It's clear that Star Wars has been branching out lately with The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett expanding the universe, and Obi-Wan Kenobi on the way. With this comes more characters than ever and more opportunities for people to turn them into memes.
Since the '70s, the characters of Star Wars have captured the audience’s imaginations. In the internet age, this takes the form of memes. A lot of these characters have become more iconic as internet shorthand than in their movies or shows of origin. All of them originated from the Star Wars franchise as a whole, however, bringing charm straight from the Galaxy far, far away.
Sheev Palpatine
Main antagonist Palpatine is one of the most legendary characters in the franchise. Despite being a horrific monster, he’s dripping with charisma. He’s one of the few characters from the prequel trilogy to remain liked by fans. Part of this is due to his scenery-chewing, which results in a lot of memes.
Even before he’s disfigured he talks in growling monologues. These lofty scenes contain most of the prose in the prequels, and result in some killer lines. Ian McDiarmid’s acting gives memorable meme-able expressions. Despite being the evilest Sith, Emperor Palpatine is one of the most fondly remembered Star Wars memes.
Baby Yoda/Grogu
It’s unlikely that The Mandalorian would have been as successful without Baby Yoda. While the show is action-packed, the tiny baby stole the show. It’s reminiscent of The Minions, which have a similar meme presence to Baby Yoda. Baby Yoda’s cuteness makes him ideal for sending messages.
“Baby Yoda” isn’t the character’s name. It’s “Grogu,” which became very popular for memes as well and was even referenced in The Book of Boba Fett. However, when it comes to most memes, Grogu’s definitely comfortable in chill memes with Impact font captions.
Young Obi-Wan
Obi-Wan has long been one of the most beloved Star Wars characters. But while Alec Guinness's portrayal was great, jokes revolved around how quickly he wanted out. Fans were worried if Ewen MacGregor’s portrayal in the prequels would live up to the original. While Phantom Menace left some sour, he ended up surpassing expectations in the following two movies.
Young Obi-Wan is absolutely overflowing with charm. He feels like a classic swashbuckling hero, complete with pithy remarks. This has earned him immortality in memes like “Hello there!” or “I’m not brave enough for politics.” Finally, everyone knows that Obi-Wan has the high ground due to that scene from Sith going viral.
Klaud
Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker was a controversial film for many. Even before it was released there was a controversy revolving around a leaked poster that showed a slug-creature that many thought resembled a phallus. The slug monster in question, Klaud, was changed before release and everyone forgot about it.
Then, earlier this year, the character of Klaud returned in the “Live Slug Reaction” meme. The format took a scene, usually LGBTQ+ scenes, and edited Klaud into the corner. This was based on an inaccurate but viral tweet that alleged that Klaud’s unamused face was immediately after and on screen longer than the only same sex kiss in Star Wars. Fans latched onto him as an ironic symbol of gay pride, and now that’s Klaud’s chief claim to fame.
Kylo Ren
Speaking of the sequel trilogy, Adam Driver’s character was definitely the second most important character behind Rey. In all three films, he was given bombastic action scenes. Also in all three films, he was given emotional close-ups that sparked memes.
Even as early as the first sequel, fans responded to the character with the Emo Kylo Ren Twitter account. As the character’s facade cracked more, it led to memes about him yelling for “more!” Perhaps most bizarre was the Ben Swole-o memes relating to a blurry picture of his shirtless scene in The Last Jedi. Kylo was a character with confusing depth both in the films and the memes.
Jar Jar Binks
Jar Jar Binks was destined for memes. The CGI used to create the character is now incredibly dated, and his characterization was disliked from square one. His character was massively toned down for the following prequel which led to the “Darth Jar Jar” memetic theory about what his role would have been.
The character was inseparable from Prequel media and continued to appear in The Clone Wars animated series. He appeared most infamously in The Disappeared, Part 1. This is the episode where Jar Jar kisses his love interest, a foreign queen, leading to a lot of memes and jokes. It seems that despite the character’s roots, he’s determined to stick around whether in memes or movies.
Admiral Ackbar
Ackbar has one of the earliest memes in the franchise and it might be one of the first examples of a meme in common internet parlance. In Return of the Jedi, the Mon Calamari general’s only real purpose is to inform the rebels that they’ve been duped. However, the character’s design and delivery gave him a long-standing impact.
It may seem disrespectful to the long career of Gial Ackbar to reduce him to a sound bite. However, as is the case with many Star Wars characters, Ackbar was only fleshed out because of his memorable role. He made frequent appearances in the animated series, and even returned in Episode VIII. He went from mere reactions to returning to screen prominence.
General Grievous
It seems completely CGI Star Wars characters are a magnet for memes. When General Grievous first debuted in Genndy Tarkovsky’s Clone Wars, the reception was great. When he appeared in movies fans felt it was a downgrade and made memes accordingly. However, the film version of Grievous would be the one to experience a resurgence years later.
Grievous’ habit of collecting lightsabers became exploited with “This will make a fine addition to my collection.” Other quotes like “Impossible” and “Time to abandon ship” became reaction image memes. His most famous moment both then and now is “General Kenobi,” when he reveals his four lightsabers and extra arms. This visual has always been popular to spoof online.
FN-2199
The story of FN-2199 is similar to the story of Admiral Ackbar. In The Force Awakens, a random stormtrooper engages Finn after shouting “Traitor!” This earned the lone stormtrooper the fan epithet “TR-8R.” The character was revealed to be FN-2199 from the novels released before the film.
FN-2199 is an example of how a minor character can capture the fanbase's attention, much like Boba Fett before him. Hype for FN-2199 eventually died down after his canonical death in the film. However, novels and other media make mention of him as a major character in Finn’s life at every opportunity. He even appeared in the recent LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.
Anakin Skywalker
Despite the fact that Darth Vader is one of the most famous characters in the world, most fans view Anakin Skywalker as a separate character. This even extends to memes. Darth Vader memes generally revolve around how serious and scary he is, whereas Anakin memes run the gamut of silly to intense. In general, younger Anakin memes tend to be silly prequel quotes where older Anakin is more intense.
This is reflective of the change in the character himself over the course of the prequel trilogy. While the films are controversial, they did portray the character with a darker tone as they went forward. Earlier memes about how spinning “is a good trick” make way for memes about the controversial Youngling scene from Revenge of the Sith. Anakin was a controversial figure but his presence in memes is as overwhelming as his lightsaber onslaughts. It seemed that when it comes to how enduring the character would be, fans “underestimated his power.”