Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, which meant that it owned the rights to the Star Wars franchise. It quickly announced that a new trilogy was in the works, which would follow the events that happened after Return of the Jedi.
The promise of new Star Wars related material that was set after Return of the Jedi meant that the Expanded Universe was going to be wiped from continuity. The Expanded Universe was the name given to all of the forms of Star Wars media that existed outside of the original six movies, many of which dealt with events that happened after Return of the Jedi.
There were many fans of the Expanded Universe who were dismayed by its removal from canon, as they had grown of fond of characters like Mara Jade and Ben Skywalker. There is also a large contingent of Star Wars fans who were glad to see the Expanded Universe struck from continuity, as many writers had been allowed to play with the license over the years and had introduced some embarrassing ideas to the series.
The Jedi Order and the Sith Lords appeared frequently in the Expanded Universe, which meant that many writers had created ridiculous Force powers that make Luke's intergalactic illusion in The Last Jedi seem subtle by comparison.
We are here today to reveal which Force powers deserved to be removed from the continuity of Star Wars - from the ability to smell your enemy from afar to the time when Jacen Solo pulled a Scrooge.
With that said, here are the 20 Bizarre Force Powers That Were Removed From Star Wars!
Force Smell
The Force is great for experiencing events from a distance, such as seeing far-away locations or receiving glimpses of the future, but it doesn't offer much help at short-range, except when other Force-s are nearby. The divination power of a Jedi Knight or Sith Lord can be impressive, but it can't be used to check around corners or behind closed doors.
The Children of the Jedi and Dark Force Rising novels introduced the concept of the Force Smell power, which allowed a Jedi Knight or Sith Lord to augment their natural sense of smell and put it on the same level as that of an animal.
Luke Skywalker was able to increase his sense of smell to the point where it allowed him to follow somebody's trail by the cigarette smoke that they left behind.
Destroying Planets
A recurring element throughout the Star Wars series has been the desire of the villains to create a vessel or weapon with the ability to destroy a planet. There are several examples of this throughout the canon Star Wars movies and the Expanded Universe. It seems that the Empire and the New Order have been trying too hard, however, as one Sith Lord discovered a way to destroy all life on a planet using only the Force.
Darth Nihilus was one of the villains of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords and he could use a variant of the Force drain ability that affected life on a global scale. Nihilus was able to remove the Force from the surface of the planet Katarr, which wiped out every living creature on the world, save for a single person.
Combustion
The Force doesn't need to be used in a flashy way in order to cause severe damage to an individual, as Darth Vader proved in A New Hope when he slowly crushed the windpipe of the imperial officer. Indeed, most Jedi Knights and Sith Lords only used the Force as a form of telekinesis, so that they could throw stuff around. The Children of the Jedi novel introduced the Combustion ability to the Force, which allowed Jedi Knights and Sith Lords to cause both inanimate objects and living beings to explode from within.
The difficulty of the technique was measured in the relative density and size of the object, so it did have a few limits, but it was possible for Force-s to make regular people blow up with a single ability.
This ability would be ridiculously overpowered when used in most situations, which is likely why it has appeared so rarely in the Expanded Universe.
Deadly Sight
Those who use the Force often make gestures with their hands as they do so, such as Obi-Wan Kenobi using the Jedi mind trick on the Stormtroopers in A New Hope or when Anakin Skywalker uses the Force choke power on Pé in Revenge of the Sith.
There is one Force ability that is based around the eyes, as it affects everyone who the can see. This ability is called Deadly Sight and it can disintegrate all those within a Sith Lord's field of vision. The Deadly Sight ability appeared in the Jedi Knight video games and it allowed a Sith Lord to combine the Thanos finger snap with Cyclops' optic blasts, in order to annihilate everyone who they could see.
Electric Judgement
Force lightning is an ability that is usually exclusive to Sith Lords, as it requires a tremendous amount of hatred and a desire to see someone suffer in order to be able to conjure it into existence. A few Jedi Knights are capable of using Force lightning, but it's considered to be taboo and a step towards falling to the dark side.
The old Star Wars novels and video games gave Jedi Knights a "nice" version of Force lightning that didn't require any kind of malicious intent in order to use.
This technique was referred to as Electric Judgement and Jedi Knights like Luke Skywalker could fire off bolts of green energy in order to disable or defeat his foes.
Wall Of Light
It's possible to sever an individual's connection with the Force through outside means without causing them physical harm, which was the fate of Darth Revan at the start of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. There are also those who can sever themselves from the Force, as Luke Skywalker attempted to in the time before The Last Jedi.
One of the most powerful abilities available to Jedi Knights is the wall of light, which could prevent someone from using their powers by severing their connection to the Force. The wall of light required the participation of several skilled Jedi Knights in order to perform i, which meant that it was the Star Wars equivalent of the Spirit Bomb from Dragon Ball Z.
Force Storm
It's possible for ships in the Star Wars universe to move faster than the speed of light, which required the use of a hyperdrive. It still took a while for ships to travel the galaxy with a hyperdrive, due to the sheer amount of space that needed to be traversed.
Emperor Palpatine found a way to traverse space by creating an artificial wormhole using the Force.
This ability was known as the Force storm and it was used to abduct Luke Skywalker in the Dark Empire comic book series. The Force storm was one of the most powerful Force abilities in existence, but it also came with a huge risk, as it was incredibly difficult to maintain and losing control would mean that the would be caught up in the storm and destroyed.
Force Travel
Spaceships are a huge part of the Star Wars series and even a mighty Jedi Knight or Sith Lord wouldn't get very far without a means of traveling from planet to planet. The presence of spaceships is necessary to create drama in Star Wars, as all tricky situations would be solved pretty quickly if Force-s could teleport around the galaxy.
However, there was an incredibly powerful Force power that allowed Jedi Knights and Sith Lords to teleport themselves or items from one area to another, which was known as the Fold space ability. Fold space was used by both Luke Skywalker and his son, Ben Skywalker, after they had been tutored by the Aing-Tii. The ancient being known as Abeloth also possessed the ability to teleport from one place to another.
Cryokinesis
We have seen several Sith Lords using the power of the dark side to create Force lightning, such as Count Dooku, Emperor Palpatine, and Supreme Leader Snoke. There are also several Force-s in the Star Wars franchise who can create fire from the molecules inside of the air and control it as a weapon. There have been Sith Lords who have gone the other route and decided to focus on Force powers based around the cold, which is how the Cryokinesis ability came to be discovered.
Cryokinesis could be used to artificially lower the temperature of a living being so that their body would stop functioning.
This move was often fatal and its subtle usage meant that it could be used by Sith Lords who dispose of their enemies in a subtle manner.
Plant Control
There is a popular Star Wars fan theory that suggests that Anakin Skywalker was created by Darth Sidious, who had used the techniques taught to him by Darth Plagueis in order to impregnate Shmi Skywalker and create the prophecized child under his own .
Darth Sidious claimed that the technique used to create life using the Force had been forgotten, but there were some Jedi Knights in the galaxy who could use the Force to accelerate the growth of plants so that they could be used as a weapon against their foes. This ability was called Plant Surge and it was most effective on jungle planets, where the entire natural world could be wielded against an enemy of the Jedi Order.
