BISEXUAL'S FOLLY

To that end, Katari is Sith because Zanya is Sith. They’re pretty content with believing whatever it is he wants them to believe, and while Zanya encourages Katari to question everything he says, considering its their first introduction to the culture around the Force, its the one they accept as truth. It sounds pretty correct, it sounds like something tangible that they can grasp. I also don’t think that, unlike others, they attach a morality clause to it. Yes, through passion they gain strength. Clear as day. What else is there to it? Not like they’re murdering akk dog puppies and torturing people. That sounds bonkers, what’re the Imperials doing?

Katari isn’t a philosopher and doesn’t really want to be. They draw on their emotions when they use the Force because its how they’ve always made use of it. They don’t know another way to harness it. Why would they bother learning a whole new way to do it when their master clearly makes it work — and has become an incredibly prolific figure because of it? If it isn’t broken …

As for “side” of the Force, I’m inclined to say darker sided solely because their life mission is to help. (Walk with me here) The galaxy is in disarray and they’ve lost a lot, from their childhood to now, and there’s been very little they can actually do about it. If they can put more good out there now that they are Sith, then everything on the in between is worth it. The Force is therefore more of a tool to be bent to their will rather than a friend or something they’re in service to. I don’t think they fully understand the concept of the latter anyway, they get the Force is a living thing but they don’t think it has a will by any means. It’s like their bo-staff or blaster pistol. So. A weapon, kind of.

They don’t want to hurt others if they don’t have to, but clearly in Norok’s case, they will. Effectively, Katari won’t do anything “evil” on purpose or just to be cruel, but if provoked then they will enact as much mercy as the situation calls for. It’s a dog eat dog world out there, and no one is going to hesitate just because they’re young and untrained.

Zanya teaches them that. That and to always exercise their best judgement. He doesn’t want them to always do what they think he would — mostly because he knows what he is and is still trying to atone for his own past, but forgets that Katari didn’t know him as the Wrath. It falls on deaf ears, they have a whole set of decision markers labelled “What Would Master Solare Do”

His master isn’t pleased by that, but he’s also stubborn. He’ll figure out someway to get through to them.

Katari does sometimes fall under the very brief tutelage of some others. Yes, most often Cele, but other times under Sana-Rae or Lana. They each have different things to tell them, most of them being people who understand the Force differently than Zanya does. Lana is the most similar, but Katari is a difficult personality for her to connect with. All that chattering, and even when they aren’t talking, their uncontrolled force signature makes it difficult to focus. They’ve made their peace with that, but Katari is never going to sit long enough with Lana for them to learn much about her philosophy unless they’re doing something else on top of it. Lana has accepted that she’s probably a better teacher for Sith history rather than anything too abstract. She also was the one to show them how to use Force lightning, but thus far Katari has really only fried their hair. And burnt their hands. It’s a work in progress.

Lana has her own opinions about Zanya taking on an apprentice, but its laden in curiosity. Zanya has never seemed to be the kind of person to do so, she thinks its a bit odd. But if he needs her help to do so or give Katari a differing perspective, then she remains willing. Given, she also thinks Zanya is a bit soft on Katari compared to how they came up as acolytes and apprentices, but she figures they times are changing — and that she can’t really intervene unless requested to do so.

Same for Cele, even if they are closer in personality — Cele can only take being told “Master Solare says that serving the Force is like lopping yourself off at the knees. Why would you do that?” “Master Solare says the Jedi have no concept of control over the Force. Why would you let the Force use you?” “Are all the Jedi really so repressed? Master Solare says—“ so many times before she gets like six new greys. Still, she tries more than Lana does, even if every single thing her sister says makes her eye twitch. Katari has their own opinions of course, which Cele nurtures, but its rather clear from moment one that they’ll never be a Jedi unless Cele took over completely. To answer that question, I don’t think Cele is capable of biting her tongue and not saying that she thinks Zanya should quit being so biased while he’s teaching such an impressionable mind, but Zanya mostly ignores her. Katari isn’t a child, and they’re free to believe (and disbelieve) whatever they want.

… He’s also selfish and thinks he should be the one guiding them, but that’s neither here nor there. He thinks if Cele has such strong opinions, she can peddle them to the others in the Enclave.

Sana-Rae has a better sense of patience, and a tendency to ask so many looping questions that it does manage to get Katari thinking and quiet for a while. They have a fascination with the way the Voss see the Force, because while it isn’t how the Sith do, it makes a little more and a little less sense all at once.

Erzilith is not allowed to teach Katari anything. Zanya is very clear on that one, solely because of their rivalry from their very early days at the Academy. They have their own apprentice (their own daughter!!), they can focus on her and keep their paws off Katari. Also Erzilith has a very, very interesting way of using the Force (as in, was never taught how to use it Properly, in Zanya’s opinion) and he doesn’t want Katari to learn bad habits from them. Erzi always shrugs at this, his loss.

Interestingly enough, I’m not sure what vision Zanya has for Katari. He acknowledges that by the time they get to him, at sixteen, they’re effectively an adult. They have their own opinions and experiences, and they’ll interpret the Sith Code however their life has colored the impression of it. Katari isn’t his child. He doesn’t want them to be either. He just knows this was someone who existed on the fringes of the Force, had nothing else going for them, and wanted to learn how to use it. He obliges, and that comes with teaching them the way of the Sith how he learned it and how he respects it.

He doesn’t want them to become him. His past self as the Wrath (he’s already contending with Kadasha being a mirror version of himself), nor really who he is now. However he also doesn’t want them to become Cele (repression central, he mutters under his breath) or Erzilith (without a modicum of decorum towards the Force, he says out loud). He wants them to have control over their powers, he wants them to be able to carve out their own place in the galaxy, and wants them to be better than him. That’s the whole point of having an apprentice. Creating and molding someone else who would eventually take over his holdings and power base with more strength than he ever had. It’s who he was to his father, at least.

At the end of the day, Zanya is a very pragmatic person. He lives by reason and practicality and wants Katari to do the same. They shouldn’t be a pushover, but they also shouldn’t be beholden to petty whims either. They should be Sith, in the way they understand it. Only then is Zanya fully content in their teachings. He can get past their bleeding heart as long as they’re working to curb it — there is nothing wrong with extending a kind hand as long as they’ve thought fully through the consequences and can explain it beyond “it was the right thing to do”. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to fix the galaxy, he wants to too, but it needs to be grounded in results and actual, tangible decisions. Maybe that is cruel if it results in death, but its reality.