It is arduous accountable Lucas an excessive amount of for the choice to spare us Han’s torture scenes, as “Empire” was already a reasonably darkish film. It is a film the place all our heroes fail in some main, seemingly-irreversible means; Han’s captured, Luke loses a hand, and Leia makes out along with her brother. Everybody’s taking L’s right here, and perhaps it was finest to not rub that in an excessive amount of. The Vader reveal alone was sufficient to horrify audiences; we did not want to observe Han get tortured to know that we had been watching the trilogy’s dreaded act II low level unfold earlier than our eyes.
It additionally helps that the film already features a brief glimpse of Han about to be tortured, adopted by the sound of him screaming off-camera. The film does not linger on this a lot, but it surely provides us greater than sufficient particulars to think about what Han’s going by. “He will not be harmed completely,” Vader says — it is technically reassuring, however contemplating Han’s screams are nonetheless lingering in our ears, it is one of many villain’s most unsettling strains.
The same state of affairs performed out within the “Star Wars” sequel films, besides this time it was Chewbacca who purported to be proven getting tortured. There was meant to be a brilliant darkish, emotional scene the place Kylo Ren would brutally interrogate our favourite furry pal in “The Rise of Skywalker,” however that was additionally fortunately minimize from the completed product. No person desires to observe Han or Chewie get tortured, it appears. As many questionable selections because the “Star Wars” franchise has remodeled time, at the least the flicks have at all times appeared to know this one fundamental rule: When issues get too darkish, generally it is best to chop away.
