So a little while back I took part in a discussion with Rob from Comics Explained and Benny from
Comicstorian about Darth Vader and we were trying to equate his powers in the Force with
some of the characters from the Marvel universe, and we started to get really abstract talking
about what the Force could and couldn’t do, and Rob posed the question, could Darth
Vader warp reality, meaning could he affect matter on an atomic level.
Could he theoretically dismantle an object and reassemble it into something else?
Could he restructure the universe at will?
Well I have continued to think about that question, and this is something I don’t
normally do on this channel, but today is going to be a theory video on exactly that.
To do something like that would require immense power and control over the Force.
We’re talking about influencing cells, atoms, and molecules with the Force.
We know in both canon and Legends that much of Darth Plagueis’s research was involved
in affecting midichlorians, so he was working at a microscopic level.
We don’t really know much about that in canon right now, but in Legends he used the
Force to observe them and eventually change them.
His goal was to use midichlorians to prolong life indefinitely, which would be an immense
power in itself, and while he was unable to actually achieve those exact results, we know
that using the Force to affect the universe at that small of a scale was theoretically
possible.
So now let’s talk about Anakin Skywalker.
First of all, he was thought to be created by midichlorians, which is pretty reality-altery,
on its own.
We don’t have a canon explanation for that yet, but in Legends his conception was a consequence
of the actions of Plagueis and Sidious, definitely not something they intended or had the specific
power to do.
But that’s proof right there that the Force had the potential to straight up create life
from seemingly nothing.
We know Anakin’s midichlorian count was insanely high.
People have differing views on midichlorians and whether they produce the Force or are
symptoms of it, but either way having a high count indicates strength.
Anakin’s count was said to be off the charts, at over 20,000.
To put that in perspective a normal human count in Legends was said to be 2,500.
Now I kind of find most discussions of strength in the Force to be very subjective, so I want
to put this in the most concrete terms I can by comparing Anakin’s strength to the three
most powerful beings we’ve seen in the canon, the Force Wielders, or the Ones.
The Father, the Son, and the Daughter were extremely strong in the Force.
The Son was fully engulfed in the Dark Side, the Daughter in the Light, and the Father
was meant to balance and control the two of them.
They had many powers, but one of them was the ability to change their forms.
I guess you could look at this as nothing more than a magical ability due to their godlike
nature, or you could say they were able to channel the Force change their shape.
A power not unlike the very one I’m talking about.
So for the sake of this argument let’s assume this isn’t just a magical or spiritual thing,
but that the Ones are able to adjust their atoms and cells from one shape into another
through the Force.
So how does Anakin compare to these beings of immense power?
Well the Father summoned Anakin to Mortis precisely because of his strength.
The Father was dying and feared that his children would bring devastation to the galaxy without
someone to control them.
Throughout the Mortis arc of the Clone Wars, we see that Anakin does indeed have the power
to control both the Son and the Daughter.
So I think it’s safe to assume that not only is Anakin as strong as the Ones, but
he is stronger.
So, again theoretically, given enough time, Anakin could also be able to adjust his own
atoms and cells to change his form.
And if he were to stay on Mortis, where time is definitely on its own plane, he could potentially
have all the time he needed.
Everything I’ve said so far about the Ones is canon, and I think we already have a solid
starting point for the argument that Anakin could learn to change the physical universe
around him.
But I’d like to continue further into Legends.
The Ones in Legends were said to have been descended from the Celestials.
They were also godlike beings that were beyond the full understanding of mortals.
Most of what we know about them is secondhand because they were so ancient, but they were
mentioned to have changeable form like the Ones.
More importantly, they were thought to have the ability to restructure space on a massive
scale.
They created machines that created planets through their power in the Force.
I should note that most of their history is told by the Killik hive mind, and they don’t
have the ability to separate fact from fiction.
So it is possible they heard legends of the Celestials and took it as fact.
But there’s always some truth to Legends and all that.
Man I can use that line to justify anything now.
What I’m getting at is that if what the Killiks said was actually true, Celestials
had immense power that included the ability to alter or even potentially create matter.
The Celestials eventually evolved into the Ones, and we can reasonably assume that Anakin
is at least as strong as they are because of his ability to control them.
So I would say Anakin falls somewhere between the Ones and the Celestials in terms of power,
and both of those groups had the power to alter reality to some degree.
So I think we’ve got a pretty strong case in canon and an even stronger case in Legends
for the theory that Anakin at least had the potential to warp reality.
Now the final question becomes did Darth Vader also hold that same potential?
In Legends, there are multiple interpretations of what happened to Anakin’s strength in
the Force after he put on the suit.
Sources like Darth Plagueis state that the replacement of limbs does not have an effect
on one’s control over the Force.
So by that logic even if Vader had become ninety nine percent machine like Grievous,
he would still have the same strength in the Force.
Other sources say that losing limbs means a loss of midichlorians, so Vader would have
lost a significant amount of his strength.
Personally, I lean more towards Plagueis’s way of looking at things.
I see midichlorians as a consequence of the Force, not the actual cause or producer of
it.
So I think Vader would have been just as strong as Anakin.
But I totally see the logic in the loss of limb theory as well, and I think it just comes
down to personal preference.
But in chapter one of the canon book Lords of the Sith, it definitively states that Vader’s
connection with the Force was actually strengthened after he sustained his many injuries.
So I would say it’s more correct at least in canon that having robot limbs doesn’t
mean any loss in power.
So by that logic Vader would be even more likely to have the power to shape the universe
to his will.
I wanted to keep this discussion as close to canon as I could, and I mostly did except
for a couple of references to the Darth Plagueis book and especially the Celestials, but I
think Legends provides even more examples of some of the crazier powers of the Force
in beings like Abeloth or Darth Nihilus.
Either way, I feel I’ve made a strong case and now I’d like to open up to what you
think!
So let me know your opinion in the comments.
Do you think Darth Vader or Anakin Skywalker could affect life and matter on an atomic
level to reshape it to its will?
Or is that too much power even for him?
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As always, thanks for watching and may the Force be with you!