Why isn't Force Speed used more often?

Question

Force speed is a light side power that many Jedi, including Padawans are capable of. In Episode I, Qui-Gon uses it twice (once to outrun droids and once on Jar Jar's tongue), Obi-Wan uses it once and Anakin uses high speed reflexes for the entire duration of the pod race with no formal training.

According to this in-universe publication the power has a high drain and requires a longer recovery period than other powers. And then of course there are hilarious drawbacks such as this.

But why wasn't this power used in the following scenarios (and many, many others):

1. The Redshirt Jedi who accompanied Windu to arrest Palpatine, before they were summarily dispatched to the Nether.
2. Qui-Gonn, to avoid a lightsaber through his gut.
3. Yoda, to avoid flying senate seats.
4. By Windu, who is supposedly a notable practitioner.

Answer 1

I am not certain when you think the examples you quote should have used them. Generally to start using the power the jedi must be running. In the movies the points where they would have used the power would have most likely been cut.

Second you noted the high drain. After using the power the jedi feels like he just ran a marathon and needs some time to recover... That is not good if you are going to be in a light saber battle for your/ and other peoples lives.

Jacen Solo does make use of a power similar to this to enhance his combat abilities but no other jedi prior to his learning it on his sojourn post NJO, had demonstrated the ability.

The enhanced reflexes that Anakin and Luke both possess naturally allow them to see a few microseconds into the future. This allows them to seemingly act with super human reflexes as they know what is about to happen an instant before it does.

Answer 2

The "Redshirt Jedi" couldn't react in time before Palpatine stabbed him because the room was filled with the dark side. In episode two Yoda says he can't see into the future because the dark side was clouding his mind. This leads me to believe that every time a Sith wins a battle is because they cloud the Jedi's mind so they are relying solely on reaction time.

Answer 3

I believe the simple answer is that it is used very often, but the saber duels and such are slowed down for the benefit of the viewer, as we are not force-enhanced, and so cannot process and react like Jedi and Sith do.

Answer 4

Force speed is a power that many Jedi learn, as is evident by the fact that even Obi-Wan was able to run as fast as Qui-gon even while he was still a padawan.

Darth Maul used it rather extensively in a later novel "Darth Maul- Shadow hunter". He was running to catch up to his quarry who was in a speeder about 30 feet above ground level. To the persons amazement, they looked back and saw Maul running 5 times faster than an average human could run. Since an average male speed is about 14mph, that means that Maul was running approximately 70mph, which is faster than the six million dollar man.

Of course Steve Austin could basically run for decades without getting tired since his legs have nuclear power sources. Knowing how intensely Maul trained and his relative youth, he could probably go for quite some time before getting tired.

As to why it's not used more often, probably have to ask Lucas directly for that one. I guess it's simply that the particular story lines don't call for it as much, though I would surely love to see it used more often myself.

There could also be the whole draining effect that others have mentioned too, but I'm not sure how much weight that holds as Yoda also used it quite a bit in the tunnels under the Senate chamber when he was sneaking in to confront Palpatine in Revenge of the Sith.

When Yoda used force speed, he was able to run a good bit faster than a human at full speed, so probably 20-25mph or so, which was enough to evade and dodge the Stormtroopers that were after him. So if someone at Yoda's age could use the power with no mention of getting tired, then I'm not sure if that's really an issue or not.

Since he was going to confront Palpatine, I doubt that he would have done anything to drain himself extensively before what he knew was going to be a massive fight.