What is the Dark Side really?
So my dash is currently engaged in a debate about Kylo Ren, brainwashing, free will, diminished agency, and the metaphysics of Star Wars. But the one thing that most arguments on both sides seem to take for granted is that Yodaâs definition of the Dark Side is right.
And Iâm not so sure it is.
I think thereâs always been a pretty serious disconnect in Star Wars between how the Jedi (and even Palpatine, actually) talk about the Dark Side and what we actually see of people who succumb to it.
The first we ever hear of the Dark Side is Obi-Wanâs initial description of Vader to Luke in ANH: âVader was seduced by the Dark Side of the Force.â We donât really get any more information in ANH itself, but the word âseducedâ carries with it a lot of connotations: it makes it sound like the Dark Side is something tempting, something appealing, but also something thatâs ultimately duplicitous.
And all of that is borne out by Yodaâs much more detailed explanation in ESB. The Dark Side, Yoda tells Luke, is quicker, easier, more seductive than the Light. And itâs fueled (or possibly produced? - actually heâs not really clear on this point) by anger, fear, and aggression.
If you put those two definitions together, the logical conclusion would be that the Dark Side gives people faster and easier access to power through these supposedly negative emotions, and that itâs very tempting to use the Dark Side because you can cut corners by doing so. Itâs just as logical to conclude that Anakin must have fallen because he gave into that temptation to let the ends justify the means. And a lot of people seem to be assuming that something similar happened with Kylo Ren in TFA, as well.
Only thatâs not actually what happened with Anakin at all.
Anakin doesnât turn to the Dark Side because he thinks itâs easier. He turns because heâs desperate and he doesnât think he has any other choice.
And heâs not really tempted by it, either. Not in any way that resembles the usual definition of temptation, anyway.
The closest Anakin comes to acting on temptation is actually in AOTC, when he slaughters the Tusken camp in rage and grief. That moment actually does line up with what Yoda tells Luke about the Dark Side.
But that moment doesnât mark Anakinâs turn. Itâs a step, yes, and itâs certainly a morally wrong action, but itâs entirely possible that something could have gone differently in ROTS and Anakin never would have turned at all. The really astonishing thing about ROTS is how close Anakin came to not falling at all.
And when he does turn, when he pledges himself to Palpatine knowing full well what heâs getting into, itâs in a moment thatâs the exact opposite of anything that could be called quick, easy, or seductive. Itâs certainly not a moment of power for him. Heâs literally kneeling on the ground, selling himself to a Master, and Palpatine takes everything from him, even his name. (There is a reason I refer to Vader as his slave-name, okay.)
Anakin doesnât give himself to Palpatine because itâs quicker or easier. He gives himself to Palpatine because heâs in a place of absolute despair, because as far as he can see heâs tried literally everything else, because in his mind this is his last option.
And itâs not an accident that he thinks so, either. Palpatine doesnât convince Anakin to turn to the Dark Side in an instant. No, heâs put fifteen years of emotional manipulation and gaslighting and conditioning into this. He took a boy who was already vulnerable and traumatized and alienated from the people around him and he very carefully shaped that and poked and prodded at all the fractures until Anakin Skywalker was ready to break. Then Palpatine just had to make sure Anakin broke in exactly the way he wanted him to.
Thatâs not seduction. Thatâs conditioning. Thatâs the pattern of an abuser.
Anakinâs is the only âfallâ we actually see happen in the movies (so far, at least - I suspect weâll get some more flashbacks of Kyloâs eventually). But we can test Yodaâs theory but looking at a couple of near-brushes with the Dark Side in characters who donât actually turn.
First, thereâs Obi-Wan. Yes, really. In TPM, his reaction to Qui-Gonâs death is, understandably, one of horror quickly followed by absolute rage. I donât think there can be any question that he attacks Darth Maul in anger, that heâs fighting for revenge and heâs fighting to kill.
By Yodaâs definition, we should be able to say that Obi-Wan was drawing on the Dark Side in that moment. But the narrative makes no moral judgement of him, and I donât think he was ever in any danger of falling. He was just having a very understandable emotional reaction.
Probably the most telling example, though, is Luke. In ROTJ he steadfastly refuses to fight his father - until Anakin goads him by threatening Leia. And Luke loses it.
Why does he lose it? Heâs angry, obviously, but I think itâs more than that. Luke in that moment is desperate. Things havenât gone at all as heâd hoped. He wanted to save his father, but thatâs not working out too well right now, and in spite of Yodaâs warning he did underestimate the powers of the Emperor and on top of that the Death Star is fully functional and it looks very likely that he and all of his friends are going to die here and thereâs nothing he can do about it.
And now Vader is threatening Leia, too. Luke has nothing left.
When he attacks his father, he does so in a rage born of despair.
And what stops him from killing Anakin? What brings him back to himself?
Itâs not Anakin, sprawled out wheezing and beaten on the floor. Itâs not Lukeâs better nature reasserting itself through the haze of despair.
Palpatine, offering him the chance to kill his father and take his place. Making, in fact, a seductive offer of power.
Which is exactly what Luke doesnât want. And that realization is enough to break him free of his despair, to let him really see Anakin, and himself. And free of that despair, he finally finds the peace to free himself completely, and to show his father how to be free, too.
When Anakin turns back he does so because he loves his son, and because Luke has shown him the truth about himself. Because Luke has made him believe, for the first time in twenty years, that he can do something. That he has a real choice. That he has agency.
Is the Dark Side stronger? No, says Yoda.
But is it actually quicker, easier, more seductive? From everything we actually see, itâs not that either.
There is one thing that both Anakin and Ben say, in their most honest moments, and it has nothing to do with power or cutting corners or the ends justifying the means.
They both say, âItâs too late for me.â
So I submit to you that the Dark Side is, in fact, a reduction of agency, an absence (or at least a perceived absence) of choice, a constraining, binding force. Even more than anger, fear, or aggression, the Dark Side is defined by despair.
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