STAR WARS EPISODE III:
THE TRUTH OF THE SITH
ANAKIN is walking two steps behind PALPATINE. They enter into a room filled with sculptures and devices, all with a similar look, metallic shades of red.
ANAKIN: What are these?
PALPATINE: You don't recognize this style, the crimson and bronze? Truly, the Jedi have been... unbalanced, in their education of you. Reach out into the Force. What does it tell you?
ANAKIN stands motionless, then suddenly whirls on PALPATINE. His lightsaber ignites in his hand, a beam of solid blue, held steady.
ANAKIN: These are Sith artifacts! Then you - you're the -
PALPATINE raises his own hands to show them empty.
PALPATINE: Calm yourself, Jedi. I am not the Sith Lord they are looking for, only a... collector, of old knowledge. I brought you here to show you the truth. The truth that will allow you to save Padme.
ANAKIN holds his lightsaber steady. His feet carry him to one side as PALPATINE turns, ANAKIN keeping PALPATINE'S face within his view.
PALPATINE: A question, young Skywalker. Is the Dark Side of the Force more powerful than the Light Side?
ANAKIN: No. The Dark Side is easier, faster. Not more powerful.
PALPATINE: So they've told you. And yet Count Dooku was able to fight evenly with Master Yoda. The most powerful Jedi, eight hundred years trained in his art... could not overcome one Sith Lord. Perhaps the Jedi lied to you, for the obvious reason.
ANAKIN: Master Yoda grows old.
PALPATINE: Sith Lords, never more than two in number, have repeatedly troubled the entire Jedi Order and the galaxy itself. And another thing. Tell me why it is that Jedi fall to the Dark Side. Does a boy become a master criminal the moment he steals a loaf of bread? I think not. But a Jedi... let them slip, let them strike one innocent in a moment of passion... and they will begin slaughtering children within the hour. Sith Lords make elaborate plans to lure Jedi to strike once in hate, and then take them as apprentices upon the spot, in a way that defies all sense. Why is your kind so peculiarly... vulnerable?
ANAKIN's lightsaber wavers, then steadies itself.
ANAKIN: The Dark Side feeds upon itself.
PALPATINE: And so the Jedi are trained almost from birth never to feel too strongly, never to let passion to rule them, never to... love. And the penalty for violating those rules is... draconian. If such caution is needed, some might say the galaxy would be better off without any Jedi. It is fallen Jedi who rebirth the Sith after their suppression, over, and over again. Oh, you're fine fighters and diplomats, but one might wonder... are you Jedi worth the price the galaxy pays in convulsion after convulsion?
ANAKIN: If there were no Jedi Order, Chancellor, there would be no one at all to stop anyone who learned to use the Dark Side!
PALPATINE appears unperturbed.
PALPATINE: Mm. Perhaps.
PALPATINE runs his fingers lightly over one of the red-and-bronze artifacts.
PALPATINE: Let us consider another question. There is a saying: zero, one, and infinity are the only numbers that need no justification. If we found that there seemed to be exactly one other universe parallel to our own, wouldn't we look for others? Zero universes would make sense, one universe would make sense, a continuous spectrum would make sense, but it would be strange for there to be exactly two universes. So tell me, Anakin. Why does the Force have two sides?
ANAKIN seems increasingly disturbed.
ANAKIN: Are you saying there is more than just the Dark Side and the Light Side?
PALPATINE: Quite the opposite. What is the Force, where does it come from? Not from Midichlorians, certainly, despite what fashionably-cynical scientists claim to believe. So vast a power, clearly of a mental nature - being generated by one species of bacteria with no interconnection among its cells, no ability to think? It seems... unlikely. Midichlorians are attracted to Force users, perhaps they feed somehow on the Force, but they are not its origin. Is the Force generated by all living creatures, connecting all of us? Then why is there no Side of the Force for the passions that so many sapient races feel, to which neither the Light Side nor Dark Side lay claim?
PALPATINE takes a step toward ANAKIN, seeming careless of the blue lightsaber pointing at him. PALPATINE'S voice begins to drop into a dark, whispering growl.
PALPATINE: What is the Force, Anakin? Answer me. Answer!
ANAKIN takes a deep breath, exhales, and steadies himself.
PALPATINE: No. Do not ask the Force. Not this question. Use logic instead, Anakin. Don't feel the answer. Think it! You already know all you need to know. The discipline with which Jedi are trained almost from birth, never to feel too much emotion. The speed with which they fall after they slip even once. The power they gain after their fall. Their similarity of goals, speech, the same black hooded cloak worn by every Sith Lord. All because -
ANAKIN (whispers): There is no Light Side of the Force.
PALPATINE gestures at the Sith artifacts.
PALPATINE: There is only a single psychic phenomenon that pervades the galaxy. I don't know what the Dark Side of the Force, which is to say, the Force, is. The dying scream of some ancient race that destroyed itself, echoing through a mental dimension? A species whose faces were inset within natural hoods, who had a gliding wing resembling a black cloak? A race that hunted in pairs, and saw in shades of crimson and bronze? Whose name was a sound like a hiss, ssthhh? Now that you know the truth, your guess is as good as mine.
PALPATINE takes another step toward ANAKIN, almost touching the lightsaber's beam.
PALPATINE: What the galaxy calls a Jedi is just a Dark Side user who has been trained to deny themselves, not to feel strong emotions... to ignore the whisperings of the power they invoke. And make no mistake, the most senior Jedi know this. That is why the Jedi Council has resisted every attempt to spread knowledge of the Force more widely. Why the Force cannot be used by day laborers to load a shuttlecraft, why we do not see Force healers in hospitals. Instead there is a tiny Order that kidnaps every naturally awakening Force user as soon as they are old enough to have a Midichlorian count. And then... why then, the Jedi Order forbids you to breed. It has nothing to do with avoiding passion. The Jedi could sustain their numbers using uterine replicators... if any of the important people thought that having more Jedi was a good thing. Already the number of Jedi is a hundredth part of what it was a millennium earlier. In time, it is hoped by all those who are in the know, the Galaxy will have solved the... problem, of the Force.
ANAKIN is shaking. He shuts off the lightsaber and sheathes it at his belt in a practiced motion.
ANAKIN: Thank you for telling me this, Chancellor. How does knowing this help me save Padme?
PALPATINE puts a comforting arm around Anakin's shoulder, and guides him toward a bench on the wall, sitting down together with him.
PALPATINE: Anakin, listen to me. If the other knowledge that I've collected is correct... then there have been Sith Lords whose power grew so great that they could sustain or even create life itself. Prevent themselves, or a few favored others, from dying. Darth Plagueis was one such, to name a recent instance.
ANAKIN: I will never join the Sith! Even less now that I know what they are!
PALPATINE: Your Midichlorian count is unheard-of, and you have already overcome Count Dooku, a full Sith Lord. I believe you can become strong enough to use Darth Plagueis's technique without falling yourself. All you need to do... is loosen your Jedi strictures, just a little further, and then you will have power enough to save Padme. The Jedi are... conservative, in the rules they demand. They leave safety margin.
ANAKIN: Do... do you really think that would be all it took? That I could do that and remain myself?
PALPATINE: In older times there were Force users who went beyond what today's Order allows, without submerging into that alien whisper. Their knowledge has not been entirely lost to collectors like me.
ANAKIN: But why... why would you help me that much? You'd be taking a grave risk... no, I see. After I save Padme... you'd want me to extend your own life as well, I suppose.
PALPATINE chuckles lowly.
PALPATINE: It's frustrating, to have learned of so many possibilities, and yet be unable to wield them myself. I have waited long to find a Jedi with your power and your... reasonable outlook on the morality of life extension. So I'll help you, Anakin, and you'll help me, and we'll keep each other's secrets afterwards.
ANAKIN: I understand. Then, tell me all you know of the older Force users and their ways.
PALPATINE smiles benevolently, gently, like a great and powerful grandfather.
PALPATINE: I'll do my best to guide you in that path, Anakin Skywalker.
