“ | He is a wound in The Force, more presence than flesh. And in his wake life dies, sacrificing itself to his hunger. | „ |
~ Visas Marr describing Darth Nihilus. |
Darth Nihilus is the secondary antagonist of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. He is a Sith Lord who utilized the power of the dark side so much to the point that it consumed him to want to use it more to the point that billions of lives were in jeopardy because of him being a die-hard master of force drain.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- He led the Jedi purge, killing thousands of Jedi to the point where less than a hundred survived.
- He regularly tortured Kreia.
- He destroyed planets as usual, killing billions.
- He destroyed Katarr.
- Is very abusive to Visas Marr, tormenting her to the point she had a nihilistic view on life and keeps on pleading her master of wanting to die, though he keeps her alive for his own goals.
- He had Visas Marr' eyes flesh removed.
- He forced chocked her over the possibility of denying him being a wound in the force.
- He attempted to destroy all of the Republic and Jedi to endlessly continue Force draining worlds.
- While he drains lives to satiate his hunger, that doesn't make him sympathetic because of his actions; it was a dark side deed that he chose to resort to that is considered highly corrupting, especially with all the innocent lives he has taken with this power.
- His reason for wanting to kill Meetra is out of envy over her being the true wound in the force.
- The effects that his corrupting influence had on Tobin got him into the lowest bar of the dark side, even changing his appearance of how a Sith would look, and he had to be convinced by a light side choice, Meetra, to not remain in such a corrupted life.
- Regardless of him having redeeming qualities at some point in his life, they are never expressed by him in the slightest and, for the very most part, are not even implied during Kotor II, if any at all, making any potential positive moral aspects about him completely abandoned.
- Although on the surface he may seem to lack characterization due to his enigmatic background and how he's presented, that is because of how the dark side corrupted him, distorting a former man of who he once was, which alters everything about him, including his voice, and the lore behind Nihilus provides enough information on who his character is, being a cruel Sith that seeks to drain all life for his own benefit.
- His similarities to villains that destroy worlds don't get him to fail the heinous standard, as most who had destructive resources like him weren't as excessive as he was with his power, making him part of the minority among them, plus his role in bringing the Jedi Order to the next extinction made a hallow effect in the tone of the galaxy, where the majority of the citizens became effected by it in a manner displayed as unpleasant, as the comparison of the tone shift between the first and second game in the duology is undeniable.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- He seems to have little moral agency issues as he's ruled by his own hunger and planet-destroying force drain ability. As Kreia said, "the power rules him, not the other way around." However, a common narrative for the lore of the Dark Side is resorting to the will of giving into it, such as the huge amount he did when using Force Drain, and the essentials of other Dark Side users with clearer moral agencies aren't so different from him in the circumstances in wielding such power, especially given the surrounding mystery on how exactly he resorted to being a consumed Darksider, as he should have at the very least been aware of what happened when making that decision.
- The lore gives him hints of sympathy for what happened to him during the mass death of the Sith, giving him a tragic backstory involving losing his parents during the Mandalorian War and being the only survivor of a superweapon attack, though this is severely lacking in sufficient context with what the last chronological and main installment story he has been depicted in, where there is hardly anything to intel on him having sympathetic moments, and was never shown to be that way during his screentime in Kotor II. Lastly, his enigmatic background makes his concrete weight on how sympathetic he really was at the time of his questionable tragic past and how it would hold up during his peak heinousness.
- His tragic sympathy gets harder to support, as many Star Wars characters, including Sith, have suffered far worse and underserving pain in their lives and didn't become nearly as evil as him.
Trivia[]
- It's been implied in that Nihilus could have been a Jedi, hence why he was on Malachor V when The Mass Shadow Generator was activated.
- Darth Nihilus's tragic prevention comes from the Knights of the Old Republic campaign guide, that Chris Avellone did not write. The reason why this is important to address is because Chris is the writer for Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, who never wrote Darth Nihilus in any remote way to give the impression of him being sympathetic and was depicted to be anything but that. While it is possible that this may have been because of the games rushed development, there is no confirmation on Chris intending Darth Nihilus to be burdened over the sorrow of his past, but simply a dark sider who, like nearly all Sith, became so consumed over his power that it forever dominated his destiny.
External Links[]
- Darth Nihilus on the Villains Wiki
- Darth Nihilus on the Star Wars Wiki
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