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Warning: spoilers are ahead for Star Wars High Republic books, The Fallen Star, Path of Deceit, and Into the Light. 

Star Wars can get gnarly. Whether it's Jango Fett's head getting lobbed off by Mace Windu, Kylo Ren igniting his lightsaber directly into the face of a Praetorian Guard, Anakin Skywalker getting dismembered and then cooked alive in lava on Mustafar, or Beilert Valance's journey to becoming a cyborg, it ain't easy living in a galaxy far, far away. After all, war is hell.

But as any High Republic book fan can tell you, there's a particular intensity to the era preceding the prequels, when the Jedi were at their strongest. Now, by no means am I saying that the High Republic has the highest body count or is the most shockingly violent period in canon Star Wars history - frankly, I'm not interested in consuming media like that. If you've met a dad (or Cardi B) who was really into World War II or something, then you have the template for my love of the High Republic. I just like knowing a lot about it, who was involved, what the problems were, the geopolitics of it all. 

So with that out of the way, today on Rebel Rouser we're going to talk about some of the most unhinged deaths in the High Republic of Star Wars. As I said earlier, the movies and TV shows have plenty of shocking moments, sure, but things really get to another level in the written word. And that makes sense. Novelists don't have to worry about CGI budgets or disgruntled actors when they chart out who lives and who dies, and how it all goes down. Part of what has distinguished the High Republic as my favorite Star Wars era is the sheer amount of creativity that went into giving it a unique identity. And yes, the devastating deaths are a part of that. 

There's that familiar adage, "more money, more problems," and with the High Republic, the equivalent is "more Jedi, more problems." Because, as I can tell you (and maybe this is a conversation for a different day), there is no shortage of likable Jedi in the High Republic. It's terrible! Because so many of them die. This is why I read Tessa Gratton's Temptation of the Force and Charles Soule's Trials of the Jedi with my hands white-knuckled out of stress over who would die. But aside from the fact that a bigger cast means more characters in danger, the High Republic also captures a range of flaws within individual Jedi. Like any of us, sometimes they make rash decisions that have dire consequences. 

Okay, okay, okay, so what are the deaths, Jules?!  

Sorry!!! I'll get to them now. 

The "thank god I have never messed up this badly in my life" death: Chancey Yarrow

Perpetrator: Jedi Elzar Mann

How: Bisected with a lightsaber while on a space station falling out of the sky

Lightsabers are terrifying weapons because if you hit someone with one, you're probably going to mortally wound them. In other words, you can't "ctrl + z" your way out of that, unless you're exceptionally good at Force healing. My favorite Jedi, Elzar Mann, learned this the hard way in The Fallen Star by Claudia Gray when he came upon Chancey Yarrow in the bowels of the Jedi's Starlight Beacon space station. Now, to be fair, Elzar had been fighting for his life, and the station was falling out of the sky after being taken over by space pirates. When Elzar came upon Chancey tinkering away, he thought she was part of the crew sabotaging the station, so he swung his lightsaber and cut her in half. Brutal! But the worst part was that Chancey was trying to save everyone still aboard Starlight Beacon. While she had done a lot of questionable stuff in the past, she had turned a new leaf shortly before and decided to be altruistic for once. And look where that got her! Her death left Elzar mortified over his own actions. 

The "did they really just kill the protagonist?!" death: Padawan Kevmo Zink

Perpetrator: Marda Ro

How: Turned to an ashy husk by The Leveler, a Force-eating eldritch beast

Poor, poor Kevmo Zink. In Path of Deceit by Justina Ireland and Tessa Gratton, he's our eyes and ears as he investigates a new cult called the Path of the Open Hand. What could go wrong? He's a wonderful, young Jedi Padawan with a full life ahead of him. We get to know him as the book progresses, and we grow fond of him. But we start to get some red flags when he begins spending time with Marda Ro, the leader of the Path of the Open Hand. And by the end of the book, poor Kevmo gets killed when Marda uses one of the Nameless, a beast that feeds off of the Force, on him. He didn't die a quick death either. Instead, because of the Nameless's powers, Kevmo felt immense fear as his connection with the Force was destroyed, and his body turned to a husk. Poor kid. 

The "standing ovation" death: Koley Linn

Perpetrator: Geode

How: Killed by his own blaster bolt

Not every High Republic death is painful. Some inspire cheer, like that of Koley Linn in The Fallen Star novel. Throughout the book, we see Koley as a good-for-nothing, rude shipping pilot with questionable motivations. As Starlight Beacon started its freefall from space, Koley tried to make a run for it before being thwarted by a group of citizens. Determined to have his way, Koley grabbed a child and threatened to shoot the kid if they didn't let him go. Luckily, our favorite guy, Geode (who, as a member of the Vintian species, looks exactly like a slab of rock) stepped between Koley and the child. Koley fired his blaster, and Geode, because of his unique biology, magnetically sealed himself so that the blaster bolt ricocheted off of him and hit Koley, killing the bastard once and for all. Don't mess with Geode. 

The "ugly crying" death: Geode

Perpetrator: Geode

How: Sacrifices himself to save the Wookiee planet of Kashyyyk (and the galaxy itself) by falling into the Well of Night and detonating it, exploding himself 

I want to apologize to my neighbors, who were probably wondering if I was okay when I got to the climax of Into the Light by Claudia Gray (Ms. Gray, are you seeing a pattern here?! Don't worry, you're amazing). So, previously, we saw Geode deflect a blaster bolt because he can magnetically seal himself. And he's bravely put himself in front of his human companions, the crew of the Vessel, to shield them from enemy fire. The guy must be invulnerable, right? Well, no! The circumstances of Geode's death are a bit complicated (you've read Into the Light, right? I hope so), but basically, he throws himself into a well that has a high concentration of dark side energy. Because he's a Vintian and can conduct heat, his body causes the Well of Night to explode, blasting him to bits in the process. It's the fact that he was shattered into a million pieces that broke me when I was reading the book. On one hand, I was so glad that the Wookiees' planet was saved from the devastating Blight, but the planet's safety coming at the cost of such a unique character's life was like a knife to the heart. Thank god his heartstone begins regenerating at the end of the book, I couldn't live in a Geode-less world. 

So there you have it, folks: a sampling of some of the wildest ongoings in the High Republic. And I haven't even mentioned the particular wounds left behind by Orla Jareni, Loden Greatstorm, and Stellan Gios's deaths. But I think we all know the heavy toll those deaths took on us and our emotional health. It wouldn't be the High Republic without getting emotionally shredded at least once per story, and I wouldn't have it any other way. For Light and Life! 

Popverse's top stories

• What is Superman saving movie audiences from? Meaningless superheroes and bad movies, says DC Studios chief James Gunn
• How do you go about creating a realistic villain in The Walking Dead? "Suffering," says Clementine's Tillie Walden
• The Stranger Things Instagram broadcast channel just came back online after 18 months of silence - to tease a season 5 trailer of the Netflix hit