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Collateral damage is a general term for unintentional deaths, injuries, or other damage inflicted incidentally on an unintended target. In my question, I'd like that to be refined further to specifically include incidences of accidental damage on one's own "side".

In the movies, there are beams & shots fired all over the place, inside and out of starships, etc. For the purpose of my presentation, I am using Star Wars examples (full disclosure: I've only seen the seven movies). I would like to use an example of the good guys or bad guys accidentally and unintentionally creating significant immediate damage due to carelessness; particularly if it resulted in death or injury.

I'm happy to accept answers from any version, but if it is in the movies, that's a bonus.

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    They carelessly allowed their exhaust port to generate a chain reaction that destroyed a costly space station.
    – Jack B Nimble
    Mar 11, 2016 at 22:44
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    You could argue that they killed many people who were possibly sympathetic or outright supportive of their cause on the planets they blew up. Seriously, their government voted against you so you murdered every single one of them?
    – childofsoong
    Mar 11, 2016 at 23:13
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    Do downed star fighters count? There's a lot of that going on from both sides, crashing into friend and foe alike during the battle for Endor. Also: "LOOK OUT!" while they're in the DS1 trench, and there's a few TIEs bouncing off the walls in the DS2's exhaust port.
    – Mazura
    Mar 11, 2016 at 23:24
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    Well, when you shoot at a jedi, sometimes the jedi will deflect the shot back at you or your buddy. Like, in Episode II, when Obi-wan, Anakin and Padme are gonna be executed in the arena by big monsters and Mace and the jedi show up and fight the battle droids (the battle where Mace beheads Jango Fett). Before Yoda shows up with the clone troopers, you see a lot of battle droids get shot. And since you know jedi don't use blasters, you can assume either friendly fire or more likely that a jedi deflected the shot. Not a great example, I know.
    – Xplodotron
    Mar 12, 2016 at 3:51
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    Would events that fall under indifference be alright? There's one event from legends I am thinking of where millions are killed as a side effect of someone's action. Not strictly the goal of this person, but not unintentional either.
    – user45549
    Mar 12, 2016 at 4:03

5 Answers 5

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I think this counts as collateral damage. During the battle above Coruscant, the Republic ships open fire on Grievous' flagship, the Invisible Hand (containing Obi Wan, Anakin and Palpatine).

This causes the ship to start falling, which, despite Anakin's attempts plummets and smashes into a landing pad/runway type thing destroying that and the observation tower. I'd say it wasn't their intention to start dropping ships onto their capital city/planet. Here's the before and after:

enter image description here

enter image description here

Depending on which version of Episode 3 you watch, you can see a clone trooper in the observation tower as the ship crashes into it.

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    "Depending on which version of Episode 3 you watch" - are you saying Lucas has already altered the prequal trilogy too?
    – Relix
    Mar 13, 2016 at 8:21
  • Haha, quite possibly. I clearly remember in the cinema seeing a clone trooper in the tower. I assume he was the equivalent of an air traffic controller but for space craft.
    – user9993
    Mar 13, 2016 at 12:20
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Hey! You can't park that here!

enter image description here

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    This answer would have been better without any text :D
    – user45623
    Mar 12, 2016 at 10:10
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Consider the Lusankya incident.

enter image description here The Lusankya was a Executor-class Star Dreadnought buried beneath the surface of Coruscant and then built over so that no one could tell that it was hidden there. This was done while Sidious was still in control, so he, supposedly, used mind manipulation to make everyone forget that the ship was there. It was used as a secret prison and means of escape for Ysanne Isard, Sidious' successor in Legends. After a prisoner escaped from Lusankya she had to quickly bug out (the prisoner planned to tell everyone about the ship), so Isard had the crew break the ship free of the planet. While leaving Coruscant, the Lusankya caused devastation over 259 km² of the planet surface, killing untold millions. The book Star Wars: X-Wing:The Krytos Trap describes the ion engines completely incinerating all buildings surrounding it as it lifted off. It also destroyed many low orbital "skyhooks" which also rained down on the planet city. At the time, the Empire was fighting for control of the galaxy against the rebellion, but she ended up killing millions of the Empire's citizens.

This might just be a case of indifference, however, as she would always put her life above the Empire's citizens.

So in her attempt to escape, she killed millions of her own citizens.

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5

During the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, Saba Sebatyne (was then a Jedi Knight) arrives at her home planet, Barab I, only to find it obliterated by Yuuzhan Vong forces in orbit. She opens fire on the ship, damaging its hull and witnesses her own enslaved/captured people spill out of that hull breach into the vacuum of space. (The New Jedi Order: Force Heretic I: Remnant, first pages)

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Anakin Skywalker, as Darth Vader, unintentionally killed his own wife, dismembered his son (ok maybe not unintentionally), and almost had his daughter executed.

Yes, I know there's a lot of speculation about the wife part, but going by just the published facts alone that is the only supported scenario at the moment - he didn't think things through and so broke her heart, then carelessly choked her too hard, and now she lost the will to live.

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    "Choked her too hard"? As if their relationship wasn't taboo enough already, now we find out Padme liked it rough, but not too rough.
    – DCOPTimDowd
    Feb 9, 2017 at 19:35

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