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Many times in the prequel movies, whenever Force users were disarmed, they didn't attempt to use any telekinesis to to give them an advantage, even though they were disarmed. For example, when Count Dooku was about to be killed by Anakin, why didn't he use a Force push on him before Anakin killed him, as Count Dooku had already shown that he could use telekinesis by almost crushing Obi-Wan?

Another example would be in Obi-Wan's fight against General Grevious. Since Grevious wasn't Force-sensitive, why doesn't Obi-Wan repeatedly use telekinesis against Grevious, especially in the last portion of the fight when Obi-Wan was unarmed?

My last example is the iconic fight between Mace Windu and Darth Sidious. When Sidious was cornered up against a wall, he resorted to Force lighting. When he realized that wasn't working, couldn't he have just force pushed Mace out of the window? Is there any canon explanation for this?

Gallifreyan
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Hyperdrive Enthusiast
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    Anakin and Obi-Wan having a Force Push-off in Ep. III springs to mind. Probably not all that effective when you're at a disadvantage, especially since both sides can see slightly into the future and there's very little chance of you catching them off-guard. – DisturbedNeo May 31 '17 at 13:00
  • @DisturbedNeo That is a good point, still, I don't get why Obi-Wan didn't use Telekinesis on General Grevious repeatedly, because Grevious wasn't force sensitive at all – Hyperdrive Enthusiast May 31 '17 at 13:03
  • Couldn't say about Grievous. You'd think it would be trivial to Force Crush his head or something, being a Droid, but Obi-Wan never even tried. – DisturbedNeo May 31 '17 at 13:05
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    @DisturbedNeo - Grievous has learned to keep his Jedi opponents off-balance through continual attacks or running away. When Obi-Wan finally uses a Force Push, Grievous just rolls with it and suffers no harm. – Valorum May 31 '17 at 13:15
  • @Valorum I don't see why Obi-Wan didn't use another Telekinesis based attack. Mace Windu was able to damage Grevious's lungs using force crush. Especially when both Obi-Wan and Grevious were unarmed. – Hyperdrive Enthusiast May 31 '17 at 13:18
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    I don't know if it's a trope or not but beings with telekinesis do seem to pass up a lot of opportunities that there powers would solve rather quickly. It must be plot driven. :) – MrInfinity May 31 '17 at 13:27
  • Do we know if Lightsabers are able to deflect/absorb other Force Powers besides Lightning? If so, Greivous' infamous windmill technique could explain why using The Force against him wouldn't be such an easy task. – DisturbedNeo May 31 '17 at 13:42
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    Also, @MrInfinity (TVTROPES WARNING), http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ForgotAboutHisPowers, here you go :) there's even an entry on Star Wars under "Films - Live-Action" – DisturbedNeo May 31 '17 at 13:47
  • Answer to the Grievous part of the question: https://scifi.stackexchange.com/q/64248/31936. As for the other examples, if you've already been beaten with the Force + lightsaber you're not going to be any more effective with just the Force (and no arm). – Null May 31 '17 at 14:04
  • With Grievous, you’ve got to consider that he’s really tough. Imagine the difference between lifting a sofa and crushing a diamond, and I think you’ll see the problem with using the Force to damage him directly. As for other Force users, the Force can be countered (and is probably being invisibly countered in most fights). If you’ve lost a fight, and your opponent doesn’t need to worry about concentrating on combat, chances are they’ll just block anything you try. – Adamant May 31 '17 at 17:36
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    I don't know what you're talking about, I Force-maimed everyone I met in The Force Unleashed and The Old Republic. – Gallifreyan May 31 '17 at 17:45
  • Is there any canon evidence that telekinesis can be used on living things? I remember it being used against droids quite frequently, but not people. – Harry Johnston Jun 01 '17 at 01:17
  • Anakin and Obi-Wan use Telekinesis on each other, Darth Vader uses Telekinesis in Rogue One, and also in his icon force choke scenes. Those are some of the incidents where Telekinesis is used on living people. However, Telekinesis was used more frequently on droids in the movies, because the Jedi were not normally fighting organic beings during the clone wars. – Hyperdrive Enthusiast Jun 01 '17 at 11:48

2 Answers2

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    Looks like telekinetic force abilities could not be used by average Force user at will

  Example 1: Yoda vs Dooku. Both are very powerful Force users, Dooku former Jedi Master and Sith Lord, Yoda Grandmaster of the Jedi Order. Yet, both of them required couple of seconds to actually control large objects. Dooku is much quicker with Force Lightning then with Force Push/Pull. Interestingly, neither of them tries to use Force to directly move opponent. Most likely because of Force resistance, ability to repulse opponent's attack with Force.

  Example 2: Yoda vs Palpatine. Yoda manages to Force Push Palpatine at the beginning, but this is just one time event when Palpatine was not ready. After that they only throw objects at each other. Palpatine (probably most powerful Force user in the Galaxy) seemingly easy throws pods at Yoda. Yet, when Yoda with some effort hurls one pod back to him, looks like Palpatine's concentration is broken. He could not stop that pod and doesn't attempt same tactics again.

  Example 3: Anakin(Dath Vader) vs Obi-Wan on Mustafar and later on Death Star. Here we have two not so powerful Force users. Anakin never achieved his full potential, Obi-Wan was more of average Jedi, with some luck and wisdom. They attempt to Force Push each other in one moment, but both Force Resist. Rest of conflict is usual swordplay with lot of jumps, but no other visible Force display. On Death Star not even that, both of combatants have aged and grown weaker. They do know to protect themselves from telekinetic attacks, so neither one tries anything

  Example 4: Obi-Wan vs Grievous. Grievous is a living being, but not Force sensitive. So Obi-Wan does Force Push Grievous but only once. Why not more ? Most likely because Grievous is too heavy and powerful (good grip on any surface with his limbs and claws), and looks like Obi-Wan spent lot of his Force power for even that one effort. As I said before, Obi-Wan force powers were average, or somewhat above average. His telekinetic abilities are more of grabbing lightsabers (or pistols) than pushing large objects around.

rs.29
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  • For the heavy objects though "size matters not" is what Yoda always says though. prbobaly more the concentration that he couldnt afford while trying to survive than any "energy" problems. – Thomas May 31 '17 at 21:38
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    @Thomas "Size matters not" was not entirely true in practice :D, even for Yoda. Any Jedi could easily pull his lightsaber, but even Yoda had to deeply concentrate and even close eyes for a split second when moving heavy Senate pod. So, size matters does :P – rs.29 Jun 01 '17 at 04:31
  • I think that the Darth Vader scene in Rogue One sort of contradicts this answer. Darth Vader was able to lift a person up in the air, continuing to walk forward, kill, and deflect blaster bolts, until he reached the floating person and casually sliced them in half. – Hyperdrive Enthusiast Jun 01 '17 at 11:45
  • @Hyperdriveenthusiast enthusiast Vader lifted one Force non-sensitive person and choked another after that . He could not push all of them at once (Yoda managed to push two Imperial Royal Guards). This is consistent with his displayed abilities in previous works. Also, he could not, for example, stop Tantive IV from departing . So, size matters. – rs.29 Jun 01 '17 at 16:37
  • @rs.29 Sorry, I wasn't challenging you on the size matters thing, I was just saying that the answer is basically saying using Telekinesis requires a lot of concentration, which contradicts what Vader did in Rogue One. – Hyperdrive Enthusiast Jun 01 '17 at 20:41
  • @Hyperdriveenthusiast Using telekinetic powers against heavy objects require concentration. Not so much for grabbing lightsaber or pushing non-Force user. But pushing Senate pod, or another Force user, is hard because they resist more. In your example, Vader could not push all soldiers at once and grab plans. He dealt with one or two at once, losing precious time. – rs.29 Jun 02 '17 at 00:09
  • @rs.29 That is a very good point that I missed. – Hyperdrive Enthusiast Jun 02 '17 at 11:50
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I've wondered this a number of times. The only solution I've ever come up with is that it requires a significant amount of focus to use Force telekinesis, and getting disarmed in the middle of a fight isn't conducive to concentration.

What's really going to mess you up, though, is when you start wondering why Jedi and Sith don't narrow their Force Pushes down to a point for stabbing someone instead of just tossing people around all the time.

Edlothiad
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PipedreamerGrey
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