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In the Last Jedi

Leia gets blown into space and then force-flies (like Mary Poppins) from space back into the Raddus. Leia's survival is answered here: How did Princess Leia survive this?

There seems to be plenty of SW canon for force-flying here: Can the Force be used to fly?

This post implies Vader didn't even use the force to throw Palpatine down the shaft: Did Vader/Anakin use the Force to kill Palpatine?

So why didn't Emperor Palpatine force-fly to stop himself falling down the shaft in Return of the Jedi?

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  • Hrmm. This is one answer I just found scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/110681/… but I think it's a bit contrived and implies narrative reasons rather than canon.
    – squire55
    Commented Jan 5, 2018 at 11:39
  • How do you know Palpatine didn't survive? Who is Snoke actually?
    – Doctor Doom
    Commented Jan 5, 2018 at 11:59
  • This is the best answer!
    – squire55
    Commented Jan 6, 2018 at 21:49
  • Haha.. I wish it was true. Disney should really consider it.
    – Doctor Doom
    Commented Jan 6, 2018 at 22:35

1 Answer 1

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Leia wasn't countering the effects of gravity, she'd only need to give herself a very gentle nudge in order to start floating through space and then maintain it. However the Emperor was hurling down a shaft, he would have had to spend significantly more effort to kill his momentum and then significantly more again to ascend again.

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  • This doesn't explain whether or not he could or couldn't do it, merely how he would do it. Is there any reason he couldn't use the force to lift himself back up.
    – Edlothiad
    Commented Jan 5, 2018 at 20:32
  • Star Wars ship gravity works by magical gravity generators whose gravity-field, somehow, instantly stops when you are outside the ship (except in some cases like the bombers of the dreadnought), otherwise Leia would have just fallen onto the hull, and she could have walked back to the door. But as it was, she had to apply a force to herself to force-push herself back to the door (as Josh says). But Leia is only weak force-user, unlike Palpatine.
    – squire55
    Commented Jan 6, 2018 at 21:56
  • Bear in mind that Luke force-lifted a 5 tonne X-wing out of the swamp, and Palpatine was stronger still, so, with that amount of force, it would not be hard for Palpatine to arrest his fall. Xkcd estimates 19kW Yoda can produce.
    – squire55
    Commented Jan 6, 2018 at 22:06

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