  It's not just Jedi-ness, there's other Force sects out there that Jedi are fine with...  ...I should probably ask Master Windu or Madame Nu or maybe even Yoda these.  Give him a philosophical conundrum to chew on for once."

"Maybe. I know a lot of Jedi try to stop people from forming close attachments, and I definitely don't agree with that."

"If you're trying to help the galaxy, you can't prefer to help your friends at the galaxy's expense.  I think I've come around to seeing where they're coming from, but I think they've gotten it all mucked up in telling people about it.  Because the other thing is, a Jedi's friends are in danger because of the Jedi.  It's like being friends with a Senator.  People will try to use you to influence them, and if that doesn't work they might escalate to violence or worse.  Now, in a better, kinder galaxy, the sort of people that would do that would not get the chance to meaningfully consider the possibility - but even with the Separatists and the Senate cleaning house, things are still pretty kriffed up out there."

Yes, Shmi is acutely aware of this. "I know the Jedi try to help people with that - they actually gave me some papers with an alias and blaster training, just in case - but yes, it's still a problem. At least things are getting better these days."