Give me a head canon about Star Wars in general!
i’m really into the idea that everyone’s connection to the force has a different sensory sensation and visualization behind it that is unique to their personage and their life journey.
for obi-wan, he visualizes the force as a light, a beacon: he has sought guidance his entire life, is often anxious about whether he’s making the right choices and the repercussions of his actions. when he’s concerned and can feel difficulties closing in around him like darkness, he can close his eyes and look into the force and see a bright, blinding lighthouse that guides him. he has spent his entire life chasing that light, eager to stay within its limits and not stray too far.
obi-wan’s force sensation is quietness/silence: he’s terribly anxious under all that training, so when he connects to the force, it dulls the outside world, and life shrinks down to silence save for the inner workings of his body, until those, too, taper off. in his head there is only light and silence. this, for obi-wan, is peace. no noise, no thoughts. and after deep breaths… clarity.
for someone like anakin, his force sensation might be heat and pressure. when he is strong in the force his temperature jumps several degrees beyond normal, his blood rushes and sings hot beneath his skin, and he can feel the force itself pressing down around him, inside and out, enveloping him in the stream of the universe itself. it’s intense and all consuming and takes all of his focus to direct it, because that which comforts and swaddles him like a weighted blanket can also drag him deep down into his own emotions. the force is one with his body more-so than his mind. it flows through his bones with ease, but he struggles to apply the depth of jedi philosophy despite knowing and understanding it.
anakin’s force visualization changes a lot over the years, but the most consistent visualization is metal, sometimes molten and fluid, other times solid and unshakeable; a foundation. for anakin, metal is a comfort: metal is a droid, the hilt of his saber, the solid flooring of his ship, the taste in the air of enemies defeated. metal is safety. it does not die and does not stray, and if you maintain it it will stay forever. it’s a shield and a bulwark and a weapon and a shelter and a home all at once, it is something that can be controlled and tinkered with, but it can also cut and hurt if you are careless, and it can melt and lose form if you don’t keep a tight grip on it.
for someone like maul, he visualizes the force as a many-eyed, many-fanged beast to be controlled. its always lurking in the dark, circling him, hunting for his weaknesses so it can clasp its maw around his neck and snap, but maul is paranoid and cunning and wary; he lures it in, he wrestles and beats it into submission, into yielding to his power, because that is all he knows. he was trained to fear everything, including the force, and part of that training was believing that if he does not control the force, it will control him; and because maul is afraid, he responds with aggression over and over again.
predictably, maul’s force sensation would be snarling teeth and old pain. using the force hurts him. at first he experiences an incredible burst of power and the vengeful euphoria associated with it, but the longer he uses it, the more it starts to hurt. it feels like papercuts splitting slowly under his skin, bleeding him from the inside; feels like bruises from his time at orsis academy; feels like the smoking choking crackle and burn of sidious’ presence bearing down on the back of his neck. it feels like eyes, always watching, and humiliation, and starving and bone-breaking cold on lotho minor. it feels familiar, and horribke, and that is why he can lean into it so strongly, because he hates what he’s been subjected to even though he doesn’t know anything else, and his pain and fear and anger collide to make him strong in the dark side of the force from an early age.
and the reason behind differing visualizations and sensations is, technically, a second general headcanon: the force is both an organic lifesource and a reflection. meaning it is alive, sure, but it mimics the soul and intention and desires of its wielder. the force is neither good nor bad; it is whatever the person using it is in that moment. jedi training focuses on the mirror aspect and teaches padawans to essentially buff that mirror, understand that the force takes on their shape and vice versa, and to make sure that whatever image the force projects through them is true to who they are and who they want to be, and not a warped reflection of them at their worst moments. meanwhile, the sith lean into that — the force is warped by their self image into something deadly, ambitious, greedy, and hungry, and that is why their presence hunts the light side of the force so avariciously.
