My own self

tyblazitar writes: This is why I love the Sith.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.