...Shmi is getting a hug now.  "Yeah.  Things are getting better."

Except for whatever's up with the weird Force osik, but she's not going to drop that on her mom.

Anyway.  She's satisfied her curiosity on the Sith Code, really, so - well, she's going to spend a little bit of time fixing things up, and seeing if there's anything her mom would like to do, first - but she's got questions for...  Hmm, first Madame Nu, and then Yoda.

"Madame Nu, it's good to see you again.  Thank you for your recommendations on my earlier project, but I've got some follow-up questions that need answering, if I want to have a solid argument.  Is there anything you'd recommend, if I really wanted to look into the philosophical underpinnings of what Light and Darkness are, in the Force?  I'm pretty sure 'personal testimony' is not a reliable source, as these things go, no matter how informed the source may be."

Of course! She'll find a much larger stack of books this time.

One book claims that the light side and dark side of the Force are essentially just different methods of tapping into the Force's power. The light side means connecting to the Force through calm, enlightenment, and selflessness, and the dark side means connecting to it through strong emotions, like anger and fear.

According to another book, the difference between the light side and the dark side is more specifically about whether someone is trying to follow the will of the Force, or bend the Force to their own will. The light side is what happens when you listen to what the Force is telling you to do; if you instead follow your own emotions and desires, that's the dark side.

...Okay, but what happens when your own desires and the Will of the Force are consonant, instead of dissonant, Force philosophy book author?  And does anyone have any idea what the kriff is up with this Father guy?  (Though she's not going to mention him at all.  Just looking into, like, 'manifest Will of the Force' sorts of search terms.)

There's not much information on that. Some people have had visions where people told them what the Force wanted them to do, but it was usually an avatar of a person from their memories. Nobody reports anything that has to do with "the Father" or his planet.

Hmm.  ...You know, if the Knight Revan, Darth Revan and Knight Revan (again) that appear in short succession in the records - she actually has Galhistory to thank for this one; she's kind of rueful about it - are actually the same person, which she's pretty sure is so, she wonders if they might have particular insight into the different natures of the Force's...sides, such as they are.  Does the Archive have anything from a Knight Revan dated -2955 Ruusan Reformation onwards?

Yeah, he seems to have been pretty influential for both Jedi and Sith. Revan was a former Jedi Knight, but criticized the Jedi's lack of intervention in an ongoing war between the Republic and Mandalore. He became a bit of a vigilante, and helped the Republic defeat Mandalore. He was recruited by the Sith Emperor, who turned him against the Republic and started a civil war among the Jedi. Eventually, Revan's memory was wiped, and he became a Jedi again. The Sith Emperor later captured him, and imprisoned him for three hundred years. After Revan died, he left behind spirits formed from his light and dark sides, which stuck around for a while until they merged back together, killed the Sith Emperor, and finally disappeared.

Mmhmm.  That's the history bit of it.  But did he, like, leave a holocron or a comparative treatise or something?  She wants to know about his experiences.

Stern look. "Revan didn't say much in his time as a Jedi, and a great deal of that was spent while his memory was erased. And you certainly aren't going to find anything he wrote as a Sith."

"...Why not?"

"In - Padawans aren't permitted to be reading Sith texts!"

"...Why not?  I mean, I expect I won't be surprised by what you're about to tell me, but I want to hear it in your own words."

"...because we don't want Padawans to turn to the dark side! The Sith always tried to corrupt young minds, you know."

"...So why do we leave ourselves vulnerable to that corruption, by refusing to let ourselves know what it is and how to face it when it rises?"

"We know what it is that's trying to corrupt us! Anger, and fear, and hatred, and other emotions like that pull you towards the dark side, and you have to resist those. It can't help to have a Sith Lord telling you that you need to let those emotions control you!"

"...Madame Nu, you sound rather afraid right now."

"Concerned, perhaps! And I'd rather you didn't start giving me something to be afraid of!"

...Alright, this is absolute bantha poodoo.  She has been trying to avoid needlessly accelerating her progress away from her overall level of 'responsibilities she thinks she should actually have', but...She's going to need to go for her Knighthood trials.

Time to talk to Master Windu, she thinks.

Master Windu is available.

"...I think that it may, despite my desire to hold back on moving forwards on this and trying to give my life time to settle in general, be time that I went for the Knighthood trials."

"You've been a Padawan for what, six months? Four - five - seven? - less than a year, and I don't know if we ever even did officially make you a Padawan."

"I'm literally listed as your Padawan on the paperwork; that's why I was along for the raids.

"How long does it normally take, then?  Obi-wan is surely not that much older than I am, and he was celebrating having passed his just a little while ago, after all."

"I think Kenobi's more than a decade older than you. And speaking of 'decade,' that's how long it usually takes."