Star Wars is full of strange and fascinating creatures, but there's also an odd tradition that might surprise you. Can you guess what it is?
It’s a long-standing tradition of characters losing a hand. Yeah, you read it right!
However, those fascinating lightsabers with glowing plasma blades do more than just inflict wounds or take lives. It has sliced off the limbs of various Star Wars characters, and the number might give you goosebumps.
Since the first film in 1977, every lightsaber strike tells a story in the Star Wars galaxy far, far away. Let's meet all the characters who've lost a hand, from "A New Hope" to "The Force Awakens" and the animated series, including "The Bad Batch" and "Fate of the Jedi."
10. Ponda Baba in A New Hope
Ponda Baba is the first Star Wars Episode 4 character who starts this limb-serving tradition in “A New Hope.” Baba and his friend Doctor Evazan face off against Luke Skywalker without realizing that his older friend is a powerful Jedi Knight, Kenobi. Obi-Wan deflected both their blaster shots, cutting Evazan across the torso and chopping off Baba's arm.
9. Crosshair in Star Wars: The Bad Batch
Crosshair is considered a fresh face to lose his hand during his final fight with clone assassin CX-2. It was a vibro blade used by the clone against Crosshair in The Bad Batch season 3.
8. Savage Opress in The Clone Wars
It was an adrenaline-pumping duel scene between the Sith brothers and Kenobi, where Maul lost his leg, and Opress lost his arm against his foe. The two escape, and Death Watch gives Savage a cybernetic replacement upon rescue. But he wasn’t fortunate to use his new arm for long, as he lost his life to Darth Sidious.
7. The Wampa in The Empire Strikes Back
Remember the Yeti-like creature in "The Empire Strikes Back" called the Wampa? It attacks Luke when he is patrolling the icy planet of Hoth. It drags him to its lair and hangs him upside down from the ceiling of an ice cave.
While still discovering his Jedi abilities, Luke uses the Force to summon his lightsaber, frees himself, and slices off the Wampa's arm. He then escapes into the frozen, snowy wasteland, leaving the wounded Wampa behind.
6. Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones
Jango Fett makes his final stand at the Battle of Geonosis, losing his life to Jedi Master Mace Windu. Having survived an earlier encounter with Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jango meets his end when Mace swiftly severs the hand holding his blaster. This scene unfolds in front of Jango's son, Boba, who vows to take revenge.
5. Count Dooku in Revenge of the Sith
Anakin finally takes his revenge at the end of the Clone Wars and is left betrayed by Darth Sidious. The opening sequence of "Revenge of the Sith" provided a rematch where Anakin exacted his revenge by cutting off both of Dooku's hands before beheading him.
4. General Grievous in Revenge of the Sith
A lot of mutilation took place in the Revenge of the Sith, and how could a very feared villain with four hands be spared?
General Grievous is quite different from other droids. He is an expert in stealing Jedi lightsabers. In their final confrontation, Kenobi, armed with just one lightsaber, disarms the four-armed Grievous, shoots him five times in the chest, and sends him crashing into a wall.
3. Mace Windu in Revenge of the Sith
It was amazing to see Mace, one of the highly skilled Jedi masters, disarm the lords of the Sith lord, Palpatine. Anakin's turn to the dark side had viewers on the edge of their seats, anticipating one of the most deadly wars in the history of Star Wars. Those scenes felt like an absolute showdown, with Palpatine seemingly on the verge of defeat.
But the unexpected arrival of Darth Vader turned it all in the favor of the Sith. Anakin interfered and stopped Mace from killing Palpatine. He chops off his arm mid-swing, sending his lightsaber plummeting into the depths of Coruscant.
2. Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back
Luke Skywalker loses his right arm to no one but his own father in “The Empire Strikes Back.” That’s how Luke becomes one of the first most prominent Star Wars characters ever to follow this tradition.
It’s quite a heavy scene that surprised fans to see the hero of the time losing his hand over a villain. He received a prosthetic replacement, and his real hand was kept in Emperor Palpatine's laboratory on Exegol.
1. Darth Vader in Attack of the Clones
Anakin, later turned into Darth Vader, has always had a life full of grieves. He lost his mother and wife, and his arms that too several times.
For the first time, he lost to Count Dooku in the Attack of the Clones during the Battle of Geonosis. He replaces it with a robotic arm.
During a battle on Mustafar with his beloved former master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, he loses other limbs and gets burned severely. Kenobi slices off both his legs and an arm, leaving to burn in the fiery lake of lava. That moment marked the rise of Darth Vader.
He lost his right arm (robotic hand) once again in a duel with Luke Skywalker in "Return of the Jedi."
