‘Ahsoka’: Meet Darth Sion, The Lord of Pain

The final scenes of episode 2 of the ‘Ahsoka’ series allowed us to see the Eye of Sion, a gigantic ring-like structure Morgan Elsbeth believes is the key to bringing Grand Admiral Thrawn back to the known galaxy. Of course, old-school Star Wars fans quickly recognized the namesake of this large ship-like structure. Yes, we are talking about Darth Sion. So, who is Darth Sion?

Known as the Lord of Pain, Darth Sion was an ancient Sith Lord during the time of the Old Republic. He was one of the Sith Triumvirate of the Sith Empire and was known as Darth Treya’s apprentice. However, he was around for a long time as he used his anger and pain to achieve immortality.

Darth Sion was one of the scariest-looking Sith Lords ever created and introduced. As such, the fact that he was referenced in ‘Ahsoka’ could mean that he is now a canon character in the Star Wars lore. Of course, while we don’t know the canon story of Darth Sion, it should be interesting for us to talk more about what happened to him in his own Legends storyline.

Darth Sion was in KOTOR II

The thing about the post-Empire era of Star Wars is that the bad guys often reference ancient Sith Lords. For example, Palpatine’s Final Order was composed of many different legions with names that were references to Sith Lords from ancient times. And the same was done in episode 2 of ‘Ahsoka.’

In episode 2 of ‘Ahsoka,’ Morgan Elsbeth ordered Marrok to go to Corellia to secure a Super Star Destroyer hyperdrive that they required. While Ahsoka and Hera tried to prevent the Imperial remnants from leaving with the SSD hyperdrive, they failed. Then, in the final scenes of episode 2, it was revealed that Elsbeth was overseeing the completion of a large ring-like structure she calls the Eye of Sion, which she believed was going to be the one to help bring Grand Admiral Thrawn to the known galaxy so that he could lead the Imperial remnant against the New Republic.

Of course, the Eye of Sion refers to the ancient Sith Lord named Darth Sion, who was introduced in the 2004 video game ‘Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II’ (KOTOR II), which was a massive success.

In that video game, Sion was introduced as the apprentice of Darth Traya. He used to be a Sith Lord who fought for Exar Kun’s Sith Empire many years ago. However, he was struck down and defeated before he found a way to keep himself alive. After his return, he allied with Darth Nihilus and Darth Traya to form the Sith Triumvirate of their resurgent Sith Empire as they all worked together to try to bring the glory of the Sith back by destroying the Jedi Order during the time of the Old Republic.

However, both Sion and Nihilus betrayed Traya after they got tired of her teachings. They worked together to strip the Force from her as she became the hooded figure who ended up guiding the playable character, the Jedi Exile, during the game’s events. And Sion was one of the characters the Jedi Exile faced throughout the game.

Sion, of course, was a scary and creepy-looking Sith Lord. His body was seemingly rotting and was zombie-like in terms of its features. The scariest part about him was that his right eye was seemingly covered in rotting flesh and was all-white. This eye is the one that inspired the Eye of Sion ship that Morgan Elsbeth constructed together with the Imperial remnants.

Darth Sion, however, was defeated by the Jedi Exile in their final battle on Malachor V during the latter portions of the KOTOR II video game. His death eventually paved the way for the return of Darth Traya’s connection to the Force.

He was basically immortal

One of the things that we know about the Sith Lords is that they all want to be immortal. Every Sith Lord wants to hold on to their power forever, and that’s why they all want to live forever as well. And some of the strongest Sith Lords spend decades trying to find the secret to immortality.

In Darth Sion’s case, he accidentally discovered one of the secrets to immortality. After being struck down during the Old Sith Wars, he refused to die. He held on to his pain, rage, and hatred to rise from certain death. In that regard, he used his pain and negative emotions to return from the dead every single time he died.

So, in many ways, Darth Sion was a zombie Sith Lord because he refused to die. His immortality didn’t prevent him from dying. Instead, he only returned from the dead every time he died. But he had to endure never-ending pain and agony to achieve his immortality, which means he is in constant pain.

In the game, the Jedi Exile could not kill Darth Sion normally. No matter how often he was struck down, Sion only returned by holding on to his anger and hatred. As such, it was only when the Jedi Exile convinced him to let go of his pain and anger that he could see that his immortality came at a cost that wasn’t worth it. Darth Sion finally let go of his pain, and he was able to die in peace in the end. 

So, even though he refused to die throughout most of his entire life until he finally gave in to death, this isn’t exactly the ideal kind of immortality that Sith Lords want to have because they wouldn’t want to live forever while suffering from pain and anguish throughout their entire lives. As such, while he may have been immortal, Sion’s immortality was incredibly costly. And this is probably why Emperor Palpatine didn’t try to make Sion’s immortality the blueprint of his own quest for immortality.

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