Tearjerking moments in A New Hope.
- Obi-Wan looking
back upon the Old Republic has gotten more melancholic due to the events that occur in the Prequel Trilogy and The Clone Wars.Obi-Wan: For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times, before the Empire...- And then Luke asks how his father died. Obi-Wan pauses, dealing not only with painful memories, but with the dilemma of what to tell the boy, before giving an answer that's true from a certain point of view.
- Obi-Wan in general is this in A New Hope, if one has watched the Prequel Trilogy and The Clone Wars; to see the incorruptible paragon of the Jedi Order and one of the heroes of the Galactic Republic be reduced to an old man (who's only 57 years old, mind you) living in the dunes of Tatooine and forgotten by almost everyone won't leave anyone with a dry eye after having seen him in his prime, and knowing all of the loss he's suffered years before.
- What's even more incredible, in hindsight, is that (as the Early Installment Weirdness page notes) few if any of these twists were planned out when the scene was first filmed; the nature of the Clone Wars was still very vague, and the original intent when filming was that "Anakin Skywalker" and "Darth Vader" were indeed going to be different people (and Ben was being simply truthful when describing what happened). Sir Alec Guinness's acting skill and the writing and composition of the scene simply ensured that the scene would gain additional pathos, no matter how the later-developed backstory would shake out.
- When Vader says "You should not have come back" to Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan gets this look on his face of utter sadness that his apprentice has gone so far astray.
- The entire confrontation between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan gains a new emotional weight post-Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan did try to redeem Vader/Anakin before, only for Vader to look him dead in the eye and say That Man Is Dead. Obi-Wan has no choice but to either kill his former apprentice or be killed himself.
- The last confrontation between the two was running on high emotions from both Obi-Wan and Vader/Anakin, with Obi-Wan crying his eyes out over everything Anakin has been through, Vader telling Obi-Wan that "Anakin is gone" along with Obi-Wan subsequent acknowledgment of his former apprentice's declaration, and Vader screaming for Obi-Wan to finish the job and kill him. Here? Both are relatively subdued emotionally, giving the feeling that both of them are just really tired of all this.
- The Binary Sunset scene. You know the one. It probably has something to do with the music, or the sense of longing to do great things and being tied down by duty. That, people, is why a forty-five-year-old movie is still making us cry.
- Then there's the conversation right before it. Luke tries to get Owen to let him finally go to the academy with his friends, but Owen refuses, for one more year out of who knows how many. Then he and Beru start talking and Beru points out that Luke's too much like his father. And Owen tells her 'that's what I'm afraid of'. Just going off of this film, he's scared Luke's going to get himself killed. And then we find out what really became of Luke's father...
- Owen is also just trying to protect Luke. He knows Luke resents him for keeping him on the farm, but he knows that keeping him alive and safe is more important. Luke, for his part, is left to resent his aunt and uncle and it's not even their fault. With Obi-Wan Kenobi in hindsight, they very much remember the night a lone Inquisitor hunted their boy, and Rebels will also detail how any Imperial recruits are checked for the Force. It's quite possible they're also afraid that, away from them, Luke might become radicalized by the Empire.
- Even worse is Luke's conflict when Obi-Wan asks him to help deliver the droids to Alderaan, protesting he has to stay and help his family, even if he knows the Empire is evil and the Rebellion needs them. Even if that weren't the case, Obi-Wan knows Luke's potential is being wasted. Still, he doesn't protest, sadly saying "You must do what you think is right, of course..."
- Harsher in Hindsight: The Last Jedi features the death of Luke Skywalker, The Hero of the franchise as a whole. How does this happen? He becomes one with the Force whilst gazing upon a beautiful twin sunset, with the Force theme swelling in the background. The original scene is absolutely heartbreaking if you know what awaits him...
- Then there's the conversation right before it. Luke tries to get Owen to let him finally go to the academy with his friends, but Owen refuses, for one more year out of who knows how many. Then he and Beru start talking and Beru points out that Luke's too much like his father. And Owen tells her 'that's what I'm afraid of'. Just going off of this film, he's scared Luke's going to get himself killed. And then we find out what really became of Luke's father...
- A deleted scene where Luke meets his friend Biggs before Biggs goes off to join the rebellion. According to Wookieepedia, it was cut because the other friends-of-Luke scenes were cut. Those were cut for pacing and because Lucas was teased about making "American Graffiti in space". It's still an absolutely killer scene (and based on the parts of the "AG In Space" material that made it into the radio play, some folks think it all should've been retained, because with hindsight it'd all be tear-jerky as hell, looking at what Luke came from into what would eventually happen).
- Speaking of, the scene is played out in full (and then some) in the Radio Drama, where we see that Luke is almost an outsider even among his circle of friends. Biggs even lays it out for Luke: the others really don't have the drive or capability to grow past the moisture farms of Tattooine, so they get jealous of Luke and himself, who at least want to try, and are good enough to make a good showing of it.
- Luke returns home and sees the smoldering skeletons of his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru after they were attacked by Stormtroopers. In the novelization Luke falls to his knees in shock and crying. Add the fact that by the end of the movie, Luke has lost pretty much everything. His aunt and uncle are dead and he can't go back to the farm (the only home he's ever known) because he would have been killed even before the Death Star incident thanks to the droids. His mentor dies, and Biggs, his best friend (Luke was constantly picked on by the other members of his peer group), dies being a human shield protecting him during the Battle of Yavin. This all takes place over the course of one maybe two days tops. A few expanded universe novels imply that the only thing that got Luke though was the adrenaline and the fact that he was given practically no downtime for him to think about it.
- Owen and Beru themselves die and never get to say goodbye to their adopted son, and surely spent their last moments of life praying that Luke would get away if he wasn't already dead. It's some of their worst fears come to life; spending Luke's entire life praying they'd never be found by the Empire, only for them to arrive and them to indeed be presumably relatively helpless to stop them. From a Certain Point of View also details Beru wishing that Luke will find someone to love and marry.
- Often forgotten, but the Destruction of Alderaan is as heartbreaking as it is horrifying. Dated special effects notwithstanding, this is still a moment where billions of innocent people are murdered on an apocalyptic scale, while their most beloved child is forced to watch and is helpless to stop it. Ben Kenobi's statement that "millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced" only served to heighten the appalling enormity of their loss. The manga goes so far as to show the inhabitants of Alderaan looking up to the sky with worried expressions as the Death Star arrives. They don't know it, but they only have minutes left to live... Though the manga is from the 1990s, the scene is eerily reminiscent of Hosnian Prime in The Force Awakens.
- Even more heartbreaking if you go by the Legends continuity, where barely a hundred thousand Alderaanians remain alive for the sheer luck of having been offworld at the time of its destruction. The asteroid field that now occupies the place of their former home became known as "The Graveyard" and is now considered sacred space by the surviving inhabitants, nearly all of whom had nothing left now but the destruction of their enemies who had slaughtered their loved ones as a pure show of force to the galaxy, eventually going on to forge a new home in the image of their lost world. And that's not taking Star Wars: The Old Republic into account, One of the first times you got to go down to the planet's surface and see its natural beauty for yourself.
- The radio drama as well as Lego Star Wars II's version of events has Leia bawling her eyes out.
- The book The Wildlife of Star Wars takes things further by reminding us of the countless alien creatures that went extinct when Alderaan was destroyed, with only one species native to the planet being known to have survived due to being introduced to other worlds. The only thing that kept most of these creatures from being completely forgotten was a holographic zoo, dedicated to preserving the knowledge of their existence, and even then some of them—most notably a small, flying mammal-like creature—lost so many records that their very names were forever lost to time.
- Mind you, the new Canon isn't any lighter itself. After the Battle of Yavin, the Empire begins actively hunting down any surviving Alderaanians not actively serving the Empire.
- Things get worse when taking into consideration the events of Rogue One, after seeing the destruction of the Holy city of Jedha and so many lives having been lost at the Battle of Scarif, it's rather awful watching the Death Star claiming one last world before its ultimate destruction.
- The original expanded universe really digs the dagger in with the story of Tycho Celchu, an Alderaan native and future ace Rebel pilot. At the time of Alderaan's destruction, he was a young Imperial TIE pilot on Star Destroyer assignment. He was video-calling his family, friends, and fiancee back on Alderaan for his 21st birthday party the exact moment the planet was destroyed. The worst part is that he had no idea what had happened, and thought it was just a loss of signal that'd he'd mess with his dad over later; learning that the Empire had destroyed Alderaan ended up causing his defection to the Rebellion.
- In the short story Eclipse, we are shown Bail Organa and his wife Queen Breha's last moments before Alderaan is destroyed. The Death Star's arrival causes it to eclipse Alderaan's sun, from which Bail realizes that death is only moments away. Worse, at the time he and his wife were unaware of their adopted daughter's fate, having heard that the Tantive IV was destroyed. They die hoping that their daughter is still alive.
- Worse still, in Rogue One, we see Senator Organa learning about the Death Star and about two thirds of the way through he says he has to go back to Alderaan. You desperately want to say "No, don't!" because you already know what happens to him.
- How about Biggs' death? This guy is pretty much Luke's best friend since childhood, yet he's shot down while making sure Luke makes it to the Death Star. Seeing Luke having to swallow his grief for the sake of the Rebellion is just heart rending.
- Garven Dreis (Red Leader)'s death is also quite the Tear Jerker, especially seeing as how he knew he was finished and urged on all remaining pilots to let him draw Vader's attention for the sake of the Rebellion. More heartbreaking if you followed the Legends continuity: Garven was a friend of Anakin Skywalker (Vader's original identity). This was also his actor's last role, as he had to retire due to manic depression.
- Obi-Wan letting himself get cut down by Vader but not before giving a smile to Luke who was about to escape. Yeah he became one with the Force and returned later as a ghost, but audiences watching the movie for the first time in 1977 didn't know that. Interestingly, that scene (and in fact, Obi-Wan's death happening at all) arose from the fact that Sir Alec Guinness absolutely hated the script for Star Wars, to the point where he wanted his part to be smaller and shorter. He convinced Lucas to make that scene end in the character's death so that he'd have very little to do with the rest of the film, and any potential sequels that might have resulted from it as Lucas had already been speculating the possibility of sequels, which is also interestingly why the character Darth Vader wasn't killed in the first film (which was the original idea in the script—Darth Vader, being killed). Rather odd and hilariously ironic inversion going on there, eh?
- Watching R2 get blasted by Vader with a blast from his TIE Fighter. This shortly after Threepio had told R2 to be careful. Even worse when you remember that R2 used to have a friendship and close connection with Anakin before Mustafar - in fact, R2 was Anakin's astromech droid during the Battle of Naboo, back when Anakin was nine years old. He's now, over 30 years later, being shot at by his old friend and (unlike 3PO) is fully aware who he is.
- The utter destruction of Gold Squadron at Vader's hands. The looks on Garven and Luke's faces really sums up how disastrous their loss was. However, they have no time to mourn and Dreis orders Red Squadron to finish the job their comrades started. It gets Harsher in Hindsight thanks to Rogue One, as we see there was also a Blue Squadron that was completely wiped out at the Battle of Scarif, while Red and Gold Squadrons both suffered massive losses. Which explains why there were just 30 Rebel starfighters at the Battle of Yavin.
- This only applies to Canon, though. In Legends, since there was no Battle of Scarif, Blue Squadron was present and, along with Green Squadron, was tasked with attacking the superlaser itself to minimize the damage done by the Death Star should the trench run fail.
- Of those 30 starfighters that left Yavin base, only three of them survive the battle: Luke Skywalker, Wedge Antilles, and Keyan Farlander/Evaan Verlain (depending on which continuity you follow).
- The destruction of the Death Star, in light of Rogue One, can definitely give us Tears of Joy, moreso if one watches the films in chronological order. After all the pain the members of the titular squad went through, as well as the climatic mission which ultimately cost them their lives, not to mention it also resulted in the deaths of nearly all those present at the battle of Scarif, it is indeed now a lot more satisfactory to see the monstrous space station get obliterated by Luke's shot, knowing well that their sacrifice was definitely not in vain.
- For those who watched the Prequels and The Clone Wars, Tarkin's line about the final disolvement of the Senate is this, since it means that the Republic that so many beloved characters fought and died for is now well and truly dead.
