We all love the Jedi of Star Wars. They use the light side of the Force to help everyone in the galaxy. But as cool as the Jedi are, there is something alluring about the Sith who fight against them. Sith Lords are usually powerful, emotional, have yellow eyes, and sport an overly dramatic look. Yes, they are fueled by hate and rage, but we’ve all been there at some point, right? This year’s news cycle alone is enough to make me want to join the dark side.
In Star Wars canon, there are many who can use the dark side. Yet few actually make it to the status of “Darth.” Unlike the Jedi, who train as many padawans as possible, the Sith adhere to a Rule of Two. This means there can only be two true Sith at a time—one as the master and one as the apprentice. Once the apprentice has killed their master, they must take on an apprentice and the cycle starts all over again. Just rising to the level of master among the Sith is a testament to their power. Even so, not all Darths are created equal.
Darth Bane
Once upon a time, there were almost as many Sith as there were Jedi. However, the greedy nature of the Sith proved more of a hindrance than anything else. Their inner squabbling left them open for attack and the Jedi nearly wiped them all out. Darth Bane survived the attack and rebuilt the Sith order with the Rule of Two. His physical powers may not have been legendary, but his cunning plan to defeat the Jedi from within is what ultimately took down the Jedi Order.
Darth Plagueis
Darth Plagueis is the powerful Sith lord who trained Darth Sidious. Plagueis’s obsessions were gathering power and achieving immortality. He spent his life trying to control the midichlorians to hold power over the Force itself. His major accomplishment was the harnessing of a dark side power called transference. The power allows the user to transfer their consciousness to a new host. So even if your body died, your mind and abilities would live on. Sidious would later use transference to become the villain we couldn’t escape.
Darth Momin
Darth Momin was a Sith Lord who didn’t want to rule, he only wanted to create chaos and fear. He was masterful with a lightsaber, but he thought himself an artist who wanted to bring his terrible visions to life. Honing his Force-lightning to power a machine, he froze an entire town in terror. When he died, his power and consciousness went into his helmet, creating a powerful Sith relic. In the Marvel Comics Darth Vader series, Vader taps into Momin’s consciousness to build his fortress and open a door to the dark side.
Darth Sidious
Darth Sidious, a.k.a. Emperor Sheev Palpatine, has had many apprentices through the years. His training (and questionable grooming tactics) created several of the other Sith Lords. He is most famously known for his powerful Force-lightning, which he uses to torture and kill his enemies. More than that, he can see into the future, uses Dark side magic, and mastered telekinesis. All that, plus his connection to the Force, has made him very difficult to kill.
Darth Maul
Unlike most of the Darths, Maul grew up entrenched in the dark side of the Force. Born on a planet strong with dark energies and a mom who used the dark side to fuel her magic, Maul’s path to becoming a Sith started early. Maul became an apprentice of Sidious, and his use of a double-sided lightsaber is legendary. Even after being cut in half by Obi-Wan Kenobi, Maul’s connection to the Force helped him stay alive long enough to get medical attention.
Darth Tyranus
Darth Tyranus/Count Dooku started as a powerful Jedi trained under Yoda. When he fell to the dark side out of his desire to do good, his power only intensified. Tyranus matched Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and Yoda in lightsaber battles. Also, adept at Force-lightning and telekinesis, Tyranus was a Sith Lord to be reckoned with.
Darth Vader
When chaotic mess Anakin Skywalker fell to the dark side, he became one of the most iconic villains in Star Wars history—and all of pop culture. Although Anakin did not take lightsaber training seriously, he was a natural when it came to dueling. Being born from a human woman and midichlorians, his connection to the Force was incredibly strong. Vader used the Force to pull spaceships from the sky, accurately throw lightsabers to take down foes, and choke people from a distance. Out of all of Darth Sidious’s many apprentices, Vader was the only one to overpower his former master.
(featured image: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
