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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!

20 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-users 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.

19 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.

18 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-users 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.

17 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 Padmé in Revenge of the Sith.

There is one Force ability that is based around the eyes, as it affects everyone who the user 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.

16 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.  

15 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. 

14 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 user would be caught up in the storm and destroyed.

13 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-users 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.

12 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-users 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.

11 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 terms.

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.

10 Spear Of Midnight Black

The Force is an incredibly powerful asset, but most Jedi Knights and Sith Lords still use other weapons on a regular basis, such as a lightsaber or blaster pistol. It's possible for some Force-users to instill a regular melee weapon (such as a stick) with the power of the Force in order to increase its strength and durability.

However, there is one technique that can create a physical weapon made of the Force that can harm an opponent.

It was revealed in the novelization of Dark Forces: Jedi Knight that Kyle Katarn possessed the ability to create a weapon called the Darkshear, which was also known as the Spear of Midnight Black, to fight his enemies. The Darkshear was a spear made from pure dark side energy. It was difficult for it to be seen by those who couldn't use the Force, making a highly effective weapon.

9 Transfer Essence

There are some Jedi Knights who developed the ability to manifest in the real world as ghosts after they had passed away. This kind of technique doesn't really suit the Sith Lords, however, as they would prefer to cheat fate and bring themselves back to life. The transfer essence ability allowed a Sith Lord to use the Force to move their consciousness from one body into another.

Emperor Palpatine was highly-skilled at this technique, as he used the resources available to him as the ruler of the galaxy to create fresh clones of bodies that he could possess once his original body was destroyed. Emperor Palpatine was able to bring himself back to life after being slain at the hands of Darth Vader, even though there was a limit to how long each clone body would last, due to the sheer power of his consciousness.

8 Force Net

One of the most violent Force powers that was available to Sith Lords was the Force net ability, which had a lot of uses when it came to capturing an enemy or defeating them in battle.

When an individual was trapped in a Force net, their ability to call upon the Force was diminished and eventually severed.

The Force net could be made as sharp as a razor blade and was often used to turn an opponent into a pile of bits on the floor. One of the weaknesses of the Force net was that the user needed to know certain arcane phrases in order to make it function, which meant that it wasn't effective when fighting against a group of enemies, as the user needed to concentrate in order to maintain the net.

7 Force Call

There have been moments in the Star Wars series when Force-users have been able to talk to each other across distances, with some deceased Jedi Knights being able to contact the living with the aid of the Force.

The Dark Nest series of novels introduced the Force call ability, which allows a Jedi Knight to send out a shout through the Force itself that could only be heard by other Force-users. If you heard the Force call, then you would be unable to resist its command and would have to track down the source of the noise. Luke Skywalker was able to use this power to create a gathering of the New Jedi Order on the planet Ossus.

6 Malacia

The ability to deprive someone of their senses would be an incredibly useful power to have, but it wouldn't look very interesting on film, so we rarely see it implemented in movies. There was a Force power that was absolutely devastating when used against humanoid enemies, as it screwed up their equilibrium to the point that they became incredibly dizzy and would start to vomit due to the sensation.

It would be pretty hard to swing a lightsaber while under such physical duress, which means that most foes would be defeated quickly after this technique was used on them.

This power is called Malacia and it could be used to disable a foe in battle without causing any direct physical harm. It was difficult to master Malacia and skilled Force-users could resist its effects to a degree, which meant that it wasn't as popular as the regular old Force push.

5 Art Of The Small

The introduction of midi-chlorians in The Phantom Menace was controversial among Star Wars fans, as it turned the Force into something that was scientific and could be measured using tools. Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi were able to measure the strength of Anakin Skywalker's Force powers as if they were using a scouter from Dragon Ball Z. 

The Expanded Universe introduced the ability to control the contents of molecules using the Force in a manner similar to midi-chlorians in several different novels. This ability was called Art of the Small and it allowed a Force-user to change the properties in molecules, which was once used to give healing properties to tears. Art of the Small was also used to camouflage the presence of the Force within its user, allowing them to hide their presence from their foes.

4 Phase

The inclusion of the ability to teleport using the Force would make for some very short Star Wars stories. If Luke Skywalker could have teleported inside Emperor Palpatine's throne room, dropped a thermal detonator, and then teleported out, then Return of the Jedi would have ended pretty quickly. The Phase ability would be equally as disruptive if it appeared outside of the Expanded Universe.

This is a Force ability that allows the user to move through solid matter.

A Phase user would be able to resolve a lot of dramatic situations with ease, due to how easily they could avoid most threats. We have seen this kind of disruption with Kitty Pryde in the X-Men franchise, which is offset by Kitty's lack of other abilities. If Kitty had a lightsaber and a bunch of other Force abilities, then she would be the best member of the team.

3 Force-Flash

It's possible for sufficiently powerful Force-users to mask their presence from their enemies so that Jedi Knights and Sith Lords alike cannot detect their presence. The ability to hide from Force-users isn't much good if there are security cameras around, though, as they will reveal your presence by sight.

There is a power known as Force-flash that has several functions - it can temporarily disable droids and electronic devices, including cameras and audio recorders so that you can sneak around without risk of being spotted by a security team. The other function of Force-flash is the ability to create a blinding flash of light so that your enemies are momentarily distracted.

2 Tapas

A lot of people complained when Princess Leia used the Force to survive in the vacuum of space in The Last Jedi, which had as much to do with how silly it looked as it did with adhering to the lore. There was a Force power that could allow a Jedi Knight or Sith Lord to survive in an area that is freezing cold and it was used by Jacen Solo in conjunction with the Force shield ability in order to endure the lack of elements when trapped in an area without a breathable atmosphere.

The ability to use the Force to keep yourself warm in a harsh environment is called Tapas.

It allowed Force-users to survive in extremely cold temperatures for as long as they could maintain the ability.

1 Time-Drifting

The ability to travel through time has yet to be mentioned in any of the canon pieces of Star Wars media and none of the heroes or villains seem interested in using either the Force or the advanced technology to try and change events in the past.

It's possible for some Force-users to travel through time, though their ability to influence past events is limited. Jacen Solo was able to use the time-drifting power in order to witness Anakin Skywalker's fall from grace so that he could learn more about falling to the dark side of the Force. It would have been possible for Jacen to try and alter the past, but doing so would likely have wiped him from existence, due to how closely related he was to Anakin Skywalker.

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Do you wish these powers could remain? Are there any other Force powers that were removed from Star Wars continuity that we forgot to mention? Let us know in the comments!