The true power of Sith Lightning

There has been a lot of discussion, particularly in the threads regarding the infamous Mace vs. Palps battle and the one regarding Palps true form, about the power of Sith Lightning. Many have pointed out that we've never seen anyone die directly from force lighting. What I was wondering about, however, was what to make of Mace's death. He doesn't seem to die from being shocked with the lightning, but rather the massive fall he takes. Using force lightning, Palpatine manages to launch Mace Windu further than we've seen any Jedi or Sith launch anything. So, is this the true power of force lightning?

What do you guys think? Force lightning in the OT always seemed like a trump card that the Sith could pull out, but after the PT, it seems closer to a force push than anything else...much like how Sidious uses it to knock Yoda's saber out of his hand.

 

It seems like a sort of extended stun throw to me, Anakin in AOTC gets tossed across a room and is in alot of pain but not severly damaged, but it leaves him paralysed long enough for Dooku to fight and defeat Obi-Wan. Mace is in a lot of pain from the lightning and he is fighting seemingly to beable to keep on pushing it back at Palpy. Yoda gets thrown across the room and is again stunned by it. Luke can only scream out to Vader for help and is unable to do anything. I think it is a way of hurting your enemy enough to beable to strike them down with a saber, but Dooku had to contend with Obi, and Sidious is just so arrogant and enjoys peoples agony so much he doesnt kill them straight out.

 

I think it depends on how it is used, but it can be very powerful. I mean I think Luke was in danger of dying by lightening in ROTJ. Mace's faculties were rendered null and void preventing him from using the force so that his fall would be a painful one, At least that's what I think.

 

it was not the lightning or the Fall that killed Mace, ....It was the pavement!!

 

It seems very much a torture weapon to me also, as well as its ability to throw and stun, it provides so much pain over along period of time. In a short burst it is quite weak, but with long extended bursts with lots of power put into it, it would be very much fatal, but since the victim is in so much pain and is paralysed by it, this allows the user to torture the victim, like Sidious does with Luke in ROTJ.

 

Someone shoot yoruself in the arm with a taser and tell us what happens!

 

damn duggy there you go with all of your logic showing us how stupid we are!!! HAhAH good to see you on the boards man!

 

I haven't seen ROTJ in a while but I think I remember Sidious using the force lightning against Luke and pushing his hands forwards and Luke screaming in pain so maybe it is a stun with short bursts of power that you can throw in. What bugs me is Sidious seemed to be able to call off the force lightning whenever he wanted. The same with Dooku in AOTC. But in ROTS he just seemed to keep letting it out while Mace was deflecting the lightning back at him. If it is a stun thing then why didn't it stun him. It seemed to just weaken him and change his features.

 

Hmm, the tourture angle intrigues me, because it makes me wonder why he didn't blast Mace for longer...perhaps he thought Mace would die from the lightning if he didn't send him plunging to his death. But why did he want to throw him out the window? Sidious tells Luke he's going to kill him with lightning, why didn't he do the same with Mace? Less bodies to clean up? So, how much longer would have Luke lived after the lightning started? How long for Mace?

 

He did that to stop Mace from pushing the lightsabre toward him and to show that Mace was trying to kill him so as to persuade Anakin more.

 

He has to make it fast to keep Anakin disorientated. He tried going the slow route with Luke, and look what happened there

- O_F

 

Perhaps just to finish him off as quickly as possible, before Anakin suddenly changes his mind.

In one of the earlier drafts of the script, Sidious did just keep on blasting Mace until he stopped moving. So, given enough time, it seems safe to assume that the Force Lightning is lethal. The torture aspect makes perfect sense also, especially coming from a Sith. But I'm guessing it might take nearly a full minute of constant exposure for that to happen....and since Palpatine didn't want to waste that time, he just threw Mace out the open window to get it over with. In ROTJ, however, he had all the time in the world that he wanted to slowly torture and kill Luke, so a quick solution wasn't necessary. But then Vader stepped in to save Luke, and ended up getting several seconds of full exposure to the lightning himself....which, while usually not enough to kill an organic being, was apparently powerful enough to damage some critical electronic components in the suit.

 

Force lightning in the OT always seemed like a trump card that the Sith could pull out, but after the PT, it seems closer to a force push than anything else...much like how Sidious uses it to knock Yoda's saber out of his hand.

I think the intensity of lightning can make a person fall back, as Luke fell back after the first blast of lightning and tried to hold on to a cannister. Also, the Emperor might have been using a combination of lightning and telekinesis with Mace and Yoda to lift them in the air. Its obviously more than a force push, since the victim would have electric currents tearing through their bodies and be in a lot of pain. I agree with others that lightning is the Emperor's favorite weapon because it allows him to torture his victims in the most painful way possible.

 

Man, but the way Sidious launches Mace with, I believe, the lightning is unprecidented.

 

Well we saw how quickly Dookoo disposed of Anakin with it in AOTC. I personally believe in the "torture" theory. If Dookoo could throw Anakin that easily then i'm sure Sids could have just just launched Mace as well, but he didn't. He tortured and lectured him for pleasure... then he threw him.

 

Sids throwing Mace hundreds of metres out of the window was just going to prove to Anakin his "UNLIMITED POWEERRR!" plus he has had enough with Mace and wants to get on with dispatching the other Jedi and paying attention to Anakin.

 

I think Lightning is the most versatile tool in a Sith's arsenal which is why it is used so often. In short bursts it can be used as a tool of torture, with one quick powerful burst it can knock a weapon from hand or throw an enemy back and open to attack, and in long strong bursts it can be used to kill. Its sort of all purpose Sith throwback weapon.

 

I think Lightning is the most versatile tool in a Sith's arsenal which is why it is used so often. In short bursts it can be used as a tool of torture,

Here's a question , Why Was ObiWan able to deflect Dooku's lightning in AOTC with his Saber, but Mace had such a hard time with Palpatine's using a Saber to deflect it?. is it a Voltage issue?

 

In RotJ when we see the Force-lightning used for the first time, it's not the full extent of the lightning. In RotS Palaptine tries as hard as he can in order to overwhelm Mace by using all the lightning power he has. Mace's death was a combination of shock, having his arm cut off, being fried by Force-lightning, and not being able to find a way to stop falling because of those things.

So yes, as some have said, Plapatine was just torturing Luke in RotJ. He was really giving Mace all he had in RotS.

 

I agree. In ROTJ if Palpatine really wanted to kill Luke quickly he could have fried him and tossed him into the shaft [kind of like mace]. He was enjoying making Luke suffer.

 

It's a power bill issue.

 

I think that there are definitely varying degrees of force lightning. Sids seems to have some serious juice when he wants to really give it to someone.

 

Many have pointed out that we've never seen anyone die directly from force lighting.

Vader died as a direct result of Sidious' lightning.

 

Maybe it depends on the "Power!!" of that Force User?. Dooku had "Power!" , but Palpatine had "Unlimited Power!!!" or Dooku was not trying Very hard?

 

Yeah that was what I was getting at. It's kinda like in ESB when Luke's trying to retrieve the saber when he's in that beast's cave. His attempt is kinda weak cause he's not as strong in the force. Same thing with the lightning as far as i'm concerned. The stronger you are in the force the more power you can conjure up for you lights show IMO.