Here is something that now confuses me from what we learned about the Sith in the podcast:
There is always one master and one apprentice. In order for the apprentice to become a master he must kill his master…
…so, at any given time there can only be two Sith? There can be hundreds of Jedi, but only two Sith at any time? How is that a threat?
because the sith apparently have their sh*t together, and as we learned in this week’s frak party, because good is dumb.
I think the threat deals with morality and how the sith operate. the dark side of the force seems to be much better at tricking/manipulating people in a negative fashion, or bringing out the worst in others.
The sith also have no regard for value of life which gives them a huge advantage over the Jedi. Want to wipe out a planet to kill one dude? mmkay!
There are only 2 Sith because about 1000 years before the Battle of Yavin there was a huge war between the Jedi and the Sith. At the time the Sith, called the Brotherhood of Darkness, were a large order that rivaled that of the Jedi. During the Battle of Ruusan nearly all the combatants on both sides were destroyed. Darth Bane was one of the few who survived the battle and it was Bane who instituted the Rule of Two based on the teachings of a Holocron he found that had been left behind by Darth Revan.
It was also the Battle of Ruusan that led to the Republic having no military until the formation of the Grand Army of the Republic at the outset of the Clone Wars.
The Rule of Two poses a threat because the Sith spent nearly a 1000 years growing stronger, mastering the dark side of the Force in ways the Jedi never could during the time. The Sith only cared about growing strong enough to one day finally the defeat the Jedi in revenge for every slight throughout the history of the Sith. The Jedi spent that time worrying more about their code than wondering where the Sith had disappeared to. The Jedi might have stood chance if any one other than Obi-Wan knew how to be a true Jedi. All the ridiculous rules they enforced based on their code did them more harm than good, especially since they followed a variation of the initial code. If only they still followed the original code they might have avoided the whole mess with Anakin and being wiped out by the Sith.
It’s so nice to have another hardcore SW fan to help explain Star Wars to people. For a while there I was the only Holocron master. 
Thank you all, this both helps and makes more confusing.
My problem with the Sith thing is the risk it poses to Sith. If both the master and the apprentice are somehow killed at the same time (car bomb, missile attack, 2nd Death Star blowing up after your apprentice kills you and then dies) doesn’t that mean the Sith line has ended?
That clears up a lot. But I have a question of terminology:
What’s the difference between a Sith and a Dark Jedi? Can there be many Dark Jedi…or am is Dark Jedi even a term that’s true SW cannon?
I would assume that a Dark Jedi is just that A Jedi who has succumbed to the darkside of the force. Where as a Sith normally has grown and trained to be a Sith. I think a Dark Jedi can us some of the same techniques as a Sith, the force lightning and force choke and hwat not. But i dont think they have the Sith philosophy. I also think a Dark Jedi is more interested in working for their own personal good.
Also a Dark Jedi might be perceived as the grunts of the Sith world. i know in video games (which are not official cannon) there have been shown to be many Dark Jedi and there have been the same in some of the books but i do not rember if the ones in the books are now considered Sith.
I’m sure that at some level, the rule of two appeases their paranoia. You can’t be that power hungry without being paranoid someone is going to try to take it away.
Is it a coincidence that Sith and Sh*t are anagrams? Is this one of GL cute little naming jokes (i.e., Darth Vader)?
btw, this question is not meant to inspire a further bathroom thread…
You know, it is a big galaxy. There may be more Sith out there, thinking they are the only two.
Dark Jedi is a term for any Jedi that uses the Darkside. There is a whole history about how Dark Jedi gained the name Sith. The short answer is that the Jedi drove the Dark Jedi to the edge of the Galaxy they end up enslaving a race called the Sith. The Sith worship the Dark Jedi and name them Dark Lords of the Sith. They rule a little corner of the Galaxy with no contact with the Republic for a few thousand years and then reemerge in the Republic.
It is nice to find another hardcore Star Wars fan, but I will admit that it’s sometimes hard to remember everything. There is just way too much info out there and it’s questions like this one that make me incredibly glad the New Essential Chronology sits on my bookshelf for a reference.
I agree. I just have this lifetime of inane Star Wars knowledge in my head. Someone asks something and the memory comes back. I’m not too sharp on the newer stuff. I have the same curse with X-Men. 
I’m really looking forward to the updated Star Wars encyclopedia later this year to have a more centralized source for information, especially since it’s a full 2 books bigger than the last one.
Did you see how much the books costs!!?? Like 125 bucks or something. I really want the books but that is a bit much. Granted it’s three volumes compared to the original one volume which cost about 50 bucks in 98.
Did you see how tight Palpy’s plans were? He bamboozled thousands of Jedi and held a tight fist over the galaxy for over 2 decades. He may have only had one apprentice at a time, but he always had POWERFUL people held in reserve (Mara Jade) and it didn’t take too long for him to switch gears after Maul was halved to get himself a Dooku and he prettymuch started molding Vader by having him deskullify Dooku.
The price doesn’t bother me that much because I paid 80 bucks last year for the Star Wars Vault. Plus it comes out very close to my birthday so I can justify it as a b-day present to myself.
I really want to see what the Vader book they are doing that comes out next year will be like. One of the authors compared it to the Star Wars Vault. The Vader book and Traviss’ just announced Essential Military Guide are the reference books I’m looking forward to getting in the future.
Is the Vault that really cool book that Sansweat was showing around behind closed doors at C4 with all the fold out dodads?
I didn’t get to go to C4 (I had just started a new job) but it probably was. There is all sorts of cool stuff in it. There’s copies of Lucas’ outline for one of the movies, John Williams score, blueprints, posters and a ton of other stuff. But it was worth the cost IMO simply to have Carrie Fisher singing in The Holiday Special on a cd.