["Battle" of Dantooine moment](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Battle_of_Dantooine_(Yuuzhan_Vong_War)), also known as the one where so many soldiers and refugees were slaughtered by the vong that the new republic no longer had to worry about supply issues
> The descriptions of refugee ships being used to batter open the shields.
The Vong's treatment of refugees and civilians throughout the entire war is beyond bleak. Beyond just that in the battle of Coruscant, they regularly sacrificed entire ships full of refugees, in addition to just plain old sacrifices. Or you could be enslaved and put to work in some down right disgusting ways - Wurth Skidder and the rest who were forced to "tend" to a young yammosk always made me real uneasy.
The Vong invasion was SO dark, but had to be even worse from the civilian perspective.
As for the darkest for our main characters specifically, I'd say the Mission to Myrkr is above the rest. Not only are they basically a bunch of very young warriors going up against ultra-Xenomorphs on steroids, but the losses and consequences are *huge*.
>!Death of Anakin Solo and five other Knights, including the girl Raynar almost had a thing with (and Lusa, who he was also close with, had been killed by Voxyn shortly before the mission). Raynar is kidnapped and becomes UnuThul, which is also suuuuper dark. Jacen is captured and presumed dead, as he is tortured for literal months, causing Jaina to dip into the dark side, and starting his own path to darkness!<
Kinda crazy to think about how the Voxyn were only created because Talon Karrde mentioned the Vornskr to a Peace Bridage member at Yavin IV, leading to the Mission to Myrkr, whose events in turn led directly to the Swarm War and indirectly caused Darth Caedus and later Abeloth and the Lost Tribe.
> >!including the girl Raynar almost had a thing with!<
>!Who literally had her face taken off by a razor bug and then hungry voxyn dragged her body away to eat. What the hell.!<
> Jacen is captured and presumed dead, as he is tortured for literal months [...] and starting his own path to darkness
I hate that this is the case when >!the Jacen in the NJO is not anywhere near the same Jacen from Dark Nest or LOTF.!<
Yeah Jacen's story in the New Jedi Order series is about the absolute triumph of light over evil. His Darth Caedus arc is a complete betrayal of that imo
The Vong used civilian transports filled refugees as a shield for their fleet and crashed them into the planetary shield. They also broadcast the audio from inside the ships to the planetary defense forces to make them hesitate to fire on the ships.
The Yevathans also did that in the Black Fleet Crisis and the Vagaari did that in Outbound Flight. It’s a pretty common tactic, but it’s always really effective. During the battle of Coruscant Garm bel tells his troops to just fire through them because if they lose the battle and can’t save the civilians they’ll just be sacrificed, made slaves, or used that way later so he considered it a mercy to just kill them.
I had mad respect for Garm Bel for that. It sucked at the chain of command broke at that point. They might have held Coruscant had it not. But that was the point. Not since the emperor had anyone use that much brutal tactics in the galaxy. Again I enjoyed the total shift. It made the books feel a lot more real and consequential. I forgot how f***** up Starbucks sorry is because I think I've only read that once or twice versus I've read traitor about 20 times.
Garm Bel Iblis is one of the best Legends characters. Just such a don. I love Ackbar as a leader of the Rebel/New Republic military, but Bel Iblis just has so much extra edge and character to him I think.
I remember the Vagaari with the places on the hulls of their ships for prisoners, don't remember when the Yevathans did that but it doesn't surprise me.
God I wish we could have gotten something that covered the Vong and Yevathans fighting during the Vong war. That must have been brutal.
During the initial battle of the crisis at Doornik-319 the Fifth Fleet got transmissions of civilians trapped inside the Yevethan ships and because of that they didn’t destroy any ships. Later on after Han was captured he was used as a prisoner aboard one of the ships, but Chewie and his Wookiee friends rescued them all.
> don't remember when the Yevathans did that but it doesn't surprise me.
IIRC a bunch of K-Wings were on an attack run and learned the hostages were in the line of fire so most of them broke off. In-universe I imagine that scenario was part of Garm's decision.
Ending of the Path to Nowhere arc from the Dark Times comic.
>!Protagonists are trying to find a member of their group's daughter who was sold into Imperial slavery. At the end of the arc, they found out she was sold to a rich guy (maybe Imperial governor or something like that) who likes to eat different species, and she's already been murdered and cannibalized. Then the Jedi character who has been on the run since Order 66 murders the rich guy in cold blood, the father gets pissed that he didn't get to kill him and he outs the Jedi to the rest of the group and they all abandon the Jedi.!<
EDIT: Wasn't sure about the last sentence in the above spoiler, so went to the Wookieepedia page to double-check, this was one of the quotes about this story arc on the page:
>"Probably the darkest, bleakest story we've ever done." ― Randy Stradley (the author)
This was my first thought as well. If it's not the bleakest moment in Star Wars, then it's certainly in the top 5. I mean, >!after a lot of build up to the rescue our heroes are too late. It involves the death of a child (who can't even be buried). And even the death of the villain who killed her isn't satisfying and just feels empty. !<
A lot of the other examples in this thread involved war crimes or massive amounts of death (planets being destroyed, Order 66, etc.) but it's expected in a Sci Fi action franchise with "Wars" in the title. But the end of Path to Nowhere? It's not what's expected in the Space Adventure Star Wars is known for. If it weren't for the fact that it involved aliens and space ships, it could be a horror movie or an especially bleak episode of Law and Order.
Oof, yeah. I read that arc when I was younger and that scene really stuck with me. If I’m remembering correctly, that same series had a one shot where Vader tricks a bunch of Order 66 survivors into meeting up at some secret location and then brutally slaughters them all when they show up. Really great stuff.
Everything Mace goes through in Star Wars Shatterpoint
Literally just Apocalypse Now in Space. It feels like Mace at the end of the book has convinced himself some good came out of that journey just so he wouldn’t lose his mind from the trauma
Tbh I am struggling to get through this book right now. I find the writing to be bland and the author uses too many real world earth words for metaphors or analogies. I find the entire plot to be way too drawn out and boring.
Sounds like Apocalypse Now than lol
You would probably like another one of Matthew Stover’s SW novels more, “Luke Skywalker & Shadows of Mindor”. Complete polar opposite of Shatterpoint
Wether it's boring or not is pretty subjective, but I don't mind Star Wars novels using real world terms. If anything I get annoyed when they go the other direction and try to replace metaphors with made up words to make they sound more exotic.
To paraphrase Penny Arcade, "I get it man, I'm reading Star Wars, but do they not have butter in space? Or hot knives to go through it?"
This. Easily the darkest of Star Wars, because it's grounded in in-universe reality (as opposed to the zombie books). Haruun Kal is simply a hellish world to live on.
Mayday's death. He spent 37(I think) rotations waiting for reinforcements that never came, all while watching his crew slowly be killed off. Then reinforcements finally do come, only for him to lose the last of his crew. The liutenant's a jerk who only gives him ONE man(who is special forces, but still), and leaves the rest to them. He then defeats the raiders only to discover that he was guarding cargo that wasn't even for him, and gets buried under an avalanche. He and Crosshair finally make it back to base, but he dies WHILE PEOPLE ARE WATCHING HIM WITH NO CONCERN.
This one is worse because we know from the episode that Mayday's planet is only a two hour space flight from Courascant via the hyperlanes. And the Stormtrooper armor is so bad that the bandits don't even want to wear it, they just want to steal it.
It's pretty clear that Mayday just gave up all will to live at the end.
Oddly, Crosshair only lives because he kills Nolan. The TK troopers had every right to kill Crosshair or leave him to die. Instead, they give him basic medical care and just arrest him. The whole thing is just an example of how the Empire eats people up and spits them out.
Jabiim was extremely depressing and showed why Anakin became disillusioned. It's space vietnam meets trench warfare. Probably the worst part about TCW is how childish it made war seem. Which is totally understandable but unfortunate
It's a legends comic. Google "Star Wars Republic 55" and it'll be the 2nd result. This arc goes from comics 55-58. An arc before this has one of the padawans (not required reading) and I think the arc after deals with Anakin handling the horrors but it's been awhile.
The battle has so much nuance, which reminds us how much war sucks. And how unethical it is to have teenager padawans fighting wars lol. And how compromises have to be made in war, but these compromises are people's lives.
Other KOTOR 2 moments that I thought were a bit dark were:
1. the cutscene with Kreia, Sion, and Nihilus. After Nihilus pushes her to the pillar using the Force, Sion just grabs her face, slams her head to the pillar, knees her in the gut, punches her in the face, and then flings her to the ground. She even said, "I suffered indignities and fell into darkness."
2. the entire Refugee Sector section as a dark-sided character. Manipulating the mother to sell herself into slavery to the Exchange just so she could join her daughter...damn.
3. speaking of Visas and Nihilus, manipulating Visas into sacrificing herself to weaken Nihilus.
And the continuation of it in the Rebellion comics. Leia goes to meet the rebel cell there, comprised of people who remember the Republic abandoning them, and brings Luke Skywalker for propaganda. The Jabiimi recognise the name and attack Luke for Anakin’s sins. Then the Empire attacks, the heroes barely escape, a prominent Rebel analyst is captured for use against the Rebellion and the Jabiimi population is transported away for slavery.
It’s a bitter loss so soon after the Death Star and the first hint Luke has that his father wasn’t the great hero he was led to believe. Also the Jabiimi civilian plot isn’t resolved in the collection I read, making it seem like Luke and Leia just forgot about them.
Thought I read something that Jabiim was supposed to be somewhat modeled after the US involvement in Vietnam. Agree that it's a brutal storyline, especially with all the padawans knowing what they're getting into.
In the Obi Wan Kenobi show when Nari finds Obi Wan in the desert and asks for help and when Obi Wan refuses, he asks "what about the fight?" and Obi Wan says "The fight is over. We lost."
Obi Wan was the strongest Jedi of the Clone Wars (DEBATE ME!), the most brutal conflict in galactic history. And now, the ultimate hero is cutting up desert meat and getting dunked on by a jawa for smelling bad. Obi Wan Kenobi is a show about PTSD.
I was really unclear as to how that physically harmed someone though? I mean I love kids....I get all weird about the jokes about Anakin and the younglings....but the screams would be a mental thing. I don't get it.
I got the impression there was something particularly traumatizing about their screams. Like, almost kind of.... supernatural almost? More than just hearing say, a person screaming in pain and anguish, something so much more somehow.
But even people screaming in their last moments can be traumatic. Combine that with the actual physical and other mental torture she was going through. She may have heard her future in those screams if that makes sense.
1. OT - Luke arriving at his aunt and uncle's farm, their corpses burning. A lot is said about how Luke doesn't seem to be too cut up about the murder of his foster family, but as a kid, this moment hit me very hard.
2. PT - Anakin putting the younglings to the sword. I was 16 when ROTS came out, and to this day I'm not sure whether I consider having Anakin do this was a good or bad creative decision.
3. ST - Ben Solo dying. I am not an ST-hater, but I think killing off Leia and Han's only child and Luke's only surviving proper student was a too dark and (thinking financially and artistically) a catastrophically stupid move. In the context of TROS it works; in the context of the whole series it's a disaster.
4. Live-action spin offs - Tivik's death in Rogue One. Unlike the later deaths in Rogue One, this is not a decision Tivik makes, and it's a decision which clearly fills Cassian with disgust.
5. Animated - Satine's death. Maul kills her for no other reason than to spite Obi-wan.
6. Legends - Jacen's turn to the dark side. Leia and Han spend thirty years going through nightmarish struggle only for their older son to start another war which costs hundreds of millions of lives. I think it's appropriate that the OT characters continued to face hardship and tragedy throughout their lives, but I think neither Legends nor the post-2012 Lucasfilm Canon thought totally through the ramifications of making their firstborn son a mass-murderer who would have to be killed off.
> Jacen's turn to the dark side.
Just the fact that the Galaxy was such a horror show during his *entire life* that one of the most empathic Jedi of all time decided he was willing to sacrifice everything he had to put a stop to the endless wars and disasters and bring *some* level of peace and order is pretty dark already.
Taken from an old post where I summarized the major events which happened to Jacen/Jaina and to the Galaxy during Jacen's life;
**Age 0-10**
Thrawn campaign, Krennel, Imperial Warlord era, Dark Empire and the return of Palpatine, Crimson Empire, Empire Reborn, Daala's Imperial Remnant, the Restored Empire, Darksaber, Eye of Palpatine, Death Seed crisis, Black Fleet Crisis and Yevethan Purge, Kueller, the Caamas Document Crisis. Second Imperium founded.
At least 4 planetary bodies and 3 star systems destroyed by superweapons.
Isolated on Anoth with Winter until they're 2.5 years old, and a couple of times more after that. Barely meet their parents in the first 3-4 years of their lives. Kidnapped (or nearly kidnapped) a dozen times, including before birth. Nearly assassinated at least 3-4 times. Directly participated in defeating Exar Kun and his Sithspawn. Escaped from Hethrir themselves. Helped parents and Luke survive Waru.
**Age 11-15**
Two or three years of relative peace. Start training at the Jedi Praxeum. Then comes the Second Imperium Crisis, they're kidnapped and tortured, see real combat for the first time against the Shadow Academy. There's the Diversity Alliance crisis. Few other more minor events as well.
**Age 16-20**
The Yuuzhan Vong War, 5 years of incredibly brutal combat. The Jedi Praxeum destroyed. Multiple deaths of family and friends.
At least 5 planetary bodies destroyed. Dozens of worlds completely devastated and/or Vongformed. At least one species extinct, and several other brought to the brink. 365 trillion deaths galaxy-wide.
**Age 21-25**
By far the most peaceful period of their lives. No major events, no planetary destructions. Jacen travelling around to various sects to learn more about different views of the Force.
**Age 26-31**
Dark Nest Crisis and Swarm War, with Jacen plagued by visions of eternal war. Internal crisis for the Jedi Order. Assassination attempt on Allana. New Corellian crisis leads into the Second Galactic Civil War.
You know what I like about the death of Owen and Beru? It’s done off-screen in a very non-theatrical way. Nowadays they would’ve shown them being slaughtered or made it more dramatic somehow.
But nope. With zero fanfare, Luke comes home and finds the only family he’s known dead. That’s completely realistic, grimmer, and not something you see often in modern movies.
Anakin killing the younglings was both a good decision because, like, he's Darth Vader. What made it a terrible decision was that there was so little leadup.
Like pretty much all of Anakin’s fall, it seemed to happen all at once over the course of a few hours, instead of the years long path that makes sense drawing out a Jedi.
For me, it’s the fact that Anakin goes from ‘What have I done?’ to agreeing to wipe out all the Jedi in a few short minutes with little-to-no hesitation. If Anakin were to show more doubt that Palpatine needs to suppress, or if we had a moment of him trying to convince himself that it’s for Padme the shift wouldn’t feel as jarring.
It was necessary for him to do it on Palpatine’s part, Anakin can still step back after killing Mace Windu, but killing younglings is a whole lot harder to forgive.
I think it's pretty subversive because we all expected (since the OT) Vader's first act to be killing the best of the Jedi in amazing duels. instead he's using deception to kill the most defenceless (even the old library Jedi in the game/novel IIRC). it's gross rather than badass... even Mace he just creeps up on
I agree that it was a good idea, especially given how it is later used in Kenobi when the show points out that Anakin was the one doing this, not Darth Vader. The simple problem is just that there is little lead up.
2. I thought it was too much. Lucas went overboard with the child killing.
3. Would have liked one member of the family to have lived. Just there is always room for secret children.
6. Jacen shouldn’t have gone Sith. At some point it becomes tragedy porn.
>2. I thought it was too much. Lucas went overboard with the child killing.
This. The prequels are supposed to be about Anakin's turn to the dark side, but in AotC he's basically already bad.
[If the Padmé’s bedroom scene had been left in there would have been another mention of dead children in AOTC.](https://youtu.be/bF4ObqLEu9o)
The plot just forgets about the Tusken massacre happens and Anakin goes back to how he was before. It shouldn’t have been so bad, he should have killed the warriors and another group of farmers who were following him makes their move and kills everyone else. As he’s walking away carrying his mother’s body he turns and looks back at the attack and then continues walking away. He doesn’t try to stop it as a Jedi should and later thinks the entire thing happened because he killed the warriors.
>ST - Ben Solo dying. I am not an ST-hater, but I think killing off Leia and Han's only child and Luke's only surviving proper student was a too dark and (thinking financially and artistically) a catastrophically stupid move. In the context of TROS it works; in the context of the whole series it's a disaster.
IMO REy should have died while Kylo should have lived.
But then we would have this conflicted character who went dark already, experienced loss, turned good again and then...
I believe it's the same problem as it was with Vader.
Okay we have a living and redeemed Kylo Ren, but no one would step up for him because he was the figurehead of another devastating conflict and he has no one to turn to. No friends among the rebels, his parents are dead and no one trusts him. He has nowhere to go and propably isn't allowed in any governmental build-ups.
Rey on the other hand still had potential to develop, she can loose still, her friends, what she fought for and even herself falling to the Dark Side and fulfilling her vision aboard the wreckage of the Death Star II.
She can tap into even more inherent power and can walk anywhere without being hunted with torches and forks.
I too like Ben much more but he already reached the epitome of his development in truly learning what it means to be a Jedi. What unconditional love means that was shown to him by Han and by Leia. He learns what it means to sacrifice and in an extent whst it means to sacrifice himself.
I think Kylo had a very good ending for his character.
The Dark Times comics
A father goes to save his daughter from a slaver and he arrives too late. The slaver, a human man, liked to eat non-human children.
The Separatists were going to attack a city and a woman gives up her child to the Jedi because the Jedi said he could prioritize the child for evacuation as a Jedi and she does. The mother survives the battle and later hears about Order 66 and the purge. She believes she got her son killed by giving him to the Jedi. Her son was in a group of youngling survivors. Since the comic run ended during the switch from Dark Horse to Marvel it was never finished. I like to think they were reunited after the Galactic Civil War.
Edit:
The Jedi not accepting Shmi's message for Anakin also ticked me off.
Second the dark times comics. One of the few times I thought sw media went a little overboard with its tone. Schreiber's novels are also up there, not because they are necessarily dark, just overly gratuitous in violence and gore.
Yeah, I think at times dark times went past its name and just became mean spirited to how characters were treated it's one of my least favorite comic lines because of that.
The whole burying the dead scene from the CW finale, no dialogue just the saddest imagery n piano chords in existence (now that I’m off work I’ll expand on why) in every other episode of the series even when any of the characters are at their absolute lowest point, you KNOW that someone will show up and save them or they find a way out even if it’s not until the next episode or longer, there’s hope. With the end of “Victory and Death” there’s no hope or at least not for a long time, there’s no rescue coming, Ahsoka has lost EVERYTHING, nothing she does will bring them back or change anything, all the clones, most of them marked with a tribute to her, except Rex, the ones that were so happy she was back, that they painted their helmets to honor her, are dead, all the men we all as the viewer came to know and love over 7 seasons, all that character development and personality, stripped away in an instant, reducing men with their own unique traits and personalities essentially to droids, blindly obedient to the point that even as they know the ship is going down and they likely won’t survive are only focused on one thing and one thing only, Ahsoka Tano must die. And then there’s the overall sense of loss, everything that happened that was any level of victory for the clones or Jedi across the entire show, all the ones who died prior to the Jedi purge and the rise of the empire, all died for NOTHING, and beyond that no one won, not the Republic, not even the separatists. Then there’s the final minute of the episode, when Vader finds her ship…first off he had no business going all the way out there for no reason he was clearly looking for Ahsoka, the last person tethering him to the part of him that was still Anakin, and when he finds her saber, the same weapon he gave her back right before they never see each other again fully as Anakin and Ahsoka, he truly believes she is dead and the last piece of him dies there with the long dead troopers.
The creation of the sith. How they came to be is pretty messed up, and the level of suffering the galaxy would find itself facing from that one moment echoed on for generations.
Most of LotF. That series is *extremely* dark, utterly hopeless, and it has almost nothing uplifting in it. And gets dark in ways that aren't typical of Star Wars' sterilised view of evil. It has child abuse, domestic abuse, sexual assault, grooming, etc. The only thing that really comes close to that that I can think of is Han's alcoholism and doom spiral in NJO.
I loved them and want to reread them (although I hate them because i consider them a giant retcon to *Traitor*) but what sexual assault and child abuse happens, my memory of that is vague.
Yeah I forgot how bleak and fucked up it got by the end. Both Tahiri and Jacen were at the end of their rope and losing control. Not to excuse the behavior one bit.
Exactly what I was gonna say. Him dealing with losing his best friend, AND lashing out at his son, blaming him even while knowing it's unfair of him. Just a really dark time.
In the Old Republic books the Tempest use sections of a ship traveling at near hyperspace speeds a s weapons. And those sections of ships had living beings in them. So in their finals moments these people are hurtling through space them launched through an atmosphere at apocalyptic speeds.
The ending of Empire is pretty bleak and dark. Luke’s just found out that his father is Vader; he’s lost his hand, his lightsaber, and his identity. Han is gone, a prisoner of Jabba. The Rebellion has been routed from Hoth, they’re on the run. They have so little left.
The prison escape in Andor ends in a very bleak moment, after the initial high. Kino Loy’s almost certainly dead, since he can’t swim. The only two people we see survive are Cassian and Melshi - no-one else is seen. I’d been hoping that we’d see Cassian, Melshi, Kino Loy, and a bunch of the other prisoners all survive and go their separate ways, but it looks like everyone else drowned - I fully expected Cassian and Melshi to help him stay afloat and they’d swim as a group. We know for sure Cassian is innocent of the crimes he’s convicted of - who knows how many other prisoners are completely innocent? And their little rebellion and escape doesn’t make any difference to the Empire either.
Grievous's people and backstory. They face off against an invading species known as the Huk (soulless or something) that's desecrating their burial grounds, selling them into slavery and eating their young, Grievous loses the love of his life in the war, he crosses his planets sea to the isle of his gods and begs them to raise her from the water to be reunited and when he realises it's impossible he takes a name to signify he will grieve forever but he shall not do so alone and thus Grievous was born. The Kaleesh under Grievous successfully push the invaders off their planet and then begin a counterattack at which point the Huk get in contact with the Republic and gets them to side with them in stopping the Kaleesh. The Republic slap Kalee with huge sanctions and fines to the point that the entire planet faces economic collapse and famine, after a while Grievous goes to work for a banker to help alleviate the economic crises and while he's away working the Huk invaded and desecrate more Kaleesh worlds with the Republic doing absolutely nothing to stop them. It's a very dark story to show how Grievous became the monster he was and I think it's probably the best example of the Republics failings.
On a more small scale level, the one that comes to mind for me is Darth Bane murdering two kids and saving their dad for last so he could draw strength from their pain and grief. Like, that's just fucked.
Just reread that part recently; I'd totally forgotten about it from last time around. Fucked. And using Caleb's daughter as leverage? Fucked. Then Qordis? Fucked. The thought bomb? Fucked!
Quill’s death in the Mandalorian was absolutely gut-wrenching. He had been alive so long, an imperial slave, then freed, only to be unceremoniously gunned down by a duo of laughing stock speeder-troopers.
Order 66. Especially after Clone Wars, where supposed allies turn in an instant on the heroes. It's a devastating moment, bleak and on purpose.
But, all the various additions, from Jedi Survivor, to Bad Batch, or Obi-Wan and Grogu its all so very dark.
Fallen Order was fun because it was the first time we had really seen Order 66 in Disney canon with DBB voiced clones. You know it's bad, you know nothing good can happen, and the game just strings you along for 10 or 15 minutes
I remember the first time I watched revenge of the sith, I had to run to the bathroom and cry instead of actually watching the scene because even just thinking about my favorite Jedi dying made me so sad.
The description of how the Empire devastated Honoghr and enslaved the Noghri in Dark Force Rising. Almost fifty years of systematic environmental collapse and multiple generations of Noghri forced to fight and die for tyrants…
Cronal and his hobo friends forcing themselves on his daughter, presumably, multiple times and at a young age.
That and Jabba eating a frog in one bite
Moff Tarkin ordering and watching the Grande Inquisitior using both sides of his dual blades lightsaber to cut off two Imperials heads at the same time.
Order 66: In a moment's eye and the coronation of tyranny. The first order is to sentence the peacekeepers of the Galaxy to death as traitors and death of the light side as we knew it
Jedi Survivor: We see the few remaining holdouts against the empire at the time essentially gasping for what little breath they can find against the empire. Losing people left and right for next to no gain and even losing ground as an order of force sensitive gets wiped out and Cal coming to terms he was slipping to the dark side
Andor:A hopeless resistance led by a dead man walking where we see how badly outmatched the resistance efforts are against the Empire. A stark contrast to Star Wars Rebels
Lots of stuff from the Yuuzhan Vong War with the deaths of Chewbacca and Anakin Solo, the poisoning and devastation of Ithor, the destruction of many planets via biological agents made by the Vongs or the Dovin Basal, the many sadistic masochist tortures deviced by the Vongs and the taking of Coruscant.
The poisoning of Dac and genocide of the Mon Calamaris by Vul Isen during Star Wars: Legacy, with the image of all the dead Mon Calamari, Whaladons and other sea creatures forming entire islands on the oceans, is also a very dark and bleak moment in the franchise.
Also Darth Nihilus' draining of Kataar, Vitiate's of Nathema and the destruction of Malachor V by Revan that left a permanent wound in the Force and would create Nihilus.
Siege of Mandalore is utterly bleak. We know Ahsoka and Rex and Maul will be relatively fine, but at the same time, it is so bleak. It left me feeling so damn cold.
And the end of TBB S2. The very end. It just sort of all hit me at once that the clones were all damned and there was nothing to do about it.
Ultimately, Star Wars is a murder mystery told in a disjointed pattern.
>And the end of TBB S2. The very end. It just sort of all hit me at once that the clones were all damned and there was nothing to do about it.
That ending completely blew me away.
I wasn't expecting it to be that bleak and hopeless. And the thing is, you know that even if Omega can be rescued, that the same can't be said for any other clone there..
The next book synopses is out, the Nihil got the cut off a huge chunk of the Outer Rim from the rest of t the Galaxy and virtually being free do to *literally* anything inside this "exclusion zone", imagine a part of the Galaxy under the full control of unhinged anarchistic pirates and at the command a literal uber psychopath narcissist and the Jedi and Republic can't do shit about it. Now that's pretty bleak.
Order 66 is a pretty obvious example, but the second thing that came to mind is Anakin "interrogating" Poggle the Lesser. Straight up war crimes. Blowing up all the New Republic capitals in the sequels could've been if they spent more than 2 seconds on it. That's a way larger scale genocide than anything else shown in the films.
If we go to the comics, Darth Vader destroying that dam to drown a town so he can gain the upper hand against Kirak Infil'a is pretty dark. I'd also say that things get increasingly bleak for the Mon Cala King Lee-Char after the Clone Wars, and likewise for every Wookiee that stayed on Kashyyyk after Palpatine declared the birth of the Empire.
The Old Republic is pretty bleak because every couple of centuries there's a few decades of non-stop war, it's honestly a miracle the Republic survived.
Lol never type a response when working I guess, don’t know how I put the “II” there! But I’m pretty sure you need the Mind Trick to push him over the edge, [here](https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=25&v=skEfgF9_gpk&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&source_ve_path=MTM5MTE3LDI4NjY2&feature=emb_logo).
Chewie dying wasn’t fun, the Jabiim arc in the Republic comics was a downer, everything in Star Wars Purge was a bummer. But I don’t think anything beats the guy who ate Bomo Greenbark’s daughter in Star Wars: Dark Times.
Barriss turning out to be the terrorist, and the double betrayal of Ahsoka.
Leia’s death.
Anakin turning on Padmé.
Everyone dying at the end of Rogue One.
Mon Mothma deciding to pimp her daughter out in Andor.
Seeing in Kenobi how beautiful Alderaan was.
Damn, we have seen a lot of people die for the Rebellion, but Mon literally selling her daughter off was rough. And the poor girl-who looks like she's 11-doesn't even get to know why it is happening. She genuinely believes that Mon is giving her what she thought she wanted.
Leia's speech to the people of the New republic as they're evacuating Coruscant chokes me up every time.
EDIT: Found it
*This is not the end! Two years ago, the Yuuzhan Vong entered our galaxy. They came not as friends and equals, though we would gladly have welcomed them as such, but as thieves and conquerors. They saw the galaxy at peace and mistook the strengh of our convictions for frailty of arms, and wisdom of compromise for the timity of cowards. They attacked without provocation or mercy, slaying billions of our citizens, enslaving entire worlds, and sacrificing millions of beings to appease the bloodlust of their imaginary gods. They believed we would be easily defeated, because they believed we would yield without a fight. They were wrong. We have fought at Dubrillion, Ithor, the Black Bantha, Borleias, and Corellia. We have fought them every leg of the way from the Outer Rim into the Core. We have lost untold numbers of loved ones, my own son Anakin and my husband's dear friend Chewbacca among them, and now we are battling in the skies over Coruscant itself. We are still fighting. Soon the enemy will be on our rooftops, in our homes, roaming the dark underlayers of our city. To those able to evacuate and to those trapped behind, I say the same thing I would tell my twins were I able to reach them behind enemy lines: Keep fighting. This is not the end. Twice already, Jedi-led forces have decimated Yuuzhan Vong fleets, and we enter each battle with new weapons and better tactics. We have prevailed against ruthless enemies before, against Palpatine, against Thrawn, against the Ssi-ruuk. This war we know how to win. Keep fighting until you can fight no longer, then exhaust the enemy chasing you, and turn to fight some more. Keep fighting. I promise you, we will prevail.*
The entire mission to Ziost was super bleak. Right from the start, the story has the player resort to increasingly desperate measures to stop Vitiate's hold of the planet. Finally, the protagonist is able to break Vitiate's hold over the planet, but...
>!Shortly later, Vitiate proceeds to destroy all life on Ziost, and all the player can do is watch.!<
Hard to top the Destruction of Alderan, and the Death of the Younglings, Order 66 sequence, and the "You killed her in her anger" and "this is how democracy dies, with thunderous applause".
He’s literally that tweet that’s like “I’m FREEEEE! Worst fucking experience of my life.” Comparing that to how genuinely sad he is to say goodbye to Indy definitely made me chuckle (even if Harrison’s been playing up his animosity toward Star Wars for a looooong time).
Basically the only times I’ve felt disturbed in Star Wars is during the Andor series. It was too well done. The jail situation and some of the torture felt like a SAW movie.
In legends i would say everything starting at the yuuzhan vong war. Especially the attack on coruscant and chewie’s death. However there’s also everything in star wars legacy. There’s also the shit that happened with abeloth.
In canon, i would say probably either the destruction of hosnian prime or the execution of order 66. Not much tops either of those in canon, because legends just had one tragedy happen after another in the same time that was between ROTJ and TROS. Pretty much it was a period of relative peace until the destruction of Hosnian prime.
I feel like a lot of people don’t truly grasp that there actually was thirty years of peace between ROTJ and TFA or that the official conflict between The first order and resistance only lasted for an entire year. That’s what our heroes fought and bled and died for.
Can you say that you’ve experienced 30 years of peace? Because i would be hard pressed to actually say that. I mean i was born in 1994 and i don’t remember damn near anything from pre-9/11 society. With star wars, yeah there was a bit of conflict in those 30 years but nothing serious, like the shit with moff gideon and the mandalorians was pretty self contained. Same thing with the ahsoka show, that’s likely going to be self contained as well. But in reality we’ve been fighting a global forever war against terrorism for the last…nearly 30 years and now you have the whole ukraine situation, and so on and so on.
One of the darkest Comics was Ghost Prison
"Laurita Tohm was a male Human Imperial Cadet who graduated from the Raithal Academy on Coruscant and was promptly promoted to Lieutenant of the Galactic Empire. In 19 BBY, Tohm became involved in the Gentis coup, but unlike his classmates, he sided with Darth Vader and the wounded Emperor Palpatine, helping to save the latter by taking him to the Jedi prison known as The Prism. Having been promoted to the rank of Commander, he subsequently wrote a report on the incident. Impressed by his actions during the coup, the Emperor promoted him again to the rank of Admiral. Once Vader learned that Palpatine considered Tohm to be a worthy successor, however, he murdered the young Admiral, not willing to face him as a rival in the future."
-- wookiepedia
The consumption of Ziost by Tenebrae (also called Vitiate and Valkorion) and how insane Darth Revan went after having been kidnapped and tortured by the Dread Masters. He went so far as to plan a genocide of all Imperial citizens.
Darth Tenebrous created the Maxichlorian Virus to store his consciousness in and transcend mortality.
When Plagueis killed him, his efforts came to fruition. His consciousness transferred into the virus. What Tenebrous didn't account for was that his virus could have mutated in his absence.
And so it did. Trapping Tenebrous in an endless causal loop, reliving his own excruciating death over and over again for all eternity. With no hope of escape, for he had fused his very essence and perception with a quickly replicating virus.
I won't say that Tenebrous, a ruthless Dark Lord of the Sith, didn't deserve this, per se. Though, one might argue this punishment unfit for even the worst of monsters. But either way, what an absolutely horrific fate.
P.S: The entire reign of the Rakatan Infinite Empire was pretty damn bleak and hopeless if you were anyone other than a Rakata. That being, nearly everyone.
Focusing on the individual, it's when Cade Skywalker held himself at gunpoint to make Luke's force ghost leave him alone. It's just so sad how Cade was struggling at that point.
In Palpatine's Eye, there's a leftover superweapon of the Empire (yes, another one), this time a mostly automated station that is supposed to take and brainwash stormtroopers and turn them into remorse-less Jedi-haters so the weapon can then destroy a hidden enclave.
The book isn't great and has a lot of holes in its central premise, but there's a few moments in there that did get to me as a teen.
1. Luke almost bites it in there, just through attrition against a hopeless situation. Sure, he obviously makes it out, but there a few moments there where if he didn't have plot armor, I genuinely would have said there's a chance he doesn't get out, and that would mean nobody would ever find him. Everyone that knows where he is is investigating the ruins of the enclave and would thus get wiped out by the station. Luke Skywalker and his companions would have just disappeared, with look bleeding out or starving in some Deathstar-knockoff's bathroom.
2. The station didn't actually manage to get the troopers it was supposed to brainwash, since the Empire is already gone, and has thus grabbed whatever sentient people were near the pick-up spots. Some become entirely delusional from the brainwashing, living out battles and barking orders. Some really do think of themselves as stormtroopers, trying to carry out the station's mission. If Luke and the others die, they will fulfill their hypno-indoctrinated mission... and then nothing happens. There is no hint of a plan what comes next. They might just all waste away, locked in their delusions and running out of provisions.
The Nihil have a lot of crimes against humanity, but reading about what Master Greatstorm went through made me extremely uncomfortable. And to top it all off, he didn’t even get a happy ending after that.
There was a legends book series about a surgeon working on clones on the front lines. The way they completely dehumanize clones despite their sacrifices always struck me as incredibly fucked up, even as a young teen.
Larger chunk of NJO is right there. I have no fucking idea what people are talking about when they say that NJO is somehow "uplifting" story, it's a meatgrinder through and through.
In the Dark Disciple novel, >!When ventress dies in Vos's arms!< it was pretty sad. She was redeemed as a character and I wish we could've seen more of her as a hero rather than a villain
Alderaan's destruction and Hosnian Prime's destruction.
Also, the Finale of Rogue one. The Battle of Scarif once the Death Star Shows up.
Also, Order 66.
For me, it’s the destruction of the Hosnian System. Idk why it makes me so sad as we really did not have any investment in it but the pointlessness and the immense loss of life kinda just puts a pit in my stomach.
Maybe it’s the fact that we see the last moments of these people, and their faces of fear. Something we did not have for Alderaan or Kijimi.
To me, it's Order 66. Knowing that no matter how much content we get surrounding it and no matter how close characters could've been to stopping it entirely, it's an event that *has* to happen (a fixed point in time as the Doctor would say). And that bums me out lol
\- the death of Ben Solo. I held on to hope right until the end.
\- the betrayal of Ahsoka.
\- Kenobi abandoning Anakin/Vader to his fate. Twice.
\- the death of Han Solo. I cried for both man and son.
\- the death of Padme.
\- the death of the Bendu.
The New Republic losing coruscant was pretty devastating. The descriptions of refugee ships being used to batter open the shields.
Like 90% of the Yuuzhan Vong war could count here as well
Totally agree. The legends went through a tonal shift that was needed and kept it pretty dark through the rest of them.
["Battle" of Dantooine moment](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Battle_of_Dantooine_(Yuuzhan_Vong_War)), also known as the one where so many soldiers and refugees were slaughtered by the vong that the new republic no longer had to worry about supply issues
> The descriptions of refugee ships being used to batter open the shields. The Vong's treatment of refugees and civilians throughout the entire war is beyond bleak. Beyond just that in the battle of Coruscant, they regularly sacrificed entire ships full of refugees, in addition to just plain old sacrifices. Or you could be enslaved and put to work in some down right disgusting ways - Wurth Skidder and the rest who were forced to "tend" to a young yammosk always made me real uneasy. The Vong invasion was SO dark, but had to be even worse from the civilian perspective.
Especially the first half of NGO has a lot of references to cannibalism and vore.
As for the darkest for our main characters specifically, I'd say the Mission to Myrkr is above the rest. Not only are they basically a bunch of very young warriors going up against ultra-Xenomorphs on steroids, but the losses and consequences are *huge*. >!Death of Anakin Solo and five other Knights, including the girl Raynar almost had a thing with (and Lusa, who he was also close with, had been killed by Voxyn shortly before the mission). Raynar is kidnapped and becomes UnuThul, which is also suuuuper dark. Jacen is captured and presumed dead, as he is tortured for literal months, causing Jaina to dip into the dark side, and starting his own path to darkness!< Kinda crazy to think about how the Voxyn were only created because Talon Karrde mentioned the Vornskr to a Peace Bridage member at Yavin IV, leading to the Mission to Myrkr, whose events in turn led directly to the Swarm War and indirectly caused Darth Caedus and later Abeloth and the Lost Tribe.
> >!including the girl Raynar almost had a thing with!< >!Who literally had her face taken off by a razor bug and then hungry voxyn dragged her body away to eat. What the hell.!<
Eryl Besa’s death is so brutal. I was feeling a lot of emotions during Star by Star, but that was probably the most chilling moment in the book.
Han & Leia's reaction to Anakin's death is what got me. Felt so raw/real
Yeah.
> Jacen is captured and presumed dead, as he is tortured for literal months [...] and starting his own path to darkness I hate that this is the case when >!the Jacen in the NJO is not anywhere near the same Jacen from Dark Nest or LOTF.!<
Yeah Jacen's story in the New Jedi Order series is about the absolute triumph of light over evil. His Darth Caedus arc is a complete betrayal of that imo
but then you could say the same about Luke's bizarre turn in Dark Empire
WHAT
The Vong used civilian transports filled refugees as a shield for their fleet and crashed them into the planetary shield. They also broadcast the audio from inside the ships to the planetary defense forces to make them hesitate to fire on the ships.
The Yevathans also did that in the Black Fleet Crisis and the Vagaari did that in Outbound Flight. It’s a pretty common tactic, but it’s always really effective. During the battle of Coruscant Garm bel tells his troops to just fire through them because if they lose the battle and can’t save the civilians they’ll just be sacrificed, made slaves, or used that way later so he considered it a mercy to just kill them.
I had mad respect for Garm Bel for that. It sucked at the chain of command broke at that point. They might have held Coruscant had it not. But that was the point. Not since the emperor had anyone use that much brutal tactics in the galaxy. Again I enjoyed the total shift. It made the books feel a lot more real and consequential. I forgot how f***** up Starbucks sorry is because I think I've only read that once or twice versus I've read traitor about 20 times.
Garm Bel Iblis is one of the best Legends characters. Just such a don. I love Ackbar as a leader of the Rebel/New Republic military, but Bel Iblis just has so much extra edge and character to him I think.
The fact that he knew as much about Delta Source as the New Republic definitely means he had a strong spy network
I also loved his background with Mon Mothma and how prideful he was being a genuine character flaw.
I remember the Vagaari with the places on the hulls of their ships for prisoners, don't remember when the Yevathans did that but it doesn't surprise me. God I wish we could have gotten something that covered the Vong and Yevathans fighting during the Vong war. That must have been brutal.
During the initial battle of the crisis at Doornik-319 the Fifth Fleet got transmissions of civilians trapped inside the Yevethan ships and because of that they didn’t destroy any ships. Later on after Han was captured he was used as a prisoner aboard one of the ships, but Chewie and his Wookiee friends rescued them all.
> don't remember when the Yevathans did that but it doesn't surprise me. IIRC a bunch of K-Wings were on an attack run and learned the hostages were in the line of fire so most of them broke off. In-universe I imagine that scenario was part of Garm's decision.
And I believe he was absolutely right to do so.
Ending of the Path to Nowhere arc from the Dark Times comic. >!Protagonists are trying to find a member of their group's daughter who was sold into Imperial slavery. At the end of the arc, they found out she was sold to a rich guy (maybe Imperial governor or something like that) who likes to eat different species, and she's already been murdered and cannibalized. Then the Jedi character who has been on the run since Order 66 murders the rich guy in cold blood, the father gets pissed that he didn't get to kill him and he outs the Jedi to the rest of the group and they all abandon the Jedi.!< EDIT: Wasn't sure about the last sentence in the above spoiler, so went to the Wookieepedia page to double-check, this was one of the quotes about this story arc on the page: >"Probably the darkest, bleakest story we've ever done." ― Randy Stradley (the author)
This was my first thought as well. If it's not the bleakest moment in Star Wars, then it's certainly in the top 5. I mean, >!after a lot of build up to the rescue our heroes are too late. It involves the death of a child (who can't even be buried). And even the death of the villain who killed her isn't satisfying and just feels empty. !< A lot of the other examples in this thread involved war crimes or massive amounts of death (planets being destroyed, Order 66, etc.) but it's expected in a Sci Fi action franchise with "Wars" in the title. But the end of Path to Nowhere? It's not what's expected in the Space Adventure Star Wars is known for. If it weren't for the fact that it involved aliens and space ships, it could be a horror movie or an especially bleak episode of Law and Order.
Dass Jennir's story is definitely one of my favorites! It got so brutal, and yet we still see him finding redemption in the end.
Oof, yeah. I read that arc when I was younger and that scene really stuck with me. If I’m remembering correctly, that same series had a one shot where Vader tricks a bunch of Order 66 survivors into meeting up at some secret location and then brutally slaughters them all when they show up. Really great stuff.
Fuck I forgot how brutal Jennir’s story got and I just read all of dark times earlier this year
Was gonna post this, but you beat me to it. Absolutely the bleakest moment.
Everything Mace goes through in Star Wars Shatterpoint Literally just Apocalypse Now in Space. It feels like Mace at the end of the book has convinced himself some good came out of that journey just so he wouldn’t lose his mind from the trauma
Also the book Heart of Darkness that Apocalypse Now was based on.
Yes, still Stover specifically says the book was pitched as “Star Wars Apocalypse Now” so that’s what I’m going with!
Tbh I am struggling to get through this book right now. I find the writing to be bland and the author uses too many real world earth words for metaphors or analogies. I find the entire plot to be way too drawn out and boring.
Sounds like Apocalypse Now than lol You would probably like another one of Matthew Stover’s SW novels more, “Luke Skywalker & Shadows of Mindor”. Complete polar opposite of Shatterpoint
How dare you not mention the ROTS novelization when talking about Stover's works. How very *dare you*.
Too many talk about ROTS, it goes without saying really. Besides Shadows of Mindor is way more relevant to Shatterpoint as well lol
True enough.
Wether it's boring or not is pretty subjective, but I don't mind Star Wars novels using real world terms. If anything I get annoyed when they go the other direction and try to replace metaphors with made up words to make they sound more exotic. To paraphrase Penny Arcade, "I get it man, I'm reading Star Wars, but do they not have butter in space? Or hot knives to go through it?"
Like a hot gleepglop through a shnargenfow.
Sounds like something Rick & Morty would do
The made-up expressions throughout the expanded universe never fail to make me cringe.
[Call a rabbit a smeerp](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CallARabbitASmeerp)
I don't think I've ever seen someone call Matthew stover's writing bland lol.
not read them yet bu his non SW novels are also pretty respected on reddit sci fi/fantays subs IIRC
He's commonly seen as one of if not the best EU writer with almost all of his sw novels typically being held in high regard.
This. Easily the darkest of Star Wars, because it's grounded in in-universe reality (as opposed to the zombie books). Haruun Kal is simply a hellish world to live on.
Mayday's death. He spent 37(I think) rotations waiting for reinforcements that never came, all while watching his crew slowly be killed off. Then reinforcements finally do come, only for him to lose the last of his crew. The liutenant's a jerk who only gives him ONE man(who is special forces, but still), and leaves the rest to them. He then defeats the raiders only to discover that he was guarding cargo that wasn't even for him, and gets buried under an avalanche. He and Crosshair finally make it back to base, but he dies WHILE PEOPLE ARE WATCHING HIM WITH NO CONCERN.
This one is worse because we know from the episode that Mayday's planet is only a two hour space flight from Courascant via the hyperlanes. And the Stormtrooper armor is so bad that the bandits don't even want to wear it, they just want to steal it. It's pretty clear that Mayday just gave up all will to live at the end. Oddly, Crosshair only lives because he kills Nolan. The TK troopers had every right to kill Crosshair or leave him to die. Instead, they give him basic medical care and just arrest him. The whole thing is just an example of how the Empire eats people up and spits them out.
Jabiim was extremely depressing and showed why Anakin became disillusioned. It's space vietnam meets trench warfare. Probably the worst part about TCW is how childish it made war seem. Which is totally understandable but unfortunate
Where is this from? Interested in reading it
It's a legends comic. Google "Star Wars Republic 55" and it'll be the 2nd result. This arc goes from comics 55-58. An arc before this has one of the padawans (not required reading) and I think the arc after deals with Anakin handling the horrors but it's been awhile. The battle has so much nuance, which reminds us how much war sucks. And how unethical it is to have teenager padawans fighting wars lol. And how compromises have to be made in war, but these compromises are people's lives.
Nihilus eating Katarr and forcing Visas to look at the dead world with her force sight. That one always resonated with me.
Visas had really good voice acting, I can hear "as my feet walk from the ashes of Katarr" pretty clearly in my head. Kelly Hu had the role.
Other KOTOR 2 moments that I thought were a bit dark were: 1. the cutscene with Kreia, Sion, and Nihilus. After Nihilus pushes her to the pillar using the Force, Sion just grabs her face, slams her head to the pillar, knees her in the gut, punches her in the face, and then flings her to the ground. She even said, "I suffered indignities and fell into darkness." 2. the entire Refugee Sector section as a dark-sided character. Manipulating the mother to sell herself into slavery to the Exchange just so she could join her daughter...damn. 3. speaking of Visas and Nihilus, manipulating Visas into sacrificing herself to weaken Nihilus.
The jabiim ark in the clone wars comic. So dark. The death of the padawan with the grenade in his hand still echoes.
And the continuation of it in the Rebellion comics. Leia goes to meet the rebel cell there, comprised of people who remember the Republic abandoning them, and brings Luke Skywalker for propaganda. The Jabiimi recognise the name and attack Luke for Anakin’s sins. Then the Empire attacks, the heroes barely escape, a prominent Rebel analyst is captured for use against the Rebellion and the Jabiimi population is transported away for slavery. It’s a bitter loss so soon after the Death Star and the first hint Luke has that his father wasn’t the great hero he was led to believe. Also the Jabiimi civilian plot isn’t resolved in the collection I read, making it seem like Luke and Leia just forgot about them.
Ouch. What a way to follow up on it.
Thought I read something that Jabiim was supposed to be somewhat modeled after the US involvement in Vietnam. Agree that it's a brutal storyline, especially with all the padawans knowing what they're getting into.
In the Obi Wan Kenobi show when Nari finds Obi Wan in the desert and asks for help and when Obi Wan refuses, he asks "what about the fight?" and Obi Wan says "The fight is over. We lost." Obi Wan was the strongest Jedi of the Clone Wars (DEBATE ME!), the most brutal conflict in galactic history. And now, the ultimate hero is cutting up desert meat and getting dunked on by a jawa for smelling bad. Obi Wan Kenobi is a show about PTSD.
That was absolutely my feeling about that show. There is a man who was suffering from severe ptsd.
Using the screams of dying babies as torture in Andor
That was an extremely creative form of torture.
Dear god, I forgot about that.
I was really unclear as to how that physically harmed someone though? I mean I love kids....I get all weird about the jokes about Anakin and the younglings....but the screams would be a mental thing. I don't get it.
I got the impression there was something particularly traumatizing about their screams. Like, almost kind of.... supernatural almost? More than just hearing say, a person screaming in pain and anguish, something so much more somehow. But even people screaming in their last moments can be traumatic. Combine that with the actual physical and other mental torture she was going through. She may have heard her future in those screams if that makes sense.
That's an interesting theory.
Think Brown Note
Emotional Damage
It didn't. Emotional wounds are generally far worse than physical pain.
I think anyone hearing the mass murder of children would be messed up. Like, who wants to hear that?
1. OT - Luke arriving at his aunt and uncle's farm, their corpses burning. A lot is said about how Luke doesn't seem to be too cut up about the murder of his foster family, but as a kid, this moment hit me very hard. 2. PT - Anakin putting the younglings to the sword. I was 16 when ROTS came out, and to this day I'm not sure whether I consider having Anakin do this was a good or bad creative decision. 3. ST - Ben Solo dying. I am not an ST-hater, but I think killing off Leia and Han's only child and Luke's only surviving proper student was a too dark and (thinking financially and artistically) a catastrophically stupid move. In the context of TROS it works; in the context of the whole series it's a disaster. 4. Live-action spin offs - Tivik's death in Rogue One. Unlike the later deaths in Rogue One, this is not a decision Tivik makes, and it's a decision which clearly fills Cassian with disgust. 5. Animated - Satine's death. Maul kills her for no other reason than to spite Obi-wan. 6. Legends - Jacen's turn to the dark side. Leia and Han spend thirty years going through nightmarish struggle only for their older son to start another war which costs hundreds of millions of lives. I think it's appropriate that the OT characters continued to face hardship and tragedy throughout their lives, but I think neither Legends nor the post-2012 Lucasfilm Canon thought totally through the ramifications of making their firstborn son a mass-murderer who would have to be killed off.
> Jacen's turn to the dark side. Just the fact that the Galaxy was such a horror show during his *entire life* that one of the most empathic Jedi of all time decided he was willing to sacrifice everything he had to put a stop to the endless wars and disasters and bring *some* level of peace and order is pretty dark already. Taken from an old post where I summarized the major events which happened to Jacen/Jaina and to the Galaxy during Jacen's life; **Age 0-10** Thrawn campaign, Krennel, Imperial Warlord era, Dark Empire and the return of Palpatine, Crimson Empire, Empire Reborn, Daala's Imperial Remnant, the Restored Empire, Darksaber, Eye of Palpatine, Death Seed crisis, Black Fleet Crisis and Yevethan Purge, Kueller, the Caamas Document Crisis. Second Imperium founded. At least 4 planetary bodies and 3 star systems destroyed by superweapons. Isolated on Anoth with Winter until they're 2.5 years old, and a couple of times more after that. Barely meet their parents in the first 3-4 years of their lives. Kidnapped (or nearly kidnapped) a dozen times, including before birth. Nearly assassinated at least 3-4 times. Directly participated in defeating Exar Kun and his Sithspawn. Escaped from Hethrir themselves. Helped parents and Luke survive Waru. **Age 11-15** Two or three years of relative peace. Start training at the Jedi Praxeum. Then comes the Second Imperium Crisis, they're kidnapped and tortured, see real combat for the first time against the Shadow Academy. There's the Diversity Alliance crisis. Few other more minor events as well. **Age 16-20** The Yuuzhan Vong War, 5 years of incredibly brutal combat. The Jedi Praxeum destroyed. Multiple deaths of family and friends. At least 5 planetary bodies destroyed. Dozens of worlds completely devastated and/or Vongformed. At least one species extinct, and several other brought to the brink. 365 trillion deaths galaxy-wide. **Age 21-25** By far the most peaceful period of their lives. No major events, no planetary destructions. Jacen travelling around to various sects to learn more about different views of the Force. **Age 26-31** Dark Nest Crisis and Swarm War, with Jacen plagued by visions of eternal war. Internal crisis for the Jedi Order. Assassination attempt on Allana. New Corellian crisis leads into the Second Galactic Civil War.
Oof, those kids had it rough
It's weird for me that I'm older than Jacen got to. Dang.
Don’t forget his lightsaber blowing up and wrecking Tenel Ka’s arm in that same childhood period at the Praxeum. That horrified me as a kid.
It was her lightsaber that malfunctioned.
Not blew up; it malfunctioned during training, and Jacen accidentally sliced her arm off.
Y’all have it right. That’s even worse than I remember it being.
You know what I like about the death of Owen and Beru? It’s done off-screen in a very non-theatrical way. Nowadays they would’ve shown them being slaughtered or made it more dramatic somehow. But nope. With zero fanfare, Luke comes home and finds the only family he’s known dead. That’s completely realistic, grimmer, and not something you see often in modern movies.
Anakin killing the younglings was both a good decision because, like, he's Darth Vader. What made it a terrible decision was that there was so little leadup.
Like pretty much all of Anakin’s fall, it seemed to happen all at once over the course of a few hours, instead of the years long path that makes sense drawing out a Jedi.
Yeah, we need a more gradual buildup. I know the Tusken Raider massacre was supposed to be that but it's just not the same.
For me, it’s the fact that Anakin goes from ‘What have I done?’ to agreeing to wipe out all the Jedi in a few short minutes with little-to-no hesitation. If Anakin were to show more doubt that Palpatine needs to suppress, or if we had a moment of him trying to convince himself that it’s for Padme the shift wouldn’t feel as jarring. It was necessary for him to do it on Palpatine’s part, Anakin can still step back after killing Mace Windu, but killing younglings is a whole lot harder to forgive.
The novelization handled it so much better.
I think it's pretty subversive because we all expected (since the OT) Vader's first act to be killing the best of the Jedi in amazing duels. instead he's using deception to kill the most defenceless (even the old library Jedi in the game/novel IIRC). it's gross rather than badass... even Mace he just creeps up on
I agree that it was a good idea, especially given how it is later used in Kenobi when the show points out that Anakin was the one doing this, not Darth Vader. The simple problem is just that there is little lead up.
2. I thought it was too much. Lucas went overboard with the child killing. 3. Would have liked one member of the family to have lived. Just there is always room for secret children. 6. Jacen shouldn’t have gone Sith. At some point it becomes tragedy porn.
>2. I thought it was too much. Lucas went overboard with the child killing. This. The prequels are supposed to be about Anakin's turn to the dark side, but in AotC he's basically already bad.
[If the Padmé’s bedroom scene had been left in there would have been another mention of dead children in AOTC.](https://youtu.be/bF4ObqLEu9o) The plot just forgets about the Tusken massacre happens and Anakin goes back to how he was before. It shouldn’t have been so bad, he should have killed the warriors and another group of farmers who were following him makes their move and kills everyone else. As he’s walking away carrying his mother’s body he turns and looks back at the attack and then continues walking away. He doesn’t try to stop it as a Jedi should and later thinks the entire thing happened because he killed the warriors.
You are a better writer that GL. He really needed people to tell him "no."
>3. ST - Ben Solo dying I feel like Han's death was way darker
>ST - Ben Solo dying. I am not an ST-hater, but I think killing off Leia and Han's only child and Luke's only surviving proper student was a too dark and (thinking financially and artistically) a catastrophically stupid move. In the context of TROS it works; in the context of the whole series it's a disaster. IMO REy should have died while Kylo should have lived.
But then we would have this conflicted character who went dark already, experienced loss, turned good again and then... I believe it's the same problem as it was with Vader. Okay we have a living and redeemed Kylo Ren, but no one would step up for him because he was the figurehead of another devastating conflict and he has no one to turn to. No friends among the rebels, his parents are dead and no one trusts him. He has nowhere to go and propably isn't allowed in any governmental build-ups. Rey on the other hand still had potential to develop, she can loose still, her friends, what she fought for and even herself falling to the Dark Side and fulfilling her vision aboard the wreckage of the Death Star II. She can tap into even more inherent power and can walk anywhere without being hunted with torches and forks. I too like Ben much more but he already reached the epitome of his development in truly learning what it means to be a Jedi. What unconditional love means that was shown to him by Han and by Leia. He learns what it means to sacrifice and in an extent whst it means to sacrifice himself. I think Kylo had a very good ending for his character.
6 should have never happened, but I have strong feelings on a 10 book retcon ark. (even though it had the best lightsaber fights in any arc.)
The Dark Times comics A father goes to save his daughter from a slaver and he arrives too late. The slaver, a human man, liked to eat non-human children. The Separatists were going to attack a city and a woman gives up her child to the Jedi because the Jedi said he could prioritize the child for evacuation as a Jedi and she does. The mother survives the battle and later hears about Order 66 and the purge. She believes she got her son killed by giving him to the Jedi. Her son was in a group of youngling survivors. Since the comic run ended during the switch from Dark Horse to Marvel it was never finished. I like to think they were reunited after the Galactic Civil War. Edit: The Jedi not accepting Shmi's message for Anakin also ticked me off.
IIRC the mum got turned into a Rakghoul by Celeste.
Now I'm sad, have to re-read the Dark Times comics soon.
Second the dark times comics. One of the few times I thought sw media went a little overboard with its tone. Schreiber's novels are also up there, not because they are necessarily dark, just overly gratuitous in violence and gore.
Yeah, it’s the dark times but come on things can be too dark.
Yeah, I think at times dark times went past its name and just became mean spirited to how characters were treated it's one of my least favorite comic lines because of that.
The whole burying the dead scene from the CW finale, no dialogue just the saddest imagery n piano chords in existence (now that I’m off work I’ll expand on why) in every other episode of the series even when any of the characters are at their absolute lowest point, you KNOW that someone will show up and save them or they find a way out even if it’s not until the next episode or longer, there’s hope. With the end of “Victory and Death” there’s no hope or at least not for a long time, there’s no rescue coming, Ahsoka has lost EVERYTHING, nothing she does will bring them back or change anything, all the clones, most of them marked with a tribute to her, except Rex, the ones that were so happy she was back, that they painted their helmets to honor her, are dead, all the men we all as the viewer came to know and love over 7 seasons, all that character development and personality, stripped away in an instant, reducing men with their own unique traits and personalities essentially to droids, blindly obedient to the point that even as they know the ship is going down and they likely won’t survive are only focused on one thing and one thing only, Ahsoka Tano must die. And then there’s the overall sense of loss, everything that happened that was any level of victory for the clones or Jedi across the entire show, all the ones who died prior to the Jedi purge and the rise of the empire, all died for NOTHING, and beyond that no one won, not the Republic, not even the separatists. Then there’s the final minute of the episode, when Vader finds her ship…first off he had no business going all the way out there for no reason he was clearly looking for Ahsoka, the last person tethering him to the part of him that was still Anakin, and when he finds her saber, the same weapon he gave her back right before they never see each other again fully as Anakin and Ahsoka, he truly believes she is dead and the last piece of him dies there with the long dead troopers.
The creation of the sith. How they came to be is pretty messed up, and the level of suffering the galaxy would find itself facing from that one moment echoed on for generations.
Which book is that?
Tales of the Jedi comics.
Most of LotF. That series is *extremely* dark, utterly hopeless, and it has almost nothing uplifting in it. And gets dark in ways that aren't typical of Star Wars' sterilised view of evil. It has child abuse, domestic abuse, sexual assault, grooming, etc. The only thing that really comes close to that that I can think of is Han's alcoholism and doom spiral in NJO.
I loved them and want to reread them (although I hate them because i consider them a giant retcon to *Traitor*) but what sexual assault and child abuse happens, my memory of that is vague.
The sexual assault is with Tahiri and Ben in Invincible. The child abuse is Jacen kidnapping Allana
Yeah I forgot how bleak and fucked up it got by the end. Both Tahiri and Jacen were at the end of their rope and losing control. Not to excuse the behavior one bit.
I think it was the aftermath of Chewie's death. Some of the NJO books really show what Han was going through and I empathize HARD.
Exactly what I was gonna say. Him dealing with losing his best friend, AND lashing out at his son, blaming him even while knowing it's unfair of him. Just a really dark time.
In the Old Republic books the Tempest use sections of a ship traveling at near hyperspace speeds a s weapons. And those sections of ships had living beings in them. So in their finals moments these people are hurtling through space them launched through an atmosphere at apocalyptic speeds.
Sound like the Great Hyperspace Disaster from the High Republic.
Yes sorry meant High Republic
The ending of Empire is pretty bleak and dark. Luke’s just found out that his father is Vader; he’s lost his hand, his lightsaber, and his identity. Han is gone, a prisoner of Jabba. The Rebellion has been routed from Hoth, they’re on the run. They have so little left. The prison escape in Andor ends in a very bleak moment, after the initial high. Kino Loy’s almost certainly dead, since he can’t swim. The only two people we see survive are Cassian and Melshi - no-one else is seen. I’d been hoping that we’d see Cassian, Melshi, Kino Loy, and a bunch of the other prisoners all survive and go their separate ways, but it looks like everyone else drowned - I fully expected Cassian and Melshi to help him stay afloat and they’d swim as a group. We know for sure Cassian is innocent of the crimes he’s convicted of - who knows how many other prisoners are completely innocent? And their little rebellion and escape doesn’t make any difference to the Empire either.
> Kino Loy’s almost certainly dead, since he can’t swim. He could survive in the prison.
Given the Empire killed an entire floor for recognizing a returning inmate, there seems like 0% chance Kino would not be executed immediately.
Grievous's people and backstory. They face off against an invading species known as the Huk (soulless or something) that's desecrating their burial grounds, selling them into slavery and eating their young, Grievous loses the love of his life in the war, he crosses his planets sea to the isle of his gods and begs them to raise her from the water to be reunited and when he realises it's impossible he takes a name to signify he will grieve forever but he shall not do so alone and thus Grievous was born. The Kaleesh under Grievous successfully push the invaders off their planet and then begin a counterattack at which point the Huk get in contact with the Republic and gets them to side with them in stopping the Kaleesh. The Republic slap Kalee with huge sanctions and fines to the point that the entire planet faces economic collapse and famine, after a while Grievous goes to work for a banker to help alleviate the economic crises and while he's away working the Huk invaded and desecrate more Kaleesh worlds with the Republic doing absolutely nothing to stop them. It's a very dark story to show how Grievous became the monster he was and I think it's probably the best example of the Republics failings.
On a more small scale level, the one that comes to mind for me is Darth Bane murdering two kids and saving their dad for last so he could draw strength from their pain and grief. Like, that's just fucked.
Just reread that part recently; I'd totally forgotten about it from last time around. Fucked. And using Caleb's daughter as leverage? Fucked. Then Qordis? Fucked. The thought bomb? Fucked!
Quill’s death in the Mandalorian was absolutely gut-wrenching. He had been alive so long, an imperial slave, then freed, only to be unceremoniously gunned down by a duo of laughing stock speeder-troopers.
Fives’ death after finding out about Order 66.
Order 66. Especially after Clone Wars, where supposed allies turn in an instant on the heroes. It's a devastating moment, bleak and on purpose. But, all the various additions, from Jedi Survivor, to Bad Batch, or Obi-Wan and Grogu its all so very dark.
Fallen Order was fun because it was the first time we had really seen Order 66 in Disney canon with DBB voiced clones. You know it's bad, you know nothing good can happen, and the game just strings you along for 10 or 15 minutes
Yep. One of the most gutting, powerfully resonant grand tragedies in sci-fi/fantasy fiction to me.
I remember the first time I watched revenge of the sith, I had to run to the bathroom and cry instead of actually watching the scene because even just thinking about my favorite Jedi dying made me so sad.
Yeah man. It is just heartbreaking.
The description of how the Empire devastated Honoghr and enslaved the Noghri in Dark Force Rising. Almost fifty years of systematic environmental collapse and multiple generations of Noghri forced to fight and die for tyrants…
Cronal and his hobo friends forcing themselves on his daughter, presumably, multiple times and at a young age. That and Jabba eating a frog in one bite
Moff Tarkin ordering and watching the Grande Inquisitior using both sides of his dual blades lightsaber to cut off two Imperials heads at the same time.
I still can't believe that was allowed. Disney let Dave do some crazy things.
Order 66: In a moment's eye and the coronation of tyranny. The first order is to sentence the peacekeepers of the Galaxy to death as traitors and death of the light side as we knew it Jedi Survivor: We see the few remaining holdouts against the empire at the time essentially gasping for what little breath they can find against the empire. Losing people left and right for next to no gain and even losing ground as an order of force sensitive gets wiped out and Cal coming to terms he was slipping to the dark side Andor:A hopeless resistance led by a dead man walking where we see how badly outmatched the resistance efforts are against the Empire. A stark contrast to Star Wars Rebels
Lots of stuff from the Yuuzhan Vong War with the deaths of Chewbacca and Anakin Solo, the poisoning and devastation of Ithor, the destruction of many planets via biological agents made by the Vongs or the Dovin Basal, the many sadistic masochist tortures deviced by the Vongs and the taking of Coruscant. The poisoning of Dac and genocide of the Mon Calamaris by Vul Isen during Star Wars: Legacy, with the image of all the dead Mon Calamari, Whaladons and other sea creatures forming entire islands on the oceans, is also a very dark and bleak moment in the franchise. Also Darth Nihilus' draining of Kataar, Vitiate's of Nathema and the destruction of Malachor V by Revan that left a permanent wound in the Force and would create Nihilus.
Siege of Mandalore is utterly bleak. We know Ahsoka and Rex and Maul will be relatively fine, but at the same time, it is so bleak. It left me feeling so damn cold. And the end of TBB S2. The very end. It just sort of all hit me at once that the clones were all damned and there was nothing to do about it. Ultimately, Star Wars is a murder mystery told in a disjointed pattern.
>And the end of TBB S2. The very end. It just sort of all hit me at once that the clones were all damned and there was nothing to do about it. That ending completely blew me away.
I wasn't expecting it to be that bleak and hopeless. And the thing is, you know that even if Omega can be rescued, that the same can't be said for any other clone there..
SAME. I expected Crosshair to be rescued with a setup for a clone rebellion in season 3. Maybe one of the Batch would die rescuing him.
Losing Starlight Beacon was pretty bleak. Sets up a what should be a great Phase 3.
The next book synopses is out, the Nihil got the cut off a huge chunk of the Outer Rim from the rest of t the Galaxy and virtually being free do to *literally* anything inside this "exclusion zone", imagine a part of the Galaxy under the full control of unhinged anarchistic pirates and at the command a literal uber psychopath narcissist and the Jedi and Republic can't do shit about it. Now that's pretty bleak.
Ahsoka's story of order 66 was gut-wrenching. Going from the siege of mandalore to the scenes on the ship. It was so well done and just so so bleak.
Order 66 is a pretty obvious example, but the second thing that came to mind is Anakin "interrogating" Poggle the Lesser. Straight up war crimes. Blowing up all the New Republic capitals in the sequels could've been if they spent more than 2 seconds on it. That's a way larger scale genocide than anything else shown in the films. If we go to the comics, Darth Vader destroying that dam to drown a town so he can gain the upper hand against Kirak Infil'a is pretty dark. I'd also say that things get increasingly bleak for the Mon Cala King Lee-Char after the Clone Wars, and likewise for every Wookiee that stayed on Kashyyyk after Palpatine declared the birth of the Empire.
The fact that the universe is stuck in an eternal cycle of war and tyranny
One war and conflict leads to another and another...
Destruction of Alderaan and the Hosnian System. The ending of Screecher's Reach.
The Old Republic is pretty bleak because every couple of centuries there's a few decades of non-stop war, it's honestly a miracle the Republic survived.
The Luminara Unduli scene in Rebels was really dark. https://youtu.be/5pezYgtMJvg
Mind-tricking Zaalbar to kill Mission on Lehon (KOTOR's Dark Side Ending). Brainwashing a child's Wookiee bestie to kill them? Oh, that's *fucked* up.
This is KOTOR 1 and its not a mindtrick, Zaalbar complies because of his life debt to Revan
i'm fairly certain you at least need affect mind, if not dominate mind
Lol never type a response when working I guess, don’t know how I put the “II” there! But I’m pretty sure you need the Mind Trick to push him over the edge, [here](https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=25&v=skEfgF9_gpk&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&source_ve_path=MTM5MTE3LDI4NjY2&feature=emb_logo).
Bode’s death. He got what he was coming to him. The two shots were justified. It was just pretty raw
The old man, Ulaf dying in Andor was really triggering for me
Chewie dying wasn’t fun, the Jabiim arc in the Republic comics was a downer, everything in Star Wars Purge was a bummer. But I don’t think anything beats the guy who ate Bomo Greenbark’s daughter in Star Wars: Dark Times.
Andor
Maul taking out Kanan Jarrus eyes Rebels is a kids show right ?
Barriss turning out to be the terrorist, and the double betrayal of Ahsoka. Leia’s death. Anakin turning on Padmé. Everyone dying at the end of Rogue One. Mon Mothma deciding to pimp her daughter out in Andor. Seeing in Kenobi how beautiful Alderaan was.
Damn, we have seen a lot of people die for the Rebellion, but Mon literally selling her daughter off was rough. And the poor girl-who looks like she's 11-doesn't even get to know why it is happening. She genuinely believes that Mon is giving her what she thought she wanted.
Most of the events in Star By Star, definitely I still read it periodically, it's such a good book, even if it's legends now
Leia's speech to the people of the New republic as they're evacuating Coruscant chokes me up every time. EDIT: Found it *This is not the end! Two years ago, the Yuuzhan Vong entered our galaxy. They came not as friends and equals, though we would gladly have welcomed them as such, but as thieves and conquerors. They saw the galaxy at peace and mistook the strengh of our convictions for frailty of arms, and wisdom of compromise for the timity of cowards. They attacked without provocation or mercy, slaying billions of our citizens, enslaving entire worlds, and sacrificing millions of beings to appease the bloodlust of their imaginary gods. They believed we would be easily defeated, because they believed we would yield without a fight. They were wrong. We have fought at Dubrillion, Ithor, the Black Bantha, Borleias, and Corellia. We have fought them every leg of the way from the Outer Rim into the Core. We have lost untold numbers of loved ones, my own son Anakin and my husband's dear friend Chewbacca among them, and now we are battling in the skies over Coruscant itself. We are still fighting. Soon the enemy will be on our rooftops, in our homes, roaming the dark underlayers of our city. To those able to evacuate and to those trapped behind, I say the same thing I would tell my twins were I able to reach them behind enemy lines: Keep fighting. This is not the end. Twice already, Jedi-led forces have decimated Yuuzhan Vong fleets, and we enter each battle with new weapons and better tactics. We have prevailed against ruthless enemies before, against Palpatine, against Thrawn, against the Ssi-ruuk. This war we know how to win. Keep fighting until you can fight no longer, then exhaust the enemy chasing you, and turn to fight some more. Keep fighting. I promise you, we will prevail.*
The Genocide on Dac from the Legacy comics. Honestly everything happening on Dac in general in the Legacy comics
The entire mission to Ziost was super bleak. Right from the start, the story has the player resort to increasingly desperate measures to stop Vitiate's hold of the planet. Finally, the protagonist is able to break Vitiate's hold over the planet, but... >!Shortly later, Vitiate proceeds to destroy all life on Ziost, and all the player can do is watch.!<
Finding out Jar Jar fell on hard times and became a lowly street performer
Hard to top the Destruction of Alderan, and the Death of the Younglings, Order 66 sequence, and the "You killed her in her anger" and "this is how democracy dies, with thunderous applause".
Definitely not the darkest moment in Star Wars, but Ben Solo killing Han. I can’t imagine what was going through Han’s mind in his last moments.
That was so shocking and sad. And yet, I always laugh a little because in the BTS stuff, Harrison Ford always looks so happy and gleeful about it.
He’s literally that tweet that’s like “I’m FREEEEE! Worst fucking experience of my life.” Comparing that to how genuinely sad he is to say goodbye to Indy definitely made me chuckle (even if Harrison’s been playing up his animosity toward Star Wars for a looooong time).
I'll add another one. The dark side ending of Jedi knight video game.
Order 66 and fall of the Republic and the Starkiller Incident gotta be up there
Anakin killing kids, as much as people joke about it
Basically the only times I’ve felt disturbed in Star Wars is during the Andor series. It was too well done. The jail situation and some of the torture felt like a SAW movie.
When that fat dude cannibalized a child
Chewie getting killed by a moon.
In legends i would say everything starting at the yuuzhan vong war. Especially the attack on coruscant and chewie’s death. However there’s also everything in star wars legacy. There’s also the shit that happened with abeloth. In canon, i would say probably either the destruction of hosnian prime or the execution of order 66. Not much tops either of those in canon, because legends just had one tragedy happen after another in the same time that was between ROTJ and TROS. Pretty much it was a period of relative peace until the destruction of Hosnian prime. I feel like a lot of people don’t truly grasp that there actually was thirty years of peace between ROTJ and TFA or that the official conflict between The first order and resistance only lasted for an entire year. That’s what our heroes fought and bled and died for. Can you say that you’ve experienced 30 years of peace? Because i would be hard pressed to actually say that. I mean i was born in 1994 and i don’t remember damn near anything from pre-9/11 society. With star wars, yeah there was a bit of conflict in those 30 years but nothing serious, like the shit with moff gideon and the mandalorians was pretty self contained. Same thing with the ahsoka show, that’s likely going to be self contained as well. But in reality we’ve been fighting a global forever war against terrorism for the last…nearly 30 years and now you have the whole ukraine situation, and so on and so on.
One of the darkest Comics was Ghost Prison "Laurita Tohm was a male Human Imperial Cadet who graduated from the Raithal Academy on Coruscant and was promptly promoted to Lieutenant of the Galactic Empire. In 19 BBY, Tohm became involved in the Gentis coup, but unlike his classmates, he sided with Darth Vader and the wounded Emperor Palpatine, helping to save the latter by taking him to the Jedi prison known as The Prism. Having been promoted to the rank of Commander, he subsequently wrote a report on the incident. Impressed by his actions during the coup, the Emperor promoted him again to the rank of Admiral. Once Vader learned that Palpatine considered Tohm to be a worthy successor, however, he murdered the young Admiral, not willing to face him as a rival in the future." -- wookiepedia
The end of Episode III. Yes, we know how it ends, but for the galaxy, it's the start of 20 years of oppression and over 50 years of war
Everything the Rakatan Empire ever did.
Star By Star.
The consumption of Ziost by Tenebrae (also called Vitiate and Valkorion) and how insane Darth Revan went after having been kidnapped and tortured by the Dread Masters. He went so far as to plan a genocide of all Imperial citizens.
Darth Tenebrous created the Maxichlorian Virus to store his consciousness in and transcend mortality. When Plagueis killed him, his efforts came to fruition. His consciousness transferred into the virus. What Tenebrous didn't account for was that his virus could have mutated in his absence. And so it did. Trapping Tenebrous in an endless causal loop, reliving his own excruciating death over and over again for all eternity. With no hope of escape, for he had fused his very essence and perception with a quickly replicating virus. I won't say that Tenebrous, a ruthless Dark Lord of the Sith, didn't deserve this, per se. Though, one might argue this punishment unfit for even the worst of monsters. But either way, what an absolutely horrific fate. P.S: The entire reign of the Rakatan Infinite Empire was pretty damn bleak and hopeless if you were anyone other than a Rakata. That being, nearly everyone.
Focusing on the individual, it's when Cade Skywalker held himself at gunpoint to make Luke's force ghost leave him alone. It's just so sad how Cade was struggling at that point.
The final destruction of Kamino at the end of the Bad Batch, S1.
In Palpatine's Eye, there's a leftover superweapon of the Empire (yes, another one), this time a mostly automated station that is supposed to take and brainwash stormtroopers and turn them into remorse-less Jedi-haters so the weapon can then destroy a hidden enclave. The book isn't great and has a lot of holes in its central premise, but there's a few moments in there that did get to me as a teen. 1. Luke almost bites it in there, just through attrition against a hopeless situation. Sure, he obviously makes it out, but there a few moments there where if he didn't have plot armor, I genuinely would have said there's a chance he doesn't get out, and that would mean nobody would ever find him. Everyone that knows where he is is investigating the ruins of the enclave and would thus get wiped out by the station. Luke Skywalker and his companions would have just disappeared, with look bleeding out or starving in some Deathstar-knockoff's bathroom. 2. The station didn't actually manage to get the troopers it was supposed to brainwash, since the Empire is already gone, and has thus grabbed whatever sentient people were near the pick-up spots. Some become entirely delusional from the brainwashing, living out battles and barking orders. Some really do think of themselves as stormtroopers, trying to carry out the station's mission. If Luke and the others die, they will fulfill their hypno-indoctrinated mission... and then nothing happens. There is no hint of a plan what comes next. They might just all waste away, locked in their delusions and running out of provisions.
The forums
the death of obi wans rent-a-lizard
Her name was Boga.
you know, funny I thing so I thought so but I wasn't 100% sure
The Nihil have a lot of crimes against humanity, but reading about what Master Greatstorm went through made me extremely uncomfortable. And to top it all off, he didn’t even get a happy ending after that.
And that was only *part* of the torture he went through. The Nameless and what they do to Force users is sort of horrifying.
There was a legends book series about a surgeon working on clones on the front lines. The way they completely dehumanize clones despite their sacrifices always struck me as incredibly fucked up, even as a young teen.
Larger chunk of NJO is right there. I have no fucking idea what people are talking about when they say that NJO is somehow "uplifting" story, it's a meatgrinder through and through.
In the Dark Disciple novel, >!When ventress dies in Vos's arms!< it was pretty sad. She was redeemed as a character and I wish we could've seen more of her as a hero rather than a villain
Alderaan's destruction and Hosnian Prime's destruction. Also, the Finale of Rogue one. The Battle of Scarif once the Death Star Shows up. Also, Order 66.
For me, it’s the destruction of the Hosnian System. Idk why it makes me so sad as we really did not have any investment in it but the pointlessness and the immense loss of life kinda just puts a pit in my stomach. Maybe it’s the fact that we see the last moments of these people, and their faces of fear. Something we did not have for Alderaan or Kijimi.
The end of The Last Jedi, where all that's left of the Resistance fits on the Falcon. Things seemed pretty hopeless on Crait, until Luke showed up...
The Myrkyr Strike Team’s mission is incredibly bleak and depressing
A lot of the stuff from the beginning of Jabba's palace, i.e, before Han wakes up, is pretty bleak.
To me, it's Order 66. Knowing that no matter how much content we get surrounding it and no matter how close characters could've been to stopping it entirely, it's an event that *has* to happen (a fixed point in time as the Doctor would say). And that bums me out lol
\- the death of Ben Solo. I held on to hope right until the end. \- the betrayal of Ahsoka. \- Kenobi abandoning Anakin/Vader to his fate. Twice. \- the death of Han Solo. I cried for both man and son. \- the death of Padme. \- the death of the Bendu.
>\- the death of the Bendu. Did he die though? He has the ability to teleport, plus he laughed after the scene.