The Last Words Of Every Fallen Star Wars Hero From The Original Trilogy

The original Star Wars trilogy introduced us to an epic universe, filled with fantastic adventures, amazing special effects, and an unforgettable score. By and large, Star Wars is a feel-good adventure series. It has witty dialogue, cute droids, and endearing scenes, like when Chewbacca gives Luke a noogie. But, of course, Star Wars also has its fair share of dark and tragic moments. After all, the entire galaxy is in the midst of violent conflict (hence the name Star Wars), which naturally means we're going to see a lot of casualties. And we're not just talking about bad guys here. Like any realistic story, the good guys must lose people, too.

A critical, memorable part of the death of any hero is the person's final words, which is where this article brings us. Sometimes, those last words are packed with meaning, resolving a character's plot arc or communicating a powerful message to the audience. Other times, a hero's last words are cut off by a sudden and unexpected demise. But whether they're memorable or simple lines, here are the last words of every fallen Star Wars hero from the original trilogy.

Before we dive in, here are two quick notes so that we're all on the same page: One, if a character becomes a Force ghost, we're still counting that as dead. And lastly, you should know that there are spoilers ahead!

The death of Beru Lars was extremely sad. This is the first civilian victim viewers see in Star Wars and demonstrates how evil the Empire truly is. Beru is the adoptive mother of Luke Skywalker. After Luke's biological mother, Padme, died giving birth to Luke, Obi-Wan hid the child. Ultimately, Obi-Wan takes Luke to Tatooine to be raised by Beru and Owen Lars, who are rural space farmers. Not too far away, Obi-Wan settles in a little home and watches Luke grow up, carefully guarding him. The Lars are good folks. They stay out of trouble and want nothing to do with the Empire or the Rebel Alliance. But that doesn't stop the Empire from showing up at their home and killing them.

At the beginning of A New Hope, Stormtroopers are looking for two droids (C-3PO and R2-D2) and track them to Beru's house. At the time, Luke isn't home. In the last scene we scene Beru alive, she's talking with her husband about Luke's chores. She answers a question with, "I think so." Luke later returns home to see Beru's charred body. It's at that moment that Luke resolves to fight the Empire, to become a Jedi, and to leave home because he has nothing on Tatooine anymore. It is essentially the big moment that triggers Luke's overall character arc.

Of all the quotes on this list, this one might be the most famous. Obi-Wan Kenobi and his group of friends are trying to escape from the Death Star. During the process, Kenobi crosses paths with Darth Vader, and the two have one last lightsaber duel. It's an extremely tense moment since these two characters have a ton of history together. Kenobi trained Anakin (aka Darth Vader) to become a Jedi, but Anakin then betrayed Kenobi and the Jedi. It probably didn't help that during a previous lightsaber duel, Kenobi chopped off three out of four of Vader's limbs and left him in a volcano to catch on fire, which is the reason Vader must now wear his black suit. Anywho, during the duel with Vader, Kenobi insists, "If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

While fighting Vader, Kenobi locks eyes with Luke Skywalker in the distance. Right then, Kenobi stops putting up a fight and allows Darth Vader to kill him. Strangely enough, Kenobi's body disappears after he dies. Later on, we learn that Kenobi can visit people from the afterlife as a Force ghost. Obviously, Kenobi continues talking after this line, but it's still the last thing he says before he dies, or becomes one with the Force, or whatever.

We're still at the Battle of Yavin (the one in A New Hope when they're destroying the Death Star). Our next fallen hero is John D. Branon, better known by his call sign, Red Four. Once the Rebel fighters fly close to the Death Star, the Empire unleashes its firepower but quickly realizes that it's impossible to shoot down the Rebels. As one Imperial higher-up points out, the Rebel ships are just too close to their turrets. So Darth Vader instructs his underlings to man their own short-range attack craft, called TIE fighters, and take out the Rebel fighters one at a time.

The first wave of TIE fighters find a victim all too soon — John Branon. The Rebel fighters can communicate with one another through a shared intercom, and one of them notes that the turrets mysteriously stopped shooting. The reason is soon discovered as the TIE fighters start blasting Branon's ship. His final words over the radio are "I'm hit!" and then he blows up.

Not long after Tiree dies, Jon Vander also perishes. Vander goes by his nickname "Dutch," and during the Battle of Yavin, he also goes by "Gold Leader." Tiree and Vander were flying through the Death Star's trench, closing in on a small ventilation shaft into which they intend to fire proton torpedoes in order to destroy the space station. Behind them, a trio of TIE fighters appears, once of one which is a special TIE manned by Darth Vader.

After Vader blasts Tiree, he begins shooting at Vander. In those few seconds, Vander argues with Davish Krail over the intercom. Davish is flying right next to him, and Davish insists that they continue their attack run, simply repeating the line, "Stay on target." But Vander wants to pull up because they're in danger of dying by enemy fire. Vander keeps trying to persuade Davish, with his last words being, "Loosen up!" It's not clear if Vander was saying, "Let's back off this attack run" or "You need to relax your position on this" to his fellow Rebel fighter. But we'll never get an answer, because right after that, Vader shoots Jon Vander into pieces. It looks like Vander was right — they should've pulled out of the trench, dealt with the TIE fighters first, and then resumed their attack run.

We tend to remember Vader killing people with his lightsaber or by Force-choking them, but he also killed quite a few individuals from the cockpit of his personal TIE fighter. And one of the victims of Vader's TIE fighter guns is Theron Nett, who goes by Red Ten. At this point during the battle over the Death Star, the enemy TIE fighters seem to have disappeared. The Rebel fighters decide that's their chance to go down into the trench and fire on a small target that will destroy the Death Star.

Garven Dreis (Red Leader) is super focused on getting to that target. His face is glued to the monitor, and he says, "Almost there." Meanwhile, his fellow Rebels are trying to cover him. Right then, Vader shows up in his TIE fighter. Nett tries to hold them off, but basically, he only buys his friend a few seconds because Vader shoots him down really fast. Over the intercom, Nett's last words are, "I can't hold them!"

With so many casualties and time running out, the Rebel fighters decide it's time for another run at destroying the Death Star. A group of Rebel X-wing fighters descends into the trench, with Luke leading the way. It's a tense moment. Luke is giving commands to R2-D2 to fix his ship while dodging turret fire. The Death Star is almost in position to destroy the Rebel base. And one fighter named Biggs Darklighter is covering for Luke.

Darklighter, or Red Three, is tasked with protecting Luke from the TIE fighters. His goal is to give Luke enough time to destroy the Death Star, but the TIE fighters are right on his tail. Darklighter begs Luke to hurry up, saying over the intercom, "Hurry up, Luke! Quick! Quick!" He probably knew right then that his time was up. Darth Vader, cool and calm as ever, shoots Darklighter down. His ship blows up against the sides of the Death Star trench.

The ever-wise Yoda lived to the ripe old age of 900 years old. He raised up tons of Jedi Knights, imparted wisdom on the Jedi Council, and personally trained Luke Skywalker. He's a bit kooky and talks funny, but that just makes us love him all the more. And don't let his age deceive you. The dude can Force-lift an X-wing out of a swamp and go berserk with a lightsaber, as he proved in Attack of the Clones when he faced Count Dooku.

But even strong, wise, altruistic heroes can die of old age. In Return of the Jedi, Luke visits Yoda seeking counsel. But Yoda is ready to pass away due to old age, so he lies down on his bed. Yoda's dying words are to Luke, saying, "Luke, there is another Sky- Skywalker..." Yoda is referring to Leia Organa, Luke's twin sister, who may also bring hope to the galaxy if Luke should fail. Then Yoda dies, disappearing into the afterlife and becoming a Force ghost.

It's no surprise that these words would be the last line of a fallen Star Wars hero. After all, Star Wars is about, well, star wars. Immediately after an explosion kills Grizz Frix, another Rebel pilot named Ekelarc Yong perishes in the fight. It's unclear if the same explosion that took out Frix also hit Yong's ship or if Yong was simply hit by enemy fire.

We don't see exactly what causes his demise, and that's natural for a massive, chaotic fight like the Battle of Endor. The scene cuts to Yong in his cockpit, and he just yells, "I'm hit!" The initial damage doesn't kill him, but it causes him to lose control of his ship. Unable to direct his Y-wing, Yong makes the (relative) best of the situation and heads straight into a gigantic star destroyer and dies on impact, with his ship exploding into smithereens.

Don't even tell us you didn't cry when you saw this scene. This was the moment the entire Star Wars fan base looked forward to during the original trilogy — the death of Darth Vader and the lingering question of whether or not he would convert back to the good side. After Darth Vader repents and throws the Emperor down a shaft, he tries to escape with his son Luke. But Vader, now redeemed as Anakin Skywalker, has sustained heavy injuries and can't go on. Beyond this, Anakin is simply emotionally tired. He's committed atrocities for decades now and is saddened by the whole state of things — here's his son, who brought him back to the good side, even after all that he did.

It's a deep moment between a father and son — a father who is proud of his son and a son who doesn't want to see his newly redeemed father die. Before dying, Anakin says, "Tell your sister, you were right," meaning Anakin wants Luke to tell Leia about his change of heart. And he's also confessing that he was wrong about himself all this time — there was good inside of him all along. For his last-minute conversion, we list Anakin Skywalker as a hero.