Posted by Professor Walsh | 7 Comments

Force Fields: The Professor Takes a Look at the Jedi Knight

“A Jedi’s strength flows from the Force.” -Master Yoda, Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back

Hello all, the Professor is here and he has a brief overview for you of the class that you have all been waiting for: the Jedi Knight. I’ve been playing this class for a while now and I’ve seen what it can, and cannot do.

For those who have read my articles this one will not be much different, I’m going to go over the good, and the bad, of the Jedi Knight in Star Wars the Old Republic.

Before I go any further, despite the flaws that I’ll be bringing up, I really did enjoy playing a Jedi Knight. There are actually more good things than there are bad.

Read More

Posted by Professor Walsh | 48 Comments

Office Hours: The Perils Of Faction Imbalance

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 Star Wars. You know him as Professor Walsh. Each week (or thereabouts,) Professor Walsh enlighten us all with opinions on lore, design and more in this sometimes highly-opinionated piece. 

Greetings my Padawan learners! The Professor is here once again, and this time with a topic that I am empassioned about. But first, I have two disclaimers:

Disclaimer #1

What you are about to read is an opinion piece. It might even be considered controversial. It might even make some readers mad. The point is, I’m a critic. I do what I do and say what I say because criticism, in my eyes, is a better form of feedback than flattery.

I get a lot of flak from some viewers for always “attacking” BioWare. The truth is that there are plenty of things I wholly agree with BioWare on regarding The Old Republic. I, intentionally, focus on controversial hot topics and heated opinions because I feel the dissenting voice is an important thing.

Am I always correct? No. Do people disagree? Yes.

This is what I do though. I’ll never say, “This sucks because I say so.” I’ll always explain why I don’t like something. That, to me, is the essence of what being a critic is all about.

Disclaimer #2

This article is based on a series of forum posts that were made on SWTOR.com in a thread started by Aneu.

I have checked the information as well as I could, and have found it to be accurate. If this information is incorrect, I can only apologize. This article is, however, based on the numbers generated by parsing the Guild Headquarters information.

Read More

Posted by Professor Walsh | 4 Comments

Ask A Jedi: Can non-force users wield a light saber?

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,

Can a non-force user wield a light saber? If so, how come we don’t see more of them out there?

Dear Anonymous,

This is a complicated question, but in short, yes. Non-Force Users can indeed use a lightsaber.

Han Solo did it, but didn’t fight with it. In a non-canon story Boba Fett did however. In Episode III, the Clone Wars miniseries, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars General Grevious does too. In Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 2 Pre Viszla does it as well as one of the thieves who stole Ahsoka’s. In season 3 of the same show we know Cad Bane jumps on the bandwagon as well. Finally we have Anja Gallandro, who appeared in Star Wars: Young Jedi Knights in the novel Return to Ord Mantell by Kevin J Anderson and Rebecca Moestra.

So we have G, T, and C canon examples of it happening.

Now, how come we don’t see any more of them out there? Well, to be honest, they aren’t very good weapons unless you are Force Sensitive. You need to Force to block blaster bolts with them because that requires being able to predict where a shot that moves at that high of a velocity will land. You can’t really beat a Jedi with one unless you are Force Sensitive or otherwise enhanced.

• Pre Viszla got more or less humiliated by Obi-wan Kenobi when he tried it.
• General Grevious had to rely on cybernetic augmentation and we saw how that didn’t help much against Obiwan.
• Boba Fett even lost the second Darth Vader decided to use the Force against him.
• Anja Gallandro was only as effective as she was with her lightsaber because she was hopped up on drugs, even then it was shown how sloppy and unrefined she was compared to a Jedi.
• The Thief that tried it was easily beaten by an old and physically infirm Jedi Master in one motion.

So, you end up basically with what a lightsaber is: a melee weapon that has as much of a chance of damaging you as it does damaging your enemy. Yes, it is cool, yes it can cut through just about everything, but it is still bringing a knife to a blaster fight unless you have the powers needed to make up for that weakness.

Dear Jedi,

Who was your favorite Mandalore? Personally I prefer Mandalore the Preserver

Dear Anonymous,

I don’t have a favorite Mandalore, if I had to have a favorite Mandalore it would have to be good old Canderous Ordo.

Dear Jedi,

Do you know if there was ever a Mandalorian Jedi? If not, then why?

Dear Anonymous,

We know that there were some Mandalorian Force Sensitives but mostly it is their lifestyle. In order to be a Jedi a Mandalorian would have to turn their back on their culture. Since being Mandalorian is a culture and not a race if you turn your back on being it, then you aren’t one. So that is the main reason why there are no Mandalorian Jedi.

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.

Read More

Posted by Professor Walsh | 2 Comments

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.

Read More

Posted by Professor Walsh | 3 Comments

Ask A Jedi: Special Edition

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!

This question came in today and since this one is going to be a nasty one to tackle I figured it deserved a special article just focusing on it. This one will be controversial, there is no way around it, but I wouldn’t be the Professor if I wasn’t willing to tackle tough topics.

Dear Jedi,

Are the Jedi Libertarian or Socialist?

– Bozzvegas

Dear Bozzvegas,

This is a question with both a simple answer and a complex answer. I am glad that you asked it, and I felt that it was worth having an article all to itself. First, the simple answer: No. As both Libertarianism and Socialism are both philosophical viewpoints that originated on Earth and since the Jedi have never had contact with Earth, they can’t really be either. For the more complex answer, I think you are actually asking “Would the Jedi’s beliefs be more in line with Libertarianism or Socialism?” and that answer is amazingly more complex.

Read More