Star Wars is known for having some pretty dark moments, from people being tortured to
death, to entire planets being destroyed, and to even children being slaughtered.
But there is one part in the book Rebel Rising that may be the darkest and most sickening
moment in Star Wars yet, not only with what the subject matter is, but also with the level
of detail that's described in the scene.
This scene takes place when Jyn Erso was with a crew of slavers during a transport mission
she was forced into by a crime boss whom she got in trouble with earlier.
He took note of her forgery skills, so he set her on a slave transport ship so she could
forge documents that allowed them to bypass travelling restrictions and increase their
profits once they arrived at their destination.
The cargo of the ship was of course slaves, who were locked up in the lower levels of
the ship in cages.
The slaves consisted of children between the ages of 7 to 11 and a few women, some of who
were the mothers of the enslaved children, many of which had given birth to their children
into slavery.
There was one scene where Jyn decides to see the slaves for herself during the week long
trip.
When she entered the room where they were kept at, she nearly vomited as the smell of
feces hit her.
One of the crewmen with her explained that the slaves had to endure being in their own
excrement as they were too lazy to take them to the ship’s refreshers.
So they just went in their small, confined cages instead.
They were also barely fed as well, showing signs of starvation.
They were only given small amounts of dirited water and a few ration cubes from time to
time.
One of the other crewmen with her bragged about how he frequently came down here and
shocked the slaves with an electric pike; which caused them great, sharp pain.
He then picked up the pike and came to a cage with a little young girl in it and began to
act like he was about to shock her.
She bounced back into the other end of her cage, falling into her own feces as she screamed
with fear.
The man with the electric pike began to laugh, telling Jyn that he had trained the little
child well.
As that happened, a woman from another cage began to curse at the man, threatening that
she was going to kill him.
It was likely the little girl’s mother, and she was about to get shocked herself until
Jyn stepped in and made a few comments about how it’s never wise to pick a fight you
can’t win.
She then left the room not being able to witness the slaves anymore.
Days went by and she learned how some crewmen entertained themselves by taunting and torturing
the slaves for hours on end.
But there is a happy ending to this.
As on the last day of their travels, Jyn made a feast for the other 4 crew members of the
ship.
They were excited to eat and were pleased to see her come around.
But as they began to let their guard down, Jyn revealed an electric baton, using it first
to knock out the captain.
She later was able to knock out the other 3 unarmed crew members after a short scuffle
with them.
She then dragged their unconscious bodies into the ship’s cargo bay, locking them
all inside.
Afterwards she came down into the slave room and unlocked the cages, telling them all that
food was upstairs in the living quarters of the ship.
As the went to eat, Jyn told one of the woman slaves that she forged them all documents
that made them free people; plus she also told her how all the slavers were locked in
the cargo bay, and that they can all be released into the vacuum of space with a switch of
a button.
Jyn then took a small ship from the main transport and went her separate path, not wishing to
be with anyone for too long in fear of hurting them due to her past connections to rebel
cells and her true identity of being Galen Erso’s daughter.
As her small ship flew away from the slave transport, she saw a glimpse of 4 bodies get
sucked out into space; the swift revenge on the slavers was done.
Ironically enough, although she freed the slaves on the transport, a year later she
herself essentially became one herself when she was arrested by the Empire and taken to
a labor camp.