Why is force lightning evil

What about using the Force to control people's minds? Still morally shady, but because it doesn't involve causing direct suffering it doesn't appear to be strongly aligned with the dark side. Again, not drawing upon the dark side is no guarantee of moral actions. Billions or trillions of sentient beings in the Star Wars universe have next to no ability to use the Force whatsoever, and manage to commit all kinds of immoral actions.

That said, the dark side is also about controlling others, and doing this in excess by any means will certainly lead to cackling and yellow eyes. As we see with Ezra's enhanced mind trick in Rebels , which he was taught by Maul and which allows greater control, there is definitely a dark side connotation to at least certain uses of mind control in Star Wars.

We see relatively few Jedi using the mind trick outside of pressing circumstances, with Obi-Wan's admonition to "go home and rethink your life" being an exception, so it's hard to say what would happen to Jedi who used it regularly.

What about the Force choke? As a technique that causes suffering relatively directly, the Force choke is associated with the dark side. We only see Luke employ it in the same film in which he is shown to be tempted by the dark side. There is no indication that you need to be fully immersed in the dark side to use it, but it is clearly such a technique. Other uses of Force telekinesis as a direct weapon in combat seem to be far more common among dark side adepts, for a similar if lesser reason.

What about battle meditation? This appears only in Legends by that name. As such, it seems to be non-canon. In Legends, the exact nature of the Force is a fair mess, and I don't think one can give a definitive answer about light side and dark side and neutral techniques. What about Force ghosts? Force ghosts are technique of the light side, because they require giving in to the will of the Force.

A Force ghost will eventually become one with the force in current canon, effectively ceasing to exist as a separate entity and possibly properly dying. This is not a state of mind that the Sith or anyone else fully dedicated to the dark side can place themselves in. Sith methods of cheating death seek to attain indefinite life through tying their spirit to the physical world, such as the mask of Lord Moomin, the Dathomir witches' ghosts, or the very probable return of Palpatine.

While nothing says Jedi couldn't use such techniques, it would require a selfishness that is unusual in Jedi. As a Force ghost, they can accomplish the same thing, but leaving the duration of their stay up to the will of the Force.

You can use a dark side technique for a good cause, certainly. It's going to bring you closer to the dark side, though, so it is a risk. Force abilities are not inherently good or bad according to the admittedly no longer considered canon game Jedi Academy. Remember, abilities aren't inherently good or evil The Force, in terms of utilisation by the Force Sensitive, does not really have an alignment per se. The use of lightning that will cause tremendous pain or even death will never be permitted for use on a human being by the Jedi, meanwhile the Sith would never approve of healing methods that alleviate pain, as pain and suffering is a core tenet of their beliefs.

We see Luke use force choke in ROTJ for a few reasons, the first is as a means of incapacitation, but there are means to do this that cause less pain and suffering at his disposal. The second reason is that it shows that Luke is vulnerable to falling to the dark side. Some video games do split force powers into light and dark, however these are done for gameplay balancing purposes and are no more canon than the Force meters these games typically use which is to say, have never been canon at all.

Force lightning is a favorite weapon of dark side users, though it was also used by Rey Daisy Ridley in Rise of Skywalker. But the first and most notable character to use force lightning is of course Palpatine, who employed it against Luke in Return of the Jedi. In the movie, Palpatine took pleasure in repeatedly blasting the young Jedi with it. In Revenge of the Sith , Mace Windu successfully redirected a force lightning blast back at Palpatine, thus damaging his face beyond repair.

Palpatine kept this disfigured look up until the end of his Star Wars story. Numerous theories have attempted to explain this, among them being the idea the force lightning just exposed what years of succumbing to the dark side had done to Palpatine.

And he made Luke a fateful offer: join him, and together they would overthrow the Emperor and rule the galaxy as father and son. Luke refused, just as he refused to believe Yoda and Obi-Wan when they said Vader could never return to the light. He stubbornly believed that the man Vader once was, Anakin, could still be redeemed, and it was this simple faith in family — not Jedi doctrine — that would save the galaxy.

But Luke refused to kill his father and awakened the good slumbering in him. When Sidious turned on Luke, Vader hurled his master to his death before dying himself.

The Chosen One had indeed brought balance to the Force — by destroying the Sith. With the Sith vanquished and the Empire shattered, Luke wondered what to do next. Should he create a new Jedi Order, or was that philosophy best left in the past?

Finding no guidance from the Force, he spent years searching the galaxy, seeking answers as a Jedi and for himself. It was the most personal of reasons that caused him to reluctantly begin training students again: his nephew, Ben Solo, was extraordinarily strong with the Force, but also a volatile boy in desperate need of a teacher.

Battered by grief and his own perceived failure, Luke retreated to Ahch-To — the legendary site of the first Jedi temple — and cut himself off from the Force. He intended to die and ensure the Jedi tradition died with him. But the dormant will of the Force would soon awaken. Kylo hungered to prove himself a master of the dark side, but still felt the pull of the light.

Perhaps the greatest shock wave came with the revelation that Darth Sidious had cheated death, manipulating events for decades from Exegol , a legendary world that was home to Sith cultists. Shattered in body but still indomitable in spirit, Sidious offered Kylo Ren an armada with which to conquer the galaxy and restore Sith rule. In a climactic confrontation on Exegol , Sidious augmented his dark-side powers with the spirits of all the Sith that had come before, but Rey was supported by the spirits of the departed Jedi.

Rey destroyed Sidious, ending the Sith dream of conquest and ushering in a new era, to be shaped by the Force in ways as yet unknown.

Skip Navigation Disney. Log In. The Force The Force is a mysterious energy field created by life that binds the galaxy together. Show More Loading Jedi Mind Trick Rey uses her newly discovered abilities to trick a First Order stormtrooper into releasing her It's an energy field created by all living things.