Luke Skywalker staring at the twin suns setting on Tatooine with the iconic Force Theme by John Williams playing underneath. Just chilling and awe inspiring. Perfect Star Wars moment.

Han Solo flying into the asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back. Captures that character perfectly. Also one of my favorite pieces of John Williams' music.

Luke throwing down his lightsaber in Return of The Jedi and telling the Emperor, "You've failed your highness. I am a Jedi like my father before me". His refusal to go down the same path as his father, and accept death as an alternative just shows what a bad-ass Luke is and how much he's grown since A New Hope.

Obi Wan in Revenge of The Sith dropping down to fight Grievous and saying, "Hello there". Ewan McGregor delivers this line perfectly and it always makes me smile.

The sound of the raindrops sizzling as they hit Asajj Ventress lightsabers in the Tartakovsky Clone Wars series. It's just cool and I'm surprised no one thought to do that before.

Ashoka Tano fighting the two Inquisitors in the Rebels episode, "The Future of The Force". When the doors open and she comes out with that bright light shining behind her and that angelic music playing... it's just awesome. I love the little wink she gives Ezra too as if to say, "I've got this kid."

Lando's, "Hello what have we here?" line to Leia in Empire. Smoothest man in the galaxy.

The fly by sound of a TIE fighter's engines. One of the most iconic sounds in Star Wars.

The light speed effect. On the big screen it makes you feel like you're being pushed back into your seat.

Last but not least, the ignition sound of a lightsaber. The first time Obi Wan hands Luke Anakin's saber and we hear that glorious sound, it is just magic.

When The Emperor first used Sith Lightning in ROTJ.

Firstly Good Idea for a thread, and good timing too.

Apart from iconic scenes talked about already, there's more than a few subtle moments which personally always get me.

The moment I saw a star destroyer being totally eclipsed by the shadow of super star destroyer. Was never expecting that.
The familiar jingle of the cantina band. "da da daa, da da daa, da da da da daa daaa"
Leia's hair buns in ANH.
The rebel fleet coming out of hyperspace in ROTJ, straight into a trap.
And all the outlandish droids waddling around inside the sandcrawler.

Same for me as a lot of people I guess, the rolling text at the beginning with the theme of the saga.

Also the ageless wisdom of Yoda.

the space battles of III,VI as well as all lightsaber Duels

There is just so much...

What i find the most star wars is the planetary introductions and orbital space battles using nearby planets to ground the scale of the scene. Mixed with the sound and visuals of a slow moving star destroyer or fleet balanced by the speed of fighters zipping about. No one else has really hit the same chord with space battles and orbital blockades like star wars.

Very true, and they've done it so few times. Here's hoping the new trilogy has some meaty space battles.

i think everything is fantastic bout star wars

Excellent topic!

Definitely agree that all the unique SW sound effects and the music were both instrumental (pun intended) in creating those moments.

For me the "defining moment" was the first time you hear the "Imperial March" and Darth Vader walks in. No other villain soundtrack (before or since) defines how bad-@ss a character Darth Vader truly is... he is way up there on any "meanest and most formidable villains of all time" lists.

For my son, his defining moment was when we hear the line "... the grand army of the Republic" and the camera pulls back to show a vast expanse filled with a multitude of clone troopers. In the dim light of the theater, he literally gets up to his feet, eyes wide with awe, mouth agape, and his little hand slowly comes up to point at the screen. I knew then he was hooked... and I would literally end up paying for it.

— Darth Moe

I'm with "Sith Happens" and "greyjediDude" on one of the scenes they posted..

Honestly my favorite star wars moment is probably one of the simplest. The most memorable scene for me out of all seven movies so far is early on in A New Hope when Luke is looking out at the tranquil, somber Tatooine desert. Luke stares at the moons dreaming, hoping, wishing for adventure and purpose. Little does Luke know that he is about to start something that would change the galaxy. The music changes with the epic chorus of the main theme and we see Luke on the brink of destiny with the new information R2 has brought in to the scene.