Ranking the Sith lords & assassins

[Captain Nostalgia]

Simply rank the following 8 sith lords, or sith assassins/apprentices in order. (I've only picked the most notable from the movies or tv episodes)

Example:


1. Darth Vader - For me the GOAT of all siths, the ultimate bada$$, sheer terror for the rebels.

2. Darth Maul - I love his demonic look and double bladed lightsaber

3. Count Dooku - Refined elegance, and perhaps the best with the blade.

4. Emperor Palpatine - The big evil

5. Assaj Ventress - Cool character

6. Kylo Ren - The emo of all sith lords, wimpy, emotional and unsure of himself.

7. Savage Opress - Really the guy was just along for the ride, before he was taken out by Palpatine.

8. Snoke - He was killed by Kylo Ren...that says it all.

[Tofali]

in order of favorite or competence?

[Captain Nostalgia]

in order of favorite or competence?

Favourites, just go with your heart of who you like best.

[Tofali]

1. Darth Maul - I love the character design and I love his rise, fall then rise again revenge filled miserable story lol

2. Darth Sidious (i don't know why i wrote Darth Palpy lol)

3. Assaj Ventress

4. Darth Vader

5. Count Dooku

6. Savage Opress

I'd list Pong Krell before Kylo Ren or Snoke simply because I can't stand these two.

[Captain Nostalgia]

1. Darth Maul - I love the character design and I love his rise, fall then rise again revenge filled miserable story lol

2. Darth Palpatine

3. Assaj Ventress

4. Darth Vader

5. Count Dooku

6. Savage Opress

I'd list Pong Krell before Kylo Ren or Snoke simply because I can't stand these two.

I love Darth Maul to. Aesthetically he is definitely the coolest looking sith....I was tempted to put him as my number 1.

Totally agree with Kylo & Snoke. I hope I don't discourage Kylo fans from responding, but....oh I'll reserve comment.

[ZeroBG82]

1. Darth Maul. The only Sith really worth talking about, in terms of character. And that only from The Clone Wars.

2. Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine. He gets to win, at least for a little while. I wish we got motivation and backstory for him (officially, since the Darth Plagueis novel no longer counts).

3. Vader - He's a mostly useless, if functionally competent, hired goon in the suit until the last 10 minutes of Empire, and finally gets to be interesting and not just menacing in RoTJ. But he's still a more interesting character when he's Anakin. And that's not to knock the character, his overall story is still the beating heart of the franchise and I love him to death, but as Sith Lords go he's not my favorite.

4. Dooku - For one thing, he gets a badass Sith name like Darth Tyrannus and only uses it, what, twice? Poser. AoTC hints at some cool stuff, but RoTS and The Clone Wars throw it all out to make him a generic megalomaniac. Christopher Lee carries the character with the performance. There was so much possibility here, it physically hurts me how much of it was wasted.

5. TFA Kylo Ren - When he was a man-baby with rage issues he had a chance to be something interesting. Sadly, the pivot in TLJ and RoS to the milquetoast "sex appeal" Kylo completely wasted the character. I think Adam Driver does tremendous work with what he's given in the latter two films (and it isn't much, to be fair) but it's a fundamentally different character than the one he created for TFA. I'm not one to hate on TLJ, I actually enjoy it more than most in spite of it's myriad flaws, but I also thought that Kylo was the one really interesting idea in TFA, which is otherwise a terrible movie. Here was a dark sider (not a Sith, technically) who didn't have a handle on their emotions. Rather than use them for power, Kylo was utterly used BY THEM. Which in some ways made him much more unpredictable and potentially dangerous. To borrow the Joker's argument from The Dark Knight, Kylo wasn't a schemer. He was the dog chasing cars. And then smashing them to bits in a fit of uncontrollable rage with his Force powers when he catches them. Could have been different, and a great villain for a mediocre trilogy.

Snoke was a joke, Ventress was never a proper Sith and got much more interesting when she got kicked out from under Dooku and had to think for herself (a great character, mind you, just better once she got out from the Sith shadow), and there's never been another Sith Lord or dark sider in the Disney canon worth even mentioning.

[Jackalope89]

1. Maul, as has been said.
2. Vader, the first Sith we ever saw, and he struck an imposing and intimidating figure.
3. Sidious. Old coot brought the Republic down and made his empire rise (didn't last long, all things considered, but still).
4. Galen Marek/Starkiller. Yeah, OP, I know, but his story is interesting, and I have always wanted him and Ahsoka to meet. And yes, Galen did go Jedi (as did the clone), but he was raised as a Sith most of his life.
5. Dooku. The guy actually went Dark in order to fight the corruption that was so prevalent in the Republic.

[Ascended]

Vader. The guy is iconic, and despite the questionable execution of the prequels his story is fascinating; the chosen one who failed....only not really. His shadow looms over virtually everything in the Star Wars universe, his journey (and the journey of his children, which completes the cycle) is the very core of the franchise. I dunno if you can love Star Wars and not love Vader.

Palpatine. Sure, the Empire didn't last more than a couple decades but this is the guy who tore down a Republic and a Jedi Order that had lasted for thousands of years. He did it from the inside, right next door to his greatest enemies, and not only did they never know it, he manipulated them every single step of the way. You'll be hard pressed to find someone else so successfully Machiavellian in fiction. There's no real depth to him as a character, he's just a cartoon bad guy....but hot damn is he good at it.

Maul. Great look, cool weapon (before weird lightsabers became a normal thing), and the cartoons added a lot of depth to him. In the end, I actually felt sorry for the poor bastard, he ended up being the most sympathetic dark sider in Star Wars.

Dooku. The only reason this guy makes my list is because of Christopher Lee. I never read any novels or comics with him, and the films and cartoons treat him rather like a two-dimensional mook. But Lee was physically incapable of giving a bad performance and made this guy a lot of fun to watch.

And that's basically my whole list. Ventress was....fine, but didn't get really interesting until breaking with Dooku, and then was interesting only because a bounty hunter with Force skills is something I hadn't seen before. Opress wasn't interesting at all, ever. Snoke ended up being a whole lot of nothing. Kylo Ren had potential as a unpredictable man child who was used by the dark side rather than using it, but TLJ and TROS kind of ruin his entire journey, and it's hard to separate Ren from the other characters who got ruined for his benefit.

I did like the Inquisitor in Rebels who used those little spy droids a lot. I forget which Sister she was, but she was fun. No real personality or anything, but just the fact that she employed those droids as a regular part of her arsenal made her a tiny bit unique and different.

[Godzilla2099]

1. Darth Vader: He isn't just my favorite Star Wars Character, he's my favorite villain of all time. I was born in 78. Amazing childhood memories from Vader. Just an intense character. I loved his fallen samurai/paladin design.

2. Count Dooku: Christopher Lee had this charismatic, chilling, and very experienced character. He's just a natural at playing a villain

3. Emperor Palpatine: One man and so much damage he caused

4. Darth Maul: Easily one of the best looking villains. Loved the demonic look and his double-bladed lightsaber. I also liked his acrobatic combat.

5. Ventress: I liked the character in the 2003 Clone Wars Cartoon. Yes, she was only a tool to test a candidate for Sideious, but I thought she was bad-ass. When they tried giving her a sympathetic story, I rolled my eyes and she went downhill from there. Happy Grievous killed those witches.

6. Kylo Ren. His first scene was cool. When he took off his mask it went down hill. First you could hear the snickering in the theater when that happened. When he yelled "Traitor!" at Finn, the crowd was literally laughing at how bad this movie was.

[babyblob]

For me I have a small list.

1 - Maul. I cant add to what was said above but damn was he cool.

2. General Grievous - Not a proper Sith but he had lightsabers and killed Jedi so stuff it he counts! And 4 arms? That is 2 more then most Sith you can name!

3 - Count Dooku - Just such a cool villain. It was said above they wasted so much of his potential. But damn did Lee play him so well.

4 - Vader - A big scary looking guy, looked cool and was tough. But he had a lot of rage issues and I dont think he was the best leader. I would take Tarkin or Thrawn in charge of anything more then him.

5. Darth Bane - I just loved everything about him in the books I read.

6. Assaj Ventress - Just such a badass!

I wont even list Ren as I hate him so much! I would to be honest put the Ewok Sith Lord Darth Cuddles I had as a character in the old Star Wars RPG game before Ren!

[Captain Nostalgia]

I think I'll have to run with the pack and switch my vote to Maul.

I love Vader, but I also love underdogs, and... coming back from being cut in half,.... escaping torture from your former dark master, ....and starting a criminal underworld empire on the outskirts of the galaxy counts as an underdog for me, plus he is the coolest looking sith in my opinion.

As for Kylo Ren,... I should make it clear that it's not because he's effeminate that I don't like him, (there are strong effeminate male villains who are very cool) its because he comes off as whiny and weak and unsure of himself. All the other top sith lords on this list (Maul, Vader, Dooku) would eat his lunch.

I agree, the first scene with Kylo was cool, but it went downhill when he took the mask off, ultimately though, the character was created by bad writers and directed by a horrible producer..

If people want to put Grievous on this list no prob, though I do view him as somewhat of the complete opposite of a sith lord, pure top of the line technology as opposed to the ways of the force (dark side)

[godisawesome]

1. Darth Vader - I’m someone who thinks that from the moment Anakin bows to Palpatine and gets his name changed, Vader is 95% pure awesome. Dude’s both too iconic to be overshadowed by anyone else. He’s the most resonant overall, and frankly, all other dark siders are in his shadow. The character’s basically the Undertaker of Star Wars.

2. Darth Maul - This is almost all because of how he rose after coming back from the dead in TCW and other characters have gone down. He ends up as an extremely pitiable but terrifying villain, and very much comes off like Khan Noonien Singh in Star Wars. The biggest issue I have with him is the lame nature of his final episode in Rebels - I get how restraint can be useful and fun, but if they were going to drawback the final duel between him and Obi-Wan, then they should have expanded their pre-duel interactions.

3. Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine - This is the flip side of Maul’s situation. While Maul experienced a renaissance that gave his character greater resonance and was only held back by a bit too much restraint in his end, Palpatine got trashed quite a bit by his return which was a bit too over-the-top even ignoring the crappy context. Still, he’s the Biggest Big Bad of Star Wars for a reason; remove the ST, and he’s got one fo the greatest evil plans in fiction, and the most deliciously karmic ending. It’s only LFL wanting Ben Solo treated special that screwed him over.

4. Kylo Ren in TFA only - First off, TFA was actually good; while flawed, it’s current reputation is down in the dumps because LFL sabotaged what made it work. And one fo the things that made it work was Kylo Ren as a truly loathsome piece of **** to contrast with the heroes. Dude was the “Anti-Vader” in a way designed to make him still formidable but disgusting: a young slave master taking creepy liberties with his prisoners, coldly murdering his father for power, and made dangerous by his raw power and capricious sociopathy… but wildly immature and entitled. Dude was a Ric Flair/MJF type of heel you were supposed to hate - and it worked. It’s just he got screwed because LFL didn’t want him to be that the villain…

5. Count Dooku - Honestly, the bulk of this dude’s best stuff is in tie-in material. It’s great, but it’s not in as much of the movies as you’d hope.

6. Pretty much every other dark sider.

7. (Or Always the last number, whatever it is) Kylo Ren in all non-TFA material - This is all down to LFL desperately wanting him to be soemthing he wasn’t, and being willing to screw over everyone else to try and make him comparatively “taller”… while also removing everything that could make him work as a villain (what he was designed for in TFA) or a protagonist (what LFL delusionally believed he was). Literally everything they do with him in TLJ is the opposite of what a dark sider villain should have done: he lost his cool costume, lost his coolest powers, lost his antagonism of the heroes, and had has his least interesting characteristics praised and worshipped as though they were good, all while dragging down or supplanting the heroes.

I genuinely think that if LFL pulled it’s head out of it’s ass regarding the ST, Kylo could be pushing for the number three spot… but they wanted Ben Solo instead.

[BruceWayneJr.]

1. Darth Sidious - Practically the devil. He's on a short list of Sith who've run the whole galaxy

2. Count Dooku - A tragic pawn, but also a bridge between Anakin, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon. He's very compelling and I love his haughty attitude, which is shared a bit by Vader later on

3. Darth Vader - Great villain, but his ultimate story is that of tragic knight who can't break his bonds. Vader is the essence of tragedy

4. Asajj Ventress - Sassy and powerful with a reasonable core. I like her a lot

5. Darth Maul - He was a mere pawn to begin with, but the Clone Wars and EU gave him a chance to elevate himself. I love that Sidious eventually crushed him

6. Savage Oppress - The "brother." Canon fodder

Kylo Ren, Snoke - N/A

[Celgress]

Canon "Sith"

1.) Darth Sidious

2.) Darth Plagueis (Legends portrayal because that is all we have, although he is canon because he's mentioned several times in different canon media)

3.) Darth Vader

4.) Darth Maul

5.) General Grievous (I'm counting him although he is not technically a Sith)

6.) Darth Tyranus

7.) Asajj Ventress

8.) Savage Opress

9.) Pong Krell

10.) Knights of Ren (as a Unit because they are treated as such in-universe)


11.) Kylo Ren (sorry Ren fans but he sucks hard, IMO)

[godisawesome]

Canon "Sith"

1.) Darth Sidious

2.) Darth Plagueis (Legends portrayal because that is all we have, although he is canon because he's mentioned several times in different canon media)

3.) Darth Vader

4.) Darth Maul

5.) General Grievous (I'm counting him although he is not technically a Sith)

6.) Darth Tyranus

7.) Asajj Ventress

8.) Savage Opress

9.) Pong Krell

10.) Knights of Ren (as a Unit because they are treated as such in-universe)


11.) Kylo Ren (sorry Ren fans but he sucks hard, IMO)

I still think it’s funky how Kylo’ biggest handicaps are just how much LFL just didn’t want him to be treated as a villain after TFA; TFA gave him a. Decent start while making it clear he was supposed to keep going forward and get more dangerous as a villain, but LFL was just like “But it’s Adam Driver! With beautiful hair! We can’t spend that on a villain!”

People forget how much of a success he was as a villain when TFA came out… and often overlook just how much TLJ undermined and sabotaged that.