My own self

Loki's sensible nonsense of nonsensical sense

The Rule of Two

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Her head was still swimming from the elbow to her jaw, making it difficult to stand without swaying slightly.
"I knew you had the strength to defeat them, Master," Zannah said. "That was why I didn't come to your aid during the battle."
"And what if you were wrong?" Bane asked in a quiet, menancing voice. "What if they had somehow killed me?"
"Then you would have been weak, unworthy of being the Dark Lord of the Sith," Zannah answered boldly. "And you would have deserved to die."
"Precisely," Bane said with his familiar grim smile, and Zannah knew her Master approved.


- Darth Bane - Rule of Two,
by Drew Karpyshyn.

In victory"The bastard took my house! MY HOUSE!"

Comments

Unregistered user Thursday, April 23, 2009 5:15:02 AM

tyblazitar writes: This is why I love the Sith.

Georgius the PeasantLoki Aesir Thursday, April 23, 2009 11:26:42 AM

I really don't get the reasoning behind it, though. Bane kills the rest of the Sith because they co-operated and put the needs of the Order ahead of their own, which in his eyes were anti-Sith. Fair enough. But how is training someone to become more powerful than you and eventually kill you just to assure the Order's continued existence not also putting the needs of the Order ahead of your own?

Unregistered user Friday, April 24, 2009 7:39:00 PM

tyblazitar writes: I always interpreted Bane's reason for killing the Brotherhood as them being too many, thereby not only spreading the power too thin, but also creating the annoying mass of opinions you always get in a democracy. With the rule of two, however, there is at any time one absolute authority (well, Kaan was "more equal" than the rest, but at least they had a say), and if his follower becomes unsatisfied with the teachings, he must prove himself worthy of taking the position for himself. Also, there was the matter of secrecy: in a group that big, there's a much bigger risk of being discovered in one way or another, and the risk of treason is always present. In short, Bane was the dictator overthrowing the democracy and proving his ideas to be better. In my opinion, at least.

Georgius the PeasantLoki Aesir Saturday, April 25, 2009 12:01:10 AM

Yes, I get all that, and I agree. I don't, however, see why he'd want an apprentice, and why he'd encourage the apprentice to one day kill him. Doesn't seem to be in keeping with putting self-interest above anything else. Rather he's putting the survival of the Sith Order above everything else - which is exactly what Kaan did, but with a different result.

Unregistered user Tuesday, April 28, 2009 11:40:01 AM

tyblazitar writes: I don't really remember that self-interest and putting oneself above the Order was a major point in the books. If it was, however, one could surely interpret it as Bane being so awesome that he doesn't want to get old and weak, thus he wants his apprentice to kill him before that happens. An apprentice could also be useful for a lot of things, as illustrated in Rule of Two.

Georgius the PeasantLoki Aesir Tuesday, April 28, 2009 12:49:28 PM

It was basically the whole point of "Path of Destruction", yeah.

And of course an apprentice is useful, but it is very obvious from Bane's teachings, thoughts and decisions that he wants his apprentice to one day surpass himself - and THAT isn't useful, or self-serving.

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