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  • 6/17/2025
From lightsaber beheadings to planetary destruction, the Star Wars galaxy is filled with truly disturbing demises. Join us as we count down the most shocking, brutal, and emotionally devastating deaths across the franchise! Our list covers everything from Alderaan's destruction to Padmé's heartbreaking end and Vader's merciless executions. Which galactic death haunts your nightmares?
Transcript
00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the Star Wars deaths that
00:18are disturbing for their brutality, narrative reasoning, and or shock value. There may be
00:22spoilers from all parts of the Star Wars franchise, movies, and TV.
00:30Number 20. Yoda Beheads Clone Troopers. Star Wars Episode 3 Revenge of the Sith. As a result
00:42of Order 66, Yoda senses that two of his clone commanders are coming to shoot him, and without
00:46any hesitation jumps up and decapitates both of them with his lightsaber. Yoda's actions
00:56here, as well as in a subsequent scene where he and Obi-Wan Kenobi fought clones outside
01:00of the Jedi Temple, play as decisive, cold, but necessary, and even a bit badass. But
01:05that's just in the context of the prequel films. If you look at the Clone Wars series, Yoda's
01:10actions in Revenge of the Sith may still be necessary, but become all the more unsettling.
01:14The Jedi Master not only got to know his troops as individuals, but even called them luminous
01:19beings, and try to instill in them a sense of self-worth.
01:22Clones, you may be, but the Force resides in all life forms. Use it, you can, to quiet
01:29your mind.
01:30Number 19. The Tauntaun's Fate. Star Wars Episode 5 The Empire Strikes Back. What's the temperature
01:35inside a Tauntaun? Lukewarm. Jokes like that and even products like the Tauntaun sleeping bag
01:41where you can sleep inside a Tauntaun may be cute, but they also mask the sad and graphic
01:45fate of the two Tauntauns we met in The Empire Strikes Back.
01:54The Wampa killed and ate one, giving Luke Skywalker time to free himself, and the other died of
01:58hypothermia before Han Solo used Luke's lightsaber to cut it open to keep Luke warm inside its
02:03carcass.
02:04Man.
02:06The grotesque way the Tauntaun's insides fell out was disturbing in a way that even
02:16Han's joke about the creature's smell couldn't mask.
02:19Number 18. First Order Kills Jakku Villagers. Star Wars Episode 7 The Force Awakens. The Empire
02:24always had a purpose behind their worst acts. Comparatively, the First Order under Kylo Ren's
02:29command seemed to be brutal for brutality's sake, seemingly to prove that they could be just
02:33as horrible as their predecessors. When Captain Phasma asked what was to be done with the captured
02:38villagers, the Order already had Resistance Pilot Poe Dameron, and as far as they knew, the
02:42map to Luke Skywalker in their custody.
02:44Kill them all.
02:45All night, come on.
02:48Exploiting the Jakku Villagers by putting them to work or letting them tell the story and
02:53spread fear would have served a practical purpose. Simply executing them as Ren commanded served
02:57none except to disturb the audience, and finned to the point where he defected.
03:06Number 17. Vader Force Chokes Admiral Azul. Star Wars Episode 5 The Empire Strikes Back.
03:12Darth Vader's casual brutality towards subordinates, and really anyone he didn't think mattered,
03:16was a hallmark of the original trilogy. We see it in one of his first scenes, when he crushes
03:21a rebel soldier's neck. But it's really the Empire Strikes Back that sets the tone. When
03:30he thinks Admiral Azul came out of lightspeed too close to the Hoth system, alerting the rebels,
03:35Vader Force Chokes him to death during a video call, and promotes Captain Piet before the former
03:40Admiral's even dead.
03:51The scene may be iconic, but the sheer callous nature of the act, combined with the fact that
03:55it was really the probe droid Han destroyed that alerted the rebels should really give us pause.
04:00Number 16. Pulling Apart a Droid. Star Wars Episode 6 Return of the Jedi.
04:04Droids in the Star Wars universe have the ability to feel not only pleasure, but also pain.
04:08Thank the maker. This oil bath is going to feel so good.
04:14The droid processing area in Jabba's palace is effectively a droid torture chamber, run by
04:18the administrators C-3PO and R2-D2-Meet, who, according to ancillary material, is a sadistic droid named
04:25EVE-99. We have been without an interpreter since our master got angry with our last protocol droid,
04:31Anglisting the Great Academy. We see a gonk droid getting hot irons pressed against its feet,
04:36and then after 3PO learns of the previous protocol droid's disintegration,
04:40we see another droid getting pulled apart, clearly aware of what is happening and screaming.
04:44Disintegrate.
04:50Torture's torture, and the mere existence of such a place is disturbing.
04:54Number 15. Tech Plummets. Star Wars The Bad Batch.
04:56Most of Star Wars is at the very least accessible to younger viewers,
05:00but shows like The Bad Batch, one can argue, are aimed primarily at them.
05:04So when a major character dies in what is ostensibly a kid's show, it carries extra weight.
05:08Tech's death had that emotional heft already.
05:10There is no time wrecker. Plan 99.
05:18After developing his character as well as his bond with Omega earlier in the season,
05:22the Bad Batch member is faced with a choice.
05:24He realizes that he is the extra weight preventing the cable carriage from moving,
05:28so rather than let the Empire take out the rest of his squad,
05:30he invokes Plan 99 and sacrifices himself,
05:33allowing the carriage to complete its journey as he plummets to his death over Eerie Audu.
05:38Number 14. Digested by the Sarlacc. Star Wars Episode VI Return of the Jedi.
05:55Sure, none of our heroes fell into the pit.
05:57That fate was left for the bounty hunter and his sordid hangers-on working for Jabba the Hutt.
06:01That doesn't make the concept of being slowly digested over a thousand years any less horrifying.
06:06Yes, most would probably die long before full digestion,
06:12but a good chunk of their life would be constantly uncomfortable to say the least.
06:15We later learned that Boba Fett did escape thanks to his Mandalorian armor,
06:19but in seeing that process we caught a glimpse of how horrible life inside the Sarlacc was.
06:23Number 13. Padme Loses the Will to Live. Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith.
06:38Padme Amidala was presented as a fighter both with words and if needed a blaster.
06:42She was one of the most strong-willed characters in the prequel trilogy.
06:45This is why her losing the will to live according to the medical droid,
06:49or in other words, dying of a broken heart, is a really tragic way for such a character to go.
06:53It even proved a pill too tough to swallow for many fans, who proposed their own theories.
07:05Some suggested that the Emperor stole her life force and gave it to Darth Vader allowing him to go on living,
07:10while others proposed that Vader took it himself.
07:12These theories prove that such a fate hardly bears thinking about.
07:30Number 12. Savage Oppressed Decapitates the Black Sun Leaders. Star Wars The Clone Wars.
07:35Decapitating a table of people with a single swift movement may be a little much for some.
07:39It definitely was too much for the Cartoon Network.
07:42When the leaders of the Black Sun Crime Syndicate refused Darth Maul's offer to join his shadow collective,
07:47the former Sith Lord calmly nodded at his brothers, Savage Oppressed, and ducked.
07:51Oppressed took Maul's double-bladed lightsaber and flung it like a frisbee at the group.
08:05It swiftly removed the heads of the heads of the Black Sun,
08:08before Savage pulled it back with the Force.
08:10You wouldn't have seen this if you watched The Clone Wars in its original airing,
08:13as Cartoon Network simply deleted the scene from the episode.
08:16Though put it back for the show's DVD release.
08:19It would seem the decision to join us is now yours.
08:23Number 11. Anakin Assassinates Dooku.
08:26Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith.
08:28Cutting off someone's hand seems to be a recurring thing in Star Wars,
08:31but chopping off both hands at the same time and following it with a decapitation brings it to a new level of brutality.
08:36Now factor in that the handless person is defenseless,
08:39and that the one holding two lightsabers to his neck is a supposedly honorable Jedi,
08:43and what follows is truly messed up.
08:45Do it.
08:46Yes, Anakin Skywalker was understandably angry with Count Dooku,
08:56and Chancellor Palpatine was pushing him to the dark side.
08:58But, Anakin's choice to do this might not have even been his choice rather than emerging Darth Vader's.
09:04The horrified look Dooku shoots at his secret master underscores this and makes it even more disturbing.
09:08Yes, but he was an unarmed prisoner.
09:10I shouldn't have done that, it's not the Jedi way.
09:13It is only natural.
09:15He cut off your arm, and you wanted revenge.
09:18Number 10. Maul Kills Satine in Front of Obi-Wan.
09:21Star Wars The Clone Wars.
09:23Obi-Wan Kenobi chopped Darth Maul in half.
09:25That might have made this list, except Maul didn't die.
09:27Instead, he got bitter and vengeful and finally got his revenge on Kenobi by killing the love of his life,
09:38Duchess Satine Kryze, and making Obi-Wan watch.
09:41In one blow from the darksaber, he stabbed Satine through the heart literally,
09:45and figuratively cut Kenobi's heart in half.
09:48In the moment, this served as a test of Obi-Wan's commitment to the Jedi and the light side of the Force,
09:59which he passed.
10:00But it was arguably the saddest and most unnecessary death in the Clone Wars animated series,
10:05and possibly in all of Star Wars animation.
10:07Imprison him below.
10:09Let him drown in his misery.
10:12Take him to his cell to rot.
10:15And it wasn't even the last scene of the episode.
10:17Number 9. Execution by Door. The Mandalorian.
10:19Sliced in half by a closing circular door has got to be one of the most gruesome ways to die.
10:24And we see just that in the opening scene of The Mandalorian.
10:26Din Djarin, the titular Mandalorian bounty hunter, arrives at a bar looking for his bounty.
10:31When two of the locals threaten him, he starts fighting.
10:33When one of them tries to escape, he pulls them back with a cable,
10:36just enough for the door to close around and through him.
10:39This wasn't even the person Din was looking for.
10:47But it did set the tone for a show that would turn out to be equal parts violence and cuteness.
10:51We'd have to wait until the end of the first episode to see Grogu.
10:54The commission was quite specific.
10:56The asset was to be terminated.
11:01Number 8. The Rogue One Crew Dies. Rogue One A Star Wars Story.
11:07The film may be called The Star Wars Story, but a better title could be Rogue One Don't Get Attached.
11:11We spend over two hours getting to know and love a group of new heroes fighting the Empire,
11:16and embarking on a self-chosen mission which sets the plot of the original trilogy in motion.
11:20Then, alone or in groups of two, they're killed by the Empire.
11:33This is a deep and emotional look at the tragedy of ordinary people and droids in the Star Wars universe dying for a noble cause.
11:40It's made even sadder when you realize that all this sacrifice goes unappreciated when these events are summarized
11:45in the first two paragraphs of the Episode IV title crawl.
11:53Number 7. Ewok Casualty. Star Wars Episode VI Return of the Jedi.
11:58The Battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi is a contrast to the intense warfare happening on the Death Star and around it.
12:03Here we see the cute, furry, and infinitely marketable Ewoks helping the Rebels defeat the far better equipped Imperial forces.
12:09This is the fun part of the movie's climax, but for a brief moment, it's not, when one Ewok gets shot and doesn't get up.
12:22His Ewok friends try to revive him to no avail.
12:25Seeing as how George Lucas based the Ewoks on the Viet Cong of the Vietnam War,
12:29it makes sense that some of the horrors of that war seep through here.
12:33But that doesn't make seeing a lovable teddy bear getting shot to death any less messed up.
12:37Number 6. Nemec Crushed. Andor.
12:50Getting your head and body crushed by a crate of credits because the ship you're in made a sharp upward movement on your insistence is quite the way to go.
12:57When just that happened to Karis Nemec though, it was even more visceral and brutal as we hear the sound of the impact of the crate.
13:04He doesn't die right away, so Vel injects him with the med spike to keep him alive long enough for him to guide Cassie and Andor through the ship's escape.
13:15He dies on an operating table shortly thereafter.
13:26This grisly death of such an earnest and likable character is juxtaposed with the striking beauty of the Eye of Aldani,
13:32which the ship makes its escape through.
13:34Number 5. Han Solo's son kills him.
13:36Star Wars Episode 7 The Force Awakens.
13:38He survived being frozen in carbonite, countless battles with the Empire, and life as a smuggler.
13:43It was letting his guard down and trusting in his son's ability to make the right choice that eventually spelled the end for this beloved iconic character.
13:50When Han Solo stepped onto that bridge to confront Kylo Ren and turn him back into Ben Solo, he was sealing his fate.
13:59The tone and lighting of the scene underscored this beautifully.
14:02Kylo would eventually become Ben again and Han would get a chance to see this happen either as a ghost or as part of his son's mind.
14:08But that doesn't take away the sting of being stabbed through the heart by the very person you were trying to save.
14:19Number 4. Vader kills villagers with the Force.
14:22Obi-Wan Kenobi.
14:23Villains not caring about collateral damage is common.
14:26But what Darth Vader does to the villagers on Mapuzo is the opposite of ambivalence.
14:30After his inquisitors track Obi-Wan Kenobi to a small town near the planet's spaceport,
14:35Vader targets and kills some of the innocent people at random.
14:38Just so Kenobi will feel their pain and suffering and come out of hiding.
14:47Vader pulls one villager out of a window with the Force, levitates him and chokes him,
14:51and then sees another one cowering on the ground and snaps his neck with the Force.
14:54We even hear the cracking.
15:01The whole scene is very dark.
15:02It's almost like we're seeing what Obi-Wan sees.
15:04Vader's plan worked, but Kenobi surely wasn't the only one disturbed.
15:07Number 3. Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru burned.
15:10Star Wars Episode 4, A New Hope.
15:12One of the earliest indications we get that the Star Wars universe can be a brutal one
15:16is Luke Skywalker rushing back to his family homestead to find the charred skeletal remains of his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru,
15:22who died seemingly crawling out of their burning home.
15:25Uncle Owen! Aunt Beru!
15:29Uncle Owen!
15:30It's not clear if they were burned alive or were shot first by the Imperial Stormtroopers who had set the fire.
15:35The fact that both options are possible makes this potentially even more horrifying than if we had seen the act itself on screen.
15:41This demonstrates how brutal the Empire can be and sets the plot in motion for the original trilogy.
15:47There's nothing you could have done, Luke, had you been there.
15:50You'd have been killed, too.
15:52It's an image Luke and many in the audience won't soon forget.
15:56Number 2. Anakin Kills the Jedi Younglings.
15:58Star Wars Episode 3, Revenge of the Sith.
16:00The Order 66 sequence is full of tragedy, but none of the moments are more horrifying than Anakin Skywalker entering the Jedi Council chamber,
16:09igniting his lightsaber and terrifying the Jedi Younglings looking for his help.
16:17We don't see what happens next on screen, but it's easy to assume and confirmed when Yoda finds the Younglings' bodies.
16:22This isn't the first time Anakin perpetrated a massacre, but when he slaughtered the Tusken Raiders,
16:26he could at least fall back on the flimsy explanation that he held this particular tribe responsible for his mother's death.
16:32I killed them.
16:36I killed them all.
16:37This time, there was no explanation other than pure subservience to evil.
16:41It was one of Darth Vader's most despicable acts.
16:43Not even the younglings survived.
16:47Killed not by clones.
16:50This...
16:51Padawan...
16:53By a lightsaber he was.
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17:091.
17:10The Death Star Destroys Alderaan
17:13Star Wars Episode 4, A New Hope
17:15Millions of voices crying out in terror and then suddenly silenced.
17:19That's how Obi-Wan Kenobi described what he felt when the Death Star obliterated the planet of Alderaan with a single shot.
17:25That's the closest we come to what it must have felt like for the victims.
17:28As if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
17:33Instead, we see the destruction from the point of view of those on the Death Star.
17:37It's a cold and calculated strategic decision for Grand Moff Tarkin and just a day at the office for the troops.
17:49The body count may have been higher when the First Order destroyed the Hosnian system, but that was done with rage.
17:55The sheer callous detachment combined with the horrific loss of life make Alderaan's destruction even more disturbing.
18:12Do you agree with our list?
18:14What Star Wars deaths disturbed you the most?
18:16Let us know in the comments.
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18:33.

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