The dark side of the Force, also called Bogan or the shadow, was one of two ways to use the Force. Using the dark side meant giving in to strong emotions like passion, anger, and hate. The dark side was about being greedy, fearing change, and not letting go of things. Holding onto things made people angry and hateful, which led to suffering. Those who couldn’t control their dark side were taken over by it. The Sith were Force-users known for using the dark side and being enemies of the Jedi, who used the light side of the Force.
The dark side was linked to night. Like the light side, it was part of all living things. As the shadow of the soul, people had to keep overcoming the dark side to follow the light path. Giving in to the dark side caused imbalance. The dark side wasn’t stronger than the light side, but it was an easier path that caused destruction. If someone couldn’t resist the temptation of darkness, the dark side would control their future, but they could always come back to the light.
The dark side often tempted people to use it. Anakin Skywalker, who was very strong with the Force, fell to the dark side because he couldn’t let go of his attachments. He was attached to his mother and wife, and the fear of losing them made him rebel against the natural way of life and the Force itself. He sought power because he was afraid of losing his loved ones, and he became an evil, damaged cyborg.
The Nature of the Dark Side
The dark side was about selfishness and owning things. It was connected to the fear of losing things, which led to anger and hate. This brought suffering to those who used its power and those who embraced it. Asajj Ventress, who used to be a dark side user, knew that the dark side never brought true happiness because those who used it were never satisfied.
The dark side was selfish and possessive, linked to the fear of losing things. This fear led to anger and hate, causing suffering for those who used its power and those who embraced it. Yoda, the Jedi Grand Master, said that giving in to fear, anger, and hate was a path to the dark side. He also said that suffering would happen next for someone who had given in to the dark side after they reached hate. Yoda believed that once someone took the dark path, it would control their future forever because it was addictive. However, it was always possible to return to the light side.
Dark side users, like Darth Sidious and Darth Vader, believed that hate was the key to their strength. Even though Yoda warned that people would only find suffering after giving in to hate, Count Dooku, also known as Darth Tyrannus, said he had moved past suffering to gain ultimate power. Sidious claimed that one could find power in hatred, with suffering only happening if one failed to turn their hate into power. Vader believed the same thing, telling Sabé, who wasn’t Force-sensitive but could serve as his lieutenant, to choose between suffering or power. She rejected his question by deciding not to hate.
Sidious was so powerful in the dark side that he gained strength from other people’s hatred. He told Vader during the Scourge of Coruscant that he thrived on the hatred Vader and others felt towards him. This meant that Vader’s efforts to increase his powers with hate for his master only made Sidious stronger. The Scourge told Vader that his fear and hate only made him a stronger weapon for Sidious, instead of allowing him to live on his own terms.
3. Key Aspects of the Dark Side
3.1 Hubris and Self-Deception
The dark side was about selfishness, fear, and aggressive feelings in all living things. However, people were often tempted to deny this truth, imagining the dark side as something outside of themselves, something they could get rid of. This kind of pride was easy to fall into – even Yoda, who had trained for hundreds of years to conquer his darkness, at first refused to recognize his own dark reflection. By denying this truth, he only fed the dark side.
In 19 BBY, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi faced his former student, Anakin Skywalker, who had fallen to the dark side and become Darth Vader, on the volcanic planet Mustafar. Vader thought he could overthrow his Sith Master, Darth Sidious. The fight between Kenobi and Vader ended in a tie, but Vader refused to give up even though Kenobi had the high ground. The dark side filled Vader with anger and pride, making him ignore Kenobi’s warning as he tried to attack again. As a result, Kenobi cut off Vader’s limbs and Vader nearly burned to death on the banks of a lava river.
3.2 Attachment and Its Dangers
Living beings often mistook attachment for love, but attachment was really about possession and selfishness, which are part of the dark side. Because it was about possession, it led to fear of loss, which is another form of greed. When attachment crept into love, it became painful, as Anakin Skywalker described it: love was haunted by the fear of loss and the fear of the pain that loss would bring. So it wasn’t really love, but a prison trapping both the loved one and the lover. Attachment led to jealousy and was always followed by fear, which led to hate.
Anakin Skywalker struggled to balance his life as a Jedi with his personal attachments, especially with Padmé Amidala, whom he married despite the Jedi Code. Throughout the Clone Wars, Skywalker had loyally served the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic. In the end, however, he was willing to sacrifice the galaxy rather than lose Amidala.
3.3 The Insatiable Greed for Power
The trap of the dark side was that no matter what someone selfishly gained through it, it was never enough. The Sith were killing each other, victims of their own greed, which led to their defeat and near destruction during their wars against the Jedi. Darth Sidious’ ultimate desire was to use the powers of the dark side to change the universe itself. Anakin Skywalker, who at first only wanted the power to defeat death because of his attachment to his wife, eventually wanted to rule the galaxy and make things the way he wanted them to be.
Although Jedi were taught to follow the light side of the Force, the dark side was tempting. To avoid falling to the dark side, one had to be calm, at peace, and passive to have a clear mind and good judgment, and to be aware of their thoughts and feelings. Even a Jedi who had been raised in the traditions of the Jedi Order for years could be corrupted by the lure of the dark side in certain situations. Despite this, the Jedi often described the dark side as a “quick and easy path.”
Some dark side users used it for good reasons, not just selfishness and greed. Darth Plagueis used it to try to make the beings he loved live forever, Dooku wanted to use it to destroy the corrupt Republic and bring a fair new galactic order, the Son told himself he wanted the best for the galaxy, and Anakin Skywalker, before becoming Darth Vader, wanted to save his wife by studying Plagueis’ methods.
4. Dark Side Abilities and Manifestations
4.1 Unique Powers of the Dark Side
The dark side of the Force granted certain abilities that light side users couldn’t access, such as possession and the ability to manipulate Force visions. To use the dark side meant letting anger and hatred for someone completely take over, filling the individual with anger, hate, and the desire to cause pain, suffering, and to control others.
Most dark side powers were purely offensive, such as Force lightning. Dark side power could also be used to change life and could be used to create life or keep someone from dying. The dark-side historian and Sith cultist Yupe Tashu told Wedge Antilles on Akiva that some Sith Lords could take the Force from their prisoners to extend their own lives for centuries beyond their natural lifespan. Some people considered dark side abilities to be unnatural.
4.2 Will and Usage in Practice
Luke Skywalker was tempted by the dark side when he attacked his father out of fear of losing his sister, just like Anakin Skywalker pledged loyalty to Darth Sidious out of fear of losing his love. Jedi Padawan Ezra Bridger used his fear, anger, and hate to summon a massive fyrnock to attack the Grand Inquisitor because he was afraid of losing his friends.
A dark side user’s devotion to pain could have specific reasons for existing. After Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader, he was a man in pain who tried to use more pain to soothe himself. He tried to hurt not only himself but others, yet it didn’t work. Even after spending years hating his former master Obi-Wan Kenobi, Kenobi’s death only increased Vader’s loneliness.
4.3 The Presence and Influence of the Dark Side
The power of the dark side was penetrating and harmful. The Jedi Temple was constructed on top of an ancient Sith shrine and, unknown to the Jedi, the power of the dark side seeped upwards through the Temple from the shrine, slowly weakening the Jedi over a thousand years.
If the presence of the dark side was strong enough, nearby Force-sensitive people often felt cold. This happened several times to Ezra Bridger and Kanan Jarrus when Darth Vader was near, and also when Luke sensed the dark energy coming from the Cave of Evil on Dagobah. Extensive use of the dark side could leave an entire planet corrupted by its energy. Dathomir was one such place that was heavily influenced by the dark side. This could also happen through physical objects associated with individuals who had a strong dark side presence, such as Darth Momin and his mask. Momin’s mask corrupted nearby beings and turned them into mindless killers.
5. Dark Side Perspectives
5.1 The Jedi Perspective
The dark side of the Force was highly corrupting. According to Grand Master Yoda, the future of someone who embraced the dark side would always be controlled by it, but redemption was never impossible. Choices and actions, both selfless and selfish, determined one’s path through life. The Jedi knew that the dark side is fear, which leads to anger, which in turn leads to hatred, and finally leads to suffering – mostly for the one who embraced the dark side. Through patience, training, and discipline, the Jedi overcame their own dark side, preventing it from gaining control over them.
When the Jedi Order’s attempt to infiltrate the Nihil marauders failed in the skirmish on Xais, Jedi Master Avar Kriss took it as proof that the Jedi and others who considered themselves servants of the light side couldn’t afford to hide in shadows. She believed this was the territory of their enemies and something the Jedi needed to rise above. As a result, their next attack, the Battle for No-Space, was a direct assault against the Nihil.
5.2 The Sith Philosophy
Unlike the Jedi who followed the ways of the light side, the Sith were devoted to the dark side of the Force. Wanting power at any cost, the Sith practiced hate, deception, and ambition to use the energies of the dark side.
Darth Sidious said his power came from his hatred and the hatred of others that he thrived on. In effect, the hate one held towards Sidious only made him stronger. However, according to Yupe Tashu, Sidious also believed that the source of his dark side power came from the universe beyond the edges of the known galaxy. Darth Vader viewed the dark side as a source of strength and believed he embodied its power.
Lord Momin saw the dark side of the Force as a higher power. Specifically, Momin believed in creating art that glorified the dark side, which could, in his view, grant the artist eternal life. Such extreme views led both Jedi and Sith holocron chroniclers to ignore Momin. When Momin’s spirit restored his body and fought Vader, he criticized modern Sith, claiming they had failed the dark side by focusing on destroying the Jedi, but Momin himself was then killed by Vader.
5.3 The Knights of Ren’s Approach
The ability to use the dark side was required to join the Knights of Ren. As a condition, however, a potential recruit had to willingly kill someone as a form of sacrifice.
The Knights of Ren were seven elite warriors: Ap’lek, Cardo, Kuruk, Ren, Trudgen, Ushar, and Vicrul. They roamed the galaxy as marauders, particularly in the Unknown Regions, where they attacked isolated communities on sparsely populated worlds. Although members of the Knights of Ren were Force-sensitive, they didn’t follow any Force-based religion. Nevertheless, the Knights’ source of power was the dark side of the Force, which their leader called the “shadow.”
As dark-side users who thrived in a lawless environment, the Knights of Ren held beliefs that were completely opposite to the traditions of the Jedi Order. According to Supreme Leader Snoke of the First Order, the Knights’ disregard for rules gave them flexibility and the freedom to act as they pleased, whereas the Jedi, in Snoke’s view, were rigid due to their code. Despite Snoke’s perception of the Knights’ strength, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker observed that they lacked discipline and proper training, and only had the most basic skills of the dark side.
Ben Solo, the grandson of Anakin Skywalker and nephew to Luke Skywalker, eventually joined the Knights of Ren after the destruction of his uncle’s Jedi Temple. Solo’s connection to the dark side was sensed by Ren during their first meeting on Elphrona, the dark warrior encouraged Skywalker’s apprentice to learn about the dark side by joining the Knights of Ren. Intrigued by the Knights’ philosophy and its emphasis on power, Solo – overwhelmed by Ren’s murder of his friend Tai – gave in to the dark side and killed Ren during a fight, adopting the name Kylo Ren and becoming the Master of the Knights of Ren. While Kylo was neither a Jedi nor a Sith, both disciplines influenced Kylo’s understanding of the Force.
However, Kylo Ren would find himself troubled by a pull to return to the light side. During the Battle of Starkiller Base, he tried to overcome his regrets and fully embrace the dark side by killing his father Han Solo, but the act only further conflicted Ren. Despite his emotional turmoil, Ren nevertheless again tried to cement himself in the dark side by killing Snoke and taking the title of Supreme Leader for himself.
During the mission to Kef Bir, the sacrifice of his mother Leia Skywalker Organa Solo helped push Ren back to the light once and for all. After a discussion with what he believed to be a memory of his father, the redeemed Ben Solo helped overthrow the resurrected Sidious in the Battle of Exegol.
6. Lesser-Known Dark Side groups
The Sorcerers of Tund saw members of their order who embraced the dark side as traitors. Because of their different name for the Force, the Sorcerers called the dark side the “dark side of the Unity.” With the moon of Jedha being important to many Force religions, the Sorcerers, Jedi, and other groups were represented at the Convocation of the Force, but dark side faiths were not welcome.
Most members of the Dank Graks criminal group were former members of dark side-aligned cults. The Path of the Open Hand cult disliked all who used the Force, believing that any use of the Force could cause an equal amount of harm elsewhere in the universe. As such, the Children of the Path worked to take Force artifacts, including those created by followers of the dark side, and lock them away to prevent their use. The Final Occultation was a dark side cult that, unlike the “order” advocated for by the Sith, believed in bringing chaos to the entire galaxy.
7. Conclusion
The dark side of the Force remains a complex and compelling aspect of the Star Wars universe. Its allure, power, and consequences have shaped the destinies of countless individuals and the course of galactic history.
While often associated with evil, the dark side is more accurately a reflection of the darker aspects of sentient nature: fear, anger, hatred, and the desire for power. Its study and use have spawned numerous traditions and philosophies across the galaxy, each offering unique perspectives on its nature and application.
The struggle between the light and dark sides of the Force continues to be a central theme in the Star Wars saga, serving as a powerful metaphor for the internal conflicts that all beings face. Whether viewed as a corruptive force to be resisted or a source of power to be harnessed, the dark side of the Force remains an integral part of the cosmic balance, challenging those who encounter it to confront their own inner darkness.
