Who has more Free Will? Jedi or Sith?

Jedi or Sith? For the longest time I always thought I would choose to be a Jedi if given the option, but thanks to my recent love of studying philosophy in my free time I’m not so sure now. It’s crazy to say this, especially as someone who tries to be a good person but Sith may be the way to go, under one condition, but we’ll get to that later.

So why pick Sith over Jedi? Put simply, Jedi have no free will but the Sith do. If we were to explain the two sides in specific terms, the Jedi subscribe to the philosophical idea of determinism. The Sith however are more into libertarianism although they may not directly acknowledge it.

For those who are unaware of those two ism’s let me explain. Determinism is the idea that we as humans don’t really have free will because everything in our life has been predetermined by an external force whether it be because of the way you were raised, your biology, or just the world you live in. Maybe I love Star Wars not because it’s my choice but because it’s what my mom put on when I was young to have me be quiet and it was ingrained in my brain. Or maybe the cells in my brain make it so I like flashy lights Whatever the reason determinism says it’s not my choice I like Star Wars but rather some outside force. Libertarianism on the other hand says humans do have free will and deny determinism to be true.

They may not say it out right but the Jedi believe in determinism. Everything a Jedi does they do because of what an external force tells them to do, i.e. the whill of the force (I know a lot of force talk.) Once you really get into the life of a Jedi you begin to see how predetermined their life is and how little freedom they have.

When a Jedi is born they are taken to the Jedi temple as infants to begin their journey. Right off the bat they have zero say in the life they live. The child is taken because they have a strong connection to the force, or scientifically have a high midi-chlorian count.

Clone Wars episode Children of the Force

The thing that really twists my brain is that all the Jedi make the decision to be there at some point in their life. It’s not unheard of for Padwans or Jedi to leave the order. We all remember watching (through watery eyes)when Ashoka made the decision to leave the order. The jedi are put on a path from birth and they usually stay on that path. If they ever decide to leave that path then they are technically no longer Jedi and regain their free will.

“The Jedi are selfless, they only think of others” says Anakin Skywalker in Attack of the Clones. How selfless are they? So selfless that they don’t even give themselves free will, the thing that many philosophers argue makes us human.

Speaking of Skywalker, he is the prime example of this argument on why Sith are free and Jedi are not...sort of. Lets face it, Anakin had a pretty shitty life all around but it could be argued he had the most free will when he was a Sith lord. For starters, the poor guy was pretty much born into slavery. Technically not free but he still had some free will in his life. He decided to build C-3PO, he loved his mom, something the Jedi aren’t supposed to do, and if he wanted to steal a loaf of bread it was within his rights as a human with free will to do that. Once Qui-Gon found the boy (Qui-Gon believing them meeting was no accident but was rather the whill of the force) brought Anakin to the Jedi temple, believing he was the chosen one. The one that would bring balance to the force. Anakin went from not having freedom as a slave to not having freedom as a Jedi. He was put on a predetermined path to fulfill the prophecy, robbing this man of his human rights.

Quick detour, yes Anakin did marry Padme, something that is against the Jedi code proving he does in fact have free will in some way but our argument isn’t if anakin had free will, it’s that jedi don’t and sith do. And since Jedi aren’t free to get married and Anakin isn’t following the rules that just makes Anakin a bad Jedi and a rule breaker which by effect gives him back some of his free will.

But back to the prophecy. Anakin, had he stayed on the path of his predetermined destiny, he would have killed Palpatine in his office when given the (multiple) opportunities. But instead Anakin didn’t kill Palpatine and in fact saved him from death but that only happened when Anakin made the transition from Jedi to Sith. Only when he became a Sith did Anakin have total will (except for pledging himself to Sidious but that's a master/apprentice thing. Vader may be a daddy but he’s still a sub in this relationship) to do what he wanted. By turning to the dark side Anakin, now Darth Vader, was able to do what he wanted. He was able to ignore the Whill of the force and the Jedi code.

Having free will can be seen as doing what you want even if it will affect others around you. If we use that definition of free will, you could probably call that person selfish, the opposite of selfless. Selfless, that thing Anakin said the Jedi are. See where I’m going with this?

If all of this wasn’t evidence enough, we can just look at the end of Vader’s/Anakin’s life. The second Darth Vader turned back into Anakin he picked up in the prophecy right where he left off 20 years prior. He killed Sidious, which fulfilled the prophecy only to die moments later because he had served his predetermined purpose. Jedi have no free will.

So if you had to pick, you’d pick Sith, right? Well here comes that one condition I mentioned forever ago. Thanks for sticking around this long by the way. The problem with sith is that, at least from the few we have seen, they always seem to be corrupted by power. Maul, Vader, Sidious. We all saw Vader's eyes turn yellow in Revenge of the Sith. That was the dark side taking over. They all turned bad cause the dark side corrupted them to want more power. It can be argued that the Sith have more free will than the Jedi. In fact it’s pretty much guaranteed. But if you were to choose to become a Sith you must not let the power get to your head.

It might just be best to do what Ashoka did and be a solo Jedi with no rules to follow but still value people.Or maybe be more of a Mace Windu or Qui-Gon Jinn who thought for themselves and were on the edge of many of the rules. Or better yet just choose to be the Han Solo type. He got a cool ship, the girl, and free will. Now that I think about it, disregard everything I just said. Just be Han Solo.