Why is Yoda the only Jedi Who Can Handle Sith Lighting and Throw it Back!?

the new ryder wyndham book Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force it has a section where it plainly states that plo koon mastered force lightning.

he calls it force justice or something like that.

i for one found it a bit hokey for an example -- and would have rather had someone else have a means to do it and a differnet story.

i thought it was a little cheesy.

it is pretty obvious that anyone with a high master level power could have deflected force lightning just like yoda did.
mace obviously wasnt expecting it -- so he used his lightsaber.

yoda clearly encountered it somewhere before [even before dooku imho] so was ready for it, thus, deflected / absorbed it -- and i still think if he didnt slip off the edge of that pod he would have overpowered sidious

its clearly just a means of manipulating the force - not a specific power like casting it is

its really not all that different from deflecting blaster bolts with your hands like vader does

 

Wrong on nearly every count.

The only thing that's correct is a difference in power-level affecting things slightly. It doesn't take a ton of knowledge, focus or raw power to learn how to dispel lightning (it's the same theory as blaster bolts), nor for delfecting it with one's hands. It's solely a matter of basically achieving Jedi Knight rank for the most part...

 

Then how come Dooku claimed to know more about the Force than Yoda in AOTC? I don't remember the quote. As soon as he made his claim he began force pulling things off the walls and ceiling and hurdling them at Yoda, (as if this would phase him) then Dooku seemed pretty surprised when he realized he'd have to deflect the lightning he'd just sent Yoda's way. How could this suprise him and how could he imagine lightning would mean anything to Yoda if lightning is something any skilled Jedi can absorb with one's hand?

 

Because Dooku is a tool?

Also, this is key: ABILITY to do something is not the same as KNOWLEDGE to do something. Every Padawan has the opportunity to learn how to absorb blaster bolts, lightning, etc. but not all of them will. It's very possible that he didn't know Yoda studied that particular technique.

 

it's probobly already been said but in Inferno in the Luuke-Jacen didn't luke prepare to absorb force lightning only to get the Embrace of pain thrown at him instead?

 

Yoda had been alive for almost 875 years when he fought Dooku. He has studied countless techniques, and learned so much.

 

I'm sure Luke learned, as he did for Force Choke, to deflect Force Lightning from Palpatine's stash of Sith/dark side lore. He either learned it directly from Sidious, or from his books. There's likely not much Jacen's going to be able to throw his way that he won't be prepared for considering that Luke learned from arguably the greatest and most powerful Sith Lord ever to curse the galaxy with his existence. Definitely the one with the most accumulated knowledge and study of the dark side and its ways. Jacen's not even learned anything particular to the Sith in his "apprenticeship" to Lumiya. Interesting, is it not, that his whole apprenticeship with her was just him being pushed more and more towards more and more heinous acts? She taught him almost nothing about the Sith and their ways.

I love that the Essential Guide basically says that Force Lightning is not limited to dark siders. While that's nothing new, it seems fans often lose sight of it.

 

Why not? Everybody else has.

 

*Cough*gamemechanic*coughcough*

Oh, sorry about that. At any rate, lightning from a Sith Lord isn't just any old lightning. Dooku likely thought his lightning was too powerful for Yoda. It wasn't. Look, however, at Sidious, the true Sith Master, and his vastly more impressive lightning, which Yoda fails to counter when taken off-balance and has to struggle to counter when prepared. Clearly, that's not something your average Jedi is going to just casually absorb.

 

Only in your mind, my very young apprentice...

 

By the Triforce of Wisdom, are you kidding? Countering Force lightning couldn't be easier. Who says you have to bounce it off palms? Forcing is a mental discipline; it's a mind effect. Reach out your mind, hold up your palm if it makes it easier for you, and blast your mind in front of the lightning volley. Disrupt it, like a hard wind blowing against a fountain of water. It never need touch you.

Revan's beer gut, I have an even better idea! Reach out your mind to Sidious's hand. Touch and push the lighting metric inches from his wizened fingertips. He'll never expect . . . and you'll never see it done, because no one can think creatively in this day and age.

 

No your wrong on every count, Yoda is blatantly the only force user of his era who could deflect a sith lords lightning without a saber, the film makes that crystal clear. Also in the new visual guide it says that lightning is virtually impossible to deflect.

 

Um, no. I have the canon to back me up on this, So thank you for playing!

 

I have a little theory of mine regarding this...

Let´s say that Force Lightning and other Force powers need certain parts of the user´s brain to be stimulated in order to operate properly. Coincidentally, this are the same areas that get more active when the person is feeling anger, hate, fear and so on. In this way, the average darksider would find it easier to use such techniques as his brain is already prepared to deliver them, it´s simply that they try to get what powers come faster, they ussually don´t take the time to study and develop something more complicated (there are exceptions, however). As a result you find that those powers get associated with the Dark Side in general and the Sith in particular...which makes the Jedi reluctant to study them for fear to fall to the Dark Side. In other words it´s more like a taboo than a real lack of capability.

 

I see no reason why a Jedi couldn't manipulate the air particles around his hands, ionizing them and sending a charge through it to create lightning either...thats not evil, thats science. Consequently, a Jedi with a solid understanding of science should be able to theoretically defeat it. Its really just a matter of understanding what is going on. Some, like Luke, Vader, or Corran might choose to absorb the energy, and then reflect it back. Others may have to defeat the lightning by using the Force to manipulate the air particles around them, to counter the manipulated air particles in the lightning. Essentially, creating a force lightning rod somehow, as Mace's lightsaber use to deflect could be interpreted as.

 

Why is Yoda the only Jedi Who Can Handle Sith Lighting and Throw it Back!?

Easy.
He needed something to über the feats of the previous films.

 

Force lightning is not merly lightning it is fuled by ones hatred and drains the life essence of its victims.
I think that Plo Koon created normal lightning.

 

There *is* a Dathomiri version which IS just lightning, but you are correct in that Force Lightning (as people typically use it) is an intentional twisting of the Force using anger and hatred.

And, apparently, though I have not gotten this far in the book yet: Plo Koon is said to have learned default Force Lightning in the NEGttF.

 

I think that Plo Koon had the power to manipulate the weather,thus could make normal lightning.

 

According to the new guide, Force Lightning is not a dark side technique. It can be used without anger and hatred, and it can be used in a defensive manner. Of course, it's a power that lends itself to attack and torture quite easily, so it's more often practiced by dark siders.

Bless him, Katarn was right all along.

Presumably, most Jedi don?t know how to deflect the stuff, seeing as they generally don?t use the power or have any experience with it. Yoda has been around for quite a while, though, and has likely experimented with lightning before. Simple as that.

?and you?re right, Excellence. Jedi sure do seem to be an unimaginative bunch at times. I sure don?t see why someone couldn?t cause lightning to backfire in someone?s face.

Or here?s an even better idea.

Step 1: Use the same technique to catch a lightsaber blade with your bare hands.
Step 2: Use the energy you are absorbing from the blade to send a surge into the lightsaber?s battery, frying it.
Step 3: Enjoy the startled look on your opponent?s face as the weapon dies.

Now THAT?S thinking with Force powers.

 

Uh, what?

The section on the JEDI side indicates no such usage, other thn Plo Koon's which was very, very frowned upon. However, there is not one iota of indication that the powers are meant to be different in any way.

The only true one that is different is the Dathomiri spell, which is not covered to my knowledge.

 

That was a quote of Palpatine's, if I recall correctly. He didn't say that a Jedi couldn't use Force Lightning, or that it requires hatred and anger to generate. He just says that the Jedi don't study it, and Sith do.

For the most part, that's true.

 

No, it's Tionne.

 

It seems to me that Corran Horn does absorb a lightsaber blade with his bare hands in I, Jedi...

 

Incorrect. From the middle of page 150 to the end of 180, it's all Palpatine, as gatekeeper of the Telos holocron, when not quoting another source. He accepts whoever activated the holocron (presumably Tionne) as a potential Sith apprentice and is giving them a brief overview of Sith history and philosophy...but determines that the "student" isn't ready to learn about the Force Lightning technique for obvious reasons.