Blocking Sith Lightning - Hands or Saber?

Which is easier? Yoda likes to block it with his hands. Kenobi and Mace like to block it with a saber. For me, I think it would be easier to concentrate and block it with both hands like Yoda does against Sidious. But Kenobi seems to have an easy time of it with Dooku using his lightsaber. Perhaps it's not so easy with a more powerful user, cause Mace is seriously stressing when he's collecting Sidious' lightning. I'm torn on this one.

 

A lightsaber would, I think, defiantly be eiser. It wouldn't burn your hand, and you wouldn't need any practice absorbing it with a saber

 

I'd think you'd have to be a pretty powerful jedi (like Yoda) to be able to block it with the hands. The saber is probably the preferred.....and safest method..lol.

 

A lightsaber for sure. If blocking with your hands easy Mace and Luke would have done so.

 

Using the saber would be easier.

 

saber easier, but the hand is cooler!

 

How did Yoda know how to block this corruption of energy?

Did he sneak peeks at the forbidden knowledge?

 

Forbidden knowledge isn't forbidden to high level masters like Yoda. Blocking lightning by hand seems to be an advanced skill that only handful of Jedi of that era would know.

 

Is this a trick question?
How can it NOT be easier to block Lightning with a saber?

 

I think it depends on the power of the one generating the lightning, & the power of the one deflecting it.
Note that yoda shows more strain when deflecting Sids lightning that Dooku's.

I think Yoda is much stronger in the Force than Mace or OB1 so he can use his hands easier.

 

Yoda may have been instructed at some point by a Master old enough to have actually battled Sith and encountered Sith lightning.

 

It would be easier with a Lightsaber, but blocking the lighting is still difficult. Especially if one is as powerful as Palpatine was.

 

That is quite possible.

 

It looks much easier to block it with the saber. We saw how hard Yoda had to concentrate against Dooku, and he also had a hard time against Sidious.
While Obi-Wan and Mace hardly had to move a muscle to block the lightning. OK Mace did but that was because Palps was so aggressive.

 

It's even possible that that Master fought Darth Bane at some point and Bane used lightning in the fight...

 

Anybody check the dates to see if the timing even lines up?

 

Is there such a Force power as "Absorb"? I know they are not cannon but some of the video games would have you thinking that it does. Initially I thought that's what Yoda did to Dooku in AOTC. However in ROTS, Yoda looks like he's blocking Sid's lighting with every ounce of strength he has.

 

Trust me.

 

Yes, but it has not been elevated beyond video game status yet. According to Woookieepedia: "Jedi Master Yoda used it to block Force lightning when dueling Darth Tyranus and Darth Sidious. It is possible that Yoda combined Force Deflection with Force Absorb when protecting himself against Force lightning. He was unsuccessful because he was trying to gather the lightning's energy into an orb to fire back at Sidious, but it overloaded and exploded, throwing the combatants apart."

Force Deflection
Force Absorb


And I had forgotten that Vader (of all people) fired a ball of kinetic energy at Luke on Mimban. What's the diff between Force-Lightning and what Vader did to Luke?

 

I'd assume the electrical aspect of it since the only reasons Vader can't use lightning are his suit and prosthetic hands.

 

In the video games that I am familiar with, Force Absorb usually involves one character siphoning health or force energy from another, it has nothing to do with Force Lightning.

 

You may be thinking of Force Drain. In Jedi Academy, Force Absorb negates the effects of attacks like Lightning and uses the energy to recharge the user's Force power.

 

Blocking Force lightning with a lightsaber (which simply involves holding the lightsaber in the path of the lightning) is definitely easier than blocking said lightning with bare hands, which requires intense focus and energy as well as knowledge of the appropriate technique to do so. Windu visibly struggling with his lightsaber when Sidious was firing his lightning was different because Windu wasn't just absorbing the lightning into his lightsaber (as Kenobi did to Tyranus' lightning on Geonosis); he was also using Vaapad to reflect the lightning back at Sidious, which resulted in Sidious' face 'melting'.

Yoda may have been one of the only Jedi at that time to be able to absorb or reflect Force lightning, because as the EU indicates, Yoda only picked up that technique when he dabbled with the Dark Side in his 'youth', before he became firmly grounded in the Light Side and before joining the Council (let alone becoming Grand Master).

 

Maybe Yoda's earlier darkside teetering led to his teetering on the darkside in the pt?

 

I think this is fairly simple. With a saber all you have to do is hold it back. With your hands you need to push it back with the force. Anyone can hold a lightsaber and deflect force lightening. While Yoda did it with almost no effort against Dooku, He (Dooku) is a pushover compared to Sidious. Sidious's lightening would have been much much more powerful than Dooku's.