As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Outlaw Star, while having various comedic and action-packed moments also has some very nightmarish elements that starkly contrast with the usually adventurous, light-hearted tone of the series.
- The MacDougal Brothers, a pair of outlaws that operate differently from the traditionally anti-authority but implied noble outlook. Described accurately as a pair of hyenas and jackals who will search for any means to get money, they will work for all factions while turning on those factions once a better offer comes along- often backstabbing their latest employer once another job requires them to turn on them. What's worse is that unlike the Kei Pirates, with two exceptions, who have very outlandish appearances that immediately stand out, the brothers look like regular people and both brothers are capable of putting on a persona of civility to pass off as normal to the public. They're considered infamous figures in the underworld for their habits of taking any job, killing anyone, and turning on anyone for the right price, making them much more realistically disturbing - and the fact that these brothers have superior sci-fi tech earned from their alliances makes them even more dangerous.
- Harry is psychotic, possessive, and just outright insane. He likes to demonstrate these things in ways that frighten Melfina, with his introduction showing him infiltrating the database of the Outlaw Star and inadvertently seeing her bare-skinned. This invasion of privacy sparks his unhealthy obsession with her, which escalates in their 2nd meeting: His behavior descends from a cartoonish Villainous Crush to an abusive stalker with severe Mood-Swinger tendencies of psychical/psychological abuse that are disturbingly realistic for the otherwise light-hearted, action-packed, comedic show - he is frequently shown going from aggressively violent to serenely calm while invading her personal space, both physically and mentally. And what's worse is that he's capable of masking his true instability in public, as evidenced by his persona as a space racer - most ppeople don't know what Harry's really like until they're the target of an assassination.
- To go into the specifics, Harry arrives at the Starwind and Hawkin Enterprises building with a serene expression that immediately feels off. Melfina shuts the door as he bangs away at it, before he uses his newly cybernetic arm to burst through the reinforced metal door and catch her in a neck hold. He then opens the door with a now-furious expression, giving lines reminiscent of an abusive boyfriend with Melfina scared out of her mind. He then switches between widely different personalities, from violently furious to woefully apologetic to serenely sinister back to violently aggressive, which plays further into the abusive angle.
- It all crescendos into the climax where Harry carries Melfina to the Outlaw Star: Melfina manages to escape in time into the ship as a wrathful Harry chases after her, but Gilliam II manages to close the door in time. The horror truly begins as he uses his new arm to generate a cable from the index finger opening in the center. It throbs in a very suggestive manner as he hacks into the Outlaw Star in order to open the hatch. Melfina enters into navigation mode, but it's a trap as Harry appears in cyberspace as a looming giant to the human-sized Melfina, speaking in a very monotone voice while she begins to run away, and calmly pursuing Melfina into her innocent childlike safe room. The entire situation is psychologically horrific, as he physically and mentally corners the scared child in a woman's body that Melfina actually is beneath her normally calm and sweet exterior. She then triggers one final fail-safe that forces Harry out of the system - his arm begins twisting on its own, forcing him to violently tear it out as he gives one last Nightmare Face before leaving.
- To go into the specifics, Harry arrives at the Starwind and Hawkin Enterprises building with a serene expression that immediately feels off. Melfina shuts the door as he bangs away at it, before he uses his newly cybernetic arm to burst through the reinforced metal door and catch her in a neck hold. He then opens the door with a now-furious expression, giving lines reminiscent of an abusive boyfriend with Melfina scared out of her mind. He then switches between widely different personalities, from violently furious to woefully apologetic to serenely sinister back to violently aggressive, which plays further into the abusive angle.
- Ronald/Ron may not be as openly insane, but his casual disregard for the sheer amount of killing he's done over the years, even when confronted by one of his target's sons is chilling, especially given how casual he is about it. He also has no qualms about backstabbing a former ally in a nanosecond, as shown when he turns on the Kei Pirates and decides to not only kill them, but also the XG and Hilda as well, by shooting their own ships and leaving them at the mercy of a nearby star's gravity so that they can burn to death (and given how hot stars tend to be, this is a nasty way to be killed off). This sets off the events that led to Hilda's death.
- His orchestration of Gene's father's murder. The young Gene was Forced to Watch as he was sent into space via an escape pod, witnessing his father being destroyed along with his ship, all while the El Dorado looking on. It's no wonder Gene had severe astrophobia until he managed to suppress most of it.
- Hitoriga, a member of Hazanko's Anten Seven, is normally a silent figure that perpetually wears a bag-mask with black painted-on eye sockets and a toothy grin, but underneath it is a duplicate of Twilight Suzuka's own face that he often twists into with a sadistic grin - he has an extreme obsession with her, to the point he had changed his face to resemble hers, and there's further implied Squick with the obsession beginning when she was still relatively young.
- Jukai, another member of Hazanko's Anten Seven, is a mysterious and crazed old man who constantly wears a nearly featureless mask that appears surgically attached to his face. He wears a straight jacket at all times, waves side to side in an unnatural way in order to cast spells, and large spikes appear to protrude from his body. When he dies, he bleeds out blue watery liquid instead of normal blood. There is no indication of how he became this way or what he actually is.
- Iraga is a seemingly normal woman with bluish dreadlocks, aside from her constant need for eyewear and gloves - but she is eventually revealed to conceal her true bluish animal eyes via specialized eyewear and hide bestial claws beneath her gloves, implying that she's a lupine Ctarl-Ctarl variant... one that caused a mass murder spree during her last tournament, which led to the Ctarl-Ctarl species being banned from ever participating in future all-women intergalactic fighting tournaments.
- Hamushi's incredibly violent death at the hands of Gene's No. 4 Caster Shell bullet, causing her to be sucked into a miniature black hole: her face screams on the sphere before vanishing, but not before she gets turned inside out. This was even shown in Toonami's promotional commercials during its original 2001 run.
- While not creepy in a conventional sense like their fellow Anten Seven members, Leilong/Shimi and Hanmyo look like normal people, helping them avoid suspicion until it's too late. And that makes them potentially more dangerous due to their ability to blend into their environment and kill countless people who weren't aware of their true identity, especially the little girl with the two seemingly normal cats.
- In the case of the former, Shimi (under the alias of Leilong) is seemingly one of Gene's drunkard buddies during his initial appearance, but he soon reveals himself to be a master fighter skilled in various technology and martial arts techniques - his apprentice nearly kills Gene and put a fear of death in him during the confrontation. Shimi then proceeds to dominate Gene and his allies before a lucky misfire spares Gene from an early grave, though it is later revealed that Shimi threw the fight just so he could fake his death and get away from Hazanko's work. Had he been more resolved, the adventure of the Outlaw Star crew would've ended a lot sooner. He's the turning point of the story for a reason.
- In the case of the latter, Hanmyo is seemingly a normal girl who plays and spends time with her two pet cats, but in actuality, she's a skilled pilot assassin whose two cats have psychic abilities, killing her enemies with a special Grappler Ship that is able to split into three separate ships - the ships each have their own arm, which spells doom for any opponent that hasn't prepared in advance. She also appears very gleeful about killing Gene during the meeting between the Anten Seven, despite later appearing bubbly and friendly to Jim. And there is no indication of how someone like her would become this way.
- Hazanko psychically crushing Harry's body to the point he bleeds out and later dies, even after Harry became a super-advanced Cyborg thanks to Gwen Khan's help. This death was so violent that Toonami censored it during the initial airings. As described earlier, Harry had been a mentally unstable stalker to Melfina, and in any other situation his death would be a cathartic moment at the hands of an otherwise equally evil villain that would be met with applause. Except it manages to paint Hazanko as the worse of the two (even with Harry's normally inexcusable traits in mind), due to the simple fact that he violently kills Harry for breaking his face mask and comes across as the moment that Hazanko proves to be an utter monster that makes Harry seem decent in comparison. It doesn't help that Harry was actually ''protecting'' Melfina from being used as a tool by Hazanko, only to die horribly regardless and fail utterly.
- When Hazanko is hit by the same No. 4 Caster shell that sucked Hamushi into apparent oblivion and presumably killed her, he somehow manages to bring himself back into existence, completely unharmed, and appears as a white demon before reforming as his normal self a few moments later. Hazanko comes across as less of a powerful sorcerer and more of an outright monster in human form that the laws of physics don't apply to.
- Near the end of the series, Hazanko's mind and body fuse with his spaceship, the result of which is creepy: the result is a nightmarish amalgamation of flesh and metal that resembles more of an eldritch horror than a proper ship, with Hazanko's face on the top periodically distorting into deranged expressions, and Tobigera's face on the bottom as a result of the forced merger. How it forms is just as disturbing: Hazanko enters his ship as a cyber spirit, reshaping it into his own image and melting his followers alive into reddish goo as the ship reforms in a mass of agonized blue faces, with the most prominent one becoming Hazanko's.
- Then there's Hazanko's plan and its implications. He desires the Galactic Leyline to become a Physical God, not just for the sake of being the universal overlord on its own merits. Even with the vast powers he possesses, Hazanko desperately seeks out the Leyline (even going against orders for his personal ambitions), believing it was the only way to be on the same level as both the Tendo King and the Tempa Emperor, let alone surpass them. Given the Reality Warper properties of the Leyline and how Hazanko sought it in spite of being immensely powerful himself, it implies that the Tendo King possesses godlike powers compatible to an ancient, highly advanced civilization bordering on the divine's capacity to imbue individuals with the power to reshape existence to their desires and the Tempa Emperor is even greater than that. Suddenly, the world of Outlaw Star becomes a lot grimmer knowing that there's such terrors lurking in the background.
- Gwen Khan, while tame in comparison to the others, is an amoral man who seeks out knowledge for the sake of knowledge, no matter whom he has to backstab to get it. His tendencies to think aloud repeatedly and give intense looks of excitement convey the impression that he's much more unstable than he lets on.
- Soi Len, a diminutive girl member of the Kei Pirates with a penchant for wide-eyed facial distortions of extremely wide eyes that contrast with her normally sullen expression. This is displayed memorably during her exposing of Hilda's true identity, and goes up to eleven when she learns of Guugaku's death.
- Yase, a clown-like member of the Kei Pirates with an eerie high-pitched sounding voice and sadistic personality, murders people with poison darts that slowly kills the victim, and he even offers Gene a quick death as a mercy for the information he wants from the Outlaw.
- Death Rob is creepy even for a Starter Villain. He's a Cyborg with a mechanical arm that can become a mass of tendrils and bladed weapons, and can't be killed by normal gunshots, even directly to the head. Only being cut from a specific angle leads to his demise.
- Even the Kei Pirate foot soldiers are scary, being a bunch of slender, masked figures who contort their bodies in eerie ways - one of them memorably demands that Gene leave or die while flashing its claws at him menacingly.
- The Galactic Leyline. It is surrounded by a black hole-like void that physically doesn't exist despite being visible, going in without the proper navigation or special magic trickery will cause the invading party to experience maddening soundwaves that cause ships to malfunction. Once entered, you see a golden cylinder covered in black blotches rendered in 3D to emphasize how unnatural it is compared to the story.
- Once inside, you enter a golden-tinted hellscape that has impossible structures and ignores the laws of physics. A vague feminine voice occasionally echoes, giving the area an even more ominous tone than it already has. The interior of the main structure has this entity that can best be described as a spiky spiraling draconic figure with a blank mask that is the owner of the ominous voice in the middle of what appears to be a room simulating outer space. When Melfina is attached to the structure, the blank mask is replaced by a huge replica of Melfina's face without any hair and a mark on her forehead, and the face speaks in a mechanical monotone that is a tandem of Melfina's voice and the ominous voice from before. And it grants the ability to warp reality - in the hands of a megalomaniac like Hazanko, the outcome would be devastating to the universe if he were allowed to run wild.
