So, Jedi Survivor, right? I saw a post about someone who played it, and was commenting on how effectively the game actually showed the falling to the dark side of the Force, and stuff which I reposted, but I feel like one part they didn't mention was the wording when Cal used the dark side. It's 'embrace' the darkness. In most media, it's spoken of as falling, or turning to the dark side, because a lot of these talks are from the Jedi perspective, or from the perspective of a Sith, it's accepting it, channeling it, controlling it, because to them, they are in control. But here it's embracing. You don't just accept it, you embrace it, you give it a hug like it's an old friend you haven't seen in years, you let it into your house, sit it down at your table and cook it a warm meal. You aren't using it. The dark side is a friend. And friends don't use each other, do they?
The reason I think that embracing is quite as effective an adjective as it is, is because it encapsulates what the dark side does. It claws into you, gets a hold of you and posits itself as your best friend. Something that you can't live without. The dark side, at least the first few times you use it, is like smoking a packet of cigarettes, except they're laced with 20mg of the purest cocaine on earth. You know it's bad for you, but damn does it take all your problems away. And so you keep using it. It's a crutch, a coping mechanism, where you can vent, and release your anger. The dark doesn't judge. It doesn't make fun of you. It accepts that anger, grows on it, and it gives you solutions. Ways to take the pain away. Kill, and you'll be happy. Kill, make others suffer and no one will ever be able to make you suffer in turn. We see that with Anakin, where Sidious convinces Anakin to join him by offering him a way to avoid his suffering. And Cal does the same. These people, Denvik, Bode and all of Nova Garon and the Empire have hurt him. Hurt his family, hurt his crew and taken the lives of his first master, his second master and her own master in turn, Greez's arm and Trilla and the Anchorites and the dark gives him an easy way to take that pain away. Make the Empire suffer. Embrace the dark. Because the darkness is easy. It's quick power, brutal and ruthless and simple. Take those emotions you've suppressed, that hatred for the Empire and use it to fuel that fight. It's as they say, "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions." People fall to the dark side for selfish reasons: vengeance, power and conquest, but they also do it to save the ones they love, to keep them safe, to keep themselves safe, so that the people they love can't be hurt again. Bode does the same thing, embracing the darkness after Dagan shows him visions of Kata being killed, and he's so consumed with a desperate fear to stop that from happening, and I think that if they explore this idea in Jedi: 3, then I would be really happy because damn do I want to see the effects of the dark side on Cal as a character, and how he navigates through the story, either slowly returning to the light or falling deeper into this pit that he and the Empire have dug him into.
Final point, I think, and it's just me continuing the whole "road to Hell, good intentions" thing. The Sith and Inquisitors do this as well, and it's corrupting perception and the truth, or at least showing them in the worst way possible. Trilla does it in Fallen Order, the whole "Cere was my master" reveal basically being "she just handed over our location to the Empire" which, she did, but it leaves out the whole "Inquisitorial torture" bit. And then the whole "From my point of view the Jedi are evil" shtick that Anakin does which, while stupid, because they aren't, shows how his perception of reality has been completely fucked, because like, you're saying that the organisation that actively tries to save as many lives as possible is evil, while you, Mr. Baby Killer 9000, are not?? Huh??? And then Bode's perception is that Cal is an active threat to him, as if by trying to save the lives of refugees of the Hidden Path he's actively endangering his family, and to an extent he's right, more compasses being made increases the chance of the Empire getting their grubby little hands on one, but like, father and daughter on a planet? Alone? For the rest of their lives? How lonely an existence that is. And for Kata, that's moving her from one gilded cage in Nova Garon to a larger one in Tanalorr. And she's perfectly capable of understanding that this isn't something she wants, and she's also capable of understanding the problems with what her dad wants, better than he does as well.
So, I don't have a closing statement. There is no thesis or final point that I want to make other than, don't embrace the dark side kids, it isn't good for you.
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