A thought occured to me about Sith Purebloods. The Darkside of The Force is knowen to damage and corrupt the bodies of those who use it a lot. Darth Sidious is a famous example, just look at him. Even sith who aren’t that badly damaged have their eyes turn yellow, like Lana Beniko.

But Sith Purebloods are described as being naturally attuned to The Darkside, it’s stated as being in their DNA. So I can’t help but wonder, if they’re genetically predisposed towards The Darkside, are they less susceptible or even immune to it’s damaging effects?

It would certainly make sense, especially since their home planet of Korriban is naturally strong in it.

This might be controversial, but I’ve never had a problem with the idea that some people are born Force Sensitive. Maybe it’s because I grew up with the Prequl Trilogy but the thought that only certain people were born with the potential to be Jedi or Sith or some other type of Force user has never been a problem in my mind.

I once saw a post on this site saying that the Chiss in SWTOR are in fact the worse choice of race for the Imperial Agent Class. But thinking about it, that might be why they’re perfect for the role.

Spys are meant to be cleaver, discreet, and able to blend in without drawing attention to themselves. Everyone knows this, and that’s what make a Chiss - a blue skinned alien from a xenophobic culture with a known partnership to The Empire - such a good spy.

They are so out of place, so unsubtle, so obviously and clearly a spy or traitor, that no-one could really believe it. The rebels on Balmora would see this blue man with a poorly faked accent and think, ‘They can’t be a spy! The Empire’s smarter than that!’ and then they get wrecked.

Any thoughts?

son-of-mandalore:

Why Din Djarin is NOT in a cult:

So it’s pretty obvious that a lot of people don’t really know what a cult is or think that any restrictive culture is a cult, so I’m gonna break down some common questions:

*it’s also important to note that a cult usually refers to a religious group that worships a person or diety, so by a strict definition the covert is not a cult*

He has to cover his face, that means he’s in a Cult right?

So many cultures require some kind of head covering for all or some of their population. The most obvious example today would be Islam, but almost every religion has a similar equivalent. Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, and many other cultures and religions have a head covering of some kind either now or historically. It is true that relatively few of them cover the entire face, but there are still several throughout history. Covering your face does not make your group a cult by any means.

But dosen’t wearing a helmet causes him distress?

Actually, no. Din shows no distress or discomfort from wearing his helmet. He removes it when he is alone, and is able to perform all the behaviors he needs to while wearing it in front of others. His distress only comes from being forced to not wear his helmet, which does cause him tremendous distress. But preventing someone from practicing their faith causing distress is not a sign of a cult.

The covert isolates themselves, that makes them a cult

Also false. While they are isolationist, this is because of their safety, not their culture or beliefs. They are still recovering from the effects of a genocide, and are still being hunted down and killed for their armor. Their isolationism is what is keeping them alive, and we see this first hand when Don’s covert is massacred by the empire after revealing themselves.

Din was indoctinirated by them! That makes them a cult?

This one is complex. He was adopted by the mandalorians after his parents were killed, and raised in mandalorian culture. All humans are indoctrinated into their culture through a process called ‘Socialization’, which teaches a person the behaviors they need to conform to the group they belong to. This itself is fairly normal, as no one is born with culture, it is given to them by those around them. Raising orphans in their culture dosent make them a cult.

The Children of the Watch came from DeathWatch, a cult!

Din Djarin was saved by members of Clan Viszla, who led the DeathWatch at that period of time. DeathWatch also wasn’t so much a cult as a Terrorist organization, which is worse but it’s also an important distinction. It’s also important to notice that Bo-Katan calls them the ‘Children of the Watch’, Din does not. The COTW clearly do not identify currently with DeathWatch, and also do not follow their customs. DeathWatch was led by a single warrior leader, while the COTW are softly led by a blacksmith spiritual guide, and is vastly more egalitarian. While the potential roots of the COTW are in a terrorist group, that dosent make them necessarilya cult, nor does it mean that it still is involved with said terrorist group.

Bo-Katan said he was in a cult!

For multiple reasons, Bo-Katan is not a reliable source of information. First off, she is not established to be trustworthy or a good person, as she is a former terrorist whose actions directly lead to the Great Purge. She is not a reliable source of what is right or wrong, or even what is good for mandalorians. Second off, she has a motive to covert the COTW to her cause, because they don’t want to take back mandalore, and she needs soldiers. Discrediting the faction is in her best interest. Third of all, her opinion on a faction does not make it true, what matters is the experience of those within the faction.

Din dosen’t know anything about history, that means he was brainwashed or sheltered!

It is true, Din does know little compared to what we know about mandalorian history. But it is important to recognize that we, as the viewer, know almost everything about mandalorian history, across decades. Din was only about 10 when Bo-Katan helped take back mandalore with the republic, but that quickly turned into an imperial occupation. Bo-Katan was never in control of mandalore for more than a few hours, why on earth would some random kid know about Bo-Katan? He also dosent know much about the Jedi, but he was 10 when the Jedi were wiped out, and almost no one in the outer rim believed in the Jedi even when they existed. His ignorance is understandable when looking at his experiences in life. It’s also important to remember that this happens in a galaxy of trillions upon trillions of people, it’s easy to not know about someone.

Din thinks Mandalore is cursed, therefor the COTW lied to him!

There is actually a good reason for this. We don’t know when the COTW left deathwatch or greater mandalorian society, but it’s important to know that even prior to the great purge, the surface mandalore was a desolate wasteland from decades of war. And then during the great purge, almost all of the mandalorians were murdered and the planet was glassed(which means that the entire surface of the planet was bombarded, so that the surface turned to glass). There is a good reason to think that the planet is cursed/inhospitable. At best it’s still a desert. At worst, it’s uninhabitable.

Long story short, not liking or agreeing with the cultural practices of mandalorians and especially the covert is OK. But just because it’s strange or you don’t agree with it, dosent make it a cult.

darthpuffball:

feynites:

jasjuliet:

respainey:

jollysunflora:

daxxglax:

asgardreid:

sinbadism:

bogleech:

You know, with all the language throughout Star Wars about “giving in” to the Dark Side, how the Dark Side makes you more powerful, how the Dark Side makes you age strangely and destroys you, it sure doesn’t sound like an “opposite side of the coin” so much as the “deeper end of the pool,” like it’s actually the true form of the force and being a Jedi is about keeping it tamed so it doesn’t eat you the way it actually wants.

the force is entropy

Eldritch Jedi pls

This is one of the reasons i love the second Knights of the Old Republic game, wherein one of the major characters (who defines herself neither as Jedi nor Sith) actually views the Force this way, saying  “I hate the Force. I hate that it seems to have a will, that it would control us to achieve some measure of balance, when countless lives are lost.”

It’s also the game that gave us the two most entropic, eldritch characters in the franchise: Darth Nihilus, whose dark-side-borne ability to feed on the Force and consume life itself has twisted him into a half-living “wound in the Force”, more presence than flesh

and Darth Sion, whose entire body is a ruin, his flesh nothing but ragged scar tissue, every bone and muscle broken and torn, kept animated by will alone as he forces himself, second by agonizing second, to exist

I wish there were more horrifying perspectives on the force like that

#the force is a horrorterror

This is one of the reasons the term “Light Side” never felt right to me, even before it was used in any official media; The Force always struck me more like an ocean than a binary concept: the deeper you go, the darker and more crushing it gets — at a certain point becoming an effectually consistent darkness — and while light filters down and fades for some distance, if there is a truly light “side” it’d be the surface.

Which isn’t to say “the Force is evil unless you flounder about near the top” — just that it’s a natural force, and as such is something you need to respect and be adequately prepared for. (Take electricity, for example: super awesome and pretty dang useful, but OH HOLY SMOKES don’t try and harness it unless you REALLY know what you’re doing!)

In this sense, being tempted by the Dark Side is less a case of “Hey, I wonder what’s on the other side of this coin it looks pretty cool haha oh whoops I’m Space Walter White now,” and more one of “The deeper into this thing you go, the harder you’ll need to fight to resist the ever-increasing pressure, to remain whole, even to just see whatever the heck you’re actually doing.”

(which is why Jedi training is so important: those padawans gotta build themselves a mental Deepsea Challenger!)

THIS META BLESSED ME

Okay but let’s suppose, for a moment, that the Force is actually malevolent.

That would make a lot of sense.

Consider, for a moment, an eldritch parasite. This ancient being feeds off of the life-force of other creatures. Not that unusual, as most living things also consume other living things, to various degrees. But this one is technically somewhat removed from the usual structures of biology. It is a passive and opportunistic predator, for the most part. Whenever a living being that is connected to it - however weakly - dies, it consumes part of its energy, and gets bigger.

As life in the galaxy flourishes, and time passes, this singular entity gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger. Like a catfish; the only limit to its growth is how much it can consume to fuel it. The larger it gets, the more it is able to sink its invisible claws into other living beings, until eventually there is hardly any life out there which hasn’t been ‘infected’ by it, and slated to become its spiritual dinner as soon as its biological form gives out.

And here we actually come to - of all things - the midichlorians. Which, the Jedi use to measure someone’s sensitivity to the Force, which works because midichlorians are the vehicle for the predatory parasite to infest living beings. The immune systems in some people begin to develop a certain degree of resistance to them, which is why some folks have more, and some have less, and this directly correlates to their Force sensitivity. The more midichlorians you have, the worse your immune system is at fending off the parasite.

The Force counters the risk of being bred out of subsequent generations by developing camouflage, and adapting itself into a more seemingly-symbiotic relationship with its prey.

What the Jedi see as the ‘light side’ of the Force, is a reflective layer that this predator has created via its connection to all living things. This network is the honey trap that encourages the beings still strongly connected to it, to spread that connection, because it affords them advantages while they are still alive. But its elements are comprised mostly of echoes and reflections of their fellow prey organisms. Force Ghosts that resemble the departed. Emotions that are transmitted along this layer and between individuals. Small amounts of power that can be siphoned off to impact the environment, and can also spread the Force to whatever living thing it comes into contact with.

This being is huge now, it needs a lot of juice in order to maintain its existence, let along continue to grow. And like most predators it’s willing to expend a certain amount of energy in order to guarantee a bigger pay-off.

The deeper you go into the Force, the more the Force starts exerting its own will through you. And the less you see of the reflected camouflage of it, and the more apparent it becomes that the Force wants large swaths of death to feed it. Which is why Dark Siders often become so preoccupied with things like Death Stars.

But it’s a balancing act. A large population of relatively peaceful Force sensitives, like the Jedi, cost more than they’re worth, because beyond a point they take too much energy from the Force and don’t kill enough people to pay for it. A single individual abusing their powers for self-gain and murdering left and right, though, accomplishes the goal of feeding it. The Force obviously doesn’t want its food supply to die out completely, but this explains the persistent cycles of the Star Wars universe - as a soon as a group of peaceful Force users becomes prominent, they get wiped out by a few Dark Siders who have tread too deeply past the reflective surface of the Force, and become actual vessels for its will.

And then when the Dark Siders have finished killing a whole bunch of people, it’s time for them to go, too, so that they don’t wipe out the entire populace and kill off the Force’s food supply beyond its ability to reasonably recover. The peaceful types then see an upswing, as they are more adept at spreading the Force. So the cycle goes - Jedi spread the Force, Sith kill the Jedi and feed the Force, Jedi kill the Sith and resume spreading the Force. It’s a planting and harvest cycle, and the galaxy is populated with the Force’s living spirit crops. Anakin Skywalker, who was arguably one of the beings most closely connected to the Force, and had an extremely high midichlorian count, basically lived this cycle in its entirety as an individual - he spread the Force as a Jedi, he killed people as a Sith, and then he ended it all in order to preserve his progeny for the next round.

tl;dr - the Force wants to eat your soul. The reason the ‘light side’ types always get so up in their own asses is because what they perceive as the Force is basically their own reflections dangling in front of them like an angler fish’s lure. The reason the ‘dark side’ types get so messed up is because they’re basically the equivalent of those grasshoppers who get infected with a parasite that makes them drown themselves.

This is what I like to see

queerangelic:

hi does anyone have good meta on how fandom really jumped the gun on the assumption that Din grew up in an unhealthy environment and cult based on One Line from Bo-Katan who clearly has a biased perspective?

@thecyndimistuff @dindjarindiaries I’m guessing at least one of you has written such a thing on the subject.

fluffynexu:

riajade01:

doomhamster:

tinybuggy:

doomhamster:

doomhamster:

tinybuggy:

Okay now that I’m slightly more awake:

“they don’t love their kids” and “if they loved their kids more” is a irl justification for people in power to justify atrocities and abuse against marginalized populations.

Bombing a civilian center = kids were being human shields

Taking away welfare = if they loved their kids they wouldn’t have done X

Kids in cages = their parents wouldn’t have let them come if they loved them

State sanctioned kidnapping = best interest of the child

The very concept has too many real world implications and baggage for people to invoke it uncritically.

tinybuggy:

The ideas that 1) sith parents don’t love their kids and 2) pureblood are breeding (ew) themselves out of existence

Is disturbing due to the similarities in IRL rhetoric regarding The Other in a way I can’t coherently or adequately describe.

It’s gross and it tells me uncomfortable things about the people who hold it.

Just please for once think about what you’re actually saying.

Yeah, that’s a really gross assumption to make. 

I mean, the Sith order encourages thinking of other people as resources and I can absolutely see SOME members extending that to their offspring… but it’s clearly not ALL of them. PLZ to see Exhibit A, Darth Angral, literally setting the galaxy on fire because THAT JEDI KILLED MY SON.

And while most Sith-species are also members of Sith-order? There is ZERO reason to assume they’d be MORE likely to adopt this kind of attitude. In fact, I could see them being far less likely to do so because of the entire culture-within-a-culture thing and the desire to preserve their heritage.

As for the whole “breed themselves out of existence” thing, that’s not only gross, it’s stupid. The Sith-blooded want to survive AS WHAT THEY ARE, a culture and species separate from the rest of the human-dominated Empire.

I think it’s just another aspect of people having knee-jerk reactions to things like “pure blood” and not stopping to think which side of the balance the Sith-blooded are actually ON. They’re not the “master race” trying to avoid “miscegenation”, they’re a minority species struggling to maintain their cultural and physical identity.

This fandom only cares about the Aesthetics of imperialism and colonalism because frankly, for most of the people in this fandom, the Aesthetics is all they can cling to for This Thing Bad.

They don’t look deeper because they don’t know how to look deeper. And they don’t even know there’s a ‘deeper’

Because most of them don’t have to live with the consequences of colonialism and imperialism in their daily lives. And they are very clear about not wanting to listen to the people who actually do have to live with it (I think we can all think of certain specific people)

Yuuup.

TBH, with some of the things I see called “colonization” or “fascism” these days, I’m starting to wonder if most fans even know what those buzzwords they use actually MEAN… and then if someone complains it’s because they’re an apologist. Clearly. It’s not that those words represent important and complex concepts or anything.

All of this. I remember arguing with someone about this and they were like, look it was like a thousand years ago so any “real” history has been lost so it wouldn’t matter, and besides the current Red Sith are happy about what the dark Jedi did to them. *line mouth emoji*

Buggy and Doomie have way more loved experience to discuss on this topic than I do. All I will say is that places like England and Wales have a complicated relationship with each other thanks to cultural clashes dating back to 1066. It’s not hard to imagine the same thing would be the case in the Sith Empire.

Y’ALL

stop reminding me of years old bad tumblr Discourse! xD

papa-poutine:

Ok I enjoyed the newest ep of the mandalorian as much as the next guy but something really rubs me the wrong way about din meeting the first group of mandalorians since the first covert was massacred in S1 and when they hear that he has stricter religious beliefs then them they’re all like “lmaoooo loser you don’t take your helmet off???? You’re part of that ~extremist~ faction of mandalorians that broke off from the rest of us because of ~scary religious beliefs~” and idk as someone who isn’t a religious minority maybe it’s not my place to comment on but it just feels. Bad. Just respect his beliefs!!! They don’t effect you at all he just keeps his helmet on that’s literally like the only difference!!!

Same here @whiteduck6​ While I found it wierd, I respected Dins belief.