I've been curious about this for awhile. Are hand gestures (e.g. pointing) necessary to channel the Force at a target? We see this quite often in the game, in the movies, Clone Wars animated series etc.

 

I do recall Darth Vader, during the Cloud City duel with Luke, being able to Force throw things without pointing at his target or at the object (though at one point he does use his lightsaber for "targetting"). So can a Force user be able to just "will" a Force attack without being so obvious with his/her hand gestures? It seems to be a much more tactically wise idea. In fact, one of the reasons I got curious was watching the Yoda vs Dooku fight where the Force throwing was, IMO, kinda silly since Dooku basically telegraphed what he was going to do by pointing at objects and then "guiding" it with his hands towards Yoda. Even an average Clone trooper could've seen what Dooku was doing and dodge those thrown objects ahead of time.

 

Would be neat to see if this was discuss in any of the novels or comics, since I haven't looked at those yet.

No, the hand gestures aren't necessary, but it helps create a "focus" for the user to direct the Force.

imagine we have the force. lets say we use the force when speaking. we do not need to use our hand gesture when we speak but we do it. We do not mean to do it on purpose but thats how it goes. I forgot the word for it. but is something we dont really focus on doing it while doing it. is like someone said. helps the focus

Kellian Jaro: *waves hand* "You will lay down your weapons and surrender."

 

Bounty Hunter: *waves hand* "You will realize what a complete idiot you are."

 

 

The above exchange shows how stupid hand gestures can be, imo. They aren't necessary, and can be completely stupid. Also, I LOL'd like mad when I first watched it.

I don't think they are necessary. I'm sure Satele could have forced pwn'd Malgus without doing the hadoukan hand gestures, but where's the fun in that