Lit Can Force lightning hurt you if you're not grounded? Also does rubber provide any protection?

The fact that birds aren't grounded explains why they aren't electrocuted when they sit on high voltage wires strung between telephone poles. So, would the same thing be true about Force lightning? If Force lightning was flowing through those high voltage wires would it fry those birds or not?

Also, would rubber or some other type of non-conductive material provide protection against Force lightning?

Just some silly questions that occurred to me, and I figured if any thing has addressed this idea, it must be in the EU.

 

I would think that if a rubber suit were the counter to this then any given Sith Master would suspect his or her apprentice were up to something when they see said apprentice walking around with a new rubber armor thingy.

 

These eager warriors are ready to take on the Sith:

Sadly, they were killed by the chaffing.

Seriously, though, these are interesting questions. No clue of Force Lightning is meant to behave like regular electricity.

 

The "lightning" employed by truly powerful dark side characters like Palpatine isn't electricity (or, rather, isn't just electricity): it's dark side energy that scars the body and leeches the spirit.

I doubt a rubber suit would be much help.

Trip is in the middle of a three or four year thesis on this very subject, I believe. Bit of a slacker, though.

Though there obviously is a purely electrical variant, too, judging by the fact Starkiller frequently uses it to power up various bits and pieces of machinery as he navigates his levels.

 

Aang is displeased to report that the experiments were a complete success.

 

Wasn't that during the final fight in the TV series when he was forced into a rock by Ozai and the rock hit the scar on his back (that he got from Azula) and caused him to go Avatar state?

 

There's real Force lightning, and then there's the fake variety.

I maintain that Force lightning used by, at the very least, anyone wearing gloves is achieved not via the Force but via the same type of mechanical apparatus Trioculus used. That kind you can probably neutralize by a questionable fashion statement and a well coordinated leap. Palpatine blasting you, no; you'll be lucky to come out of it with the muscles still on your bones.

Only true masters of the dark side like Palpatine can use the lightning power of the dark side. 99% of the people we see using it are cheating.

 

I did a little more research on lightning and I found out that rubber galoshes would offer no protection from real lightning. Rubber, and virtually every other material, can conduct electricity to some degree. Rubber is non-conductive enough to help with electrocution from a home fixture, but real lightning is so powerful that it would go right through rubber shoes and create a circuit. Also, even if the shoes could protect you, the lightning could arc through the air after it hits you creating a circuit that would allow the lightning to kill you. So, if the power of Force lightning is of the same magnitude that real lightning is, then jumping or a rubber suit wouldn't help much.

Actually, Starkiller's ability to use the electricity that powers electrical-powered things is one thing that got me thinking about the relationship between Sith lightning and real lightning. I didn't really like that idea.

So, anyway, I guess here's a more general question and less silly question. Cortosis offers protection against a light saber. Is there any substance or material that offers the same type of protection from Force lightning?

 

depends on what kinda lightning you've got goin on there

 

So I guess the question is, is Force lightning actually electricity or is it just some kind of Force energy that happens to look like arcing electric bolts?

 

I actually think TFU II only confirms this. In the final boss fight, Starkiller channels what must be a ridiculous amount of "real" lightning, added to his own Sith lightning, and zaps Vader with it for almost a minute... and he can get up and walk right after it. On the other hand, Palpatine's lightning is enough to completely destroy his suit.

In my mind, there's a world of difference between lightning and the kind of thing Palpatine can do.

 

I'm of the opinion that the canonicity of something that appears solely as a game mechanic is highly debatable at best. Charging up anything with Force lightning, Force choking Reborn and hurling to their deaths while in full accordance with the light side, and a number of TOR abilities all really push up against the boundaries of Star Wars metaphysics.

As a more restrained explanation I would say that Force lightning may not be electricity, but it behaves a manner similar to electrical energy sources, ie. has similar physical properties when induced into this reality, current, heat, etc.

While rubber suits may not have any special capability to protect against Force lightning any more than they do against high-powered electrical events in general, there is significant evidence (though again it's mostly game mechanics) that various forms of armor do limit the damage caused by Force lightning in roughly the same way they mitigate the damage of just about everything else. That's not really that surprising though - Force lightning, like a blaster bolt, more or less involves slamming highly energized charged particles into an object.

 

Real lightning versus Force energy could also explain why Jaina was able to kill a Yuuzhan Vong with it in SbS but it didn't affect the Vong Jacen used it on in Traitor. Not sure why the green lightning works though.

 

Now that you have mod status you should really hunt Trip down and whip him into action or something.

 

Real lightning is magnitudes more powerful than force lightning. Luke was barely injured after being fried for more than seconds. Real lightning however can cause lethal injuries in a time-span of 30 microseconds.

 

In The Truce at Bakua, we find that Luke needed major medical treatment for skeletal calcification shortly after those victory celebrations.

 

Okay, then he was heavier injured than I thought. Still, he would probably have looked like charcoal after being struck by real lightning multiple times.

 

I think Palpatine was holding back and just using enough power to torture Luke. His Force lightning may be many times more powerful than that. We see Mace's skull very soon after Palpatine fries Mace, and I think that's a sign you're a goner. Also having a great connection to the Force may afford some protection. Anikan is much weaker in the Force when he fights Dooku the first time, and he's out of commission for many minutes when Dooku very quickly blasts him with his Force lightning, and his Force lightning is clearly less powerful than Palpatine's considering how easy Yoda handles his lightning vs. Palpatine's lightning.

 

Force lightning is Palpatines shtick. He should really be the one to produce the most powerful variant.

Still far less powerful than real lightning, though.

 

It might have been static - Lucas said he always intended for the Death Star II to be carpeted.

 

Just by the appearance of real lightning I would agree that it seems to be much more powerful. While a real lightning bolt is really only an inch thick it is so intense that it appears to be many feet to yards thick. So it would appear much thicker than Palpatine's lightning. Also, lightning can reach 50,000 degrees Celcius. If Palpatine's lightning were that hot, it would've melted everything around him considering how long he used it.

But there must be weird qualities about real lightning too that people don't understand b/c people do survive lightning strikes. Maybe the survivors are hit by one of the branch arms (not the main arm) or maybe they're just nearby the strike site, but because the lightning is so intense, they feel that they were hit by it even though they weren't directly hit. I don't know.

 

Yeah, if you look really carefully, Palpatine quickly takes off his shoes and rubs his socked feet across the carpet using Force speed right before he blasts someone with Force lightning. You have to look at it frame by frame, but it's there.

 

I think that's mostly due to the 30 microseconds duration the current flows through the body. And then the current might flow in a way that doesn't damage vital organs too badly. The distance from the impact point is also relevant of course.

As far as I know duration is very important. I think nobody would survive the currents of real lightning for even a single second because of the >20000Amperes and high, high voltage.