Regardless, the simple fact of the matter is that we have never seen a Jedi or Sith levitate (in the six movies). Therefore you can’t just assume that they could probably do it. We’ve seen Jedi jump upwards of two or three stories, and we’ve seen Mace (in AotC) and Yoda (in RotS) survive pretty long drops, which speak to nothing more than superhuman strength and agility. That’s it. The Jedi aren’t demigods.
Their inability to do it is grossly inconsistent. It’s not like I’m postulating vastly new and different powers – it’s a measure of degree, with a hairbreadth’s distance between levitation and superhuman jumping and telekinesis.
Luke, by the way, survives falls he ought not to – that drop in the air shaft at the end of Empire Strikes Back should have killed him.(I don’t care if he struck a gradually curving side of a tube at the bottom – that should’ve spun him in a potentially neck=breaking somersault. Don’t try it at home) It even bothers me that he survived the drop from the AT-AT at the beginning of that film without apparent harm.
It’s a measure of degree between me picking up a big box full of feathers and a big box full of lead, too.
Besides, is consistent since we didn’t see Mace Windu levitating his way down the streets of Coruscant after being blown out the window, either.
-Joe
Even if we accept all this as given, all you’re doing is saying that, because a character didn’t immediatly think of the best way out of a predicament, this is some sort of flaw in the movie. The Emperor was taken by surprise, probably in pain (I still maintain that pumping a bunch of lightning bolts into somebody who is physically touching you is going to sting just a bit) and, most importantly, royally pissed off. That last point is important: the Emperor is using one of his most powerful dark force powers, and the dark side comes from rage and hatred, which tend to cloud one’s thinking under the best of circumstances.
I’ve ben thinking about this dicsussion a lot, and I also feel that Jedis - or Sith - can’t levitate themselves. Moving something else is called telekineses and I can easily believe it’s not the same thing and doesn’t require the same sort of skills.
A friend of mine (who would know about such things) says that there are a few instances in the EU* where Jedi levitate themselves, but it happens sparingly and is portrayed as requiring deep concentration.
*I have no opinion one way or the other on whether anything EU “counts” in this debate.
If it helps at all, I can second this. In the EU levitating other objects and even other people is fine, but levitating themselves seems to be trickier.
Some Jedi can’t use TK at all, though. Force ability runs in families.
No – I’m not protesting that he didn’t find the best way out. I’m complaining that the most powerful guy in the universe – personally physically as well as politically – couldn’t figure out a way to save his own life when the chips were down. Got too camplacent, maybe, having all those guys in red serving him all the time. But you’d think that nothing would clear your mind like getting thrown down a long shaft. Considering how all those Judis leap and bound with the barest provocation and touching, yeah, it still bothers the hell out of me. It bothers me that Mace Windu died falling out of a building, and Luke thought himself in mortal peril when he ended up on the outside of Bespin at the end of ESB. In fact, it bothered me when I first saw Darth Vader moving hardware around wholesale in ESB like a black-armored Carrie. It implied that those Jedi ought to be able to levitate, and plenty more. They just didn’t utlilize it in the films. It’s a flaw.
I agree that it’s a flaw. Something else that always bothered me was in the first prequel when Obi-Wan and Qui-Gonn moved at superspeed yet they continued to forget that they have superspeed throughout the movie even when it would obviate a plot contrivance at the end of the film.
Maybe because there’s limits? Maybe because if you’re running at superspeed against someone who is Force-powered and armed with a lightsaber it makes it more likely for you to die? Maybe it’s because you can run really fast, but braking is a bitch and Obi-wan would have ended up running full speed into some laser barriers or straight down a pit?
Nah. Much easier to bitch.
-Joe
Heh. “Judis.” I’m picturing a bunch of Judy Garland impersonaters flipping around with laser swords.
Anyway, I don’t think the Force is a bottomless reservoir that a Jedi can tap into for unlimited power. Luke, at the end of Empire, has been using his force powers constantly for what probably was a good half hour, fighting his ass off against the second most powerful force user in the universe, been pounded to a pulp by Vader’s telekinesis, and finally had his hand lopped off. I don’t think he was quite in fighting trim at the end there. Plus, he was hanging over a frickin’ gas giant. Even if he can fall from any height, what the hell is he going to land on?
Windu was largely in the same place. He’d just had both his arms chopped off, and then been blasted by force lighting through a window. I’m pretty sure he was dead before he hit the ground, however far down the ground might have been.
Actually, I think that Windu was only missing one hand. I agree, though, that he was probably dead long before he hit the ground.
Still, there isn’t any goddamned story in the universe that someone can’t come up and say, “Well, this is stupid. Why did he do X instead of Y? I would have done Y. This sucks.” But for some reason, people think they’re clever when they’re making such statements.
-Joe
You’re very defensive about this. Sure you can pick apart any movie but the SW saga (particularly the prequels) isreplete with major plot holes and downright silly scenarios.
In the particular scene in question, Obi-Wan could have run past the lasers with ease and gotten to the fight. Darth Maul was engaged with Qui-Gonn so there was no issues with him. Obi Wan misses two opportunities to get by the lasers. Sorry but that’s just a miss on the movie’s part.