Thanks to their connection to the Force and their legendary willpower, the Jedi’s connection to the Force, as Obi-Wan Kenobi learns while being held captive by the aspiring Sith Asajj Ventress in a Legends-era Star Wars story. Although Kenobi manages to escape captivity, Ventress’ Sith torture mask nearly breaks him.
Asajj Ventress has a different origin in the now-defunct Star Wars Legends continuity (which was the franchise’s official timeline before 2014). In Legends, Ventress is a Rattataki with no ties to the Nightsisters (dark side-using human witches from Dathomir). Her fortress on Rattatak, Castle Ventress, becomes a prison for Obi-Wan Kenobi and Alpha following their capture during the Battle of Jabiim. While the Jedi and ARC Trooper duo manage to resist Ventress’ various methods of torture, the former is nearly destroyed by one tailor-made for Jedi.
The Sith torture mask is explained in issue 60 of Star Wars: Republic, by Haden Blackman and Tomás Giorello. After deciding to execute Alpha in their next interrogation session, Asajj Ventress informs the non-Force-sensitive Rattataki, Aidus, that the Sith torture mask she’s placed on Kenobi prevents him from concentrating and thus prevents him from using the Force, so it’s only a matter of time before he succumbs to her torture. Ventress’ Sith torture mask likely would work, but luckily for Kenobi he uses his ingenuity to free himself and Alpha from CIS captivity.
A signature dark side technique is to cloud another’s connection to the Force. Palpatine himself uses this ability constantly throughout the Star Wars prequel era, blocking the Jedi Order’s ability to sense his machinations and even his connection to the dark side. This allows him to hide in plain sight and gradually stage an autocratic coup without the order’s greatest Jedi suspecting that he’s behind it. Naturally, the Sith torture mask clouds a Jedi’s focus to the point of functionally severing their connection to the Force, making them far more vulnerable to conventional interrogation methods.
The Sith torture mask also speaks to a key difference between the Force and its dark side. While the Force is omnipresent, requiring Jedi and other Force-s to simply tap into it, the dark side is often tied to a specific place or object, leaving it restricted but highly concentrated. The Sith torture mask seen in the Star Wars Legends universe is imbued with enough malicious dark side energy to dampen the mind of even a powerful Jedi like Obi-Wan Kenobi.
