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 Lethality | 1 Comment

Ask A Jedi: Will the Light Side/Dark Side struggle go on forever?

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,

I just watched the new timeline entry and I was wondering: why didn’t the Jedi Council intervene in the Mandalorian Wars? If this was covered in KOTOR I can no longer recall the reason and am curious.

– Emcee Beanyboy

Dear Beanyboy,

We don’t actually know the answer to this question. There are a number of theories however; I believe that the Council saw that there would be a great catastrophe if the Jedi became involved in the Mandalorian Wars. Interestingly enough if this was the case, which it was alluded to, then the Jedi Council was correct. Revan went to war, fell, and ended up causing much more damage than the Mandalorians did.

Dear Jedi,

My question to you is do you believe that the struggle between the Dark Side and Light Side will continue to the end of time? I understand there have been thousands of years of peace at times but what is your opinion on the matter?

– Dylan

Dear Dylan,

Nope. There will always be a struggle. The Dark Side seeks to conquer everything (including the Light Side) while the Light Side simply seeks balance (thus only fights the Dark Side until balance is achieved and then works to maintain that balance) so the Light Side won’t ever “destroy” the Dark Side, only beat it back into balance. You can’t reason with the Dark Side, as such is against the nature of it, and you can’t destroy completely it unless you are willing to break the balance.

I hope my opinion helps to shed some light.

Dear Jedi,

If you were a Jedi, color would your lightsaber be?

– Mandoran Elite

Dear Elite,

There is no actual significance to the color of the lightsaber. While it is true that as of KotOR they put some specific tendencies on color, and in the movies it is implied that the Sith always use crimson, it has never been stated for Jedi. We have seen all manner of Jedi use all manner of lightsabers. Yoda used green, Luke used blue, then green, Obi-wan used blue, then white, Mace Windu used purple, and we even saw yellow. There have been exotic colors of lightsabers too, including at least one that changed colors like a rainbow.

Personally? I like silver.

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

Posted by Professor Walsh | 2 Comments

Ask A Jedi: What Do The Jedi Serve?

Read More