Moments pages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned.
In General
- The famous "Jedi mind trick" is given a heavy dose of this throughout the story. Unlike in most Star Wars media, where the mind trick is a fun tool used by the heroes to outwit random mooks; here the Jedi mind trick is depicted as being extremely invasive and borderline Mind Rape for those subjected to it. After Jaune accidentally mind tricks Weiss, the way she describes the feeling seems like something straight out of a Psychological Horror.Weiss: I can't forgive you, because I can't hate you for what you did! Something inside of me won't let me. I still feel what I felt last night! Our friendship that could've gone even further. And how much of this my own feelings, and how much is just… manipulation!?
- The terentatek. A vicious and abnormally powerful monster mutated by the Dark Side; it makes the Ursa Major from RWBY look like a puppy in comparison. As if that wasn't bad enough, the monster feeds on the blood of Force-sensitives. Upon sensing Nihilus's presence inside Jaune, the terentatek makes a beeline for him, tearing through anything that stands in its way. Even with Professor Goodwitch helping out, the heroes can barely scratch the beast and it's only brought down after a Bullhead unleashes its full armament upon its body.
- The way that the terentatek gives a chillingly human-like smile right before it uses its claws to rip through Jaune's stomach and nearly disembowel him.
- The scene where Darth Nihilus telepathically communicates with Jaune for the first time and encourages him to take advantage of a mind-tricked Weiss by raping her.Darth Nihilus: Does it matter?
Jaune: [mentally] What?
Darth Nihilus: The girl is now yours, take her. Break her. No one else would know.
- The final scene where Ruby tentatively asks Jaune if he's okay. Jaune slowly turns to face her, revealing that his eyes are now completely yellow, indicating that he's fallen to the Dark Side. Jaune then gives Ruby a Psychotic Smirk before replying that he's never felt better.
- During Jaune's dream, we see Nihilus shortly after his transformation and it ain't pretty. His body is slowly fading away from existence and he can only barely keep himself from disappearing entirely. He's living in constant agonizing pain and his hands are shown to have become decayed.
- In that same scene, a hooded Nihilus then walks over to what appears to be the corpse of a Republic soldier. As Nihilus walks closer, Jaune realizes the soldier is still alive as Nihilus drains a piece of his life away. It's implied that Nihilus used the Force to keep the soldier on the edge of death, too weak to even move, so he can feed off him. The soldier's weak groan upon Nihilus getting closer means that the soldier is consciously aware of what's happening to him.
- As Jaune's hunger pangs get worse and worse, he seriously considers draining Velvet's life energy. He even thinks about using the trust he gained from defending her from Cardin to make her lower her guard and lure her to a secluded area. He doesn't even see anything wrong with this and only relents because Pyrrha wouldn't like it. At this point, Jaune is gone. All that remains is a twisted, warped mockery of the Dark Side that only pretends to be Jaune and has no reservations about killing everything and everyone he comes across.
- The scene where Jaune attacks Pyrrha under Nihilus's influence. He just loses all control and violently grabs Pyrrha by her arm while falling deeper into paranoia, screaming accusations at her of betraying him. As this goes on, Pyrrha begs Jaune to let go, telling him that he's hurting her. Then, Jaune's other hand starts to generate the red-and-black lightning for his Force Drain. If Pyrrha hadn't used her Semblance in self-defense, Jaune would have drained the life out of her then and there. It's no wonder that Pyrrha flinches away when Jaune comes to his senses and tries to apologize.
- Four words: Darth Nihilus has returned!
- The entire scene where Nihilus's ghost slowly emerges from his mask while Nariel is transporting it aboard her freighter through hyperspace. Picture it from Nariel's perspective: she's transporting the artifact of a Sith Lord thought long dead. Then, while piloting her ship through hyperspace, she's suddenly hit with a feeling of unease. As she slowly glances behind her, she's shocked to find the aforementioned Sith standing right before her and preparing to attack.
- The setting also adds to the horror. Nariel is aboard a freighter going through hyperspace. She's facing off against a Sith ghost alone, inside cramped quarters, with no means of escaping.
- Nariel's death is not pleasant. Nihilus's ghost hits her with his Force Drain, causing her body to rapidly age, her face becomes shriveled up, and her eyes turn lifeless.
- Nihilus's initial slaughter of the Atlas soldiers. He telekinetically catches all the bullets they shoot at him and then shoots all the bullets back at them, shredding their bodies into mincemeat as bits of their organs and large amounts of blood go flying everywhere.
- Even after the soldiers are killed, the full weight of the situation doesn't dawn on Pyrrha until she looks around her and sees that dozens of students and civilians were also killed in the crossfire. It's at this point that everyone present realizes that Nihilus is playing for keeps.
- Then there's just how unnaturally calm Nihilus is acting throughout the scene. Even as dozens of innocent people are killed by his attack, Nihilus just stands there impassively. It's this total Lack of Empathy that finally hammers it into Pyrrha that Jaune is no longer the one in control.
- Bolin's death is particularly horrifying. Using the Force, Nihilus crushes Ruby's scythe into a ball and then uses it as an improvised cannonball to splatter Bolin's head, leaving behind his headless torso which shoots out a fountain of blood that coats Ruby.
- The ending shows Pyrrha and Ruby waking up alone amongst some rubble. When they look around, they see Beacon Academy in flames while the bodies of dead students and tourists litter the grounds. Then, they see the White Fang roaming the school ground and mercilessly gunning down any survivors they come across. Meanwhile, the Grimm are seen overrunning the school in the background.
- Pyrrha and Ruby are alone, weaponless, and their Auras are likely weakened from fighting Nihilus at the worst possible time. Now they're in the middle of enemy territory, being hunted by people who are actively seeking to kill them, with no way to know what happened to their friends.
- Using the Dark Side, Nihilus figures out a way to seize control of the Grimm. Unlike Salem, Nihilus doesn't care for mind games and just wants to consume everything. And now, he has an endless army of soulless monsters who are slavishly devoted to his every whim.
- Remember how Kreia thought that Nihilus would eventually consume the entire galaxy if left unchecked? Well, here we finally learn what Darth Nihilus' end goal is now that he has his body back. It turns out that Kreia was wrong, Nihilus isn't out to end all life in the galaxy... rather he wants to devour the entire universe. Nihilus reveals to Cinder that once he's finished sucking all life out of Remnant, he will do the same to all of existence until he is the only thing that is left.
- Nihilus wasn't being influenced by his Horror Hunger when he said this, meaning that he wants to eradicate all life entirely of his own free will. Even if Nihilus's hunger was somehow satisfied, he still wouldn't stop.
- Adam slashing out Weiss' eyes with his sword.
- Not one, but two examples of Evil Learns of Outside Context, from the perspectives of Salem and Darth Krayt.
- For the former, in spite of Ozpin and his allies' efforts to wipe all imagery of Darth Nihilus in order to hide his existence from Remnant, Salem and her cabal manage to obtain imagery of the Dark Lord of the Sith, and the knowledge that his mask has been sealed beneath Beacon. Salem immediately dispatches Tyrian to claim Ruby so that she can get the Mask for herself. Consider the consequences of that for a minute.
- For the latter, as a consequence of Nihilus's return being felt as a sense of agony and horror by every Force-Sensitive in the galaxy, Darth Krayt and his One Sith have felt the emergence of a powerful rival or source of power to their ambitions of galactic dominion, even if they don't know exactly who or what it may be yet. In response, Krayt decides to personally lead a Sith strike force to the Unknown Regions to search for the Wound and its creator. If Remnant thought one Sith Lord was bad(admittedly, one that was nowhere near the peak of his power), try an entire army of them led by the current Dark Lord, a man who survived nearly two centuries of war and tragedy and could rival Nihilus in his prime.
