Star Wars: The 'Decraniated' Are Way More Disturbing Than You Remember

Overall, "Star Wars" is a property rooted in adventure, fantasy, and dashes of science fiction. It's far from a horror franchise, especially when it comes to its movies and television shows, but that's not to say there aren't some unsettling elements to the galaxy far, far away. One of the most disturbing made its way into the current canon in the background of both 2016's "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" and later 2018's "Solo: A Star Wars Story."  They are known as the Decraniated, and their very appearance is immensely chilling, to say the least.

The Decraniated, who walk around with large portions of their heads missing, look unsettling and entirely unnatural, and that's because they are. The vile Dr. Cornelius Evazan (Michael Smiley) is the one responsible for their creation, stripping his victims' sense of self and turning them into servants using cybernetic attachments. He sees them purely as a moneymaking venture and doesn't remotely take into consideration the sickening nature of his scheme. One of his most noteworthy clients is Crimson Dawn figurehead Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany), who has Evazan create several Decraniated to unwillingly serve aboard his personal yacht.

While the Decraniated are a bit scary to look at, come from tragic origins, and are aligned with some pretty seedy characters, some of them made positive contributions to the "Star Wars" galaxy.

Given their unethical — to put it lightly — creation and inability to do anything other than serve others, it's no surprise that the Decraniated became laborers for crime lords like Dryden Vos. At the same time, by pure happenstance, there are a few out there who had the chance to leave a more positive impact on the galaxy instead of serving drinks to criminals. As seen in "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," Dr. Evazan and his Aqualish associate, Ponda Baba, are in the Imperial-controlled world of Jedha. Their goal? As stated in "Star Wars: Rogue One: The Ultimate Visual Guide," it's to turn those injured during the insurgency attacks into Decraniated drones.

The two criminals are successful to some extent, though their operation is cut short when the Empire turns the Death Star superweapon on Jedha City. In the aftermath of the attack, Evazan and Baba leave Jedha behind, likely to cause more pain and misery elsewhere in the galaxy. They leave their Decraniated subjects behind and a few go on to fight a noble cause. They join the remaining members of the Partisans resistance group and do what they can to interfere in the Empire's ongoing kyber mining operation that has greatly harmed the planet.

Still, even though some of them fought the good fight against the Empire, there's no denying that the Decraniated should've never come to exist. The heinous acts committed by Dr. Evazan to create them make it clear exactly why he had the death sentence in 12 systems.