I think when you create something that is so “good vs. evil,” it’s impossible not to have the futile battle between two great factions. I love the read. However, to this day, my favorite Star Wars novels are the Bane ones by Karpyshyn and there’s a reason for that. We get to see so much more of a Sith Lord. I love it.

I have always thought that the Star Wars franchise (particularly the movies) has constantly portrayed both Sith and Jedi in their extremes. Yet, the movies were all about balance- when the Jedi reached an unsustainable degree of extremism in their actions and philosophy, the balance shifted towards the Sith. The same thing happened when the Sith became too excessive. That there has never been any middle ground has confounded me. After all, each faction is made up of individual beings capable of interpreting their Order’s dogma in different ways but mostly this has been whitewashed (or is that darkwashed?) over and ignored. Some novels and comics try to breach the dark/light divide but so far none have done so that radically alters how people perceive the Jedi and Sith.

The idea of Sith and Jedi being given more latitude to explore what their philosophies mean through players is very appealing. It will make people actively *think* about the philosophies of both Orders and how they apply to everyday life. Well, as much as an MMO can .

Still I confess I would love to see a more significant canon exploration of right, wrong, dark, light and all the grey in between. In so many ways the Star Wars universe is locked into a futile battle between two great factions that will never end. While that might be fun for the fans to read about for a while it also ends in stagnation. I would love to read about how the Galaxy might deal with this schism in different ways. That’s probably why I’m so interested in what player RP will develop.

Now the Sith ideology is evil (by definition), while its followers may be “Evil”, “Neutral” or “Good”. To say the Sith ideology is not evil is delusional, but to say all Sith are not “evil” ok, ya! I can agree with that. Just like I would agree not all Republic followers would be “good”

As an aside, Machivelli was discussing the ethics of a ruler/nation/government which for practical purposes have a different standard than person to person ethics. Ethics predominantly serve the purpose of survival and social standing among one’s peers. The impact and evolution is driven by the “social economics” within a “market place” of values.

A nation’s peers (in varying spheres of operation) are other sovereign entities (a sovereign being an entity the nation would normally bargain with as opposed to dictate to). The relation between citizens and a government is predominantly one between a regulator and the regulated. In representative governments, government approved procedural feedback impacts and compliments this relationship in a manner similar to the way consumer participation in the market place impacts the products and services provided by businesses.

When reading about Palpatine’s Empire and the Yuuzhan Vong, I realized that he knew all along that they were coming. My creating this massive Empire with this huge military, he was preparing for war against them. So, in essence, we think the Empire is this horrible thing…Yet, when you look at it, he was trying to defeat a very powerful enemy. Thanks so much for your comment, Lucien.