One thing I love about Swtor is that it shows Sith can love.
The antagonist of the first chapter of the Jedi Knight story is a father mourning his son and trying to take it out on the galaxy. I’ve heard it said that Darth Angral was using his son’s death as an excuse but I disagree. I think he truly loved his son and was handling his death poorly.
The Knight killed his son. This starts off the plot. They did it to protect the republic but they killed someone. Someone who was loved by someone powerful. Who tried to take revenge on them.
It’s an interesting lesson. It shows there are people on the other side. That even when you fight to defend you still hurt people. The game doesn’t give you a choice, I consider it a mistake on the Knight’s part. They were young and green and fighting their first Sith Lord.
It also gives us an example of how Sith handle loss. I don’t think it’s a lesson of attachment, more of going too far.
Darth Angral is trying to take revenge on the Knight. He wants the Knight to suffer what he felt and die. But Jedi are said not to have family. So Angral goes after what he can. He takes the Knight’s and Kira’s masters from them, he tries to take Kira the Knight’s pawadan from them. These would be the closest people a Jedi had to family. That’s more or less justified revenge. But Angral went farther. He tried to kill the whole Jedi Order. Why? Maybe it didn’t feel like enough to make you watch your master die? Maybe his son was his only family so he wanted to take away all of yours?
Time for headcanons. I headcanon in Sith culture revenge is part of the mourning process. (Which leads to a problems but I can go into that another time). I think Angral was honor bound to avenge his son but it didn’t feel like enough. He wanted more and more. To hurt the Knight beyond what they’ve ever felt and over reached himself. I don’t see it as a lesson in attachment but as a example of how Sith love and how badly they handle loss.
It’s almost a call back to Darth Vader. You killed a man’s son and he will rip the galaxy apart to hurt you back. I like how it’s familiar love. Not romantic love. And it’s not magic. Hell the love causes a problem. But it’s real and messy.
Instead of “love redeems” it’s “love is something that crosses the boundaries of good and evil and light and dark.” I like it. It’s not about who loves and who can love but how you handle loss. Sith are dispositioned to handle loss badly but some Jedi handle loss badly too.
