Saga Darkest to most lighthearted star wars film.

ROTS
R1
TFA
ESB
AOTC
ANH
ROTJ
TPM

 

Darkest to Lightest:

ROTS
TESB
Rogue One
ANH (Luke's guardians get incinerated, there's a planetary genocide killing billions, Obi-Wan maims a dude in a bar fight and Solo wastes a guy under the table and they torture Leia with that super ***ked up looking droid)
TFA (Could flip this with ANH..Han's death was dark, but SKB was hard to take seriously)
AOTC
TPM


Seriously - I can't believe so many people think ANH is the "lightest" film... maybe we've all just seen it too many times. There's really a lot of messed up stuff that happens in ANH

 

Dark to Light
RotS
ESB
R1
AotC
TFA
ANH
TPM
RotJ

RotS was easily the darkest. There was nothing to celebrate (except storytelling) in that one.

ESB and R1 are essentially tied. ESB could beat R1 because the Luke crew is in complete chaos. R1 left the Jyn crew in more than chaos, but they also achieved their mission.

AotC has Yoda asking "victory you say?" Anakin lost his mother (and half an arm). But still better off than RotS

TFA/ANH. They both end with a battle won, but not a war. Both also have a hero coming of age. So a split of good and bad.

TPM. Like RotJ, all seems right in the galaxy. But TPM is actually a loss (just feels like a victory).

RotJ. Fulfillment of the prophecy. Redemption of Anakin. Emperor dead. It might have had dark moments, but they were all on a path to total victory (until it was decided they weren't about 35 years later).

 

Realized I forgot ROTJ

ROTS
TESB
Rogue One
ANH (Luke's guardians get incinerated, there's a planetary genocide killing billions, Obi-Wan maims a dude in a bar fight and Solo wastes a guy under the table and they torture Leia with that super ***ked up looking droid)
TFA (Could flip this with ANH..Han's death was dark, but SKB was hard to take seriously)
AOTC
ROTJ
TPM

 

To me, a dark movie signifies a sense of dread, melancholy and a ritualistic theme implemented to it. Or when a movie gives the viewer harsh moralities to contemplate on(Repression, exploitation, love and all that wonderful jazz). This does not include films that are "purposefully" darkened and washed out colors to further express itself. My outlook applies to these film;

ROTS
AOTC
TESB
ROTJ=TPM
R1
TFA
ANH.

 

ROTS
R1
ESB
AOTC
TFA
TPM
ANH
ROTJ

 

While most will agree that either ROTS and TESB are easily the two darkest, ranking them beyond that is difficult, because darkness can be depicted in so many different ways. But even if you think ROTS is the darkest movie, I don't think it has the darkest music - and to this day I really don't know how I feel about that. It is really perplexing to me that Battle of the Heroes isn't as dark as Duel of the Fates. I remember feeling bothered by that early on, and I'm trying to keep an open mind about it, because I know it must have been a conscious decision by Lucas and Williams.

 

ROTS
RO
TESB
TFA
AOTC
ROTJ
ANH
TPM

 

ROTS - AOTC - TFA - ESB (somewhat "dark" but no one significant dies, in contrast to all other episodes) - ROTJ - TPM - ANH

 

My List:
ROTS
TFA- (due to the simple fact that the "happy ending" that we felt our heroes earned was lost. Luke is in hiding, Artoo's catatonic, Han and Leia's marriage felt apart and their son went coo-coo for cocopuffs and started killing everyone.)
AOTC
ESB
R1
ANH
TPM

Honorable mention: The Star Wars Holiday Special at the very bottom of the list in terms of darkness. Grown men who have beheld it's terror weep in agony and women shriek in terror at the mention of its name for it is a soulless void from which no light can escape.

 

I would have to say:

ROTS
RO
TESB
TFA
AOTC
ANH
ROTJ
TPM

 

1. Revenge of the Sith
2. Empire Strikes Back
3. Rogue One
4. Attack of the Clones
5. The Force Awakens
6. Return of the Jedi
7. The Phantom Menace
8. A New Hope

 

I've been thinking about this for a while so here I go


1 Revenge of the Sith (obviously this is the darkest with the Jedi being almost wiped out and the Sidious taking control of the galaxy)

2 Rogue One (Whilst the main characters all die, a big theme of this movie is hope as Leia says at the end and even though it cost them their lives the Rogue One team did make a difference in the struggle against the Empire that helped change the galaxy for the better.)

3 Empire Strikes Back (Though this is the darkest film of the OT with the Rebels being scattered from their base, Han being frozen in Carbonite and Luke's world turned upside down by Vader's revelation ,I would say it is still much lighter than R1 and ROTS as it has scenes like Yoda pretending to be mad and the hilarity of Threepio being carried by Chewbacca and moaning the whole time to lighten things up a bit.)

4 The Force Awakens (There is a lot of fun action/adventure moments in this one like Finn and Rey fighting the Tie Fighters on Jakku and the encounter with the Rathars but there is also some very dark moments like the opening scene with the Troopers executing villagers, the Starkiller destroying the Hosnian System, the flashback scene with Luke's saber and of course Han's death. I would say this one is half and half, whilst there is a lot of fun moments and banter between the characters the most memorable scenes are the darkest ones IMO.)

5 Attack of the Clones (The scene where Anakin slaughters the Tuskens is dark but apart from that I would say most of the darkness in this one comes from our knowledge of future events. For example the ending with Anakin and Padme marrying is a happy event in the context of just this film but when you know what it eventually leads to it isn't such a happy moment and Yoda announcing the Clone Wars have begun is much more impactful when you know what is to come in ROTS)

6 Return of the Jedi (In general an upbeat film with the Emperor being defeated and the Ewoks taking out the Stormtroopers being fun to watch. On the other hand though the scenes in the throne room are some of the most intense scenes in the whole series and Oola being fed to the Rancor isn't pleasant.

7 The Phantom Menace ( On the whole this film isn't that dark but there is a scene where the Queen is sent a message saying her people are suffering under Federation control that is dark and Qui Gon's death at the end is sad)

8 A New Hope ( I would say this is the lightest in the series as there really is no dark moments other than Luke seeing Owen and Beru's corpses and Vader torturing Leia. Alderaan being destroyed would be a sad moment if we saw the people's reactions like in TFA but because it doesn't there is no real impact to it. That's fine though because I think if a scene like that was in ANH it wouldn't fit with the fun nature of the film.

 

Let me try...

With
Rogue 1
Empire
Clones
Force awakens
Hope
Jedi
Phantom

 

Empire. Sith. Rogue One. FA. AOTC. ROTJ. ANH. PM.

 

I'm curious. Why did you place Empire as darker than Sith?

 

I thought about this. It just seemed more emotional. The Han Leia theme brings tears to my eyes every time. It was every bit as dark as ROTS even though it was on a smaller, more personal scale. After a New Hope, watching the characters lose their way like that was devastating to watch as a child. But it was close.

 

I've only seen TFA 1.5 times and don't remember much from it so I'm not including it here.

1. ROTS - for reasons already mentioned
2. RO - other than the hope part with Leia, it's very sad. Hard for me to watch without crying, which is embarrassing, but overall it's quite dark (which I like).
3. ESB
4. ANH - lots of death, destruction, Luke's life turned upside down. It ends on a happy note, but lots of stuff goes down in this one.
5. AOTC - almost a tie with ANH. Anakin's obsession with Padme, shmi's death, geonosis, etc.
6. TPM - qui-gon's death and Anakin leaving his mom are sad but the overall tone is not dark.

I haven't seen all the clone wars episodes, but so far they don't seem dark to me. The one where 99 is killed makes me sad.

 

A lot of people find Sith's attempts to be dark (such as the "child murder" scene) a bit shallow.

 

Or fell asleep half-way through a screening possibly.

 

RO
ROTS
ESB
ANH
AOTC
TFA
TPM
ROTJ

 

My updated list:


Revenge of the Sith: hero becomes evil and kills children, maimed by other protagonist, the Republic and the Jedi are destroyed

Rogue One: All the heroes die, shows war the most realistically

Attack of the Clones: Hero commits mass murder, many Jedi are killed, hero loses limb


The Force Awakens: Mentor is killed by son, Villain massacres village

Empire strikes Back: villain defeats hero, comic relief character is captured

A New Hope: hero's guardians are killed, mentor is killed, planet is destroyed

Return of the Jedi: Hero struggles with good and evil, good guys win, hero almost meets terrifying end

The Phantom Menace: hero loses innocence as he deals with separation, slapstick

Hopefully The Last Jedi is darker than Revenge of the Sith

 

Or watched half at home.