Just when fans thought that the prequel films were the more divisive of the two Star Wars trilogies, along came Disney's sequel trilogy, and with it some of the most savage memes of all time. The divisive films that began with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker came to represent the highs and lows of the Star Wars franchise in a way that few fans could predict.
It's nearly impossible to be ambivalent about the sequel trilogy. Many fans view it as the adventures of an over-powered protagonist and her SJW friends battling an emotionally juvenile villain, set to a backdrop of overused tropes from the classic trilogy. Others have come to appreciate it for the unique storytelling it represents from new film makers, where it diverges from typical Star Wars fare, and its diverse cast. Here are 10 memes about the sequels that will have you cry-laughing.
THE WAITING GAME
This meme can apply not just to the sequel trilogy, but to all of Disney's Star Wars films. For many fans, when George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney back in 2014, it was the end of an era. His vision would no longer be the impetus for the Star Wars franchise, and time would tell just what the "Disney" brand of Star Wars would look like.
With every film in the sequel trilogy that was released, Star Wars fans eagerly waited to see the same care, time, and attention paid to their favorite characters and storylines as they perceived in Disney's Marvel films. Many fans are still waiting.
A DISCREPANCY IN THE FORCE
One of the biggest complaints Star Wars fans have had about the sequel trilogy involves its main protagonist, Rey. She began as a humble scavenger on the backwater world of Jakku, with no friends and no family. After falling in with a Resistance pilot and an ex-stormtrooper, suddenly she's swept up in a grand adventure that leads her to Jedi Master Luke Skywalker.
Before she even begins any Jedi training with Skywalker, she exhibits skills with the Force, such as mind control and competency with a lightsaber. When she faces Kylo Ren, a former pupil of Skywalker's with exceptional (albeit reckless) strength in the dark side of the Force, they're perplexedly evenly matched.
STAR WARS: MARY POPPINS
Whatever is said about the sequel trilogy, no Star Wars fan can point wrongdoing at Carrie Fisher, who brought a comionate strength to the part of Leia Organa, a general in the Resistance. Fisher has been one of the backbones of the sequel trilogy (as she was in the original trilogy) and the fact is undisputed.
Where their misgivings arose concern her Force powers, which by the time of Star Wars: The Last Jedi seemed incredible. She's able to survive in the cold vacuum of space simply by concentrating on the Force and propelling herself to safety, with what fans felt to be no leadup or explanation.
A DYAD IN THE FORCE
The sequel films have been the most divisive trilogy in the Skywalker saga. Star Wars fans of the original trilogy don't feel that they've lived up to their expectations, and fans of the Expanded Universe, once the only canon material that existed beyond the original trilogy feel that they've squandered their potential as a final act of George Lucas's vision.
As this meme presents, when Star Wars fans who are open-minded enough band together, they can stand up against the brutality of the fandom that turns its anger on the sequel trilogy. At the end of the day, it's still some of the greatest visual storytelling ever to appear in the history of cinema, whether it was done perfectly or not.
A COWARD AND A TRAITOR
Ever since Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi came out, it was considered malicious treason to like them as a Star Wars fan. It was almost as though embracing a new story arc with all new characters flew in the face of the Star Wars films that came before it.
Instead of being allowed to enjoy what you wanted to enjoy, you either had to dump on the sequel trilogy or consider yourself not a "true" fan. Shouldn't a "true fan" be free to take what elements they wanted to from the new films and cast aside the rest? After all, there are still many other Star Wars films and television series to enjoy.
PREQUEL VS. SEQUEL
After the prequel trilogy came out, it became di regeur to make fun of them for a variety of reasons. Whether you thought Jar Jar Binks was stupid, or Jake Lloyd's acting was terrible, or the battle droids were lame, everything about them was available for meme fodder.
The same doesn't seem to apply to making fun of the sequel trilogy. It would appear that while other Star Wars fans can all have a good collective laugh about how terrible the prequel trilogy is, the sequel trilogy fans are much more sensitive.
TAKE 3?
The Emperor may be a master manipulator, but for the puppet master of the Skywalker saga, he sure doesn't get creative with his plans for galactic domination. The Death Star seemed like a fine superweapon until a mere squadron of X-wings blew it up. He decided where one failed a second Death Star surely wouldn't, with similar results.
Then along came the First Order, which we find out in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Palpatine was behind all along. Their answer to the second Death Star's failure was to put a laser-canon inside a planet. And with Palpatine's Final Order, his crowning achievement was putting laser-canons on Star Destroyers, the equivalent of Doctor Evil's laser-mounted piranhas...in space.
THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS
It's become a universally acknowledged truth that while Disney was painstakingly developing it's MCU, it made sure that each film in succession was interconnected to each one that came before and after it over the course of carefully thought out plot points.
When it came to developing its Star Wars sequel trilogy that needed to not only advance the storyline of the original films but also connect to the prequel trilogy, Disney seemed to have no idea how to properly close out the decades-long Skywalker saga. Each film seemed disconnected from the others, disted, and with not throughline narrative.
ONLY TWO THERE ARE
Many Star Wars fans have decided that with the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the sequel trilogy couldn't be redeemed. Therefore, they don't acknowledge it as a worthy addition to the Skywalker saga, and only recognize the first six films as canon.
Is it right of fans to compare the trilogies to the Sith, whose Rule of Two turned out to be a lie in the ninth film? Perhaps, because only the Sith deal in absolutes. And fans either absolutely hated the sequel trilogy, or they absolutely loved it, with very little middle ground.
HOLD MY BLUE MILK
Since the release of the sequel trilogy, Star Wars fans have looked back on the prequel films with kinder eyes. They now hold a special reverence for their narrative where once only vitriol festered. They overlook their massive plotholes and wooden acting because at least they were Lucas's vision, right?
The truth is that even if George Lucas did do the final trilogy, Star Wars fans most likely wouldn't have been satisfied. They would have blamed him for the usual problems pertaining to poor writing, and the franchise would be no worse off than it was before.
