Darth Vader's Version of Force Lightning Redefines the Iconic Power
The old Star Wars Expanded Universe gave Darth Vader his own version of Force Lightning. Darth Vader may be the Chosen One, but unfortunately he has suffered some pretty calamitous defeats. His worst was at the hands of his old master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, when the two dueled on the volcanic planet Mustafar. Vader made the mistake of attacking Obi-Wan when he had the high ground, and the Jedi Master lashed out with his lightsaber, cutting off the Sith Lord's arms and legs.
Palpatine had invested a great deal of time in seducing Darth Vader to the dark side, and he wasn't about to let that go to the waste. He had Darth Vader transformed into a being who was more machine than man, his limbs replaced with cybernetic parts. This did, however, have a cost in Vader's combat effectiveness. It meant his new limbs were heavy and awkward, and he had to adapt his lightsaber style to suit them, abandoning his old agility and instead adopting a style where he depended upon the crushing weight of his blows. The cyborg arms had another side-effect; they meant Darth Vader could not use Force Lightning.
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The old Expanded Universe granted Darth Vader a different power, however. Alan Dean Foster's novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye was published in 1978, before the making of The Empire Strikes Back, and it includes a duel between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. At one point, Darth Vader summons something called "kinetite," described by Foster as a "restrained energy sphere" that explodes on impact. A comic book adaptation published in 1995, by Terry Austin and Chris Sprouse, featured art suggesting this power is related to Force Lightning. It's interesting to note that Splinter
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