5 Underrated Sith Lords We’d Love To See In Movies

Star Wars

Aug 15

Of the many interesting characters in the Star Wars universe, both Canon and Legends, none are as fascinating as the Sith Lords. Unlike the Jedi, there is far less information about them and their order. This is by design, of course. If we knew as much about them as we do the Jedi, they wouldn’t be as interesting, nor would their plans be as difficult to discern. Some of them are better known than others. It doesn’t matter what part of the planet you go to, everyone on Earth has at least heard of Darth Vader, but there are many more that deserve at least some of the spotlight. As such, if you clicked on this article expecting to see entries about Darth Vader, Palpatine, Sion, Treya, Plagueis, Bane, Vitiate, Maul, Tyrannus, Nihilus, Revan, or Malak you are right out of luck. So there. Much of what is written here will be taken from Legends rather than Canon. So, in no particular order…

5. Darth Zannah

While Darth Bane truly molded the Sith into what we see in the vast majority of Star Wars media, it was his apprentice Darth Zannah who truly got things into gear. One of the core tenants of the Sith is the complex relationship between the master and the apprentice. Both sides know that for the Sith to become stronger, the apprentice has to learn everything they can from the master, then kill the master once they become stronger. As a result, the master constantly needs to be on the lookout for any moment that their apprentice can strike. Whoever wins makes the Sith that much stronger. The first instance of this was the duel between Darth Bane and Darth Zannah. Darth Zannah was ultimately victorious, thereby bringing the master/apprentice battle from theory to reality, and kickstarting a trend that would last for over a thousand years.

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4. Darth Tenebrous

The master of Darth Plagueis, Darth Tenebrous was a Sith Lord whose powers largely focused on midi-chlorians. He knew of the prophecy of the Chosen One and decided that he would transfer his essence into him when the Chosen One finally appeared. With his death at the hands of Darth Plagueis, he transferred his consciousness into Plagueis’s cells using what he called maxi-chlorians. However, Plagueis was killed by Palpatine before the appearance of Anakin Skywalker, so Tenebrous’s plan ultimately failed. He was unique in that he saw the Dark Side of the Force not as a sort of living entity with its own will, but as a power source to be manipulated, no different from a battery or a generator. Being a Bith, he saw the galaxy in a more calculated way. It’s interesting to consider what it would look like if Tenebrous’s plans had come to fruition, and what Anakin would have been like both being manipulated by Palpatine, who doubtlessly wouldn’t know, and infected by Tenebrous.

3. Darth Cognus

Darth Cognus was a huntress and an assassin in her life before the Sith. She was tasked with hunting Darth Bane, but quickly realized that their destinies were linked. Under Bane’s guidance, she took the name Darth Cognus. However, that created a problem common with the Sith: Darth Bane already had an apprentice in Darth Zannah, and Darth Cognus violated the rule of two that Bane himself had implemented. Thus, one of them would have to be killed. Cognus deferred to the duel between Bane and Zannah and fully became Zannah’s apprentice upon her victory. She showed amazing force potential even before her apprenticeship under Bane and Zannah, and her connection allowed her to see into the future, though with limited accuracy. While the details aren’t fully known, she took her own apprentice in Darth Millennial, so we can infer that she killed Darth Zannah when she felt that she couldn’t learn anything else from her, continuing the Sith rule of two.

2. Darth Gravid

If there’s one Sith that set the order back hundreds of years and very nearly wiped it out, it was Darth Gravid. All of the other Sith were more than happy to fully embrace the Dark Side, but Darth Gravid was slowly being pulled toward the light. He thought that being 100% bad was a negative thing for the Dark Side, so he began incorporating Jedi teachings into his philosophy and actions. This would be bad enough for the Sith, but he was also in possession of what was essentially all Sith knowledge up to that point, with large amounts of holocrons, tomes, and artifacts under his control. He ultimately decided that if the Sith were going to survive, then they would need to start anew, this time with Jedi teachings mixed in, as he viewed fully embracing the Dark Side as a weakness. As a result, he began hiding and destroying all of the Sith knowledge in his possession. His actions would have likely completely destroyed the Sith, closing the door for people like Palpatine, if it weren’t for the actions of his Twi’lek apprentice, Darth Gean, who quickly seized the first opportunity and killed Darth Gravid. Centuries of Sith knowledge was lost, most importantly the knowledge of essence transfer, or the power to move one’s consciousness into another being. There is no telling how much worse the galaxy would have been if Sith before Palpatine already knew that power offhand instead of needing to rediscover it. Surely one of them would have decided that he was the one to live forever and constantly transfer his essence into new bodies long before Palpatine.

1. Darth Malgus

One of the main features of the Sith is their extreme hatred of the Jedi. Darth Malgus did something that wouldn’t be seen again until the rise of Darth Sidious: he attacked the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and succeeded in slaughtering many Jedi. He inflicted damage in the Jedi Temple that wouldn’t be repeated until Order 66. The Jedi have had many times where they were almost wiped out (Revan and Malak, the Sith Triumvirate, etc) but the boldness of Darth Malgus in invading Coruscant and taking the fight directly to the Jedi Temple, slaughtering masters and padawans alike, makes him stand out. In his time he was one of the most powerful Sith Lords in the galaxy. He would be interesting to see in a movie just for comparing his assault on the Jedi Temple to Order 66 from Revenge of the Sith. Since there were still Jedi left alive, it’s obvious that he wasn’t as successful, but it would be interesting.

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