Anakin Skywalker used Force choke several times before becoming a Sith at the end of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. As Darth Vader, Force choke was his preferred use of the dark side, wielding the power effortlessly as he tortured and killed his enemies and even executed his subordinates if he felt they were liabilities to the Imperial war effort. But as the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, he occasionally used this draconian and horrific power in moments of desperation or extreme anger, foreshadowing his eventual fall to the dark side. These moments were shown in canon’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars and the Legends-era Clone Wars multimedia project. But how did Anakin learn this dark power before becoming a Sith?
While Anakin’s first uses of Force choke predate him becoming a Sith Lord, his introduction to using the dark side was arguably shown in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. Upon witnessing his mother die after weeks of being tortured by Tusken Raiders, Anakin became consumed by fury, killing every man, woman, and child in the tribe. In Legends, Anakin’s rage often resurfaced. In the Star Wars: Republic comics, Anakin reluctantly left Jabiimi Loyalist forces behind to preserve the lives of the Clone Troopers under his command. The Loyalist leader, Orliss Gillmunn, attacked Anakin, prompting Anakin to Force choke him while ordering him to stand down. In “Chapter 25” of Star Wars: Clone Wars, a wounded and enraged Anakin kills a team of Techno Union scientists on Nelvaan, brutally crushing the leader’s pressure suit (and neck) with a Force choke in defense of the Nelvaanian warriors he’d been torturing.
In canon, Anakin notably used Force choke three times during The Clone Wars. His first use was interrogating the Separatist Geonosian leader Poggle the Lesser. Ahsoka Tano was trapped aboard a medical frigate as Clone Troopers and a padawan, infected by Geonosian brain worms, tried to kill her. Anakin used Force choke to strangle Poggle until he revealed a way to kill the brain worms. Later in the series, Anakin Force chokes the Zygerrian Queen Miraj Scintel out of desperation to save Ahsoka, Rex, and Obi-Wan. Anakin would also use Force choke on a bartender on Nal Hutta while tracking Rako Hardeen, who he believed had killed Obi-Wan. When Ahsoka was framed for murder, Anakin tracked down Asajj Ventress, thinking she was involved in the conspiracy, and Force choked her as well. Every instance of Anakin using the power was a combination of rage and protectiveness of his friends.
Anakin was not the only non-dark side user to practice Force choke. Ahsoka Tano, a padawan, used Force choke on a Trandoshan hunter to defend herself and several Jedi younglings. In The Mandalorian, the Jedi-trained Force-sensitive infant Grogu also used Force choke on Cara Dune, thinking that her arm-wrestling match with Din Djarin was an attack. He later used Force choke and other offensive uses of the Force on stormtroopers while being held captive by Moff Gideon. While a powerful and often lethal ability, Force choke is ultimately an application of telekinesis, which is a basic use of the Force and its dark side that Jedi and Sith use frequently.
While Force choke is, understandably, considered a dark side power, it’s functionally a very simple form of telekinesis that requires malicious or desperate intentions. The reason why it came so easily to Anakin in Star Wars: The Clone Wars is because he’d been leaning dangerously close to the dark side ever since he massacred the Tusken Raider tribe. With this in mind, each time he used Force choke in both Star Wars continuities, it was out of desperation to save his friends, his troops, or innocents. This speaks to one of the reasons why Anakin becomes a Sith: to gain enough power to save his loved ones. But using the dark side and joining the Sith always comes at a tragic price.
Key Release Dates
Rogue Squadron
Release Date:2023-12-22
