In a surprising move, Star Wars gave one of Darth Vader’s Inquisitors a unique new Force power. The Inquisitors have been a Disney staple Star Wars from the beginning, it gained prominence in the animated series Star Wars Rebels. Essentially, the Inquisitors are dark side Force users tasked with hunting down any surviving Jedi after Order 66. Tragically, many Inquisitors were former Jedi themselveswho fell to the dark side on their own or were tortured into bending the knee to the Empire and Darth Vader.
One of these Inquisitors was the Seventh Sister, introduced in Star Wars Rebels. The most interesting thing about her would only be revealed years later. In the recently published Star Wars reference book Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Complete Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy by Dan Brooks, Megan Crouse, Amy Richau, Amy Ratcliffe, Brandon Wainerdi, Dan Zehr and Kelly Knox, the Seventh Sister has received a very peculiar new Force power: “a Force ability that allows you to inflict painful scratches on enemies.”
How does the Seventh Sister’s unique strength power work in Star Wars?
Given the inherently violent nature of this power, it is undoubtedly a dark side ability.but the book doesn’t really explain how it works. While it would be simple enough to dismiss this power as yet another psychological ability, similar to the Jedi Mind Trick or the dark side Mind Probe – perhaps it just makes her opponents feel like they’ve been deeply scratched – the description, while brief, is very specific. . Somehow, the Seventh Sister manipulates the Force to directly interact with and alter a person’s body, a feat rarely seen in Star Wars canon.
Other physically distanced Force powers, like pushing, pulling, and Force jumping, don’t necessarily draw blood—they move the intended target’s body, and the damage done depends on how far they are thrown and where and how they land. This is why both Jedi and Sith rely, to some extent, on lightsabers when fighting opponents – it’s difficult to genuinely harm or even kill someone when you can’t draw blood using the Force. The Seventh Sister apparently can, however. How deep can these scratches be? How much blood can she drain? If anything, this seems more like a power that should be wielded by the Dathomirian Nightsisters than by an Inquisitor.
Our Take on Seventh Sister’s Bizarre Force Power
The Force Choke, of course, is a classic dark side ability and certainly deadly enough in its own right. Even this ability, however, relies on the Force essentially exerting external physical pressure on the intended target, much in the same way that Force impulse does. The skin does not break, the victim does not bleed. Instead, the wind is ripped from them. Force Lightning is another physically taxing dark side ability, but again, this ability involves channeling the Force into a concentrated point of attack. It affects soft tissue, just like Seventh Sister’s scratches, presumably, but can be defended against.
If this power is truly canon, it could change our understanding of the Force and the dark side.
How can someone defend themselves from being scratched by an invisible Force? If this power is truly canon, it could change our understanding of the Force and the dark side. What are the limits? How close does she need to be to hurting someone? Why is she seemingly the only person in the franchise capable of wielding this strange ability? Certainly, given the scope and mysterious nature of the Force, there are many abilities we don’t yet know about. Does this ability make sense within the franchise? It’s hard to say without more context and evidence in Star Wars.