Ask A Jedi: Are Sith or Jedi closer to the Force?

If you spend any time on the official Star Wars: The Old Republic forums, you are sure to have seen his passion and prose regarding all things Jedi. You know him as Professor Walsh. Each week (or thereabouts,) Professor Walsh will answer a few reader-submitted questions in order to enlighten us all with the ways of the Jedi. You can submit your own question at the end of the article!

Dear Jedi,

Are the Sith closer to the Force then the Jedi? I know the Sith seem to use every aspect of the Force.

– Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

The Sith are not closer to the Force than the Jedi. The Sith do not actually use every aspect of the Force. This was explicitly pointed out in “Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire” where we learned that Darth Vader could not heal himself from his injuries specifically because he could only call on the Dark Side while angry and he could not maintain his anger long enough. This goes against the idea that the Sith use the Light Side in addition to the Dark Side.

You see, you cannot use both sides at once; they are diametrically opposed to each other. The Sith choose the side they see as stronger. The Dark Side, and because of this, and because of their unwillingness to serve the Force, they are actually much further removed from the Force than the Jedi are.

Dear Jedi,

Where do you base your pool of wisdom from, the movies, books, websites, another source of information or actually a combination of the above?  Also to help the askajedi community could you share the names of the the books and websites so we can also benefit from your pool of learning.

– Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

I base my pool of wisdom from the movies, the novels, the source books, the RPG material, the comics, and the television shows. In short all of the above. I rarely use web sites unless I can confirm a source directly. I am a true Star Wars nerd. I am very proud of the fact that I have read every novel written to date with only, so far, one exception… Death Troopers… I simply can’t wrap my brain around the concept of zombies in space. So far that is the only novel I have skipped. This includes the Young Jedi Knights novels as well, as a matter of principle I have even read those.

Do you have a question for our Jedi-in-residence, Professor Walsh? Submit it via the form below, and we’ll be sure to pass it along to him when he emerges from meditation.