Season 1
- The Star Bridge bombing in the pilot. Trantor's Space Elevator is destroyed by two suicide bombers, severing the elevator from its orbital station and sending it plunging down to the City Planet below, cutting a huge swathe of devastation around the equator and killing over a hundred million people. We briefly see a hologram of the devastation from orbit in episode 4, and it makes that number seem like a low estimate. And during the Colony Drop itself, we get to see — in graphic detail — hundreds of screaming people being blown into space by the explosions, while the elevator cars themselves are flung off the tracks, fall into the atmosphere, and either burn up or smash into the city below, all while following the perspective of terrified passengers. All in all, an utterly horrifying scene that reinforces that The Empire is entering its death throes.
- The fate of Hari's followers/university staff is just mind-bogglingly terrifying when you break it down. Imagine, you live in the most powerful political entity ever made by humankind, with technological marvels and material abundance that cannot be compared to in all of recorded history. But a man comes forward with a mathematical theorem stating that not only is this mighty nation going to fall, but it is past the point of no return- even with all of this data, it cannot be stopped. And now you have two choices: You can put your head down, pretend he's a fraud, and knowingly damn your descendants to life (or death) in a future hellscape. Or you can acknowledge that the math checks out and earn yourself a one-way trip to a dead rock on the periphery where there's a one-in-three chance you'll die just getting there.
- The Orbital Bombardment of the Anacreon and Thespin homeworlds, supposedly as retribution for the Star Bridge bombing. As their horrified ambassadors are Forced to Watch, both planets are bombed back to the stone age while their respective delegations are publicly executed via hanging. All of this in front of cheering crowds.Cleon XII: Trantor has been deeply wounded. None of our citizens remain untouched. The pain will be felt by all for generations. It will scar them forever, but they will survive. They will live on! Our world will live on! (to the ambassadors) You will not. And neither will your worlds! Not without wounds... and scars!
- The fate of the crew of the Invictus: losing control of the jump system they start a series of Blind Jumps, slowly running out of food, then the sedatives needed to avoid the mental trauma of Hyperspace Is a Scary Place. All the while never arriving in an inhabited system or being able (or the captain was unwilling?) to stop the jumps. Leading to a mutiny where if they didn't die to violence, a hull breach would kill the rest due to depressurization. And to top it off, their corpses were left traveling the galaxy and the spaces in between on a ghost ship.
- The punishment of Azura for her part in the downfall of Dawn. All of her family back several generations, and anyone who they had personal relations with were executed simultaneously without ever knowing what happened. And then Azura herself would be kept on intravenous feeding and sensory deprivation for the rest of however long they would be able to extend her life. The fact that Cleon XIII explains this to her in a quiet garden, on a sunny day, without ever raising his voice only serves to make the moment more disturbing.
Season 2
- Gaal's copy of Hari's mind spent the 138 years in-between seasons trapped in the Prime Radiant, in darkness and claustrophobically-small spaces, completely aware of it the entire time.
- The Mule. Not only is he an extremely powerful Mentalic, but he can also sense Gaal's past self occupying her body via precognition - and even seems to be aware of Salvor trying to wake her up in the present.
- Tellem Bond is eerily creepy in how she is willing to manipulate and even murder people who threaten her ideal society, and her powers of mental manipulation to drag up painful memories and impersonate others. The fact that she's the leader and savior of her own Cult Colony on Ignis that trusts her to the core is even more frightening, and Hari and Salvor are very justified in being completely horrified of this fact and how Tellem is trying to manipulate Gaal.
- When Dusk and Rue find a secret, dark chamber under the palace, concealed by Demerzel from the Emperors with the implication that she has been in control of their lives all the time, the AI of Cleon I suddenly appears to declare in a booming voice:You wanted answers about Demerzel's origins. This chamber has been considered many things, but at first, it was a prison. Welcome, Cleon XVI.
- Sure enough, neither of them ever leaves the chamber alive.
- The destruction of Terminus is a beautiful as it is terrifying to behold, the destructions of Anacreon and Thespis pale in comparison as the planet is pulled inwards by the Invictus.
- Demerzel decanting new exponents of Dawn, Day and Dusk, and showing them the Prime Radiant, saying she doesn't fully understand it yet, but "wonderful things" are about to happen.
- For that matter, the decanting process is incredibly unnerving. The three shuffle forward in a semi conscious state at the same speed and with the same heavy zombie-like footsteps. For a "birth", it was a morbid echo of the teacher giving them coaching to move as a single person.
