"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."

...Shmi is getting a hug now.  "Yeah.  Things are getting better."

Except for whatever's up with the weird Force osik, but she's not going to drop that on her mom.

Anyway.  She's satisfied her curiosity on the Sith Code, really, so - well, she's going to spend a little bit of time fixing things up, and seeing if there's anything her mom would like to do, first - but she's got questions for...  Hmm, first Madame Nu, and then Yoda.

"Madame Nu, it's good to see you again.  Thank you for your recommendations on my earlier project, but I've got some follow-up questions that need answering, if I want to have a solid argument.  Is there anything you'd recommend, if I really wanted to look into the philosophical underpinnings of what Light and Darkness are, in the Force?  I'm pretty sure 'personal testimony' is not a reliable source, as these things go, no matter how informed the source may be."

Of course! She'll find a much larger stack of books this time.

One book claims that the light side and dark side of the Force are essentially just different methods of tapping into the Force's power. The light side means connecting to the Force through calm, enlightenment, and selflessness, and the dark side means connecting to it through strong emotions, like anger and fear.

According to another book, the difference between the light side and the dark side is more specifically about whether someone is trying to follow the will of the Force, or bend the Force to their own will. The light side is what happens when you listen to what the Force is telling you to do; if you instead follow your own emotions and desires, that's the dark side.

...Okay, but what happens when your own desires and the Will of the Force are consonant, instead of dissonant, Force philosophy book author?  And does anyone have any idea what the kriff is up with this Father guy?  (Though she's not going to mention him at all.  Just looking into, like, 'manifest Will of the Force' sorts of search terms.)

There's not much information on that. Some people have had visions where people told them what the Force wanted them to do, but it was usually an avatar of a person from their memories. Nobody reports anything that has to do with "the Father" or his planet.

Hmm.  ...You know, if the Knight Revan, Darth Revan and Knight Revan (again) that appear in short succession in the records - she actually has Galhistory to thank for this one; she's kind of rueful about it - are actually the same person, which she's pretty sure is so, she wonders if they might have particular insight into the different natures of the Force's...sides, such as they are.  Does the Archive have anything from a Knight Revan dated -2955 Ruusan Reformation onwards?

Yeah, he seems to have been pretty influential for both Jedi and Sith. Revan was a former Jedi Knight, but criticized the Jedi's lack of intervention in an ongoing war between the Republic and Mandalore. He became a bit of a vigilante, and helped the Republic defeat Mandalore. He was recruited by the Sith Emperor, who turned him against the Republic and started a civil war among the Jedi. Eventually, Revan's memory was wiped, and he became a Jedi again. The Sith Emperor later captured him, and imprisoned him for three hundred years. After Revan died, he left behind spirits formed from his light and dark sides, which stuck around for a while until they merged back together, killed the Sith Emperor, and finally disappeared.

Mmhmm.  That's the history bit of it.  But did he, like, leave a holocron or a comparative treatise or something?  She wants to know about his experiences.

Stern look. "Revan didn't say much in his time as a Jedi, and a great deal of that was spent while his memory was erased. And you certainly aren't going to find anything he wrote as a Sith."

"...Why not?"

"In - Padawans aren't permitted to be reading Sith texts!"

"...Why not?  I mean, I expect I won't be surprised by what you're about to tell me, but I want to hear it in your own words."

"...because we don't want Padawans to turn to the dark side! The Sith always tried to corrupt young minds, you know."

"...So why do we leave ourselves vulnerable to that corruption, by refusing to let ourselves know what it is and how to face it when it rises?"

"We know what it is that's trying to corrupt us! Anger, and fear, and hatred, and other emotions like that pull you towards the dark side, and you have to resist those. It can't help to have a Sith Lord telling you that you need to let those emotions control you!"

"...Madame Nu, you sound rather afraid right now."

"Concerned, perhaps! And I'd rather you didn't start giving me something to be afraid of!"

...Alright, this is absolute bantha poodoo.  She has been trying to avoid needlessly accelerating her progress away from her overall level of 'responsibilities she thinks she should actually have', but...She's going to need to go for her Knighthood trials.

Time to talk to Master Windu, she thinks.

Master Windu is available.

"...I think that it may, despite my desire to hold back on moving forwards on this and trying to give my life time to settle in general, be time that I went for the Knighthood trials."

"You've been a Padawan for what, six months? Four - five - seven? - less than a year, and I don't know if we ever even did officially make you a Padawan."

"I'm literally listed as your Padawan on the paperwork; that's why I was along for the raids.

"How long does it normally take, then?  Obi-wan is surely not that much older than I am, and he was celebrating having passed his just a little while ago, after all."

"I think Kenobi's more than a decade older than you. And speaking of 'decade,' that's how long it usually takes."

"...Sorry, he's what? 

"...No wonder that surprised you, then..."

"It takes a lot of training to become a Jedi Knight. I'm aware you're pretty advanced, but..." he isn't going to say out loud that he doesn't expect her to succeed at the Trials, because she would take that as a challenge - and actually, does he expect her to succeed? "...I don't think it's time yet."

"...I hadn't thought he was too much older than I was.

"...I guess I've had to grow up quick."  She sighs.

"I don't really think it's time yet either, but I'm trying to learn about the enemy, as was, and all the stuff that so much as mentions the Dark Side as being a complex subject that could be studied seems to get locked behind metaphorical parental controls.

"For good reason, I think, but considering that if there's anyone the Dark Side is going to have it out for in particular it's going to be me...I need to take its arguments apart, before they take me apart - and it's going to try, or I've got a hyperlane to sell you."

"MOTHER" how does he continue the sentence "of yours got a message from Palpatine saying if you started studying the dark side you'd probably end up killing her! How was that not enough to - look, there's a reason we don't let people study the dark side, and that still stands even if they are Knights! Sure, the Sith have it out for you, but that doesn't mean you have to go and give them a head start at turning you!"

"...The other part of the trick is," she continues, calm as a storm's eye - "I'm wondering if we can turn them.  Because I'm not, actually, confident that the difference between Jedi and Sith, is the difference between Light and Dark.  You yourself have said that Vaapad relies on feeling things."

"And also how dangerous it is. Look, I get the temptation of trying to turn the Sith's weapons against them, trying to walk that line between light and darkness, but emotions chain into each other. They turn into stronger and stronger feelings until you're too far to turn back and you didn't even notice you got there. If you can't disconnect from your emotions, if you can't think clearly despite them, then they'll overwhelm you. The Sith are so far past the turning point that they won't be able to listen to a word you say, because the dark side won't let them."

"...I don't think that what I would consider developing, if I had unilateral philosophical validity, would be - dark as in fearful at all.  Because what has always motivated me is caring about other people.  I want to turn my compassion into strength enough to move the galaxy.  I might be wrong about whether this could possibly work, which is why I'm trying to do this research before I even consider taking this beyond the phase of 'an idea I am thinking about', but...

"That's orthogonal to whether someone needs to tell Dooku the Force is fucking with his head, and what I was originally looking for was something to rub his face in about his ongoing neglect of the Light side and its own unique abilities.  Surely we have some."

Why does he even try - never mind. "There are abilities associated only with the light side, though I don't think Dooku's unaware of them. But emotions don't help with those. Caring about other people does, but not... specific caring, or passion associated with a particular person."

"But talking to Dooku won't help. We have tried, many times, and he doesn't listen. You think you have some sort of connection with him, but even Qui-Gon was never able to convince him to come back. For most of the history of the Order, Jedi keep thinking that they'll be the one who convinces the Sith to renounce the dark side, and not only does it not work, they often end up turning to the dark side too. It's not worth risking it."

"I agree that most of the time it is a Very Bad Idea to try and do this.  But - 

"I'm not the same thing, as a Jedi that was trained in this Temple from birth.  I can approach things from angles people haven't had the right perspective to see, before.  And furthermore, we have knowledge of things that the accumulated weight of the Archives appears to not, these days."

She pauses, holding up a hand, radiating contemplation, getting her thoughts in order.

"Would you know what it meant, deep in your bones, if I said that the Sith Code, as I found it, sounds like people praying for rain on Tatooine?  Would you understand how taking that perspective of the Sith Code and touching the dark is itself an aberration?  Could a Jedi raised within the Room of a Thousand Fountains ever drink deep of water's sacredness on Tatooine?  Could Jedi raised from birth to know they'll be knights, ever understand what it means to be a slave?  Could they speak of the ways slavers lie, when they promise slaves their freedom only if?  Perhaps the former - but the latter...

"It is not so pressing now, Master Windu, with the present Chancellery, but does the Order answer to the Force, or to the Senate?  Because masters are greedy; they do not share what they have taken.  And the Jedi's masters in the Senate...oh how they have taken, and near enough walked the Order like a bantha to the slaughter as they did so.

"If Palpatine's plotting had been as perfect as he thought it was, we could all have died of it.  Would have all died from it, as the galaxy was plunged into an empire of suffering beneath his iron hand.  And that is what the darkness wants, what it will give to Dooku - and this, we can tell him.

"I don't think that my 'connection' with him will do anything more than get my foot in his door.  Will do anything but save me from immediate dismissal out-of-hand.  The rest, rests on my argument.  Which is why, to bring everything back around to what originally brought me to your chambers, I need to find proper sources."

"I know the Sith ideas can be appealing to people who've never really had much but suffering, and yes, Dooku might take you a little more seriously than he took any of us, except maybe Qui-Gon. The problem is that - maybe you, maybe someone, would have been able to convince Dooku years ago, but he's been changed by the dark side, he's not able to think clearly about what you tell him. And the fact that you're not a typical Jedi only makes it more dangerous for you to be looking into Sith philosophy."

"Just what are you looking for sources about?"

"What the dark side actually is.  Because I'm going to have to put a fucking stop to it, if we believe the mysterious crystal visions.  And if Dooku isn't able to think clearly about what we tell him...That will make him track down and murder the source of the intrusion into his brain himself, and since it's the literal mastermind of galactic suffering, all I can really say is 'good fucking riddance'.  Seriously, he prides himself on his ability to reason, and if we can prove it's been sabotaged..."

"Not sure how we're supposed to prove that, but what the dark side is... well, there are plenty of debates among even Jedi scholars, but Sith texts aren't going to be a reliable source on that. The Sith say that the difference between the light side and dark side is just in terms of how much power they offer, which is completely wrong. It feels more powerful to a novice because it's quicker to master, but it doesn't actually make them any stronger."

"You yourself said he wouldn't be able to consider my arguments.  Just point that out hard enough."

"...Yeah, I figure most Sith are like that.  Which is why I had the thought to see if Revan, having looked at both sides of the Force, had done any more rigorous analysis.  Or any other Jedi who had turned and come back, if such others exist."

"I don't think Revan wrote much, and no, I'm not giving you recommendations."

It seems Windu isn't changing his mind.

"Well.  If you're certain, I can hardly hope to change your decision.  That said...There is no ignorance, there is knowledge."

...She's going to go regroup and think about what she wants to do about this.

...It's obvious, when she finally thinks about it.

She's going to ask the Force.  Or more accurately, the woman who the Father called his daughter.  She might believe what the man says, but she's pretty sure she doesn't actually trust him.  He sounds...

Wrong, somehow.  Like a trap, or a trick, or...

Something isn't right about him.  It's probably the paternalism.

So she wants to hear from his daughter.

"Asking the Force" isn't quite a high-enough-bandwidth channel for a conversation in Basic, but sure, the Daughter can send general impressions of answers to Kina's questions.

...What does she think of The Father?

What does she think of her brother?

What does she think of herself?

Is there somewhere she thinks Kina should look, for...anything she thinks Kina ought to know?

She likes her father, although she's a little frustrated at him. She definitely does not like her brother. Generally positive feeling regarding herself, although she gives off the impression that she's a bit confused by what the question is asking.

Kina should pay attention to the people that she cares about; think about what might have been hurting them, and try to fix that. Another feeling of frustration, as if she's having trouble answering the question.

Is there somewhere that would make it easier for her to do that?

She can try coming to Mortis?

...That feels like it's going to be dramatic.  Right now she's kind of not really feeling like adding more drama is going to help.

Is there something specific about what might have been hurting Kina's friends, that she wants to try and twenty-questions out?  Would that help?

"You're sure I can't tell her - "

"That would be interfering a little too much. Each of them is on their own path in the Force, and his is not ready to be shown."

Nope! Nothing to say!

...Well, thank you for the warning, nonetheless.  She'll...

...realize that she's not actually sure who she could consider herself friends with.  That's kind of sad, honestly.  Obi-wan?  Padmé?

...Though, really, if she thinks about the people she's dead sure she cares about...  ...It might just be her mom.  And there's the people she's helped, but that's not really in quite the same way...

...Is she on the right track, though?

Nooot-answering-the-question.

...well, that's definitely not a good sign.  Especially because of how it doesn't feel like this is something she doesn't know, and rather feels more like it's something she isn't being allowed to say.

...She'll keep her eyes, and her heart, open.

...And because she really does think she needs to know - if she tunnels out of the Temple network, do any of these reputed universities have any psychohistorical analyses of Sith lying around?

Yes, but most of them seem to have less information than the Jedi texts. The old Jedi Archives saying of "if an item does not appear in our records, it does not exist" is not literally true, but the Jedi actually do have more firsthand accounts of the Sith than anyone else - and of course, you could get a bad reputation if you had materials in your own archives from Sith-affiliated sources. No prestigious university would do something like that.

Unless their planet is under the sway of a political movement led by someone who, while not officially a Sith, seems to favor them a little more than the Jedi! Plenty of Separatist-controlled libraries have as much information on the Sith as Kina could want.

Why.  Is it always.  Politics!

And even the kriffing Jedi getting in on it!  Why!

Also weren't the Sith supposed to be dead for a thousand years.  What happened to ancient history being ancient history?

From bootleg recordings of Darth Revan's Sith Holocron:

The Force will change you. It will transform you. Some fear this change. The teachings of the Jedi are focused on fighting and controlling this transformation. That is why those who serve the light are limited in what they accomplish. True power can come only to those who embrace the transformation. There can be no compromise. Mercy, compassion, loyalty: all these things will prevent you from claiming what is rightfully yours. Those who follow the dark side must cast aside these conceits. Those who do not—those who try to walk the path of moderation—will fail, dragged down by their own weakness.

...And that is some absolute bantha poodoo.  Oh, not the bit about moderation - not, she thinks, even the transformation - but the bit about compassion.

It strikes her like a bolt from the blue, searingly, confidently, correct.  A Jedi, one who hews to the true calling of the Force...  They must love all, equally.  That the Jedi of today have forgotten that to love all you must first love is a tragedy of the highest order.

She opens a draft document.  Pastes in the quote.  Pens a title, humming thoughtfully.

There is No Compromise, There is Only Compassion: A Reflection Upon A Sith's Reflection of the Flaws of the Order

The Force will change you. It will transform you. Some fear this change. The teachings of the Jedi are focused on fighting and controlling this transformation. That is why those who serve the light are limited in what they accomplish. True power can come only to those who embrace the transformation. There can be no compromise.  [...]  Those who do not—those who try to walk the path of moderation—will fail, dragged down by their own weakness.

The Holocron of Darth Revan

I know that it is, already, pretty much a heresy to study Sith thought to improve the Jedi.  And yet, when this quote found me - I knew, in an instant, that Revan, as foolish as the Dark Side is, had hit upon a too-true flaw of the Order:

We have, time after time, compromised.  We have looked at what was right and chosen what was easy.

We have tried to moderate ourselves, level off our lights under a bushel.

I do not call for something so absurd as Armies of the Light.  War is the least compassionate thing one might do, and if there is one thing I and the Ruusaan Reforms agree upon, it is that the Jedi must not be weapons.  It is a shame that the Reforms could never have accomplished this goal.

 

If there is one thing I most stringently refuse to countenance, it is that the Order's ultimate subjugation to the Republic is at all a desirable thing for the Order, and for the Republic.  I call your attention to several disasters ordered by the Senate, but blamed upon the Order: Galidraan, where Death Watch terrorists manipulated the Order into exterminating the last bastion of organized pan-Mando'ade (tomyc'mando'ade) opposition to their philosophy - by utilizing a suborned planetary governor's petitions to the Senate.  Even with the increasingly-strident objections of the Knights and Masters on-site (cf. Dooku's Preliminary Report on Galidraan, Jedi Archives), the Council was effectively threatened into overruling them (Council Minutes, vol. mmcxvii, Jedi Archives).  [NOTE: This section needs more examples]

 

Note, then, what comes after.  Trace the careers of these Jedi as they are pressured to turn from the Force.  What do so many do?  They fall to the Dark.  And I know that many who read this essay are already thinking "Well, that's because there was a Sith in the Senate!"

The Sith masquerading as Sheev Palpatine is not, I regret to inform you, responsible for all the galaxy's ills.  Even when you look for times where we know where the relevant dark-side cults are - to the best of our ability to know, at least - and find that none are in the right place to have possibly influenced a particular Jedi, when a Jedi is overruled by a Republic government, the Dark Side, and suffering, builds ever more - often within that very Jedi!

Now, Jedi do police their own, but Force-sensitives who have taken up the Dark Side...

It is like an insidious drug.  It leaves you seemingly flush with energy and power, while demanding ever greater sacrifice to sustain it, draining from you like water into the sands of Tatooine if you neglect to feed its appetites.  You can feed it your health, you can feed it your sanity - or you can feed it lives.  We do not have proper etiology of the Dark Side - but those few sources who have managed to come back from Dark addiction and then documented it have described their experiences thusly.

And that the Republic can currently, completely legally, force this compromise to happen to the most well-known protectors of life in the galaxy...

That is very bad for the Republic.

The Jedi must not be chained from following the will of the Force, and actually protecting people, like we observed with the Naboo.

 

[Pt. 2: What is Love?: Why Compassion Must be Cultivated, not Instilled]

[Pt. 3: Failures of Ruusaan: "This weapon is your life", and other problems with lightsabers.]

[Pt. 4: This Little Light of Mine: An Activist Jedi Theology.]

...So where did the Jedi pick up their penchant for plasma cutters from, anyway?  Is that something she can read about?

There's debate among historians as to the exact timeline, but the predominant view is that the earliest weapon similar to a lightsaber was developed about 40,000 years ago by a species called the Rakata, more commonly known for inventing the hyperdrive (and immediately using it to conquer the galaxy). Technology at the time wasn't actually advanced enough to make lightsabers or hyperdrives using any standard methods; the Rakata allegedly used the dark side of the Force to power all of their inventions, and the "lightsaber" was essentially a handle for a crystal that only emitted a beam when one was actively pumping unsustainable amounts of Force energy into it.

Je'daii inventors developed mechanical lightsabers 16,000 years ago, but they barely ever worked outside a laboratory setting and required too much power to be portable, so they eventually faded into obscurity. It was actually members of the Sith Empire who created the first functional mechanical lightsabers millennia later, and by about 5,000 years ago, they had been adopted as the standard weapon of all Jedi warriors.

...

What the actual kark?

She has so many questions.  Like: Karking why!

"...I have a large number of questions about how and why we use lightsabers if they are in fact tools invented by the Dark Side."

One of the less concerning things she could have said, he'll take it. "Dark side users having made the first lightsabers doesn't mean modern sabers are connected to the dark side. We don't want Sith to just be able to come up to us and cut us in half because we don't have our own weapons. Besides, natural crystals usually have a closer connection to the light side than the artificial ones the Sith made."

"...Is that all there is to it, then?  No - relevant theology?"

"I wouldn't call it theology, and - lightsabers aren't something that can only be used by one side. Lightsabers don't take contr- typical lightsabers that haven't been imbued with very specific dark side artificing don't take control of their wielders."

"...I do remember the, uh, booby-trapped one, yes."

"I guess the other question is - why did the Jedi order of the day, decide to fight fire with fire, when it came to vulnerability to being cut in half?"

"What do you even mean? I know you can shoot past lightsabers sometimes, but you still need something to block oncoming attacks - oh on that topic, yes, Otoh Gunga's moving through on the deal with the new shields conditional no unauthorized distribution beyond the Order for at least twenty standard years. Which weren't around back then, and anyway, it's useful to have a weapon that works for offense and defense."

She nods.  "I do think I have ideas on that front.  And...Hmm.  On the one hand, of course it is.

"On the other hand, the purpose of a blade is to cut.  And yet the Force is not a weapon.  It's the thing that brings us all together.

"Why is the iconic symbol of the Jedi a naked blade?  What are we cutting, Master Windu - what are we cutting and why?  It - is disconcerting, to me.  Now that the galaxy isn't engulfed in a sandstorm, I - I look at what the Order has done, and what the Republic has done to the Order, and I find myself worried that any collection of mortal beings is capable of holding the det-codes for organized Light-wielding Force-use.

"That's not to say that -"

She pauses.  Tears herself from whatever thought she's having, because it's just become a wordless inchoate tangle that comes out in a strangled noise.  Aggressively messes with her hair.

"Regardless of whatever I was just saying, which was some - half-formed, messy, thing - I do think that it is good for the Republic to exist.  I just don't...

"Even with the Iblis-Antilles Chancellorship, I feel like the Order cannot pursue the Force with the devotion the task deserves, if it is also trying to serve Masters -" and from the twist Kina puts on the word, Windu can be quite sure that Kina means the slaving kind - "that will, we all know, eventually find their way back into the halls of power, because good people don't want to have such things.

"I guess the thing I'm trying to say is that -

"There was a comment General Syndulla made, when we were kicking over Jabba.  And it's still haunting me.

"Because when I became a Jedi, I thought I was free.

"And I'm not sure if I am, anymore.

"And..."

...She pauses.  Sits herself in a meditative position, hands clasped together, knuckles white, eyes closed, breathing heavy but slow.

"Most of this conversation has just been me opening my mouth and words falling out that I am just as surprised as you to hear.  This bit is quite possibly more premeditated.

"Albeit, clearly not premeditated enough, because something about the idea of casually admitting that a lot of what sparked this musing had been premised firstly upon the question of whether Light Sith could exist as much as Dark Jedi do, secondly upon a scrap of Force-philosophic tripe allegedly uttered by Darth Revan, and thirdly upon the fact that something about this 'Father' figure is just rubbing me raw the more I think about what he seems to stand for -

"Well, it's a stupid decision, but I've made it, so if you think I've gone nuts please make it quick.  But I think that...to distil what little truth I'm sure of -

"There is a way in which the Jedi Order has forgotten the foundation of compassion that feats of Light require because it doesn't want to think about love.  Because it euphemizes the cloying, suffocating ownership urge as a simple 'attachment'.  Because it says fear is of the Dark side but cannot seem to say that courage is of the Light.  Because - we sit here, in our grand Temple, while there is still suffering beneath our very feet, blind to what we don't allow ourselves to see.

"And I feel like I'm falling into that trap with you and I don't know how to fix it!

"...I don't think that's - all that there is, though, that I should mention.

"I tried to contact the other Force entity, not the Dark one, not the so-called Father.  And there was something she wasn't being allowed to warn me of, and I don't know why but it - it's grating like a loose repulsor coil in my ears that there's something that's going to go wrong.

"Though I suppose that's more an internal feeling than an external one.  All I have that's sure is that she said something like 'pay attention to the people you care about, figure out what's hurting them, and try to fix that', but that still means that people are getting hurt!"

...The room stops shaking.

"...I don't like it.  When people get hurt.  But I'm not sure how to stop that.  Because I can't be everywhere at once, or...

"Or trust, I suppose, that people I don't know will do the - right, good - no...the good thing, more than the right one.  Whatever that means.

"I might trust a certain Separatist leader about doing a thing right, to pick an intentionally controversial example, but I don't think I can ever trust him to be doing the exact same thing he might do right, to be done goodly.

"And that's..."

She trails off, mid-sentence, as something hits her.

"Oh.

"I'm afraid."

It looks like an epiphany.  It looks like defiance of suffering and all its works.  It looks like Kina's guttering, drawn-inward Force presence flaring with renewed brightness.

"Kriff that.  You won't take me like that, you karking piece of bantha dung.  I banish you, I cast you out, may the sands and suns scour you clean from memory and time!  Begone from me, for there is nothing you have that I desire!"

She allows herself a small, relieved laugh.  "I suppose if this 'being a Jedi' thing falls through somehow, I might have a career as an actress; my apologies for the entirely necessary dramatics, nonetheless.  It...  Helps.  And, hey, there's technically a real person I'm shouting at, if the Father is to be believed!

"...Pursuant to that whole 'Oh hey I just noticed I'm terrified' thing, Iiiiiiiiiii, am gonna go ask Yoda a philosophical question real quick!  I need to go get some surprisingly enigmatic wisdom!"  She seems - surprisingly peppy, really, as she bolts off.  "Be right back!  Eventually!"

And when she finds Master Yoda, and makes it through the required pleasantries, she has a question for him: "How is it, Master Yoda, that one overcomes one's fears of fear itself?"

(She hasn't run the whole way there, but there's still a certain dishevelment to her that shows that she really hasn't stopped buzzing for a second since the question hit her, despite the effort it took to hold on to her mental state.)

"Ah... the strongest fear of all, that can be."

"Powerful is a deadly prophecy that fulfills itself, and yet so is the other side. If you are afraid because you believe you will be afraid, then so can you be at peace if you believe you will be at peace."

"...when you put it that way, it's pretty obvious, isn't it.  Thank you.  I needed to hear that advice.  Though the problem is, as always, in the implementation details.

"...While I'm here, though, I have a bit of a brain-teaser I wish to pose to you: If there is such a thing as a Dark Jedi, is there a reason there ought not be something like a Light Sith?"

Yoda doesn't exactly understand the question. "Light Sith is Jedi, hmm? Dark Jedi is what some call the Sith, and those others who use the dark side."

"...no Sith a merely Fallen Jedi is, Master Yoda.  The distinct philosophy of the Sith proves such on its own merits.  The question I inquire upon, then, is thus; if it is possible for one who knows only a Jedi's teachings to fall to the Dark - why could one not take...the seeds, that planted in the darkest of places grew Sith philosophy as we know it - and reach nonetheless for the Light with them?"

"Freedom to choose for themselves, a Jedi has, but the wrong choice, many have made. A Sith has no choice. Some try to use both the light and the dark, to master both powers, but eternally in conflict, the two are. Tried to return to the light, some Sith have, and yet their addiction pulled them back into darkness."

...She's just going to give him a Look for a little while, before she can continue.

"The entire premise of this question is that there is a way of reckoning with the Force that seems to be distinct from the archetypal Sith's focus on the Dark Side.  Which means that if you are taking as your position in this discussion, that the philosophy of Sith-ness is impossible to separate from its Dark-ness, it is - important, to have something with which to back up your position.

"Not just -

"Blank incomprehension of my own.  That's not knowledge, that is ignorance, Master Yoda."

"What say the Sith of the Force, that is not about darkness?"

She has exactly the quote for that, actually.

"I can't say I've found much, but while I did have to tear out a few bits of obvious Darkness -

" 'The Force will change you.  It will transform you.  Some fear this change.  The teachings of the Jedi are focused on fighting and controlling this transformation.  That is why those who serve the light are limited in what they accomplish.  True power can come only to those who embrace the transformation.  There can be no compromise.  Those who try to walk the path of moderation will fail, dragged down by their own weakness.' "

"Where found you this?"

"...Why does that matter?  Though you can rest assured that the Temple is not exposing Sith philosophy to impressionable younglings; it wasn't just sitting around in the Archives.  Which I would hardly dare try to break into without direct instruction from the Force on the matter, which I haven't received.

"...Nor was it acquired from Dooku, if that is your concern; I have been obeying the Temple's requests that I not speak with him.  Despite the fact that I think it's not actually helping anyone that we don't talk to him...at all?  He really needs friends.  I swear I can feel the Serennian angst from all the way over here.

"Or if you mean to ask from what Sith this originated, I'm told that this was posited by a Darth Revan, in the periods of time when he wasn't instead a Knight Revan."

Sigh. "The transformation, that Revan spoke of... very different from the light, that is. The light changes you as well, but only for the better. Listen to what the Force wants, follow its path, and stronger, you will grow. But different, the sacrifice of the dark side is. Destructive is the dark side. Who you are, it rips away, and leaves only rage and fear."

"Weak and limited are the Jedi, say the Sith, because we refuse to hurt those around us. Focused on helping others is the light, and the Sith hope to gain power at their expense. Incompatible, they are."

"...And yet so many Jedi Initiates speak of the Agricorps with contempt.

"As if perhaps our largest single impact upon the galaxy is -

"Master Yoda, if the Force of compassion is strong within the Order, why was the Senate allowed to be so corrupt without even the slightest challenge for several hundred years?

"The change Revan meant was obviously Dark.  But I do not think that the Order as it is has been giving ourselves fully to the Light.  Even if his solution was bunk, I think his words as I've restated them hold some insight into a real problem.

"Let me tell you, Master Yoda, what it takes to be a farmer on Tatooine.

"Tatooine is an absolute suns-blasted hellpit, where to even have a hope of growing something useful you must first have extensive infrastructure of some sort in order to give your crops water.  Oh, there are a few native plants that do their best, don't get me wrong - but even those barely manage to propagate themselves, let alone produce anything worth the effort to digest.  The cultures that have actually lived their entire lives on the planet have turned to ranching as the only plausible source of food, and they were damn well right to; even the animals that chew cud barely make it worth their while.

"And yet the average Jedi in this Temple looks upon the people who bring life out of the desert and rain upon the sands with contempt.

"The people who have been struggling their whole lives to bring Light to the suns-scorched Darkness that is the way that Tatuin has been for tens of thousands of years, ever since the Force itself was turned against it in a catastrophe that our myths still speak of -

"Where is our vaunted compassion?  Where is it?  Why are there so few missions to screaming emergencies?  Why are we so passive as to wait for some Senate functionary to collate a report on the pain the Force yet weeps with?

"I say to you not that Revan had a working solution with his emphasis on the Dark Side and its refusal to consider that compassion and togetherness are strengths of their own - but I do say I think he correctly identified a big karking problem."

"And what solution propose you, hmm? Our source of income, the Senate is, and more important still: a dangerous enemy would they be. The Jedi have not opposed the Republic for many centuries, yes, for fight back, they would, and a war with the Republic, we do not need."

"How hope you to help Tatooine, and those other planets in need? The Service Corps do what they can, yes, but limited are we in our recruits. Not many can feel the Force, and harder still it would be to find them without the Senate."

"We help where we can. Enough, have we done? No. And yet to say we have failed does not bring success. No great discovery have the Sith made of the galaxy, nothing we knew not already, though with more fury may they say it. If our alliance with the Republic we tear apart, no one, does it help. Curious, it is, that reason and calculation, the Sith speak of, and yet so often does it lead them to the same path as anger and revenge."

"And furious are you too. Something must be done, say you, and say the Sith, and so many others. Easy is that to say. Far harder it is, to know what not to do. Problems, the Senate has, but to lash out against them... help, it would not."

...She shakes her head.  "No, Master Yoda, perhaps furious I am, but propose those actions I do not.  Yet, an alliance with the Republic this Order has not had since the Ruusan Reforms subordinated us to them, for entirely understandable reasons but with disastrous long-term effects that solved not even the intended problem of Jedi with armies by making of the Jedi Order an army.  And regardless, my argument is that proactive the Order must be in finding things it is uniquely equipped to solve.  In the Outer Rim, Jedi are mythical.  And that is a problem.  We say that guide us, the Force will, and yet our missions determined almost entirely by Coruscanti politics are.

"To lash out against the Senate think you I call for?  No.  Put our own compound in order we must, as an example unto others - one worth following."

Is she mocking him?

"Enough. Helping the galaxy as much as we can, we are. And as for you - tolerated, this disrespect will not be. Warn you, Master Windu did, not to read what the Sith wrote. If unable to follow our rules, you are, then taken away, your devices will be. Dismissed."

...No?  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and it's not like she's making of this a public spectacle.

"Are we, though.  You should think about that.  Because the greatest power of a Jedi is coordination, and yet - observe how empty stand the Temple's halls.  So few contacts we have with our sibling organizations in relief and recovery that I know not of one with which we regularly work.  We are gardeners without a field."

Yoda has nothing further to say.

That night, Yoda and Windu will discuss Kina's recent actions - with both agreeing some sort of consequences are needed, although Windu is somewhat less concerned about the disrespect than he is the possibility Kina will be so upset she runs away, straight into Dooku's grasp. Nevertheless, when Kina wakes up the next morning she will find that any attempt to access the HoloNet, or indeed make any connection with the outside world on her datapad, is blocked.

That, was a dumbass move.

Also, cracking it open and twiddling some of the bits around so that the Temple's holonet thinks it's a different device, and thus permitted to pass the firewalls, is insultingly simple when you can use the Force to do it.

This time when she walks up to Yoda it happens in public.

"No knowledge there is, but ignorance.  A wonderful start to my morning this is.  Perhaps won the battle you picked you have, but instantly forfeited stands philosophical conflict when force it is that is applied to secure victory.  Have a wonderful morning yourself, and rest assured that I have not a single thing in my day planner that would constitute any of the numerous mischiefs that would stand culturally justified on Tatooine, should it be a slaver's hand upon my collar.  Really, though, if believe you knowledge to be dangerous, then weld shut the stable door after the bantha fled, you have.  Knowledge is in any case best combatted by more knowledge. So do what you are supposed to, Master Yoda, and teach me, rather than blinding yourself.  I am quite willing to learn, though at the moment I must busy myself with meditation, in the way that works best for me, so that I do not do something more inadvisable than this."

She'll be in the workshops!

"Kina."

(The workshops clear out, for definitions of "clear out" that involve standing right outside the door within hearing distance. And then actually clear out, once Windu gives everyone his second-worst glare.)

"I told you. I specifically told you not to look into the Sith and you directly disobeyed me. I don't know if you think insulting Master Yoda's going to get you your HoloNet access back, but it won't. Frankly, I would have expected better from you."

She carefully finishes her weld.

"At no point, actually, did you do any such thing.  Discourage, yes.  Order, no.  I would have performed a different calculus had this matter been an order.  And I am quite aware that insulting - for some value thereof - Master Yoda is not going to change Temple policy, as stupid as it is in this case - but perhaps it will cause him to remove his gimmer stick from his rectal cavity."  Her voice is tightly constrained, her pronunciation clipped and sharp.  "He would neither elucidate me upon any breaking flaw in my argument, nor explain his own to any significant degree.  Debate in bad faith, that is.  And when no good response he had, he turned to force.  Do you see the problem here?"

"The problem is that you read shit by Darth Revan, and that more generally that you can't seem to pay attention to what we tell you! Do you not understand that this gets people hurt? Have you even considered that we have reasons for what we do - clearly you don't agree with them, but if you can't even show us the basic respect expected from a Padawan, then what's the point in us even trying to explain things to you?"

"If I wasn't paying attention to what you told me you would not have known I was looking into this at all.

"But I face the looming specter of a war over the Force itself and I need to arm myself with the understanding necessary to defeat the enemy of flourishing that is suffering and the Darkness!  This isn't out of some morbid fascination with the Darkness - not a lust for its self-defeating power - It's going to try to kill me, because I reject it utterly - and I refuse to do anything less than go down swinging when it tries!

"Not to mention that right now, the Force has three sides as it's personified, and two philosophies.  Does that seem balanced?"

"I think one of them is standing for balance, the - no, I'm not arguing this part right now, the point is I told you something was stupid and dangerous and you did it anyway. Can you understand how this is a bad idea in general, separately from the specific details of the thing you did?"

"It's a bad idea in the general case to ignore expert advice, yes.

"I do think that the specifics of this matter - to wit, that I am trying to proof myself against the dangers and being told that I am not allowed to do so because the dangers exist - are worth taking into account, Master Windu.

"Not to mention that all the Temple yet tells me of the Darkness is that I will know it when I see it.  And that clearly, there is either a flaw in what the Temple has taught me, or a flaw in my own vision, if I can look at what few scraps of surer knowledge that I have, and -"

She holds up a 'one moment please' hand gesture.

"I owe you an explanation of my thoughts that is not simply an unordered ramble.  Let me write this down.  Or up, or - whatever.  Or at least...

"Really, I can probably turn what I already have into several essays, on various subjects.  But right now I'm thinking about...why Light and Dark, and whether, whither, and how they are distinguished from Jedi and Sith.  Because the Sith Code itself is a cry for help.  For freedom from suffering.  And that they have chosen to wield a tool that is unsuited to the task is -

"It was never truly their choice to do so, if Master Yoda's claims are to be believed upon this subject, and I think in this matter I do give him some credence - the Dark Side is inherently corruptive and addicting.  I know exactly what could have broken me, had the wrong voice come a-tempting.

"And it's all the Sith have ever known, Master Windu.

"They are enslaved.

"Were ever enslaved, since first the Force was brought to them, as far as I understand it - from the very first uses of the Force the species that lent their name to the philosophy, saw!

"And my soul cries out to see it!

"They cry to the Force itself for freedom!  The very same thing I bet my life on!  But they ask only the slaving scum that has placed them in their chains!

"So I am -

"Trying to find the tools that I need to free them.

"Because slavery is an abomination, under universally recognized standards of sapient conduct in this galaxy.

"Because it's the right thing to do.

"Because even the Order today bears fetters beneath its robes, no matter that the Senate that holds them has let them slacken.  Which is not to say that I do not immensely appreciate what the Senate has already done of late - but I don't think that we ever should have agreed to the Ruusan Reforms as stated.  The Jedi Lords may have been an abomination, and they rightly deserved to be abolished - but so is the subordination of the Force's will to government policy.

"And the will of the Force...

"It is to connect, and to exalt - to uplift and defend - to promote the most life for the most people.

"But I worry that lost sight of this we have.

"Have I mentioned to you the constant disdain I hear, around this Temple, when the Jedi Service Corps, especially the Agricorps, are mentioned?

"That's a huge karking problem, Master Windu, because they are by far the biggest impact we have upon the galaxy!

"They are by far our strongest connection to it, as well.

"And even that stands intensely attenuated!

"Tell me a relief organization that the Jedi Order regularly works alongside, to maximize our effectiveness per Jedi.

"I'll save you the trouble and tell you that as far as I know we don't have any.

"Working alone is not the way of the Light, it is the way of the Darkness.

"And yet the Order isolates itself on Coruscant and wilfully blinds its eyes if the Senate asks nicely!

"That that is possible is a big karking problem!

"And - it's that, that I think we must do something about.  To restore balance to the Force.

"Not a break with the Republic, Force no - but - a redefinition.  A call to charity's arms, beyond millennia-ossified politics.

"We must free the Force from grasping, controlling hands, before the Force can free us.  That is - the center.  The point about which the galaxy pivots.  And that's why I went looking into the philosophy of Sith.

"Not because I will ever think that the Darkness could do 'the right thing', but because the Order serves so poorly in the ultimate ascent of the Light.  And in the twisted, Dark reflection of the Order's beliefs, we might more clearly see their flaws, as well as our own.

"We may have begun to pull the veils from our eyes, but -

"I am called to serve, Master Windu, not to cut.  And yet cutting is the Temple's ultimate cause!"

Windu stays silent for a while.

"If you want to help the galaxy," he eventually says, "you're not going to be able to do so by fighting with its government."

"It's not like the Jedi are the only ones out there that tries to help people. But the results that we achieve are often stronger, more effective, longer-lasting, than what individuals are able to achieve, and it's because - there's a sense of legitimacy that comes with being a servant of the Republic. And I don't just mean people see us as more legitimate, I mean that the things we do have a stronger reason behind them than our individual desires. If you decide, like the Sith, that you want to go out and make some particular change to the galaxy, that you think it'll have good effects, then you can try to do that on your own, sure. And then the next person with a bright idea will come up with their own way to reform the galaxy, and if it involves taking apart what you made, if it works directly in opposition to that and cancels out whatever you thought was best, well, that's the cost of progress to them. Two people can both be doing whatever they think is best, and the trouble is that they each think the other person's wrong, and so all they accomplish is wasting resources trying to tug fate back and forth for a few moments. Or ten people, or ten trillion."

"Nobody's claiming the Republic is the greatest source of moral authority in the galaxy. But it's the most recognizable authority, a point to fall back on that has more objectivity than the endless process of people following their own fragments of plans. Democracy is responsible for that; it gives people a way to build something up from their own opinions and learn how to follow the will of all the galaxy's people. And sure, there are plenty of ways the Republic is skewed, or inefficient, when it comes to representing what the people want, but it's still better than nothing. A lot better than nothing, a lot better than a galaxy that's half Sith fighting Jedi and half Jedi fighting Sith."

"And you're not appreciating the value in having a single entity you can turn to for a goal, the value of being able to ask 'what do the people want' instead of 'what do I think would be best for them.' For all I know, maybe you do know better than the Senate, but the trouble is that Count Dooku also thinks he knows better than the Senate, and Jango Fett probably thinks he knows better than the Senate, and trillions of other people think they know better than the Senate. And even if every single one of them did each have a plan that would work better than the way the Republic is doing it now - which most of them don't, to be clear, but if they did - it still wouldn't mean anything, because their plans wouldn't work with each other. Do you want the galaxy to be a place where everyone tries to do whatever comes to mind to them, or a place where we can all work together towards the common goal of everyone? - yes, work together slowly and inefficiently, at times, but at least we have a way to work together at all!"

"You've mentioned slavery, and drought, and other things like that, as major problems that the galaxy needs to solve. I'm sure you see it as - everything's bad, we need radical change, we need to set up something different, and fix it as soon as possible. I'd say it's the exact opposite. It's been bad, but it's been a lot better than it could be, than it might become soon. We've had an era of stability and unity ever since Ruusan, and suddenly Dooku and the others come along and start what's pretty much a civil war. The Confederacy's now seen as an alternative to the Republic, and it's not even like it's going to stay two sides for long. The Confederacy claims to be all about individual groups splintering off to follow their own laws; it won't be long until even it splits apart into two or three groups of its own. We're losing the ability to have a clear representative. If this continues, if we don't get the government back together, there won't be a voice of the people, there won't be a way to follow what the galaxy as a whole wants, because there won't be a galaxy as a whole."

"And so now at a time when our first priority should be to fix the divide that's growing worse and worse every day, you think the best way to make things better is even more division. If we break away from the Senate, or even if we stay with them in name but stop following their orders, that takes away the Republic's legitimacy, not to mention our own. It takes away our ability to say 'yes, this is what the Jedi and the Senate and the peoples of all of these different planets have agreed to do' and instead just fractures us into smaller and smaller groups. There'd be the Republic on one side, and the Separatists on another, and the Jedi on another. Sure, maybe if we do that, then we can free a few more slaves in the short term. But that doesn't matter at all if it means the galaxy loses any semblance of a united government for the next couple millennia; you really think that planets with no law and order are going to have less slavery?"

"The Republic's very far from perfect, but it's all we have. The Jedi don't have a better option for helping the people of the galaxy, than just doing what their representative tells us to do."

"So. The Sith. Who you have been reading the works of. The Sith are, fundamentally, the people who think they're better at figuring out what's right than the Jedi, or Republic, or even the Force itself. Their ideology is about individuals trying to calculate what they think is the best path, and then doing that regardless of how many people get sacrificed along the way. It's not surprising, then, that no Sith ever manage to work well together. That whenever they try to form alliances, they always end up betraying each other, and destroying each other's plans in the process."

"Master Yoda and I have said it before, and it's not like you've listened so far, but just to repeat it one more time: you are not the first person to think you could fix all the problems of the galaxy. You are not even the millionth. Over and over, every Sith starts the same way. They read up on the dark side, realize it's a source of power, do a quick calculation and conclude that it's worth the risk just to take a small dive into the dark side in order to accomplish a greater goal. And then two years later they are slaughtering billions of people as part of their quest to take over the galaxy, which at best ends in the failure and death of them and everyone associated with their movement."

"Yes, I know you're saying you want to read about the dark side so that you can protect yourself from it. Funnily enough, that's not an unusual way for it to all start, either. If you want to keep yourself safe from the dark side, your best way to do that is by staying away from it. We've told you about what to watch out for, and if you still have questions about how the dark side tries to tempt people, you can stick to Jedi sources that were not specifically made by an entity that's trying to corrupt you."

"We are trying to help you stay safe. The Sith are doing the opposite. Please remember that before doing something we warned you was not safe."

"...Master Windu...The will of the Republic is not the will of the Force.  The will of the people is hardly the will of the Senate, either - or it wasn't, at least.  I do hold out some hope that the dramatic revelation of a Sith Lord in their chambers served a purpose.  I am not arguing that we should cut ties to the Republic.  I am, however, desperately concerned by the way they can tell us to jump and Jedi policy is only ever to ask how high.

"Would you work for the Hutts, if they were a source of stability and order?  I know we put a stop to most of them, but -

"Tatooine festered for so long because people compromised themselves in the name of --

"I cannot even call it peace.

"Perhaps such a thing exists, but we can't see it without allowing ourselves to go and look.  And on Tatooine, the only thing my mother could do to protect me was to close my eyes, and I am sick and tired of being alternately a helpless child and a threat as if I have not been staring into the midday suns of pain and suffering ever since I was old enough to think!

"I made a choice to reject the work of suffering.  To be kind despite the worst possible privations.

"And I will make it, again, and again, and again, until the end of time itself if need be.  Because that is the central lie of the Dark Side.  That you have no choice.  That the cost of the pain you'll cause could ever be worth it.  That caring is a curse.  And I know how to recognize a slaver when I see one.

"I'm not sure if you do.

"I'm near certain that Yoda doesn't.

"And there is one thing I know that makes me certain that the Dark Side will not hold me: I would rather tear my own heart out with my bare hands, than become a slave again.

"While the presently extant Siths' obsession with the Dark Side is inherently stupid and self-defeating, given everything we know about how and why it exists, that doesn't mean that all the things a Sith has ever said are automatically wrong.

"The Dark Side may dominate its users' destinies - but they are still, for the most part, people.  Palpatine notwithstanding.  They deserve to be treated like people.  Not like - some sort of metaphysically corrosive poison, wearing a person-shaped suit.  Do you remember what brought me to Dooku's attention?  I saw that he wasn't alright, and I tried to help him with his pain.  Why was I the only person that could?  Why was I the only person that did?

"Why do I feel more and more like I have traded one set of chains for another?

"Not that I have any better options, but you shouldn't have lied to me, if the Jedi aren't free.  If they have chained themselves to something they consider more important than the most good for the most people."

She turns the kyber crystal of Qui-Gon Jinn over and over in her hands, entangling her fingers in the silvered chain it hangs from.

Somehow, it smells of petrichor.

"Because the thing is, it took so much effort it should not have had to, to do anything about the Sith in the Senate.

"And, yes, the situation won't be that bad again in my lifetime - but robust this solution is not.

"Which is why the Order needs to disentangle itself from being the Republic's private army, and why I keep thinking that Jedi should preferentially use shields, rather than swords.

"That if the galaxy is going to fragment and burst at the seams - and frankly, given the status of Jedi as a myth on the Outer Rim, it already has - that it is our job not to do what the government wants, but to help the people figure out what they want and what they need - then realize their dreams."

"Again, the Republic is far from perfect, but it stands for what the people want. Maybe that gets diluted, with all of the corrupt Senators and all, but you're not recognizing the importance of having anything at all that has a higher authority than your own guesses as to what's best. What do you want to do, go poll people on every planet on what changes they want us to make? We already have that, and it's called voting."

"And even if you are trying to defy the Republic, you think the Sith have something to teach you? The worst wars that ever happened to this galaxy were caused by Sith trying to break away from the central government and set up their own new order. If you wanted the Jedi to... I don't know, tell the Senate we don't care what they say, we're cutting back the Knights and expanding the AgriCorps whether they like it or not - that would be bad enough, but what do the Sith have to do with that?"

"...The Force, Master Windu, do you listen to it!"

"Excuse me.  I'll come back to that in a moment.

"I say to you that the pretense that the Senate is actually democratic is the greatest lie I've ever been told.

"And not because of the corruption, no.

"It's just too impossibly big to allow anyone to be represented equitably.

"Just look at the way that - for a median example - the entire Chommel Sector's political representation rests in the hands of one planet thereof.  Not even to start discussing the Outer Rim Territories, non-voting Senators, the way there are some Senate seats still reserved for individual planets -

"And does the Galactic Senate spend so much time micromanaging any other charitable organization as they do the Jedi Order, Master Windu?"

"I am not trying to defy the Republic.  I'm trying to propose ways for it to not be a horrifying disaster masquerading as a functioning central government.

"But that has nothing to do with the Sith.  Not in any practical sense, at least, though I would be lying if I didn't say I haven't been thinking about all this because of similar underlying causes.

"The Sith project is ultimately an attempt to redeem Count Dooku.  To turn him to the Light from the Darkness that he's wrapped around himself like a veil.  Perhaps even, sands take me, the other idiot.  He needs to understand research ethics, and why they matter, but he's not wrong to - pursue the idea that people should have as much fulfilling life as the combined efforts of galactic civilization can buy them.  Even if he's pursued it from a place of fear.  A place of suffering.  ...We're supposed to build, Master Windu.  And even if the rest of the parts are complete and utter junk, sometimes you find the most surprising things to repurpose in the abomination against mechanics and maintenance that fall from the sky into your junkyard.  Metaphorically speaking.

"All I can say is - The Force thinks that caring about people, as more than just an abstract mass, matters.

"Are you saying you can't perceive that?"

"I can perceive that, yes. I also know that the Force speaks rarely, and doesn't usually give specific answers to every question we have about how to help people."

"The Senate's big, and it's not perfectly proportionally balanced. But there are plenty of smaller committees to handle individual regions and areas. Every planet has a say in the vast majority of the legislation that affects them individually. The highest level of the Galactic Senate handles the issues that are on a much bigger level than individual planets or systems or sectors, galactic trade and interplanetary wars and things that affect the galaxy as a whole. If Chommel Minor doesn't have much of a say in the biggest issues in the galaxy, well, that's because they've only got about a trillionth of the galaxy's population. And considering that there are only about fifty thousand people in the Order - most of which aren't anywhere near the level of ability of a full Jedi Knight - it is physically impossible for us to help every star system. We have to focus on a larger scale, and that's where the Republic matters most."

"I think Dooku's beyond redemption. We've tried talking to him, Qui-Gon's tried, I know you think you have a better shot at it than us because of your experiences, but it's not worth the risk that he turns you, which, again, is what usually happens in this kind of situation."

"And even if you are going to talk to Dooku again some day, which I'm somewhat surrendered to, what with the prophecy and all - it shouldn't be so soon. You still have more to learn about the Force; just because you started further ahead than anyone else doesn't mean you can't grow just as far! I'd be a lot less worried about Dooku's chances of corrupting a thirty-year-old Jedi Master Kina."

"...I don't think I have quite that much time, Master Windu, and if those regional organizations exist I'm going to need to know where you're finding your information on them.  And there are existing failures of that system, too, because Queen Amidala didn't have, or believe herself to have - and she's not going to miss options like that - any recourse but to petition the Senate itself for relief, rather than asking for Chommel Minor's assistance in their mutual defense against a blatant act of war!  You were there for that!"

"That's because it was a galactic issue. A war with the Trade Federation, which isn't based in the Chommel sector, can't be unilaterally decided by that sector, and besides, I don't think any other Chommel systems even have as much military force as Naboo."

"An big organization invading a small planet like that is rare. Most of the time, nobody starts a war because they know the Republic will intervene, and even if they do, it's usually a small conflict on one or two planets that can be resolved by the regional governments. The only reason the Trade Federation went so far was because they thought Palpatine was going to bail them out. If the Republic wasn't there, this sort of thing wouldn't be so rare."

"I know time is limited, with the Separatists getting stronger and all. But - okay, they're only at - what was it now, 22% of the galaxy? - and I think the Republic's at 68%. Pretty much every system in the Republic has already made a decision as to whether to leave or not; that 68%'s not going anywhere. And we've got another five years left in the current treaty before the neutral systems get to set up their own governments and decide which side to join. Dooku can't really do anything else until then. So you can at least wait four and a half years and take a look at the situation then, before you try and convince Dooku to stop all this."

"...I feel like you're missing the problem that the Trade Federation was ever allowed to have enough power over others to do that in the first place.  Dooku's solutions are profoundly warped by the Dark Side, but I don't think the CIS - as a reaction to the Republic's...to put it charitably, disastrous mismanagement of many things - is actually the problem.

"It needs to be easier to help people.  And there are ways I think it could be easier to help people.  Leaving aside the way that the Republic asks us to constantly save it, instead of trying to save itself.  I don't deny that the Republic needs our help, but it also should not have built itself atop reliance upon the Jedi if it was also going to bind them to the foundations.  ...Actually, perhaps I should tell you that story.  It...feels relevant to what we have been dealing with.  And why the CIS is not a villain, no matter whether Dooku turns out to be one in the end."

"Well, 'the CIS' isn't anything. The people in those systems, sure, they're not villains. The people in charge of the CIS are. Apart from Dooku himself, they're led almost entirely by the Trade Federation and a couple other corporations just like it. Nute Gunray and his crowd don't give a damn about helping people, and joining up with them isn't making anything better for anyone."

"...Dooku is wrong that the Dark Side can be turned to good ends, but - being supervised by the people who cared enough about systemic corruption to try and build a new system outside of the old and frankly broken one the Republic was, at the time the CIS formed...

"I can't say I can think of anyone better for the Nute Gunrays of the galaxy to be subject to, to be honest, as long as there is actual enforcement of anti-corruption and sophontarian laws.  It's probably a mess right now, but I think that - given time, it should turn out alright.  Given time and help, I think it might go well."

"There isn't enforcement of anti-corruption or - anything! Yes, a lot of the systems joining now are doing it for those reasons, but the main goal of its founders was to escape the law. And not just laws that were particularly corrupt, laws like 'you have to pay taxes' or 'you can't build your own private army and invade Naboo.' The system they're trying to set up isn't about helping people."

"Then why are the Jedi not mobilizing to assist in the sophontarian crisis of epic proportions that you are describing?  Just because it's not occurring in the Republic?  That would make us no more than the akk hounds of the Senate that some of the CIS say we are - and not without grounds to do so!  We have been complicit in injustice!  I checked!  But the thing is, Dooku didn't make the CIS in a day, even though I have to imagine he wasn't expecting to need to do it when he did it; Sheev trying to murder the entire Senate in what I can only call a fit of childish pique was, I think, a surprise to everyone involved.

"...What I'm really saying is, we need to be more proactive if we're going to try and solve all the galaxy's problems, Master Windu.  That, or admit we're hypocrites.  Because to truly be the font and foundation of compassion that we ought to be, we must act.  Not merely handwring about the existence of problems disapprovingly.  Constraining our outreach to the people who have sufficient sway to get a Senator involved is a horrifying betrayal of the principles of the Force itself."

"And how do you propose that we act? Beyond arguing with Dooku."

"Master Windu, if I had the information I would need to begin to know how to do that on an institutional level, I'd be on the High Council.  That's not saying I couldn't learn most of it, but right now I am examining the machinery of state and noticing that the engine I've never seen before has a knock in it, not doing a full teardown on something I've had my hands on a million times before.  I do think that the Order's centralization of everything to Coruscant - notwithstanding the Corellian temple that apparently also exists, which is...its most notable trait, really, aside from something about allowing marriage - is a massive problem, though.  We need to be closer, both physically and spiritually, to the people who need the most help, rather than looking down into the depths from a lofty perch like this.  Certainly we are not Orn Free Taa, but - the Order has luxuries that many people in the galaxy lack, like consistent access to food, water, shelter - even air.  Here on Coruscant there are people who starve in the streets, or die of black lung.  And yet there is no Corps of engineers and logisticians whose remit is to fix those problems, unless you mean to tell me that the Agricorps are also responsible for food distribution and also, somehow, industrial safety, when the Force is a perfect tool for working on sensitive machinery.  I suppose the Explorer Corps does some safety work, because they operate ships - but it's hardly their job.

"If there is anything I am confident in proposing right now, it is that we need both a survey, investigator, or reporter corps of some sort, probably under the aegis of our diplomats, to gather firsthand intelligence of the state of the galaxy from the greatest and least of its peoples - without the bias of what is told to us by outside sources, or what we find when we lurk in the shadows; the Senate telling us things isn't some horrible problem, but we need to be able to verify that they themselves are neither misleading nor mislead, and I don't want to start on the question of Jedi Shadows because that's a whole 'nother mess - and that we need to recognize the people that already handle our infrastructure, both the physical devices and buildings and the immaterial logistics, and set them loose on the galaxy's, for its own good.  Because the way the galactic economy works...is that it mostly doesn't.  Resources flow into the Core from the periphery, and then they stop.  This is not how an economy ought to work, even according to the people who do economics for the Trade Federation."

"We do get firsthand experience. Jedi get sent all over the galaxy, even if Coruscant is the center of everything. And if you want to get more data with a... Survey Corps... well, we cannot actually summon people out of empty space. Some existing part of the Order, some of the very limited supply of Jedi that we have doing important things to help the galaxy, would have to abandon their current posts. And economics, and industry, and surveys - none of those have anything to do with the skills that the Jedi possess."

"None of those things have things to do with skills the Jedi knowingly cultivate as a service branch, Master Windu.  But possess?  I think there are plenty of Jedi who do have those skills.  I'd consider myself halfway qualified to be an engineer.  And, visiting somewhere is very different from living there.  I do think the position of Sector Watch is a good idea, but they shouldn't have to do all that alone.

"Not to mention that not every person the Order asks to work with them has to be Force-sensitive.  Certainly there are many things the Jedi do that are greatly aided by the Force - but there are equally many things that are or could be done by anyone, given the chance.  The Medi-corps run vaccine programs.  The Agricorps have plenty of things they do that don't need a Force-sensitive's personal attention, even if in many cases the Force can speed things along.  For that matter, why doesn't the Order have more droid staff?  I know C3PO is bumping around, he's a surprisingly good analyst these days and I think he spends more time in the library than I do - but we don't have any medic droids that I know of, and only a few astromechs.  Well, I suppose the Explorer Corps has more, but - we could use the help, in making it easier for Jedi to do what they are uniquely qualified to accomplish.  I have more than a few ideas I only need parts and data for."

"Well, things that don't require the Force don't really need to be done with the Jedi. The unique advantages of a Jedi come from the Force, even if they have other skills as well."

"Look, we're getting sidetracked. You can go ahead and - write up a list full of ideas for the Order that's what you want to do, I'll take a look at it - add explanations of where we would be getting the people and resources to carry out those ideas, while you're at it. But you're not involving yourself with Dooku or anything else to do with the Sith. Understood?"

"...Sir, if you think that whatever they're up to isn't eventually going to find me anyway, I think you may have forgotten that time what's-his-face, the biologist, stole my Padawan braid.  And that's not even mentioning Dooku.  They're interested in me.  But I will write up that list."