The Force. A mystical, possibly sentient presence that surrounds everything in the universe. The building blocks of the world and the ways in which we interact with it. What is this magnificent power used for, you might ask? Throwing small objects and a little bit of minor mind control seem to be all the Jedi can do with it in most of the films. Nice one, Qui-Gon.
The games are always where the Force has shined brightest, deliberately baked into gameplay as a spectacular way to keep players’ attention. That’s why the moment Starkiller rips an Imperial Star Destroyer out of orbit in The Force Unleashed remains my favourite use of the Force in the entire Star Wars universe – be that films, games, or the litany of TV series. It’s earned, triumphant, and makes the Force feel like a power unlike any other in the galaxy.
Starkiller is easily one of the most powerful Force users in Star Wars media. Vader’s brutal training heightened the extreme natural talent the boy was born with. He can shoot lightning out of his fingertips and do the cool Force Repulse move, but pulling an Imperial Star Destroyer out of the sky and crashing it into Raxus Prime is still on an entirely different level.
To put the sheer size of those things into perspective, in Rogue One, we see one of them cast a shadow that dwarfs an entire town. Director Gareth Edwards is a master of scale, he’s shown us that in both Monsters and Godzilla, and for the first time in Star Wars history he showed us just how impossibly huge and terrifying Imperial Star Destroyers truly are.
Wrestling with the analogue sticks and seeing Starkiller clenching his fists, putting his all into bringing the spaceship down while Kota yells to "pull it out of the sky!" is a memory that’s been burned into my mind ever since I first played the game almost 15 years ago. It looms large in the centre of the screen, taunting you as TIE Fighters scream through the air and strafe you, slowly tilting towards the planet as you bring it down to the ground with your individual willpower alone.
Up until The Force Unleashed, the largest thing we’d seen any Jedi lift was an X-Wing out of a swamp - and even that was done very slowly and with great effort by Luke Skywalker. It’s like comparing someone throwing a pebble to a strongman hurling a boulder. Honestly, it makes all the other Jedi look like shit.
As well as being a great moment just in terms of sheer spectacle, it’s an integral part of Starkiller’s journey, too. After being betrayed by Vader, he finds a mentor in General Kota, a Jedi master he blinded earlier in the game. Kota tells him that the size of the Star Destroyer is irrelevant, all he has to do is reach out to it with the Force. It’s a great lesson that underpins how much the Force is about one’s mindset and willpower rather than physical strength.
It’s also a moment of great symbolism. Star Wars has always been a series about how people can change the fate of an entire galaxy. Anakin starts the Empire, Luke scatters it, and Rey almost showed us that you don’t need famous parents to have an impact. Almost. Starkiller single-handedly bringing down the Empire’s greatest symbol of dominance and oppression, the awe-inspiring and fear-inducing Imperial Star Destroyer, is the single best rallying cry the rebellion could have. With that guy on your side, anything is possible, even toppling an empire.