The dark side is a malicious corruption of the Force in Star Wars, but a Legends story shows a rare instance of it being used to save a life.
The Star Wars franchise’s Sith Lords are known for using the dark side of the Force for evil throughout the saga, but one dark lord used a famous dark side power to save someone. The Force and its relation to the dark side, as well as the nature of the dark side, is a frequent subject of debate and analysis among Star Wars fans, with the original and prequel trilogies depicting it as a corruption of the Force’s natural balance that turns its users into horrific versions of themselves. While the Star Wars franchise seemingly has a black-and-white sense of morality, there is an abundance of moral ambiguity throughout the films and non-movie material, with one Legends-era comic showing Force lighting has benevolent purposes.
The Force can be used in an infinite number of ways, with its various applications often being nicknamed “powers.” A signature dark side power is Force Lightning, in which the malice and power of a dark side user allows them to shoot bolts of lightning from their fingertips to kill their enemies as tortuously slowly or brutally quickly as they desire. Victims of Force Lightning endure excruciating pain, whether they survive it or not, and the ability is typically associated with only the deadliest dark side users, from Sith Lords to the mysterious Prophets of the Dark Side.
Count Dooku, aka Darth Tyranus, is one of the deadliest Sith Lords ever, and yet he used Force Lighting in a surprising way in the Star Wars: Visionaries story, “The Eyes of Revolution,” by Warren Fu. After bombing General Grievous’ shuttle – an act he frames as a Jedi strike – Dooku finds the dying remains of a Kaleesh warrior and uses Force Lightning as an improvised defibrillator to keep him alive before he’s rebuilt as the cyborg General Grievous. It turns out this ability isn’t just for offense, but can actually be used for medical purposes.
This seems like an unusually benevolent application of the dark side’s Force lightning, but a case can also be made that – due to his intention to corrupt Grievous – Dooku was still using the power maliciously. Throughout Star Wars canon and Legends stories, Force Lightning is not always depicted as functioning the same way as normal electricity. Force Lightning is essentially “magic lightning” that is powered by its conjuror’s hatred, and in addition to killing its victims, it can also dampen a Force-user’s power, leaving them even more vulnerable. It does interfere with normal electronics, however, preventing Darth Vader (despite being exceptionally powerful) from conjuring it after his own cybernetic reconstruction.
Dooku’s use of Force lightning in Visionaries is to save a life, but the reason he saves Grievous’ life is anything but altruistically motivated. Dooku nearly killed Grievous and saved him because he knew the Kaleesh warrior would be a useful pawn in the Clone Wars, a manufactured conflict meant to destroy the Jedi and facilitate a fascist coup d’état. In a literal sense, Dooku’s Force Lightning was used to heal another being, but it was ultimately yet another example of the Sith Order’s Machiavellian manipulations in the Star Wars saga.
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