Star Wars Already Admitted How the Sith Will Return

Following the events of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, it seems pretty certain that the Sith are gone for good since Emperor Palpatine was finally defeated, Kylo Ren was redeemed and then died, and there were no other Sith apprentices to be seen. However, in a Star Wars: Legends comic book, one Sith warrior suggests that there will always be Sith so long as there are Jedi.

The Sith are an ancient order of Dark Side users who formed thousands of years before the events of Star Wars’ film continuity. During an age known as the Hundred-Year Darkness, a group of rogue Jedi abandoned the practice of only channeling the Light Side of the Force and instead sought power for its own sake. Eventually, the Sith grew into a nearly unstoppable army of evil that plagued the galaxy and fought to kill every last Jedi in existence. Unfortunately, while the Sith were great in numbers, they couldn’t stop killing each other to properly wipe out the Jedi as every Sith looked at the person above them in terms of power and envied it to the point of murdering them for it. This unyielding violence among the ranks of the Sith inspired Darth Bane to create the Sith Rule of Two which dictates that there will always be one student and one master. While this rule seems limiting to Sith expansion, it actually ensured that there would always be a strong presence of the Dark Side in the galaxy, even if it was on a smaller scale. However, it seems the Rule of Two may not have been necessary in ensuring the continuation of the Sith–and one powerful Dark Side user proves it.

In Star Wars: Legacy #15 by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema, Cade Skywalker–a descendant of Luke Skywalker–has been kidnaped by the Sith Lord Darth Krayt. Darth Krayt is a former Jedi of the Galactic Republic who turned to the Dark Side and took over as the prime force for evil in the galaxy following the death of Darth Sidious aka the Emperor. While he had him in custody, Darth Krayt told Cade how damaging the Jedi’s teachings actually are, saying that, when he was a Jedi, he was taught to suppress his emotions rather than channel them which was one of the main reasons he turned away from the Jedi to begin with. When Cade heard this, he was shocked as he couldn’t believe someone as evil as Krayt could have at any point in time been a Jedi. Darth Krayt responded to Cade’s astonishment, “Don’t look so amazed. The Sith were always born and re-born of the Jedi”.

While this story technically takes place in the Legends universe and isn’t strictly Star Wars canon, Darth Krayt’s observation is still totally true. Going back to the origins of the Sith, they began as rogue Jedi who turned away from the light while seeking new avenues of power through the dark. This means that as long as there are Force users in Star Wars, Jedi or otherwise, there is always a chance that the Sith can rise again whether there is already an established Sith Lord or not.

The greatest lie Star Wars ever told was when the series implied that Darth Sidious was the perfect embodiment of the Sith and that his death meant the end of the Sith in Star Wars. Not only was this not true, but the Emperor was never a good example of a Sith Lord. In fact, Star Wars has seemingly made it clear in the past that Palpatine would have been considered a heretic rather than the shining example of the perfect Sith he is made out to be–meaning he is completely insignificant to the continuation of the Sith throughout the future installments of the Star Wars series, as the only thing necessary to create Sith is Jedi.