Light side of the Force

The **Light Side of the Force**, also known as **Ashla**, was an aspect of the Force. The Light Side was aligned with calmness, honesty, compassion, mercy, self-sacrifice, and other positive emotions, and was used for knowledge and defense. The Jedi were notable practitioners of the Light, and their mortal enemies called the Sith followed the Dark Side of the Force. The Celestial being known as Morai was theorized to be the physical embodiment of the Light Side of the Force.

The Light Side of the Force was aligned with happiness, joy, love, and benevolence, or alternatively simply calmness, which some believed nurtured the Light Side and provided insight into its ethical uses. It was generally concerned with the ideas of good, generosity, healing, and wisdom, as opposed to evil, harm, and hasty judgment. In order to achieve harmony with the Light Side of the Force, its practitioners would often meditate to clear themselves of emotion; particularly negative emotions such as aggression, anger, and hatred, since these were shown to open a Jedi to the possibility of acceptance of the Dark Side. Predictably, this offered several contradictory instances, with some works favoring a calm, emotionless and sometimes even out-rightly unfeeling view of the light side, while others aligned it with positive emotions. Jedi Master Jarik Shan felt that the Jedi Code's view of attachments was incorrect, believing that Jedi could form relationships and feel love for others without falling to the Dark Side; this idea was shared by his wife Ahsoka Tano.

The Light Side was treated as being both a form of impersonal intelligence and an essence of good. According to the self-aware interpretation, the Light Side was held to actively influence events to the degree that some Jedi thought of themselves as mere "tools" of the Force. Though this implied a lack of choice regarding an individual's fate, the Jedi, as leading proponents of the light side, insisted that it was, rather, "the ultimate free will." This they explained as being because the Force—at least the Light Side—did not compel anyone. A destiny could be accepted or spurned. And all choices along the way were free to make.

The Celestial known as the Father had implied that, had the galaxy possessed too much of the Light side, the ramifications might be just as bad as if it possessed too much of the Dark Side. While some Sith acknowledged the benevolent qualities of the Light Side, most did not view it as a force of good, seeing it as either weak and ineffective or as an unnatural repression of emotions and restricting to free will; these often served as their justifications for embracing the dark side. The ancient Je'daii Order attempted to balance usage of both Sides of the Force, believing that wholly submitting oneself to either Light or Dark was harmful to the individual Force-user.

## **Appearances**

* *A Visit from Cybertron*
* *Secrets of Jinn*
* *Forbidden Love*
* *Legacy of Jarik Shan - Volume 1: Beginnings*
* *Legacy of Jarik Shan - Volume 2: The Clone Wars*
* *Legacy of Jarik Shan - Volume 3: Revenge of the Sith*
* *Legacy of Jarik Shan - Volume 4: A Jedi in Exile*
* *Sun and Moon*
* *Legacy of Jarik Shan - Volume 5: Rebirth*
* *Legacy of Jarik Shan - Volume 6: Children of the Force*
* *Galactic Civil War*
* *The New Jedi Order*