Dopplegänger

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Dopplegänger, also known as Similfuturus in High Galactic, was an advanced Force power that allowed a user to create a short-lived duplicate of themselves or an external object that was visually indistinguishable from the real item through the Force.

Description

Dopplegänger, also known as Similfuturus in High Galactic, was an advanced Force power that allowed a user to create a short-lived duplicate of themselves or an external object that was visually indistinguishable from the real item through the Force. Those who perfected this ability could create Force phantoms of any person of their choosing or trick an enemy into seeing more objects, such as droids, than were actually present.^[1]

Applications

The Force user could perceive all of the dopplegänger's senses, and to those interacting with it, the dopplegänger seemed real. The user could even interact with the world using telekinesis to move objects, furthering the believability of the illusion.

The dopplegänger could also be detected by all droid audio and video sensors and would fade away if the Force user was injured and ceased using the power.

Sometimes even a powerful Sith Lord might think that the projection was real.^[5] Moreover, the application of conjuring a duplicate to be a target for an attack could be quite effective, though only against a single agressive action.^[6]^[5]

Force phantom was similar to a dopplegänger, in that it was an astral projection of a being created through the Force, but it was a projection of something other than the user's own image. Force phantoms were most likely used only by the dark side, and usually exhibited corporeal properties and inflicted damage on living beings.

Users

Luke Skywalker,^[7]^[3] Darth Tyranus,^[8] and Xesh^[9] all used this ability.

Darth Sidious once wondered if Darth Plagueis had used this power to trick him into making a foolish attack during training, as indeed was the case. Later both Sith would meditate for months, using this power to join as one dark body of light and fly the Force in a ploy to take over the powers of the galexy.^[10] A pernicious use of this art was when Lord Wyyrlok used this power to trick a cult into nearly exterminating itself.^[11]

A distinct version of dopplegänger was also used by the Fallanassi, which allowed the creation of a perfect illusion of himself, or another object, that was visually indistinguishable from what was real. This illusion was not limited in size and could be both seen and heard, but, unlike other versions, lacked the ability to physically move objects via telekinesis.^[12]

The Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano wondered if this ability would work well on a whole army of clones in her annotations of The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force.^[13] At times this art was used to spawn into being an insubstantial copy of an object.^[14]^[13] Some Jedi used a version of this power to make disguises of themselves.^[15]^[16]

Behind the scenes

The German spelling is "Doppelgänger," but the term is sometimes spelled as "doppelganger." In 1993's Star Wars Chess, Yoda (two of whom serve as the rooks) casts two doppelgängers of himself to confuse Darth Vader before defeating the Sith Lord.^[17]