As Star Wars fans are aware, the Force has undergone some major changes throughout the course of the franchise. The Force went from being a mysterious cosmic energy that connects all things that can also be manipulated by those who practice in the ancient art form of Force usage, to being something that can be measured in a person’s blood through the number of microscopic organisms called Midi-chlorians. While many fans hated the fact that the Force was stripped of its mystery in this way, this change to the Star Wars canon opened the door for droids being able to gain the ability to manipulate the Force, though how they could potentially do so is insanely dark.
Midi-chlorians were introduced in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace when Qui-Gon Jinn explains to a young Anakin Skywalker that his Midi-chlorian count is one of the highest the Jedi Master had ever seen. The fact that Qui-Gon was able to measure Anakin’s connection to the Force gave him hard evidence to believe that Anakin was ‘The Chosen One’. Without a way to measure Force potential, there would have been no way for Qui-Gon to come to this conclusion about the child, making the Midi-chlorians integral to the overall plot of the franchise, whether fans liked it or not. What potentially wasn’t accounted for with the inclusion of Midi-chlorians, however, was that fact that someone, or something, who wasn’t born Force sensitive could become Force sensitive in a truly horrific manner.
In Darth Vader #18 by Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca, Darth Vader and his army of troops and droids are in the middle of a battle when one of his droids, the sadistically murderous Triple-Zero, makes quite the suggestion. Triple-Zero comes to the conclusion that droids are superior to all other life forms, especially the model droid they recently designed, except for one key disadvantage: droids can’t wield the Force. So, the droid theorizes that if they can extract the blood of a Force user and pump that blood through the body of a droid, then that droid should have access to the Force since they would have Midi-chlorians running through their body. While this theory seems absurd at first glance, it actually makes a lot of sense, especially given Darth Vader’s reaction.
Darth Vader forbids Triple-Zero from extracting the blood of Force users and running it through the body of their specially-manufactured droids, which indicates that Triple-Zero’s plan could actually work, and Darth Vader doesn’t want to compete with an unstoppable army of Force sensitive droids. Another reason the dark theory could work is that droids have been shown throughout Star Wars canon to be, by all counts, alive. In Solo: A Star Wars Story, droids are on the precipice of revolution since they are sentient yet are treated as mere objects. While that story doesn’t really go anywhere, it proves that droids aren’t inherently subservient to organic life forms and are ‘alive’ enough to crave the freedom to live their lives as they see fit. This means that droids have a consciousness, a consciousness that is more than capable of manipulating the Force should they have access to the Force through Midi-chlorians inserted into their bodies.
Not only is Triple-Zero’s logic sound, but giving droids the ability to wield the Force would give them a larger role in the Star Wars universe. Obviously droids have been at the center of every Star Wars story since the first film, but having one of them be a Force user would cement the fact that they are legitimate life forms that can be the heroes, or villains, of the world in which they live, rather than perpetual side characters and plot devices. That being said, the process of stealing a Force user’s blood and putting it in a droid is ghastly, though that doesn’t mean Star Wars’ darkest theory is impossible.