Not long ago, in a living room
very, very close….

BRIEFING ∞

A New Audience

It is a period of great confusion. Some people in this room have never seen a single Star Wars film.

Armed only with slides, one brave presenter sets out to explain the Force: the mysterious power behind the Jedi, the Sith and a surprising number of ghosts….

A briefing in three parts

Star Wars
Powers

What the Force is, what it lets people do, and where and how it works.

  1. IThe timeline
  2. IIThe powers
  3. IIIWhere and how

Part I The timeline

How Star Wars counts years

Ep. I32 BBYThe Phantom Menace poster
Ep. III19 BBYRevenge of the Sith poster
Ep. VI4 ABYReturn of the Jedi poster
Ep. VII–IX34–35 ABYThe Force Awakens poster
Year 0The Battle of YavinThe Death Star blows up · Episode IV
← BBYBefore the battle
ABY →After the battle
Luke is born in 19 BBY…
so he’s 19 at Year 0
← Thousands of years BBYThe Old Republic and the first Jedi
Up to 138 ABY →Legends goes a century further
The zero pointStar Wars counts years from one event: the Battle of Yavin, when Luke destroys the Death Star in the very first film.
BBY and ABYBBY means Before the Battle of Yavin. ABY means After. It works just like BC and AD.
The films on the lineThe prequels sit at 32 to 19 BBY, the originals at 0 to 4 ABY, and the sequels at 34 and 35 ABY.
Quick checkLuke is born in 19 BBY, so he’s 19 years old when he blows up the Death Star.
Beyond the filmsGames, books and comics stretch the line to thousands of years BBY, and more than a century ABY.

Part I The timeline

Two official histories

Legends

The old history

1977–2014

Hundreds of novels, comics and games: the Expanded Universe.

Knights of the Old Republic game cover Heir to the Empire book cover Star Wars: Legacy comic cover
2012Disney buys Lucasfilm.
2014The old stories are renamed Legends. Canon starts over.
Dark Empire comic coverLegends · 1991

Same
idea
twice

The Rise of Skywalker posterCanon · 2019
Canon

What officially happened

2014–today

The films, The Clone Wars, and the official new stories made since 2014.

A New Hope poster The Force Awakens poster The Mandalorian poster
Why two versions?Star Wars has two official histories, and fans argue about both.
1977–2014 · LegendsFor decades, books, comics and games kept adding stories. Together they were called the Expanded Universe.
2014 · The resetAfter Disney bought Lucasfilm, only the films and The Clone Wars were kept. Everything else became Legends.
Ideas cross overLegends isn’t gone. Palpatine came back in a clone body in a 1991 comic, and again in the 2019 film.

Part I The timeline

Every story, era by era

Films, shows, games, books and comics47 of the big ones, in story order from the first Jedi to a century after the films. Let’s fly through it.
That’s the whole galaxyCanon on top, Legends below in every era. And there are hundreds more books and comics than these.

Part II The powers

What is the Force?

An invisible energy made by every living thing. It connects everything in the galaxy.

How Obi-Wan explains it to Luke in the first film.

Force-sensitive Rare

A few people are born with a strong link to the Force. The next two slides show what makes them different.

Yoda, calm in the Dagobah swamp
Jedi

Light side

Calm, selfless and protective. Power through peace.

Palpatine’s yellow-eyed rage
Sith

Dark side

Fear, anger and ambition. Faster power, at a terrible price.

The basicsThe Force is the big idea behind Star Wars. Everything else builds on it.
Force-sensitiveMost people can’t feel it. A rare few are born with a strong link, and with training they can use it.
The light sideJedi use it calmly and selflessly, to protect others and to understand.
The dark sideSith use it through fear and anger. It’s faster and stronger, and it slowly ruins them.

Part II The powers

What are midi-chlorians?

A living cell full of tiny midi-chlorians, linked to the Force around it NUCLEUS MIDI-CHLORIANS THE FORCE
M-count · Anakin20,000+
Tiny life in every cell · The Phantom Menace, 1999

Microscopic living things inside the cells of every creature. Without them, life couldn’t exist.

The Force’s messengers · The Phantom Menace

They pass on the will of the Force. The more you have, the stronger your link. Quiet your mind and you can hear them.

Measured with a blood test · The M-count

Jedi counted them per cell in children’s blood. Qui-Gon tests young Anakin’s blood and gets the highest count ever recorded.

No father · The Phantom Menace, Revenge of the Sith

Anakin has no father. The films hint that a Sith made him with midi-chlorians, but they never say so.

Science gone wrong · The Mandalorian 2020, The Bad Batch 2024

Imperial scientists put Grogu’s high-count blood into a test subject. It worked for two weeks, then the body rejected it.

Lucas’s hidden plan · George Lucas, 2018

Lucas later said midi-chlorians talk to the Whills, tiny beings who are the Force itself. We’re just their vehicles.

Part II The powers

Who has how many?

Midi-chlorians per cellNumbers from the films, an official guidebook and an old Legends chart. Here’s who has how many.
Han Solo and Owen Lars · Legends chartAbout 1,500. Plenty of nerve, no Force.
An average person · Official guidebookAbout 2,500 per cell. Everyone has some.
Force-sensitive · Official guidebookSomewhere around 4,000 to 5,000 is where people start to feel the Force.
To become a Jedi · Legends chartThe Legends chart sets the minimum for a Jedi at 7,000.
A typical Jedi · Legends chartThe same chart puts the average Jedi at 10,000.
Yoda · The Phantom MenaceNo number at all. The film only says Yoda’s count is lower than Anakin’s.
Anakin Skywalker · The Phantom MenaceOver 20,000, the highest ever recorded. The Legends chart puts him at 27,700.
What a count can’t tell youMidi-chlorians show potential, not skill. A blood test can’t tell you who wins a lightsaber fight.

Part II The powers

Legends midi-chlorian secrets

Vader’s mechanical hand flexing
No lightningLegends
Darth Plagueis watching from a cave
Maxi-chloriansLegends
A red planet overrun by gold specks
A mad planetLegends
Palpatine addressing the Galactic Senate
Test the SenateLegends
Bacteria living inside a mitochondrion
Real bacteriumReal world
Legends midi-chlorian secretsThe old books and comics went much further with midi-chlorians. Some of it gets dark.
Darth Vader · LegendsWhy Vader never throws lightning: it has to flow through living flesh, and his hands are machines.
Maxi-chlorians · LegendsPlagueis’s own master engineered long-lived midi-chlorians, hid them in Plagueis’s blood, and planned to live on inside him.
The planet Vjun · LegendsNobles boosted a whole planet’s counts so the Jedi couldn’t recruit their kids. Everyone went mad and turned on each other.
Test the Senate · LegendsA Jedi proposed blood-testing every senator to find the hidden Sith. He told Palpatine, the hidden Sith, who had him killed.
Real world · 2006Scientists named a real bacterium that lives inside mitochondria Midichloria mitochondrii, with George Lucas’s blessing.

Part II The powers

Core powers

Luke’s X-wing rises out of the swamp
TelekinesisBoth sides
Obi-Wan uses a mind trick
Mind trickMostly Jedi
Luke blocks blaster bolts with his eyes covered
Sense dangerBoth sides
Anakin wakes from a nightmare
VisionsBoth sides
Grogu heals a wound
HealingLight side
Core powersThese take training and focus, and both Jedi and Sith can learn them.
Telekinesis · The Empire Strikes Back, 1980Move things with your mind. Tiny Yoda lifts Luke’s sunken starfighter out of a swamp.
Mind trick · A New Hope, 1977Bend a weak mind. Obi-Wan waves his hand, and the stormtroopers let the droids go.
Sense danger · A New Hope, 1977Feel what’s coming. Luke blocks laser blasts with his eyes covered.
Visions · Revenge of the Sith, 2005Glimpse the future, unreliably. Anakin dreams his wife will die, and his fear turns him to the dark side.
Healing · The Mandalorian, 2019Pour your own life energy into a wound. Baby Grogu saves a man who was about to die.

Part II The powers

Darker and stranger

An officer is Force-choked
Force chokeDark side
The Emperor shoots Force lightning
LightningDark side
Morgan Elsbeth’s green Nightsister magick
MagickWitches
Kylo Ren during a Force bond connection
Force bondLight + dark
A Force storm swallows a fleet
Force stormLegends only
Darker and strangerSome powers come only from the dark side, or from somewhere stranger than the Force.
Force choke · A New Hope, 1977Strangle someone without touching them. Darth Vader’s signature move.
Force lightning · Return of the Jedi, 1983Shoot lightning from your fingertips. The Emperor nearly kills Luke with it.
Nightsister magick · Ahsoka, 2023The witches of Dathomir mix the Force with spells: illusions, curses, even raising the dead.
Force bond · The Last Jedi, 2017Two minds linked across the galaxy. Rey and Kylo Ren talk as if they were in the same room.
Force storm · Dark Empire comic, 1991Legends only: the Emperor summons storms in space big enough to swallow whole fleets.

Part II Deep cuts

Strange gifts

Cal Kestis reads the memories in a lightsaber
PsychometryCanon
Space whales wrap around a Star Destroyer
Beast controlCanon
Bastila Shan in meditation
Battle meditationLegends
Osha bleeding a lightsaber crystal
Bleeding a crystalCanon
Deep cutsPowers you only meet if you play the games, read the books or watch the shows.
Psychometry · Jedi: Fallen Order, 2019 gameTouch an object and see its memories. Cal Kestis grabs an enemy’s lightsaber and relives how she fell to the dark side.
Beast control · Star Wars Rebels, 2018Talk to animals. Ezra calls in giant space whales that wrap around an enemy warship and drag it into hyperspace.
Battle meditation · Knights of the Old Republic, 2003 gameMeditate to make a whole fleet braver and the enemy weaker. Bastila Shan is so good at it that both sides want her.
Bleeding a crystal · The Acolyte, 2024Why Sith lightsabers are red: anger and pain corrupt a kyber crystal. Osha bleeds Sol’s crystal, turning his blue blade red.

Part II Deep cuts

Forbidden tricks

Darth Bane and a thought bomb implosion
Thought bombLegends
Nomi Sunrider
SeveringLegends
Darth Nihilus draining life
Planet drainLegends
Ysalamiri on a tree branch
YsalamiriLegends
The really dark stuffThese live mostly in Legends: the old books, comics and games.
Thought bomb · Darth Bane novel, 2006A blast of pure Force that kills every Force user nearby, casters included. Bane tricks his rivals into it, and about a hundred Jedi die too.
Severing · Tales of the Jedi comic, 1996The harshest punishment: cut someone off from the Force forever. Nomi Sunrider does it to the fallen Jedi Ulic Qel-Droma.
Planet drain · Knights of the Old Republic II, 2004 gameDarth Nihilus is so hungry for the Force that he drains an entire planet. Every person, animal and plant dies.
Ysalamiri · Heir to the Empire, 1991 novelAnd a counter: little tree lizards that switch the Force off around them. Grand Admiral Thrawn keeps them close so Jedi can’t touch him.

Part II The powers

Powers over life and death

What survives death?
Branch oneKeep the self
Branch twoGet a body back
Anakin, Yoda and Obi-Wan as Force ghosts
JediForce spiritQui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Yoda, Anakin
Palpatine’s withered body on Exegol
SithEssence transferPalpatine’s spirit jumps bodies
Ben gives his life to revive Rey
Same bodyRevivedAhsoka, Rey, Ventress
Clone bodies floating in a tank
New bodyClone or hostPalpatine’s clones, Dr. Cylo*, Callista
Night Troopers rising from the dead
Corpse onlyUndeadNightsister zombies, Night Troopers
A subtopicIn Star Wars, death is usually final. Usually. Here are the ways around it.
Keep the self · JediJedi learn to let the body go and keep their mind in the Force. Obi-Wan, Yoda and Anakin return as ghosts.
Keep the self · SithSith won’t let go. When Palpatine’s body dies, his spirit jumps into a body waiting for him.
Same bodyLife for life. Ahsoka and Rey come back because someone else gives up their own life.
New bodyPalpatine dies in 1983 and returns in 2019 in a clone body. *Dr. Cylo’s backups may just be copies.
Corpse onlyNightsister witches raise the dead as soldiers. The body walks, but the person is gone.
The patternJedi let go. Sith hold on. Witches borrow the dead. And every return costs something.

Part III Where and how

Where the Force is strongest

Stylized galaxy map of the places where the Force is strongest UNKNOWN REGIONS DEEP CORE OUTER RIM Ahch-To Dagobah Mustafar Exegol Dathomir Mortis portal

The Force is everywhere, but it pools in special places. The stories call them vergences.

Ahch-ToThe first Jedi temple. Luke hides here.
DagobahYoda’s swamp, thick with life and the Force.
MustafarLava world and dark-side hotspot. Vader’s castle.
ExegolHidden Sith world. Palpatine’s comeback lab.
DathomirHome of the Nightsister witches.
MortisA realm behind a portal, home to three godlike Force beings.

Part III Where and how

How the Force works

SourceLiving things
EnergyThe Force
ChannelA Force-sensitive person
Light side · howCalm and focus
You getMove, sense, heal, protect
The priceDiscipline, letting go
Dark side · howFear and anger
You getChoke, lightning, drain
The priceIt consumes you
Ben Solo giving his life
A giftBen Solo gives his life, and Rey wakes up.
Palpatine draining Rey and Ben
A theftPalpatine drains Rey and Ben to grow stronger.
How it worksHere’s the whole machine in one picture.
Where it comes fromLife creates the Force, and a Force-sensitive person can tap into it.
The light sideDraw on it calmly and you get the Jedi’s powers. The price is discipline, and learning to let go.
The dark sideDraw on it through anger and it’s faster and stronger. Then it eats you: Anakin loses everything he loves.
Life costs lifeThe deepest rule: to bring back a life, someone gives one, or someone steals one.

Pop quiz Shout your answer

Pop
quiz

Eight silly questions about the Force. Every answer comes from a real film, show or game.

Question 1 of 8

Can Jedi or Sith fly?

Sort of

Leia gets blasted out into space with no suit, survives, and pulls herself back to her ship.

The Last Jedi · 2017

Leia in open space
Question 2 of 8

Does the Jedi mind trick work on everyone?

Nope

Watto the junk dealer and Jabba the Hutt both shrug it off. Watto only listens to money.

The Phantom Menace · 1999 · Return of the Jedi · 1983

Qui-Gon tries the mind trick on Watto
Question 3 of 8

Can you stop a laser blast in mid-air?

Yes

Kylo Ren freezes a blaster bolt and leaves it hanging in the air, buzzing, while he deals with the shooter.

The Force Awakens · 2015

Kylo Ren freezes a blaster bolt
Question 4 of 8

Can a ghost still use the Force?

Yes!

Yoda’s ghost calls down lightning to burn the tree that held the first Jedi books. Plot twist: Rey had already taken them.

The Last Jedi · 2017

Yoda’s ghost calls down lightning
Question 5 of 8

Can you throw lightning back at a Sith?

Yes

Yoda catches Count Dooku’s lightning in his bare hand. Rey bounces Palpatine’s own lightning back and finishes him with it.

Attack of the Clones · 2002 · The Rise of Skywalker · 2019

Rey sends Palpatine’s lightning back
Question 6 of 8

Can you mail someone a lightsaber through the Force?

Yes

Rey passes her lightsaber to Ben Solo through their Force bond, even though they’re in different places.

The Rise of Skywalker · 2019

Rey passes a lightsaber through the Force bond
Question 7 of 8

Can a Force call across the galaxy get you wet?

Yes

Rey is soaked by the island’s rain while she talks to Kylo Ren through their bond. Afterwards, his glove is wet.

The Last Jedi · 2017

Kylo Ren’s wet glove
Question 8 of 8

Can the Force pull a Star Destroyer out of the sky?

In Legends, yes

Starkiller, Darth Vader’s secret apprentice, grabs a falling Star Destroyer and drags it down with nothing but the Force.

The Force Unleashed · 2008 game

Starkiller pulls down a Star Destroyer

May the Force be with you.

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