Now that all three Star Wars trilogies have hit theaters, for better or worse, the Skywalker saga is complete. The nine-part epic that began chronologically with the tragic downfall of Anakin Skywalker (or, in release order, with the hero’s journey of Luke Skywalker) ended bizarrely with the self-branded Rey Skywalker.
Across those nine planet-hopping cinematic outings, a lot of heroes battled a lot of villains and, more often than not, the heroes managed to kill the villains. Some villain deaths in the Star Wars universe have been spectacular, while others have been disappointing. This list ranks every villain death in the Skywalker saga.
13 Captain Phasma
After The Force Awakens introduced her as a tough-as-nails badass, Captain Phasma was named the Boba Fett of the sequel trilogy. Unfortunately, in The Last Jedi, she stuck a little too closely to that comparison as she, too, had a woefully underwhelming death scene.
Finn called her “chrome-dome” in one of the movie’s many cringeworthy comic-relief moments, then brought her down in a rain of hellfire. She didn’t even really put up a fight.
12 Snoke
Snoke was a terrible character from his conception, so it checks out that he had a lame death scene, too. After he was introduced as a Palpatine rip-off in The Force Awakens, Rian Johnson was determined not to reveal any of the answers to fans’ questions in The Last Jedi.
This gave fans no reason to care about the character at all, and when Kylo Ren sliced him in half, it became apparent that Snoke’s Palpatine-esque bragging about his power was greatly exaggerated.
11 Kylo Ren
Ben Solo’s redemption arc was telegraphed from his first appearance in The Force Awakens, and despite The Last Jedi making it obvious that he was, in fact, irredeemable, J.J. Abrams decided to go ahead with it in The Rise of Skywalker.
After forgiving himself for killing Han in a totally made-up vision of his non-Force-sensitive dad, Ben decided to go back to the light side. He saved Rey’s life, then she kissed him (right before deciding to identify as his cousin) as he lay dying. It was super weird.
10 Boba Fett
George Lucas has said that if he’d known how popular Boba Fett became among the Star Wars fan base between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, he wouldn’t have given the ice-cool bounty hunter such a crummy death scene in the latter.
During the battle sequence above the Sarlacc Pit, Han bumps into Fett, setting off his jetpack and sending him into the Sarlacc’s mouth. The Sarlacc then lets out a comical belch. Very disappointing.
9 General Hux
Apropos of nothing, The Rise of Skywalker decided to make General Hux a turncoat. He began spying for the Resistance and passing on information that would help them bring down the First Order.
It didn’t take very long for the top First Order brass to figure this out, and Hux was killed with a swift blast to the stomach by Allegiant General Pryde. It was satisfying to see the smarmy jerk get shot, but it was hardly a big deal.
8 Emperor Palpatine (The Rise Of Skywalker)
Palpatine had two death scenes in the Skywalker saga, and the second one was a lot worse than the first. The final battle in The Rise of Skywalker was a random slog of powerful characters projecting their power at each other.
Rey and Palpatine’s exchange of “I am all the Sith...” “...And I am all the Jedi,” ripped off Tony Stark and Thanos’ exchange of “I am inevitable...” “...And I am Iron Man,” from Avengers: Endgame.
7 General Grievous
After losing his lightsaber in combat with General Grievous, Obi-Wan is forced to kill the four-armed robotic baddie with a blaster. Grievous’ death is surprisingly gruesome for a supposed kids’ movie, as Obi-Wan blasts the general in his exposed beating heart and his eyeballs fizzle out.
As Kenobi flees the scene and reflects on his use of a blaster, he tosses the weapon aside with the perfect quippy one-liner: “So uncivilized.”
6 Jango Fett
When the Jedi arrive to rescue Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padmé from the Separatists’ gladiatorial arena and a large-scale battle breaks out, Mace Windu lops off Jango Fett’s head like it’s nobody’s business.
The most memorable part of this death isn’t the death itself, but rather the aftermath, as Jango’s young son Boba finds his father's severed head.
5 Jabba The Hutt
At the beginning of Return of the Jedi, after Leia’s failed attempt to rescue Han, she’s chained up and forced to wear a bikini, essentially becoming crime lord Jabba the Hutt’s sex slave.
When Luke, Han, and Chewie are flown out to the Sarlacc Pit to be sacrificed and start picking off Jabba’s goons, Leia takes the opportunity to kill her evil captor by strangling him with her chains. It’s pretty awesome.
4 Darth Maul
Technically, Darth Maul didn’t die in The Phantom Menace, as spin-offs like The Clone Wars and Solo: A Star Wars Story confirmed that he survived. But regardless of Maul’s canonical survival, the ending of The Phantom Menace was presented to viewers as Maul’s death.
Obi-Wan jumping out of the bottomless pit, summoning his fallen master Qui-Gon’s lightsaber with the Force, bisecting Maul, and sending his two halves careening into the pit was an immensely satisfying moment.
3 Count Dooku
In Count Dooku’s final moments, as Palpatine urged Anakin to finish him off, Dooku realized that he was just a pawn in a larger game of chess. He isn’t Darth Sidious’ real apprentice; he was just a stepping stone toward the corruption of Anakin.
Goaded on by the Sith Lord disguised as a captured politician, Anakin kills Dooku in the coolest and most disturbing way possible: cutting off his hands and then decapitating him using his and Dooku’s lightsabers.
2 Emperor Palpatine (Return Of The Jedi)
Although Palpatine came back in the sequel trilogy, he still died in Return of the Jedi, as he claimed in The Rise of Skywalker that he’d already died and off-screen media identified him as a clone.
The special editions added a couple of cries of “NOOOOO!!!,” which detracted from the emotional weight of the scene, but Vader deciding to save his son’s life by killing his master is still a powerful moment.
1 Darth Vader
While Kylo Ren’s redemption was unearned and came with a weird, out-of-the-blue make-out session, his grandfather Darth Vader’s redemption was totally earned and came with an emotionally charged farewell to his son.
With his dying breath, Vader asked Luke to remove his mask so that he could look at his son with own eyes. Luke truly believed there was still good in his father, and Vader’s heroic sacrifice proved him right.
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June 19, 2020 at 05:30AM
