"There's nothing you could have done, Luke. You'd have been killed too, and the droids would now be in the hands of the Empire."
WARNING: Spoilers are unmarked.
- In the opening scene, Captain Antilles gets his throat crushed by Darth Vader complete with a Sickening "Crunch!". OUCH!
- Consider: Vader has the Force, and we see that he has the ability to use it to choke people from a distance. So what purpose does he have to PHYSICALLY choke Antilles? None other than sheer, mind-breaking intimidation. He could use the Force, or he could show just how physically strong he is too (never mind that both of his arms are mechanical), and make an example of the captain of the entire ship by killing him with his gloved hands.
- The sight of the charred, skinless corpses of Owen and Beru Lars (shown right). It is very briefly shown in the movie itself; you could easily miss it. But once you actually do see it, you can never un-see it.
- And look closely at the positions of the skeletons; they are sprawled out over the front of the yard, one even draped over a rock. However they were set afire (most likely by flamethrower-carrying Stormtroopers), Beru and Owen were able to AMBULATE FOR SOME TIME before they eventually succumbed. They must have been in agonizing pain for several seconds before expiring.
- The IT-O interrogator droid used to interrogate Leia. The radio adaptation
actually shows us Vader's mind probe-assisted interrogation of Leia and it's terrifying. He at first tries to convince her that he's another rebel who needs to know where the Death Star plans are, before causing her horrible pain.- Also in the radio adaptation version, Vader attempts to invoke her loyalty to her father. If you've seen the prequel trilogy, it's even more chilling.
- When Luke finds R2 in the middle of the Jundland Wastes, R2 warns him of several creatures approaching. Luke then tries to have a look with his binoculars and spots several sand people. Then, suddenly, one of them emerges right in front of him and attacks him.
- Obi-Wan's Krayt Dragon call in the 2011 Blu-ray edition. This version sounds like someone screaming in agony. It was reprised to great effect when the actual monster is seen in all its glory in the first episode of Season 2 of The Mandalorian.
- Obi-Wan slicing off a patron's arm in the Mos Eisley Cantina, mostly because of how it's one of the few scenes in the whole saga where we actually see blood, plus said patron's realistic reaction to having his arm cut off.
- Even more disturbing was how little time it took the patrons to go right back to what they were doing, as if what took place was entirely routine. Though then again, Obi-Wan did say Mos Eisley was "the most wretched hive of scum and villainy"...
- In the scene itself, Cornelius Evazan's appearance. An Ax-Crazy Serial Killer who brags to Luke that his crimes have given him the death sentence in twelve systems.
- Supplementary material for Rogue One backs his once-hollow threats up. Among other things, he's successfully created "The Decraniated," sentient victims rendered no more than droids by cutting the top of their heads off and replacing them with computer cores. What was once just some guy on a backwater world trying to intimidate a milk drinker, turned into something much worse.
- In Legends he was even worse: one of his crimes, revealed in City of the Dead, is to poison people to test different versions of a reanimation serum, with the early versions causing literal zombies. And that wasn't actually what got him any of his death sentences, just what allowed Boba Fett to finally track him down and kill him... Twice, because once he had perfected the serum he used it on himself.
- The Mass "Oh, Crap!" from the heroes when they first spot the Death Star. Even Obi-Wan is freaked out.Obi-Wan: ...That's no moon. It's a space station.
Han: It's too big to be a space station.
(The Death Star gets bigger as they approach)
Luke: I have a very bad feeling about this.
Obi-Wan: Turn the ship around.
Han: Yeah... I think you're right! - The dianoga, the amorphous tentacled creature in the trash compactor. We don't know anything about it, we don't even really see it, but really, it's a shapeless lurking predator that lives in filth and is trying to drag the heroes under the rubbish to eat them alive. That's plenty scary.
- Tarkin coldly ordering the instant destruction of Alderaan by way of the Death Star's super-laser. A entire civilization, billions of lives destroyed in less than ten seconds. And he doesn't give two shits.
- Rogue One makes it worse, overlapping with Harsher in Hindsight. It turns out the Death Star has settings; you can have a shot from a single reactor. Tarkin could have simply wiped out a few cities if he wanted, leaving some Alderaanians to bargain with him, but no — he opted for full power out of nothing but spite. To be sure, even a shot from a single reactor would have killed a huge number of people and permanently devastated Alderaan's geology and environment.
- Also pay attention right after Alderaan's destruction as the scene transitions to Luke and the others. Obi-Wan is nearly floored all of a sudden and has to sit down before revealing that he felt Alderaan's destruction. The FORCE felt that loss and Obi-Wan felt the ripples of that pain. Imagine feeling the impact of that kind of tragedy and only having a guess as to what had happened, only feeling the pain the Force felt from it.
- Consider Leia's position when Alderaan is used as the bargaining chip against her. It's her home and where her adoptive parents, family, and friends are, and she has to choose between surrendering the Death Star plans and the galaxy's only hope... or willingly allowing her home and people to be destroyed in cold blood. It's almost bittersweet that Leia correctly guesses that Tarkin would fire anyway despite her answer, so the Rebels still have a chance, but DAMN that had to have been a massive heartbreak to choose...
- Listen to the audio drama when it reaches this very scene. Leia starts pleading, begging in the name of mercy, for Tarkin to stop, helpless as the Death Star commences primary ignition. As she watches her planet get destroyed, she screams in anguish and breaks down into sobs. As Tarkin orders her taken away, she warns him coldly that he and the Empire are at war with life itself.
- Admiral Motti foolishly starts taunting Vader about how he hasn't been able to find the lost data tapes despite his outdated religion, then Vader makes a gesture and Motti is cut off as he's choked by an invisible force as we can hear a low creepy ambience. Tagge is visibly disturbed and even Tarkin, of all people, looks put off. Not only is this the first sign for the audience that the Force actually, really exists, but it's also quite different from Obi-Wan's description as "life-giving energy". Plus Vader's simple line, calm on the surface but with real rage underneath: "I find your lack of faith disturbing."
- The scene is made much worse in Legends, for two reasons:
- The original novelization hints this was actually a set-up: Tarkin and Vader wanted to establish their authority over the joint chiefs, supposedly their peers though subjected to them as they were on Tarkin's ship, so Vader sought a provocation and choked the idiot who gave it to him, and Tarkin, after a few moments to let things sink in, called Vader off. Thus their authority was established beyond any doubt by Vader being able and willing to murder them all without even touching them and Tarkin being the only one who Vader would listen to.
- In Legends, Motti was the cousin of Tarkin's wife. Tarkin and Motti were in-laws, and yet Tarkin was more than willing to set him up for this. If nothing else, it explains why he was disturbed: The one being strangled by Vader was family, after all.
- The scene is made much worse in Legends, for two reasons:
- Vader's murder of Obi-Wan. Consider the scene: The two are in heated, tense combat, with their struggle spilling out into the Death Star's hangar bay, in full view of the heroes and a contingent of Stormtroopers. Suddenly, Obi-Wan smiles and drops his guard, and Vader, with zero hesitation, swings with the full intent to cut his old mentor and friend in half. Granted, when they last met, Obi-Wan did horribly maim him and leave him to burn, but the way Vader instantly jumps to slay a defenseless old man whom he once considered a father and/or brother figure is rather horrific when you think about it. Oh, and Vader later virtually does a happy dance when bragging about it to Tarkin later.
- Vader systematically taking out the Ace Rebel Pilots during the Trench Run was not only an intense moment, but there's something chilling about how casual Vader looked while doing it. The fact that the Awesome Moments section indicates that taking out Ace pilots is something Vader does for fun makes that whole scene even more nerve-wracking.
- The Shadows of the Empire novelization shows Vader destroying a shipyard with an Imperial fleet. The way he describes it makes it seem so blasé. He's actually bored with killing people because they provide him with no challenge, especially compared to Luke.
- And to cap it all off... The Death Star itself. A battle station capable of blowing up a planet with a single shot, a feat that otherwise would require half the Imperial Starfleet, and with enough overkill to do it through a planetary shield and still scatter the planet's remains at immense speed.
- Even worse: there's actually a valid military justification for this thing. Planetary shields take weeks of concentrated effort from entire fleets to defeat, and something like the Death Star's super-laser can do it in an instant, provided it's toned down or well aimed. They could have used it to sell the Death Star to the Senate had Palpatine not found an excuse to dissolve it right as the station came online...
