Saga Does pain impair one's ability to use the Force?

I felt like this is a legit question, so I'll lay out why I think this is the case.

Exhibit A: AOTC: Obi-Wan lies injured with a pillar about to fall on him. Rather than use the Force to stop it, he lays dumbstruck as Yoda must let Dooku escape thus leading to the Clone War. Apparently, if Obi-Wan is too injured to move, he's in too much pain to effect the Force?

Exhibit B: ROTJ: Luke throws his saber across the room, but doesn't even try to call it back to defend himself from the Emperor's lightening. The Emperor himself seems too incapacitated by his own lightning to defend himself from Vader.

Exhibit C: This one may be a bit trickier to explain: In ROTS why can't Dooku use the Force to choke/Force Push/throw something at Anakin after he's defeated? Does he need his hands to direct something like that? (Same thing could be said of the one-armed Anakin at the end of the movie against Obi-Wan)

It seems to me when someone is injured or in pain their ability to use the Force diminishes, but I've never seen anybody point that out before.

 

Pain can inhibit concentration.

 

In each of those cases, the Force users weren't exactly expecting something to happen and so couldn't exactly anticipate it. Couple that with being in pain, which as Valairy said, and you can't exactly use the Force to its fullest

 

I think not only does pain hinder focus, suffering can inhibit faith/trust which yes would effect one's ability to draw on Spiritual Power.

 

pain impairs people's abilities to think or act. you have to think and act to use the force to do something specifically.

 

I would add Exhibit D: Vader. A wreck of a man, he's been mortally wounded both physically and emotionally. Only through advanced medical care and by giving in to his dark side is he able to function. This fight against constant pain and yes, his loss of faith/love/all other things that made him Anakin Skywalker, makes it impossible for him to reach his full potential.

 

To some extent, I think it also helps to be able to physically channel the Force through your body and project it in a specific direction. This is certainly how it seems to work with Force lightning, so I wouldn't be surprised if a similar principle applies to all Force powers.

So in Dooku's case, the pain would have hindered his abilities, but he also would have been constrained by the fact that his body was no longer whole. It would take time and effort to acclimate himself to his body's new configuration, and so allow him to channel the Force through his limbs with the same efficacy as before. Obviously, this is time Dooku didn't have, and so he was basically helpless and could have been taken prisoner quite easily, making Anakin's choice to kill him even more unjustified.

This theory would also explain why Vader's potential in the Force was diminished after his injuries on Mustafar. His cells' concentration of midi-chlorians didn't change, but the configuration of his body certainly did. It probably gets pretty difficult to tap into the power of a biological life-force when most of your body is artificial. As George Lucas has said (and this derives from Buddhism): "Life is breath." But Vader's breath now comes out of a machine.

 

No Doubt - YES ... not just concentration BUT also - think of also how your mental stability and Powers and such to the Force can be 'Zeroed Out' - I mean look at Wounds in the Force - particularly when on Malachor V or Alderann's Death Throes and also Darth Nihilus ... where nearby Force-Sensitives would have sensed an incredible amount of Pain and Loss of Life and no doubt intense Disturbance in the Force ...

And also how when Master Yoda dropped his cane - and felt no doubt agony and sadness and disturbance in his heart ...

Plus - surely Pain - both physical and emotional will no doubt screw things up for many sentient and living beings - not just in Star Wars - unless you're a Robot ofc ...

And the fact look at animals whom suffered severe injuries in life and affecting their ability to hunt, sleep, reproduce, eat, drink and such ...

Or how we if we encounter a traumatic event and sad event in life or pain - it can cause us to suffer a drop in skills and esteem and will at times ...

I mean - not from Star Wars BUT of how Pain can affect one - physically and emotionally - I once asked was it possible for incredible stress and anger and sadness to cause someone to actually cough up blood ... and it is possible ... and hopefully it won't happen to anyone ... - I mean in this clip - the famous fictional Chinese Novel Water Margin - we see how one of the greatest of the 108 Liangshan Heroes Lu Zhishen pass away peacefully and later his fellow warriors and sworn brothers - whilst Heroes and Powerful individuals - when they discover how one of their fellow comrades is dead - for all their Powers and skills and experience - they face pain - emotional and physical - as the story goes in the novel and TV series - some of them even die of illness and grief in a sense later ...

 

Lucas himself said that because of his injuries on Mustafar, he's not as powerful as he was before. He was now more like Dooku was. Still pretty strong in the Force, but he doesn't have the ability to be a powerhouse. Luceno and Stover would cover their in their books, with Luceno having Anakin lashing out in anger to the point that he brought a building down on top of himself, but when he tried it again as Vader, he couldn't quite do that. Later, he felt it was like a phantom limb syndrome, where he can feel the Force but he cannot connect to it as he used to. The recent "Dark Lords Of The Sith", has Vader finally reaching the point to where he was in the OT. Likewise, "The Siege Of Lothal" has Vader able to lift up an Imperial Walker with the Force, before it could crush him.

 

Yes it does. In all the Star Wars films there is someone who is powerful in the force, but is injured and they lose the fight they are in.

 

Physical pain, yes! Emotional pain. no! Anakin had sever mental and physical pain which made him one of the best jedi ever.

 

Pain can make one lose concentration, and make focus harder but it can be a strength for dark side users to use the pain to fuel their anger, but getting your arms cut off pretty much makes you useless. At that point you wanna stay still and not bite the hand that has a lightsaber at your throat. Specifically yours next to his own.

 

Look at Kylo Ren beating his wound during his duel with Finn and Rey. Pain can fuel rage, a desire for vengeance, and hatred. Emotional pain can make one's emotions more extreme.

 

Exactly. Some say he likes pain, and that MAY be true. But I think it's a tactical thing to fuel his anger, which makes his force powers amped up. Also possibly a adrenaline rush which in a lightsaber fight is helpful. It's also a fresh new concept I like. And I'm not even a big fan of Kylo Ren.

 

Life creates the Force, and makes it grow. Pain is what happens when life is hurt and endangered. So choosing to inflict pain on yourself can distance you spiritually from life, and that can lead to the Dark side. I don't expect to see a lot of Jedi using Kylo's technique.

 

What she said.

Violence is definitely not a strength.

 

I am not sure Kylo will use that technique in the future.. it isn't like it made him super effective, unless he was barely alive like Anakin.. but that seems like a stretch to me.

 

The pain threshold is different for everyone. I myself have a massive pain threshold - having been burned, concussed, cut etc. and being able to function normally. What happens in extreme cases of sudden pain or shock is a few moments of heightened awareness as adrenaline surges through the body. In theory an experienced force user would understand this effect and be able to balance concentration for survival purposes. At the same time being knocked unconscious can sometimes even cause a 'sleep walking' effect where a person can stumble about seemingly aware, but acting only on sub-conscious levels using muscle memory. In extreme cases of martial arts combat this has been recorded - a last ditch effort by a person that is concussed will look like a defensive or offensive maneuver but is involuntary.

So as a storyteller, it could go either way. On one hand distraction causes lack of concentration. On the other hand high levels of stress increase the adrenal survival response. I guess it's up to the author in that situation on how to deal with force powers being shaken. IMO the real question here is how does 'fear' affect a force user. The answer to that is to fall quickly to the dark side.

G