YMMV / Star Wars

YMMV Items With Their Own Pages:

• Alternative Character Interpretation
• Broken Base
• Common Knowledge
• Complete Monster
• Ensemble Dark Horse
• Fanon Discontinuity
• Franchise Original Sin
• Hilarious In Hindsight
• Improved Second Attempt
• Magnificent Bastard
• Memetic Mutation
• Narm
• Narm Charm
• Never Live It Down
• The Scrappy
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot
• The Woobie

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The franchise as a whole:

A-B

• Accidental Aesop: All three films in the prequel trilogy and The Force Awakens show why having a military is important.
  • In The Phantom Menace, the Trade Federation takes over Naboo effortlessly, forcing Padme to enlist the aid of the Gungan army. If she had a military from the beginning, Padme could have solved the problem on her own. For that matter, the Trade Federation probably wouldn't have bothered Naboo at all if she always had a military.
  • The Confederacy of Independent Systems in Attack of the Clones seceded from the Republic and had a military while the Republic did not, so the Republic had to rely on a clone army created under shady circumstances to fight the separatists. Without the clones, the Republic would have lost the war in weeks.
  • The Jedi get betrayed in Revenge of the Sith by the clones. If the Republic had their own army instead of one that was liable to have outside loyalties, the Jedi Order wouldn't have fallen victim to Order 66.
  • In The Force Awakens, the New Republic refuses to keep itself armed out of fear of becoming another Empire, allowing the First Order to remilitarize, wipe out Hosnian Prime, and steamroll them.
• Accidental Innuendo:
  • "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!"
  • "Luke, at that speed do you think you'll be able to pull out in time?"
  • "They came from behind!"
  • "Pull out! You're not doing any good back there!"
  • "(pant) I can't... (pant) it's too big..."
  • "In time you will learn to call me 'master'."
  • "Look at the size of that thing!"
  • "Judge me by my size, do you?" for Attack of the Clones, they even made a poster with Yoda on it that says "Size matters not".
  • "Get in there, you big furry oaf! I don't care what you smell!"
  • "I have felt him."
    • Strange that I have not."
  • "Back door, huh? Good idea."
  • "Hurry up, Golden Rod, or you're going to be a permanent resident!"
  • "Myself, the boy, two droids, and No Questions Asked."
  • "It's possible he came in through the south entrance." You could do this all day.
  • "Well, my little friend, you've got something jammed in here real good."
  • "Governor Tarkin, I should have expected to find you holding Vader's leash."
  • "Since you are reluctant to provide us with the location of the Rebel base, I have chosen to test this station's destructive power... on your home planet of Alderaan."
  • My goodness, you've grown!
    • "So have you", says Anakin, his eyes fixed squarely on Padmé's chest.
  • We're too big to fit in there!
  • And on a more memetic note, there is "He is in my behind!" from the Translation Train Wreck, Backstroke of the West.
  • Its Fan Sequels, The Star War Gatherings, are no better.
  Tarkin: "We will then crush the uprising, quick stroking motion."
  • One of the music genres in the Expanded Universe is called Jizz. Yeah...
• Actor Shipping:
  • During the days of the Original Trilogy, the fans who loved Luke and Leia's romantic chemistry turned into shipping Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher (nicknamed "Marrie", apparently), due to them being very close in real-life. It was eventually revealed in Carrie Fisher's memoir that Mark indeed had a crush on her during the production of A New Hope.
  • A large amount of the fans who ship Han/Leia also shipped Carrie with Harrison Ford. Even moreso after the rumors of their supposed affair during the production, which was confirmed by Carrie herself on her memoir, The Princess Diarist, before her passing. It went to the point where Mark Hamill also shipped them, even moreso by calling them "Carrison" and "Harrie". The name "Carrison" eventually turned up as a chapter title in The Princess Diarist.
  Carrie Fisher: It was Han and Leia during the week, and Carrie and Harrison during the weekend.
  • During the days of the Prequel Trilogy, a significant amount of the fans shipped Natalie Portman with Hayden Christensen, nicknamed 'Nayden'. The fact that they briefly dated during production did not hurt either.
  • And now, John Boyega and Daisy Ridley became a ship loved by many, not only for their on-screen chemistry but also for their strong off-screen chemistry (similar to Mark/Carrie), which was further ignited by John Boyega giving her an Affectionate Nickname, "Peanut".
  • Prior to the release of TLJ, Daisy and Domhnall Gleeson became an equally popular ship thanks to promotional materials, due to Gleeson's seeming awkwardness when around Daisy and both expressing heavy appreciation for each other a LOT.
  • After the release of Rogue One, Felicity Jones and Diego Luna picked up some flames from Jyn/Cassian shippers. Also, Mads Mikkelsen and Ben Mendelsohn got quite a number of shippers after they showed quite a chemistry on interview/events, at least until the former got close to Hideo Kojima.
• Alas, Poor Scrappy: The canonical fate of Jar Jar Binks: he became a total outcast thanks to his role in Palpatine's rise of power, despite having been just one of many who were played like a fiddle by him. He spends his time entertaining children while being ostracized by their parents, trying to atone for his mistakes by making them laugh. Fans actually felt sorry for him after this.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: One criticism of the prequel trilogy is that very young children are sent to the Jedi Order for training and, upon being made Jedi Knights, are ordered to live a life of celibacy, forbidden from intimate emotional attachments. Which is exactly what real-life Buddhist monks do, and in the Middle-Ages, a knight would begin training from a fairly young age, often away from his birth parents.
• Americans Hate Tingle: It's one of the under-appreciated ironies that despite drawing a lot of inspiration from Asian religions and mythology, Star Wars, with the exception of Japan (and to a lesser extent, Korea), is not very popular in Asia, especially the two largest Asian nations, (also the two largest in terms of population in the world):
  • Star Wars is famously obscure in China. This is mostly since China hadn't opened its market to the West in the period of its original release (1977-1983) and when it did, around the time of the Prequel Trilogy, there was little of the Nostalgia Filter and curiosity that attracted its great hype elsewhere. The Sequel Trilogy has a famously difficult time to break in China, despite Disney films doing well there. The context of Star Wars, a combination of multiple science-fiction tropes, and vaguely spiritual mysticism clashing with technology generally has little favor. There is also the fact that Star Wars has real competition in China with wuxia films and other martial arts works that largely removed a lot of the exotic appeal it had for the Western audiences. Solo which was subtitled A Star Wars Story in the West, was promoted as a standalone title without any connection to Star Wars there, but this didn't move the needle. That hasn't discouraged Lucasfilm from trying things to appeal more to Chinese audiences, such as the Web Serial Novel The Vow of Silver Dawn.
  • It isn't especially big in India either. Hollywood films as a rule rarely do well in India against the local product albeit more because of state-imposed restrictions than anything else. India is one of the few places where The Terminator and The Matrix had a bigger cultural and technical influence than Star Wars and where Harrison Ford is more well known for his turn in Air Force One than as Han Solo. The situation changed, at least for the urban English-speaking population, around the time of the Prequel Trilogy, which was generally well liked there, but even then, Star Wars is seen as one among many science-fiction films rather than the big separate pop culture entity it is in the West. Similar to China, the Indian melodrama and pop-culture cinema still uses many of the melodramatic and epic tropes that Star Wars repackaged in science-fiction dressing, removing most of its freshness for the Western audience, and they largely don't see what the fuss is about.
• Angel/Devil Shipping:
  • A canonical example presented via the Prequel Trilogy and The Clone Wars is Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala. She is a very kind, idealistic and goodhearted woman who is literally compared (by Anakin, no less) to an angel. He starts out as a heroic character who gradually becomes increasingly dark and troubled, culminating in his Face–Heel Turn to become Darth Vader, one of the most famous villains in cinematic history. Anakin actually causes Padmé's death, after Force-choking her in a fit of anger when she pleads with him to come back to the light, and spends the rest of his life hating himself for it; she dies believing he can still be redeemed.
  • In the Sequel Trilogy, one of the most popular ships is Rey/Kylo Ren; she's an aspiring Jedi and the all-loving hero of the Sequel Trilogy, while he's an angst-ridden, unstable enforcer of the First Order and Darth Vader wannabe. The generous servings of Foe Romance Subtext and Ship Tease in the films certainly help.
• Applicability: With as much impact as the franchise has had on popular culture, people have found ways to relate Star Wars, especially the films' elaboration of the political backdrop, to pretty much every aspect of everyday life.
  • The Prequel Trilogy's films, for instance, are often analyzed and used as satires of the United States' liberal-conservative divide, especially because its main subject is the downfall of a Republic to an Empire (a plot that by its nature inherently touches on issues and debates of democracy) and the George W. Bush and Donald Trump presidencies in particular (with the latter possibly leading to the massive surge in Revenge of the Sith memes in 2017).
  • The Original Trilogy's films were themselves political fodder. Ronald Reagan referred to a planned missile program as "Star Wars" and his speech describing the Soviet Union as an "Evil Empire" also alluded to the Original Trilogy's films^note Contrary to popular belief, this didn't happen immediately. The missile program was derisively labeled Star Wars by the media first, and Reagan disliked it because he saw it as a smear that alluded to his beginnings as a Hollywood actor rather than treat him as a serious political figure. His advisors later changed his mind, pointing out that the film was good, and besides "the good guys won". Politically, the original film's references are seen as being especially hard to parse, because Lucas co-opts imagery from Triumph of the Will and not merely for the Empire but also the Rebels (the finale of A New Hope in the medal ceremony has Nuremberg lighting straight out of Reifenstahl for what is essentially a tribute to the good guys). Return of the Jedi has Ewoks defeating the Empire in what Lucas at the time considered a reference to the Vietnam War with the Empire and its Storm-Troopers analogous to USA.^note Lucas originally planned to direct the film that became Apocalypse Now back when he still saw himself as a renegade avant-garde director, (circa THX-1138).
• Archive Panic: The Star Wars franchise is one of the biggest media franchises around:
  • The Original Trilogy can itself be viewed in a single long afternoon, or late evening (cumulatively it's 6 Hours, 18 Minutes, three hours shorter than the entire The Lord of the Rings trilogy), and it's the representative foundation for the entire franchise. It's followed by the Prequel Trilogy, each of which is longer than Return of the Jedi (the longest of the Original Trilogy), and is more slow-paced. Then there's the Disney era, which are also in the longish side with The Last Jedi holding the current record at 151 minutes as the longest film in the franchise.
  • The Expanded Universe, adaptations, licensed titles, and other paraphernalia includes a monstrous amount of comic books, comic strips, books and novels (Wikipedia lists at least 303 books total), over 120 video game tie ins and other material (I.e. The radio and audio dramas, and enough toys and merchandise to fill the Executor). And new content is still being made to this day, and after 40 years, it is showing no signs of stopping. Trying to reduce this, and the Continuity Lock-Out it could lead to, in order to help bring in newer fans may be part of why Disney decided a lot of the previously released spin-offs are no longer canon. At the very least, the purchase by Disney provides a handy dividing line for the entire franchise.
• Ass Pull: Rare successful examples: Vader's being Luke's father and Leia's being his sister. Neither is hinted at in any way (especially the second), but they're regarded as great twists all the same.
• Badass Decay: Padmé Amidala undergoes this when she becomes pregnant with twins in Revenge of the Sith. Justified in that she's eight to nine months pregnant. Although some would argue it happened earlier in Attack of the Clones with the ill-received romance with Anakin.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Anakin's fanbase vs. hatedom is evenly split between those who liked or hated the Prequel Trilogy. Both sides will praise Anakin for his portrayal in The Clone Wars though. Surprisingly, his legendary future self—Darth Vader—has also become a minor example due to the films created by Disney shilling his character to some extent (The Force Awakens makes a point of Kylo Ren not being able to live up to his predecessor, while Rogue One paints Vader as a terrifying, larger-than-life figure to an even greater degree than the Original Trilogy did). For a while, there was some backlash over Darth Vader's page on Wookieepedia being merged into Anakin's page for canonical reasons, due to Anakin being a Base-Breaking Character while Vader was one of the most universally beloved characters in the franchise. Possibly in response to this, The Other Wiki merged both versions of the character into Vader's page due to Vader being the more well-known form in popular culture.
  • With fans who solely liked the Original Trilogy, the Ewoks are debated as to whether they are the start of Lucas making mistakes, or aren't that annoying, but should be viewed more positively in light of Jar Jar's antics.
  • Within the Prequel Trilogy's fanbase, the criticism towards Jar Jar is either justified on its own or overinflated by those who hated the Prequel Trilogy over a character that wasn't that annoying or stereotypical in hindsight. Depending on whether it proves to be true, the theory about what Jar Jar might have been all along threatens to blow up the breaks on this base all over again. The fact that Ahmed Best revealed he contemplated suicide over the toxic reaction from fans hasn't exactly helped the debate.
  • While Boba Fett always had a sizable fanbase, there's an increasing number of people who think that he's an overrated character whose Memetic Badass reputation is undeserved given his on-screen lack of badassery, and are sick of hearing such fans making claims such being able to fight Vader to a standstill if the two ever fought.
  • In regards to the Sequel Trilogy, fans are divided over Luke Skywalker's portrayal, particularly in The Last Jedi. Some consider it to be Out of Character whilst others feel it makes logical sense in context. Rose Tico is also a bit of a base-breaker (though not to the same extent). Some love her, some think she's just okay and then there are people who think she's "the Jar Jar of the Sequel Trilogy" (and some would then argue back that's she's nowhere near that bad...)
  • Kylo Ren. He's either a nuanced Anti-Villain whose inner struggle with his Dark and Light side makes him even more interesting and complex character than his predecessor Darth Vader, or a whiny, unsympathetic Psychopathic Manchild with inconsistent characterization, lackluster if not nonexistent motivations, the aforementioned inner struggle being unconvincing, and a character arc that makes no sense. Plus one would think Anakin's Force ghost would safeguard his grandson or something from the dark side, especially his hero-worship of Darth Vader, cause y'know, Anakin is Vader. This is all exacerbated by the entire sequel trilogy basically hingeing on him being the new Vader in order to happen.
  • Rey. She is either a likable and badass protagonist with ​a relatable search for an identity, or a boring and invincible protagonist who never faces real struggles and with whom it is impossible to empathize. Her search for an identity in itself is also a source of discussion, as Rian Johnson and JJ Abrams don't seem to agree on which direction to take it and fans are divided on which was the better solution between Rey Nobody and Rey Palpatine (not to mention people who don't like either option). Her Foe Romance Subtext with Kylo Ren/Ben Solo is also very polarizing, with some considering it one of the most compelling aspects of the Sequel Trilogy (or even one of its few redeeming qualities) and others thinking instead that it is a forced, poorly written relationship with problematic elements. This is all exacerbated by her essentially getting Luke's hitherto role in the saga (as the restorer of the Jedi) handed to her on a platter, and this role being taken away from Luke is divisive in itself - though it's through no fault or action of her own, since Kylo Ren destroys the Jedi again before she enters the story; and that her being female is unfortunately used by both detractors and defenders to deflect or distract from these issues, which would still exist if she had been male (to the point that some think that it's Kylo Ren and not her who should be recognized as the bigger problem by far).
  • The original trilogy has C-3PO. Either you like him for being a quirky character and his friendship with R2-D2, or you dislike him for being a worry-wart who doesn't know when to shut up. There's no in-between to this. It didn't help that he was originally viewed as The Scrappy after The Empire Strikes Back, but he has been upgraded to this because of him having both fans and haters.
  • Mace Windu. He's either a flawed, yet still good man who tried his best to do right but failed or a Designated Hero who embodies the worst aspects of the Jedi code whose actions led to the demise of the order.
• Better on DVD: If you get the Complete Saga collection, you'll get the first six movies so that you don't have to buy them separately. This makes it slightly easier for a viewing experience, as both trilogies were originally sold separately. It also counts even for the regular editions (including as a DVD release), as all three films of both trilogies are collected in the set instead of separately.

C-E

• Character Perception Evolution:
  • The Prequel Trilogy's portrayal of Anakin Skywalker by Hayden Christensen was widely derided on release for being a whiny and selfish brat failing to mesh with the heroic image build of him in the Original Trilogy, their fall to evils unsatisfying explanation of tying into their poorly done romance, and ruining the image of Darth Vader. After Star Wars: The Clone Wars redeemed Anakin, many fans positively reevaluated his portrayal in the Prequel Trilogy, noting that Anakin's numerous flaws presented throughout said trilogy retroactively make logical sense (and were probably intentional, given that Anakin's issues are what led him to fall to the Dark Side in the first place) thanks to The Clone Wars along with the fact that Hayden still gave a phenomenal performance and that much of his faults lied more in external restrictions than any issues with the character. Anakin's more favorable reception with fans also strengthened when his Sequel Trilogy Expy, Kylo Ren, became similarly contentious (again, save for his acting) due to the the lack of consistent script direction, highlighting how better planned and written Anakin's story was in retrospect. When Hayden reprised his role as Anakin in Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka, his performance was widely anticipated and praised.
  • C-3PO, who was widely reviled as a scrappy around the time of The Empire Strikes Back, is much more fondly regarded as an iconic fixture of the franchise once the young audience who had liked him to begin with grew up and made their tastes known.
  • Ahsoka Tano was not universally beloved when she was introduced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, as many fans dismissed her as being a hotheaded, arrogant and unnecessary Tagalong Kid that broke up Anakin and Obi-Wan's brotherly master-apprentice dynamic for the sake of inserting a Kid-Appeal Character whose existence had never been hinted at in the movies. As both the series and the character matured however, many people began to get far more invested in Ahsoka, particularly as she goes through so much trauma in surviving the rise of the Empire and everything afterward, yet still growing into a wise and skilled woman who still stays true to her morals. The fact that Ahsoka is one of the few recurring female characters that's not only a Force user, but is still alive and plays a prevalent role throughout various installments has since made her one of the most popular characters in the franchise.
• Contested Sequel:
  • Due to the vitrolic nature of the Broken Base, every movie after The Empire Strikes Back is seen as this. Empire itself was widely seen as this at the time of release due to being Darker and Edgier and ending on a cliffhanger. Return of the Jedi, while disliked by many fans and critics, was far better received by general audiences at the time than The Empire Strikes Back and made more money at the box office, and it was only by the end of the 80s that The Empire Strikes Back came to be highly regarded.
  • The Prequel Trilogy as a whole is subject to this. They created an entire sub-industry bashing it. The general consensus is that The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones are the two weakest installments in the Prequel Trilogy while Revenge of the Sith is either seen as a masterpiece or a decent movie but nowhere close to the Original Trilogy’s films, with fans and critics feeling that it presented a picture of Vader's downfall that didn't do justice to how they saw the character. Others argue that the Prequel Trilogy's movies are visually gorgeous and beautiful, with greater Worldbuilding that really conveyed a universe filled with diverse planets, amazing detailed action set pieces (the Podrace, the chase over Coruscant at the start of Attack of the Clones and the opening space battle of Revenge of the Sith). It also communicated an aesthetic that was entirely different from the Original Trilogy (whereas the Sequel Trilogy is often criticized for simply rehashing the look of the Original Trilogy) as well as the best lightsaber duels (Darth Maul in the "Duel of the Fates" and Anakin and Obi-Wan at Mustafar). Revenge of the Sith in particular has many fans considering it a great movie, as good as the Original Trilogy's first two movies, while others see it as being above-average.
  • When The Force Awakens was first released, it was generally well received, being seen as a welcome return to form after the polarizing prequels. However in recent years, many have become more critical of the film, viewing it as a lazy, uninspired rehash of A New Hope that completely undoes all the accomplishments, victories, and character development of the original heroes, and leaves the events of the Original Trilogy feeling completely pointless. Some of the problems that people have with the later films in the Sequel Trilogy can be traced back to this film and the creative decisions that it made.
  • The Last Jedi is this due to being quite different in terms of tone to other Star Wars films, having several controversial story threads and for presenting a picture of Luke Skywalker post-OT that many fans felt was a complete disservice to his character. Some viewers are hailing it as one of the best films in the saga since The Empire Strikes Back, others hated the direction it takes, and others still don't know what to make of it.
  • The Rise of Skywalker became even more controversial than The Last Jedi. Some liked the film for retconning and walking back several elements of The Last Jedi while others disliked it for the same reason. Then there are those who hate both films, claiming that the film's attempt at course-correcting only ended with a film that satisfied nobody. As the Grand Finale to the Skywalker Saga, The Rise of Skywalker is either a fitting conclusion or a disappointing mess...ironically bringing this trope full-circle to the original divided opinions on Return of the Jedi.
  • The Sequel Trilogy as a whole has received a similarly splintered reception among fans and critics as the Prequels. Plenty of critics and fans enjoy the Sequels for their actors' performances, superb visuals, and exciting moments, but just as many disown them for their inconsistent tone, message, and narrative threads, controversial treatment of classic characters, and continuation of a story that had a clean finale over thirty years ago. Even whether this trilogy is better than the Prequels is a point of contention among the fans.
  • Return of the Jedi (nowadays, at least), Rogue One, and Solo all suffer from this more mildly. While generally liked or, at the very least, not outright hated, many fans agree that they don't quite live up to the first two movies' level of prestige, each for their own reasons.
• Continuity Lockout:
  • This franchise is one of this trope's codifiers, owing mostly to its very large amount of supplementary material and the fact that many things that are foreshadowed are done in different Star Wars themed works entirely. Some of these works, for the record, were done via limited releases (Such as comic books or video games) and rely on people needing to keep circulating them or check the extensive fan wikis. As an added bonus, not every piece of information is available in all parts of the world - yet some works that reference or even build off of these non-exported works will still get released.
  • To wit, this reached a boiling point amongst some fans when The Rise of Skywalker had foreshadowed a few force powers... through The Mandalorian. Which is only available on Disney Plus, and that platform in turn was only available in a few parts of the world at the time of the film's release. Another important detail that was explained in the opening crawl (rather than flat out shown) was actually explained in a Fortnite event. Note that Fortnite has absolutely nothing to do with Star Wars, and this is a timed event, meaning you are forced to rely on someone having recorded it or having played this particular video game.
• Creator Worship:
  • Prequel Trilogy fans treat George Lucas this way. Unlike the Original Trilogy, these movies were entirely written and directed by him, and as per his own interviews, represent his original vision for a Space Opera done on an Epic scale. Prequel fans as a rule also defend the Special Editions and the changes made by Lucas.
  • As a result of being the supervising director of The Clone Wars (along with the executive producer of The Mandalorian), Dave Filoni has achieved deity status among a new generation of Star Wars viewers by the end of the series' original run thanks to his work. The announcement that Dave has revived The Clone Wars after SDCC '18 practically has sent this into the stratosphere. Though the lukewarm reception to The Mandolorian season 3 and Ahsoka have threatened to derail it.
• Critical Backlash:
  • The prequel trilogy, especially The Phantom Menace, gets this in spades due to the often vitriolic nature of the people's dislike for them, which can cause people new to the franchise to wonder what all the fuss was about. Revenge of the Sith gets it much less so than the other two, although it is still gets enough flak to warrant the same status as the other two.
  • Ironically enough, Return of the Jedi, while still generally seen as the worst of the Original Trilogy, is getting more and more praise as time passes and it's not uncommon to hear people claim it as their favorite of the Original Trilogy after the Prequel Trilogy came out.
  • As noted in the Misblamed section, some fans feel that Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen get too much hatred for their terrible performances, pointing out how other actors gave similarly bad performances yet didn't get as much fan ire. Instead, they point to the bad screenplay and George Lucas's direction. The bullying that Lloyd received for his portrayal and Lucas admitting that he can't write effective dialogue only increased this backlash.
  • While the 1997 Special Editions were hit hard with They Changed It, Now It Sucks! on their initial release, which was repeated when further changes were made with the DVD and Blu-Ray versions, as time has passed this has given way to an increasing consensus that most of the changes aren't really that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things (Greedo shooting first is probably the only change that's still universally criticized), and/or supplanted things that were themselves flawed in the theatrical versions. Nowadays the discussion generally revolves more around the non-availablity of the theatrical versions, with people on both sides tending to agree that the originals should at least be available for people to watch if they want to.
  • In regards to the sequel trilogy, The Force Awakens is a fairly straight example, but The Last Jedi is a downplayed example. While adored by critics, it's extremely polarizing with fans due to its handling of Luke Skywalker, attempts at Internal Deconstruction and its attempts to take the franchise into new directions, which in the views of some were either not executed well, or were bad ideas to begin with. Nevertheless, there is a good chunk of fans who still like the film and find that that it is more flawed than actually bad. The Rise of Skywalker is in a similar downplayed position; it is just as polarizing among both fans and critics for its Cliché Storm and abandoning plot threads form previous films, but once again many fans aren’t convinced it is truly bad and not without some strong points.
• Critical Dissonance:
  • The Prequel Trilogy had better reception than most Internet forums and comments sections would have one believe, considering the first two got a So Okay, It's Average reaction with 59% and 67% scores on Rotten Tomatoes and a rather positive 79% for Revenge of the Sith, only less than Return of the Jedi by 1%. ^note It should be noted, however, that the scores have changed prior to the release of The Force Awakens. Originally, Revenge of the Sith had an 80% positive score while Return of the Jedi had a 79% positive score, making it the only prequel movie to surpass one of the Original Trilogy. Going by some fan reactions and the audience polls ranging in the 60% range, one would get the impression they are some of the worst films to hit the planet. This was somewhat balanced out by the rise of the Prequel Trilogy fanbase in The New '10s who proclaim them to be among the greatest movies ever, resulting in even stronger audience polarization that reflects the movies' highly mixed (as opposed to outright negative) Tomatometer scores.
  • Similarly, while Return of the Jedi is considered the weakest of the original films, it still has a very favorable reception, considering its Rotten Tomatoes audience score is at a whopping 95%, far better than the 80% of critics.
  • Yet according to this article if we were to score all six films based on critical reception at their first releases, A New Hope and Revenge of the Sith would get the highest scores while Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace would score the lowest. What makes this all the more surprising is if you were to compare them to The Force Awakens first release score, it's the highest rated Star Wars film to date!
  • In what's possibly one of the most pronounced cases of this trope in action, The Last Jedi had an overwhelmingly positive response from critics at 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. The audience score, however, hovers around the 50% range with a significant amount of uproar made over the direction of the film, to the point it warranted news outlets reporting on the disconnect.
• Designated Hero: Despite being a Jedi master and the second highest ranking member of the Jedi Order, Mace Windu tends to embody is seen by a section of fans as embodying the worst aspects of the Jedi. In Attack of the Clones, he beheads Jango Fett instead of disarming him and his face afterwards seem to suggest he doesn't care that Jango was a person (though in his defence, he was defending himself), and in The Clone Wars he doesn't apologize or try to explain himself to Boba Fett (and by that point, he knew that Boba saw him behead Jango), instead basically telling him to get over it. Some also see him as callous when dealing with Ahsoka as he ultimately concedes to Tarkin's demands to excommunicate her and then didn't apologize to her when she is revealed to be innocent, instead saying it was the will of the Force(the entire Council, Windu included, gives a collective apology via Plo Koon and in-universe the Force is very much a real thing that does test people). Lastly, in Revenge of the Sith, he is distrusting and callous to Anakin, openly talking down to him in front of the council, and telling Obi-Wan and Yoda that he doesn't trust him, while at the same time giving him orders to spy on someone he viewed as a close friend for many years(that he was under immense pressure at the time and someone with already too much power was trying to get more factors into this). For some this behavior makes Mace come off as an emotionless manipulative jerk who cares little about the feelings of others rather than an altruist keeper of the peace, ignoring Mace's genuinely heroic moments in extended material and his cordial relationship with Anakin where they bantered on-screen in the Clone Wars show.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Numerous psychiatrists have speculated about the mental health of Anakin Skywalker based on the symptoms he shows in the Star Wars prequels, with the most popular theory being that he has Borderline Personality Disorder. The speculation even made its way into the Expanded Universe: in the Coruscant Nights series, Jax Pavan recalls Anakin being prone to sudden mood swings and suspects he may have had some kind of mental illness. Likewise, in The Force Awakens, his successor and grandson Kylo Ren shows a similar collection of huge mood swings, extreme outbursts of anger, lack of empathy, difficulties with interpersonal relationships, emotional disturbances, and odd obsessions and anxieties. It doesn't help matters that in Star Wars Legends, and to some extent in canon, it's shown that being Drunk on the Dark Side has similar effects to hard drugs on brain chemistry, which greatly impacts the mentally ill.
• Discredited Meme: While complaining about how George Lucas ruined your childhood might have been commonplace on the internet from the 2000s through to the first half of the 2010s; doing it today unironically will, at best, get fans to roll their eyes at you and, at worst will get you viciously mocked and flamed by said fans, regardless of their opinion on Lucas' handling of the franchise around that time. This is in equal parts due to Lucas' reputation having enjoyed a huge resurgence since Disney took over the franchise, the various complaints about the Special Editions and prequels having been made so often over the better part of two decades that they've become tired and played-out, and the detrimental effects that complaints about the prequels have had on the mental health of several people involved in making them, most notably Jake Lloyd and Ahmed Best.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Darth Vader is one of the biggest examples in popular culture. Despite the fact that he's the enforcer of an evil totalitarian regime, serves directly under a Complete Monster (Palpatine), and has killed, terrorized, tortured, injured and manipulated many beings, and prominent characters, across the galaxy, he's widely viewed as a cool and admirable character, became the Series Mascot, and is heavily marketed to kids. Many glorify him as a great adversary and competent villain because of his his cool design, Force powers, and memorable voice and quotes and the fact that he ultimately earns a measure of redemption. The movies, even in the Original Trilogy, reveal a fairly impulsive and reckless figure who fails more often than he succeeds^note Vader's record as a General is entirely failures in the Original Trilogy, he failed to stop the Rebels from getting the Death Star plans, failed to protect the Death Star, failed to capture, kill, and or convert Luke, and despite winning the Battle of Hoth and capturing Han Solo, he ends up driving neutral parties like Cloud City and Lando Calrissian into the Alliance, greatly negating his victory. Furthermore, the Dark Side has utterly wrecked his life, making him live in chronic pain with permanent scarring, severe physical and psychological trauma, and ultimately for all the promises of power, never amounting to more than Palpatine's slave until the very end.
  • Kylo Ren has received huge following of fangirls, largely due to his sympathetic qualities, cool costume, lightsaber and is played by the talented and fairly handsome Adam Driver. Some of his fans overlook the fact he’s a violent, unstable murderer who killed his own father, Han Solo, himself a fan-favourite, constantly blaming his parents and relatives for his own life choices, and for all his talk about commitment to the Dark Side and the Nostalgia Filter of The Empire, generally lacking in personal loyalty and discipline as a soldier, commander, and leader, with seemingly little in the way of real ideological conviction (as evidenced by his coup on Snoke, his murder of the Guards by teaming up with Rey, and then lying about his coup to usurp the First Order in a cold-blooded manner) in anything other than his own ego.
  • Incredibly, even Palpatine gets this from some people, who insist he was just a Well-Intentioned Extremist who was trying to bring order to the Galaxy.
• Enhanced on DVD: Despite the amount of scorn they get from purists and varying levels of Digital Destruction, the various special editions of the Original Trilogy have also removed small mistakes that were missed (such as the lightsabers in the Darth Vader and Luke fight in Return Of The Jedi) and the Blu-ray release of the Prequel Trilogy includes re-rendered CGI for many scenes and replaces the Yoda puppet from The Phantom Menace with the CGI one to maintain visual continuity. Some of the defenders of the Special Editions note:
  "Also, it's worth noting that, taken in context, the changes are minor. Greedo shooting first. A CGI populated Mos Eisley. Han meeting Jabba. No more "Yub Yub." Vader screaming "Nooo!" To those not steeped in Star Wars lore, these things pass unnoticed. The essence of what the movies were, are, and will be remains the same; all the things we love about Star Wars are unchanged. Some argue they cannot watch the Special Editions without being pulled out of the experience by the alterations. Fair enough, although that criticism says more about the viewer than the material they are viewing. If that's the case, they're not really immersed."
  — James Berardinelli
• Epileptic Trees:
  • There's a somewhat popular one that suggests that R2-D2 was actually a Republic and later Rebel spy throughout the entire franchise.
  • Another popular theory posits that Boba Fett killed Beru and Owen Lars, supported by his presence on Tatooine in the Special Edition, and the fact that Darth Vader specifically tells him not to disintegrate anyone, when the only characters that are shown as having been disintegrated are the Lars family.
• Even Better Sequel: The Empire Strikes Back is viewed as one to the original film (A New Hope), although the first film is still considered a masterpiece and Return of the Jedi is a classic at any rate, and an excellent film at the very least. Among the Prequel Trilogy, Revenge of the Sith, the third one, is generally considered the best of the films, even by its detractors, with early critical opinion, and a minority of Star Wars aficionados ranking it as the greatest since Empire. Several critics ranked The Last Jedi as better than The Force Awakens, however fan reception was much more divisive.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Darth Vader kicked this trope into high gear and set the standard for future fictional villains. Mostly because he has arguably the most authoritative and commanding voice in film history.
  • Grand Moff Tarkin, thanks to Peter Cushing's performance (Cushing had long had a reputation for this in Hammer Horror films) still endures as the butcher of Alderaan, and for somehow being convincing as Vader's superior officer despite his bureaucratic appearance. His posthumous turn in Rogue One which deals with his devilishly cruel and brilliant supplanting of Director Krennic to gain power in the Imperial hierarchy, has also won him many fans, especially among the newcomers.
  • Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious thanks to Ian McDiarmid's performance elevated a generic Evil Overlord into a Satanic Archetype that in the actor's own words is even more evil than Satan. He was widely considered the best character of the Prequel Trilogy, thanks to his genius manipulation of the Jedi, and especially Anakin to serve as his puppets. Palpatine's memetic line-delivery, his mocking of his opponents (such as the famous "deflector shield will be quite operational" and the Darth Plagueis parable), and his unique line deliveries are popular among imitations, and Palpatine itself is a byword for an insidious arch-manipulative Corrupt Politician, that some rank alongside William Shakespeare's Iago as an iconic villain.
  • Darth Maul is arguably the most iconic Sith Lord after Vader himself. He was ubiquitous and over-promoted before The Phantom Menace and widely considered the best new character in that film. The final duel between him and the two Jedi is among the best fight scenes in the entire franchise. His unique character and lightsaber design, as well as Ray Park's physical performance have kept him as a fan favorite to the extent that his death was undone in The Clone Wars and he finally returned Back from the Dead in live-action at the end of Solo.
  • Kylo Ren generally tries too hard but most agree that he is plenty cool when he stops trying. Mostly due to his actor's charisma, his good looks which remain undiminished despite his turn to the dark side (averting Evil Makes You Ugly unlike the earlier films), and for his highly unpredictable nature, where he's capable of venting out in rage and frustration as well as coldly manipulating events for his advantage, as in the case of his murder of Snoke.

F-G

• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Do not call Darth Vader "Dark" Vader unless you really want to get on a fan's nerves.
• Fandom Heresy:
  • Admitting you liked the the Updated Rereleases of the Original Trilogy can be this. The simple logic dictates that the majority of fans worldwide only know the Special Editions due to the unavailability of restored versions of A New Hope in theaters, but their liking of the movie from this is not counted as a true experience.
  • If you say you like Hayden Christensen (or at least his performance), you'd better be ready to reap the shitstorm. Though this is thankfully a Vocal Minority, as his appearance in SWCO 2017, where fans welcomed him back with warm welcome and excitement to the point where tickets for his autograph and photo sessions sold out within hours.
  • Younger fans, as pointed out by Lucas, actually do like Jar Jar Binks, but a rite of passage is for them to admit they hate Jar-Jar when they go to high school on account of peer pressure. This died down in the wake of Ahmed Best's revelations that the criticism caused him depression and made him flirt with suicide, as well as his vocal complaints about the fact that the backlash has obscured his work as a pioneer in CGI mo-cap performance, setting the standard for Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and the Na'vi in Avatar.
  • The Last Jedi brought a backlash to Disney's films leading to intense discussions among fans not seen since the release of The Empire Strikes Back. Detractors insist that fans of The Last Jedi are pretentious Disney sycophants who approve of the wholesale derailment of the franchise and all it stands for (not to mention the various political arguments involved). Defenders insist that people who dislike The Last Jedi are bitter angry trolls who fail to recognize the prestigious artistic merit of the boldest movie in the franchise and want Star Wars to stagnate (to once again say nothing of the various political arguments involved).
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • Once had one of the most famous and classic examples out there with Star Trek, no doubt caused by the similarity in names and contrasting styles, and also because Star Trek was the big science-fiction brand in Pop-Cultural Osmosis before Star Wars came around, with many, initially, feeling that Star Wars stole its thunder. The rivalry had its peaks and valleys, mostly because the Star Trek films were greenlit and funded as a result of the success of Star Wars films, and ILM provided special effects for The Wrath of Khan which some fans haven't forgotten. The rivalry itself has died down significantly in recent years due to infighting in both groups (with Prime timeline fans and Kelvin timeline going at it with Star Trek and a huge divide between Prequel, OT, and Sequel fans with Star Wars), but it still one of the first rivalries that will come to people’s minds.
  • RedLetterMedia already had a tense relationship with fans of the Prequel Trilogy thanks to the Plinkett Reviews, but this turned into an outright hostile rivalry with the franchise as a whole as the channel became more cynical and negative towards the entire franchise in the Disney era.
  • Within the fandom itself, there are those who liked the Prequel Trilogy, those who preferred the expanded universe and continue to see Legends as the "true" continuation of the franchise, those that are okay with the Sequel Trilogy being the new canonical successor to the other films, and those who ignore everything past the Original Trilogy.
  • On a milder level, some fans of the Prequel Trilogy have a rivalry with those of the Sequel Trilogy because of what they perceive as less-than-subtle prequel-bashing in the promotion of The Force Awakens^note which kept boasting of its practical effects and wanting to go back to the Original Trilogy, which many saw as a dog-whistle for prequel dissing, even if in a story sense it would make sense for the Sequel Trilogy to take more cues from the Original Trilogy, if only for the issue of chronology, and the fact that The Last Jedi allows Luke Skywalker to voice criticism of the conduct of the Jedi in the prequel era, which makes sense in a Watsonian sense, but was also read by many as a Doylist Take That! to the Prequel Trilogy. Ironically, the backlash towards The Last Jedi brought the two groups together, at least to a point, because most of the issues (harassing actors, complaining about subverting ideas about a popular character) were something prequel fans were long familiar with and kept complaining about to little avail before. While sequel trilogy fans still believe that Disney handles Star Wars better than Lucas, a lot of them are less vitriolic about the Prequel Trilogy than they formerly used to be.
  • In short, it's Original Trilogy fans vs. Prequel Trilogy fans vs. Sequel Trilogy fans. While there is some overlap (e.g. most prequel fans also like the originals and many prequel haters will make an exception for Revenge of the Sith), you'd be hard pressed to find an outspoken fan who unironically enjoys all nine films.
• Fanfic Fuel: Long before the Prequel Trilogy was released, there were fanfics about the rise of the Empire and Anakin Skywalker's turn to the Dark Side.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Luke's nickname amongst the fans is "Farmboy" or "Wormie".
  • The Jedi as a whole are called "Space Wizards". Became Ascended Fanon in Star Wars: Light of the Jedi, where a character in-universe calls the jedi Space Wizards.
  • For Palpatine, Sid, Palpy, Palps, or Palpidious.
  • "Vaderkin" to refer to Vader between taking the name Darth Vader and the Mustafar incident.
  • Anakin is sometimes known as "Little Orphan Ani/Annie" on account of his Affectionate Nickname of 'Ani' and the fact he's an orphan by Attack of the Clones.
  • AT-STs are commonly referred to as "chicken walkers". Doubles with Ascended Fanon in Star Wars: Battlefront 2, where the rebels will call the AT-STs chicken walkers on occasion.
  • After Disney bought out the franchise from George Lucas and commissioned a sequel trilogy, the first of which was directed by J. J. Abrams (The Force Awakens), some call its current state "Disney Wars", "NuWars", "Mouse Wars" and most belligerently, "Rats Wars" or "Rat's Wars". "NuWars" parallels "NuTrek", which Abrams also kicked off with a new film.
  • Other nicknames for Palpatine are Frank,^note Palpatine tells Amidala "I must be frank, Your Majesty." Alright, The Senate, Weak, and Too Weak.^note Windu asks "Are you alright?" which Palpatine answers with "Yes." Much later after his identity is discovered, Palpatine boasts that "I am the Senate." And while begging Anakin to help him, he says "I'm weak, too weak."
  • "Space Latinos" for Poe Dameron, Cassian Andor, and Din Djarin, played respectively by Guatemalan Oscar Isaac, Mexican Diego Luna, and Chilean Pedro Pascal.
  • Thanks to that one scene the fans seem unable to let go of, Anakin's lightsaber is known as the "Youngling Slayer 9000."
  • The "Disaster Lineage" for the Master-Apprentice Chain of Yoda, Dooku, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Ahsoka, Luke, and Kylo Ren. Five quit the Jedi Order, three fell to the Dark Side, and three others either trained them or supported their training.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: "Stormpilot", the pairing between Finn and Poe, became an immediate hit with fans due to their onscreen chemistry and the actors' Ship Tease remarks. Although The Last Jedi introduced a love interest for Finn in the form of Rose Tico, and The Rise of Skywalker later introduced Zorii Bliss and Jannah as Implied Love Interests for the each of them, Stormpilot still remains the most overwhelmingly popular ship for both.
• First Installment Wins:
  • A New Hope won the most Oscars, got the most significant nominations, was the biggest commercial success, and the most parodied and referenced of the original films. On a wider scale, the Original Trilogy as a whole is the most acclaimed group of films in the franchise and is particularly prevalent when contrasted with the Contested Sequel status of the Prequel Trilogy and the Sequel Trilogy.
  • In regards to the Sequel Trilogy, The Force Awakens is the least controversial of the three films and had the most consistently positive critical reception from both critics and audiences (The Last Jedi was subject to Critical Dissonance and major Broken Base, and The Rise of Skywalker has received mixed reviews across the board).
  • Among the Special Edition releases of the original trilogy, the 1997 Special Edition, for all its flaws, is the best-received and the least controversial due in no small part to the glaring defects of later Special Editions. It also helps that the marketing for its theatrical release proved effective at appealing to both the old guard and franchise newcomers, and also that ample warning had been given a year and a half in advance for discontinuation of the original versions in favor of the Special Edition.
• Foe Yay Shipping:
  • Reylo (Kylo/Rey) became popular, due to the chemistry/tension between them in The Force Awakens and the fact Kylo shows far more compassion towards her than anyone else. The ship's popularity went through the roof following the release of The Last Jedi due to the rampant Ship Tease between the two and the confirmation that they aren't related. The Rise of Skywalker makes it canon, although Kylo/Ben dies almost immediately after they kiss.
  • Kylux (Kylo Ren and General Hux) is a very popular ship (if the amount of fan art and shipping videos is anything to go by) despite the fact the two openly despise each other - as of The Last Jedi, Hux has actually tried to kill Kylo, whilst Kylo uses the Force to physically abuse him if he doesn’t show him respect - making it more of a Crack Ship.
• Fountain of Memes: The franchise as a whole has spawned more memes then one can count but special mention has to go to Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious and Obi-Wan Kenobi who somehow managed to have nearly every line they said become one.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Due to the large number of shared creators (most notably George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, and Harrison Ford) and both being a Cash-Cow Franchise of Lucasfilm, the Star Wars fandom overlaps a great deal with that of Indiana Jones.
  • There is also an overlap with Star Wars fans and fans of Studio Ghibli. It also helps that some of the dub actors in Ghibli films have appeared in Star Wars such as Mark Hamill, Liam Neeson, Werner Herzog, Daisy Ridley, and Ashley Eckstein. This especially true amongst fans of Disney Star Wars, partly due to Kathleen Kennedy producing some of the later English dubs under Disney. With Rey's introductory scene in The Force Awakens being an extended homage to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and an official Ghibli-Lucasfilm collab short film featuring Grogu and the Dust Bunnies may be seen as an acknowledgement of the friendly fandoms.
    • Some Studio Ghibli fans, being fans of a studio famous for experimental arthouse films that are still accessible to mainstream audiences, have also applauded the more experimental and arthouse-like aspects of otherwise controversial films like Rogue One and The Last Jedi.
  • Also with The Muppet Show (especially with older adults), because Frank Oz was involved in both franchises, because both of them were at their peak at around the same time (the late '70s to mid '80s), and because TMS had a Star Wars-themed episode guest starring Mark Hamill and various Star Wars characters - one of the most beloved episodes of the show.
  • The Disney-era films have a fanbase that overlaps with Game of Thrones. A big factor is that the two franchises share many actors, most notably Gwendoline Christie as Captain Phasma and Brienne of Tarth. This only intesified when the actual showrunners behind Thrones were hired to produce a new series of movies independent from what came before.
  • The Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars fandoms have become this since Disney's buyout of Lucasfilm. It helps that both of them are Disney's flagship Darker and Edgier (by Disney standards) fantasy/sci-fi action-adventure pop-culture franchises. It helps that there is some overlap with some actors between the two franchises such as Samuel L. Jackson, Taika Waititi and Oscar Isaac, while Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige is making his own Star Wars film. Fans of the more controversial, arthouse-oriented Star Wars films like The Last Jedi or Revenge of the Sith get along with fans of similarly experimental and controversial Marvel films such as Eternals and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
  • Star Wars fans also share a fanbase with Tolkien's Legendarium — the other greatest pop-culture franchise of all time, especially with Peter Jackson's film trilogy. The fact that both franchises espouse what is the greatest example of the Hero's Journey ever, and utilize Applicability by the bucketload, certainly helps. Good luck finding someone who grew up in the early 2000's who isn't a fan of both.
• Genre Turning Point: It cannot be overstated how much the original Star Wars changed the landscape of cinema. No other film since perhaps the The Jazz Singer had as much of an impact on the way the industry made and marketed its film. It marked the start of blockbuster theatrical films and set the standard for money-spinning franchises, sequels, and merchandising. It did unfortunately, contributed greatly to the end of the New Hollywood and the decline of the adult movie audience. Much to the dismay of many movie critics, film-makers and, more recently, George Lucas himself:
  George Lucas: "When Star Wars came out, everyone said it's a silly movie, just a bunch of space battles and stuff... There's more to it than that but everyone said it's just a bunch of spaceships... that part of the science fantasy got terribly abused... The other part is the technology, especially when it came down later to digital technology, where you can really do anything. Which people just abused, which they did with colour, they did with sound. Whenever someone brings a new tool, everyone just abuses it and you forget the fact there's actually a story. The other thing that got abused... the studios said "Wow we can make a lot of money, this is a license to kill" and the only way you can do that is not taken chances. Do something that's proven. You have to remember that Star Wars came from nowhere, American Graffiti came from nowhere. There was nothing like it. Now if you do anything that's not a sequel or a TV series or look like one, they won't do it. That's the downside of Star Wars and it really shows the enormous lack of imagination and creativity on the part of the industry."
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • Star Wars, especially the Original Trilogy, is very big across the entire Western World, but it's especially popular in England. The fact that Jedi practitioners achieved a significant number to be counted in the English census attained front page news, and while a lot of that was perhaps a joke it still shows the popularity and level of cultural reach it has there. The English, as a rule, tend to favor the orginals over the Prequel Trilogy, and gravitate to the high culture trappings of the franchise, owing to its own classical tradition on stage and TV, with many noting the inspiration of war films and Roman dramas on the Original Trilogy.
  • The films also achieved popularity in the Soviet Union, fittingly since Lucas has often testified to the influence that Soviet film-makers had on his work. Initially the films were circulated via pirated versions, mostly short clips shown on TV, other VHS bootlegs with fan-made local dubs, and smuggled in secret but in 1990, it was released officially and became a success, and Star Wars has only become more popular after the Cold War ended, especially in the former Eastern Bloc nations of Poland, Ukraine, and Russia.
  • Hungary was the only Eastern Bloc country to localize the original trilogy at the time of its release (due to the more lenient "Goulash Communism" put into place following the 1956 revolution), and as result of that, it's much bigger there than anywhere in the area. How much bigger? Revenge of the Sith opened with 1.2 million USD in Hungary (a country of 10 million), just 25% less, than its 1.6 million opening in Poland — a country that's almost four times more populous. It's also close to ten times as much as it made in Romania, that's twice as big as Hungary.
  • Japan has likewise always been a big market for Star Wars, with many Japanese being attentive to its influences from Akira Kurosawa (at the time, his popularity was low in his home country, and Lucas, partially, helped revive it, later producing his film Kagemusha, and many younger Japanese learned to appreciate Kurosawa based on their exposure to Star Wars). It's had a huge impact on anime and manga, with authors like Akira Toriyama and Kentaro Miura citing the Original Trilogy as influences for their work. The Japanese also liked the Prequel Trilogy and responded to it more positively than elsewhere, and it still has a good reputation there, as does Lucas. The influence of Star Wars in Japan can also be found in the video game industry, which broke into the mainstream only a few years after the first movie came out. In particular, franchises like Final Fantasy, Star Fox, and the Xeno metaseries (Xenogears, Xenosaga, and Xenoblade Chronicles) are rife with many a Shout-Out to Star Wars, as well as Disney's own Kingdom Hearts franchise, where Star Wars is one of the most requested world additions for the fourth numbered installment on both sides of the pacific.

H-L

• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • As bad as the Death Star already is, Andor reveals that it was made through horrifically cruel slave labor from countless wrongfully-imprisoned civilians, many of whom were brutally tortured, died from the harsh working conditions, or were Driven to Suicide.
  • The long-mocked flaw in the Death Star's design that led to its destruction all the way back in A New Hope becomes a lot less mockable come Rogue One, which revealed just how difficult getting knowledge of that flaw was, finally resulting in the main cast dying.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • Luke and C-3PO's bond throughout the Original Trilogy becomes more heartwarming when we see in The Phantom Menace that Threepio was originally built by Anakin, making Luke and Threepio some kind of brothers.
  • If you start all six films from the prequel and original trilogies at once and let them play all the way through, the final scene ends up being Anakin and Padmé's wedding, giving the sense that the ultimate message is 'love prevails in the end'.
  • The two most famous people to have their ashes blasted off into space were Gene Roddenberry and James Doohan of the Star Trek franchise. Then, after her death in 2016, Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher received the same honor.
• Ho Yay:
  • Very little outside the Expanded Universe, but Luke and Han have a few longing stares during the Original Trilogy.
  • Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan and Obi-Wan/Anakin are both popular. Say what you will: George has figured out how to take Ho Yay out of the level of Fanservice for the ladies and some men and actually have it be meaningful, such as Obi-Wan's "I loved you," which was a response to Anakin's bitter "I HATE YOU!" for being left by him to burn near a river of lava. Both of them feeling betrayed by the other.
  • There's quite a bit between C-3PO and R2-D2 as well, with the theory of the two being closet homosexuals being very popular for a long time.
  • As of The Force Awakens, Poe and Finn hold the distinction of being the most obvious example in the franchise, not least because actor Oscar Issac has made Ship Tease remarks to stir up the fanbase.
• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming:
  • One of the most prominent is Stormpilot, which refers to the Finn and Poe Dameron ship; the ship is so named due to Finn being a former Stormtrooper and Poe being a Resistance pilot.
  • Another is Rebelcaptain for self-described rebel Jyn Erso and Captain Cassian Andor.
• Iron Woobie: Obi-Wan Kenobi endures an excruciating amount of personal loss and suffering without complaining about it or visibly cracking under the pressure. The only indication given that he actually is quite broken is his increased snarkiness after The Phantom Menace. He was snarky before but the following installments ramped it up considerably. Obi-Wan Kenobi finally shows him teetering on the edge of the Despair Event Horizon as everything that has gone wrong in his life finally carches up with him, but even then he does manage to bounce back after One Last Job and ultimately becomes the eccentric mentor figure of the original trilogy.
• It Was His Sled:
  • A large amount of plot threads across the franchise are known among the general public for the entire franchise. The fact that Star Wars is commonly subject to Whole-Plot Reference in many works doesn't help matters at all. Among the most well-known are Vader being Luke's father, Senator Palpatine actually being Darth Sidious ^note  although there are some viewers who think this was actually supposed to be an Internal Reveal and Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker being siblings.
  • In regards to the sequel trilogy, it's become well-known that Kylo Ren is Han and Leia's son and murders his father and that Snoke gets offed mid-way through.
• It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: It's been a target of this since the beginning and Star Wars is still deprecated as being more popular and successful, than good.
  • A lot of critics consider them to be glorified B-Movies (which they are, intentionally so), with some preferring Lucas' earlier films like THX 1138 and American Graffiti as his "real films". By the time of The '80s, it began to be scapegoated as the movie that ruined American cinema for supposedly shifting away from the adult audience, and movies for "real people" towards genre properties, family, children, and teenagers. Today that's a minority view (now the movies, especially the first two, are considered True Art) but at one point that was widely shared by a number of mainstream critics, and it can be seen as another example of old-guard disliking The New Rock & Roll.
  • Writers and fans of other genres resent Star Wars because it's the most prevalent stereotype of what nerds enjoy (at least in America). Science fiction authors like Harlan Ellison, David Brin and others deprecate it for being "fantasy rather than science-fiction", and for making mainstream science-fiction family friendly rather than the more adult direction they were trying to take it to. ^note Ellison also pointed out that the characters lacked even the depth or dimension of the 1940s serials on which it was based and which had always contained some kind of An Aesop (implied or spoken) of loyalty, friendship, etc. that young viewers could relate to in everyday life. He also decried the Death Star's Space Is Noisy demise as "keeping people stupid" revealing that Alan Dean Foster had urged Lucas to use a believable alternative, only to have Lucas cynically reject his ideas on the grounds that the film would lose money. Star Trek fans originally deprecated it because Star Wars usurped its position as the most famous and culturally dominant science-fiction brand. The extended merchandising of products and toys have likewise made Star Wars overexposed as something more than a franchise of movies.
  • A lot of the backlash towards the Prequel Trilogy was driven by the fact that they were commercially very successful and initially quite popular and well-liked. The backlash against Jar-Jar Binks was also driven by the fact that he was popular with children, much as Lucas insisted he would be, and many railed against Star Wars going in a kid-friendly direction. Many also perceived the Prequel Trilogy as Lucas taking Star Wars into a more commercial direction such as casting a Pretty Boy Hayden Christensen as Anakin (initially promoted as "the next Leonardo DiCaprio"^note At the time Leonardo was still dealing with his own popularity backlash with Titanic and was just starting his collaboration with Martin Scorsese that changed people's minds about his acting ability. Before he was widely disliked for being a popular pretty-face, and Christensen being marketed as the next Leonardo wasn't considered the compliment that it would today) and up-and-coming Natalie Portman. The film's use of CGI and digital, highly advertised in promotions, was also seen as ubiquitous of early 21st Century blockbuster cinema, making Lucas a target for the "ruining cinema" crowd a second time albeit for different reasons, this time finding support from his own fanbase, who, prizing the Used Future and analog aesthetic of the original films, deprecated the Prequel Trilogy and also claimed that Lucas "ruined their childhood"^note In actual fact, the Prequel Trilogy used more practical effects than the Original Trilogy, the Sequel Trilogy use even more CGI than the Prequel Trilogy did, and while it's shot on 35mm film, it's still converted into digital in post, because most projectors in America are digital and not film, which was why Lucas, after shooting The Phantom Menace in film, converted to digital for the next two films.
  • The backlash to the Disney Era is likewise driven by the same issues, and the same complaints, as before. Star Wars is ruining cinema for a third time, this time by continuing a brand without its original creator, and its new custodians Disney having its own separate baggage dealing with this trope, bringing a new variety of resentment. So now, it's Disney who is ruining cinema. Fans accuse Disney of Pandering to the Base, rehashing the original films, and not being as great and original as Lucas, for annualizing the films (at least until Solo), claiming that the films are not really successful despite boasting billion plus grosses, saying that the films "ruined their childhood" by subverting their expectations and so on.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: A common complaint with the new movies created by Disney is that they borrow too much from the Original Trilogy in both setting and story structure. The Force Awakens was seen as a point-by-point rehash of A New Hope and The Last Jedi had a narrative structure that evokes The Empire Strikes Back.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader is the biggest example considering his upbringing as a slave, the fact that both his mother and father figure were murdered and his crossing of the Despair Event Horizon after inadvertently killing his wife (whom he had turned evil for in the first place in a horribly misguided attempt to save her), although his cold attitude prevents him from being completely huggable.
  • Boba Fett as well. He may be a ruthless bounty hunter, but he did watch his father get decapitated as a kid after all.
  • Kylo Ren. Despite being a murderous, Wangsty psycho, his inner conflict, troubled history and the fact he constantly seems to be on the verge of a mental breakdown make him more sympathetic in some viewers' eyes.
  • Luke, of all people, in The Last Jedi. He Took a Level in Jerkass between the events of Return of the Jedi and the sequel trilogy, but it's not hard to see why. He blames himself for Kylo Ren's fall to the Dark Side, believing he failed Kylo, Obi-Wan, Yoda, Leia, Han and hell, the whole damn galaxy. He is so disillusioned with the Jedi, he has exiled himself to a remote island and outright states he's just waiting to die, mired in depression and regret. He's even cut himself off from the Force and so never learnt of his dear friend Han's death until Rey and Chewie turn up on his doorstep. He's also forced to confront his deepest shame - the night Kylo turned to the Dark Side, Luke nearly succumbed to his fear of Snoke's manipulations and killed Kylo, his own nephew, in his sleep. He quickly came to his senses and was immediately filled with shame and horror. To make matters worse, Kylo woke up and came to his own conclusions about what was going on, lashing out at Luke to protect himself before Luke could explain. It's not surprising he acts like a snarky Jerkass for much of the film.
  • Count Dooku. After decades of service, he became so disillusioned with the Jedi and Republic he left to find a new purpose. His former Padawan, who he truly seemed to care for and admire, was violently killed. He was then manipulated by Sidious, who gave him the impression they'd rule the galaxy together, but ultimately betrayed him and allowed him to be mutiliated and killed by Anakin so he could replace him as Sidious' apprentice, only realizing his master had screwed him over moments before his demise. It's also hinted that although he's still a cruel, power-hungry Sith Lord, some of Dooku's motivations are a case of Well-Intentioned Extremist - he has a point about the corruption of the Senate ruining the galaxy and also negatively affecting the Jedi.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: The leaders of the First Order want to conquer the galaxy and rule everyone through tyranny, but Vice Admiral Holdo is hated more than any of them, for... being rude to Poe.
• Love to Hate: Most of the major villains are subject to this, but Darth Vader, Darth Sidious, Darth Maul, Boba Fett, Count Dooku, General Grievous, and Kylo Ren are probably the biggest examples.

M-N

• Mandela Effect:
  • Many viewers misremember C-3PO being made entirely out of gold metal, but that's not true; one of his legs has a silver piece.
  • One of the most famous examples of the Mandela Effect is actually Vader's line to Luke regarding his identity. Many misremember it as 'Luke, I am your father', or 'No, Luke, I am your father'. He doesn't actually say 'Luke' at all.
• Memetic Badass:
  • Darth Vader is one of the most iconic and feared villains in all of fiction, let alone film, and he certainly has the reputation to back it up.
  • Han Solo, with his charming personality and awesome ship, is viewed very highly by fans.
  • R2-D2 saves the day enough that some people wonder why he doesn't get more credit.
  • Boba Fett, almost entirely because he looks really badass. In fact, there's very little onscreen evidence that he even remotely lives up to his fandom reputation. He captures Han because Vader does it for him in The Empire Strikes Back and, in Return of the Jedi, he infamously suffers a pathetic, anti-climactic death. In fact, George Lucas was unaware of the character's reception until after finishing the trilogy, and later created Jango Fett, who is legitimately badass onscreen, in response.
  • Mace Windu demands to know why he and his purple lightsaber are fifth on this list!
  • Kyle Katarn from the Expanded Universe is treated as the Star Wars Legend continuity’s answer to Chuck Norris thanks to a similar appearance.
  • Yoda, ever since his duel with Count Dooku in Attack of the Clones. Ever since that movie, anytime a Pint Sized Power House character is fighting, you can guarantee that they will fight exactly as Yoda does.
  • Darth Maul, considered one of the coolest characters from the Prequel Trilogy, with his double-bladed lightsaber and kickass battle theme. His appearances in The Clone Wars and Rebels have only furthered his reputation, with his fans proclaiming him a character who just won't die.
  • TR-8R/Nines, for packing lots of badass into one scene. In that scene, he denounces Finn as a "TRAITOR!", pulls out a riot baton (which he spins a lot), nearly beats Finn in a fight, before being blasted by Chewbacca's BFG crossbow. The internet ran with it, and depicted him as the master of sick spins.
  • One Reddit user theorized that Jar Jar Binks, of all people, is actually a powerful Sith Lord who only acts like a bumbling idiot to shift suspicion away from himself. Quite a few fans latched onto that theory, even outside of Reddit.
  • Thanks to certain prequel memes, it's joked that anyone with the high ground or some sand on hand can trounce the aforementioned Vader.
• Memetic Loser:
  • The Stormtroopers are so memetically bad (to the point of exaggeration) at hitting targets that they're the Trope Namer for Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy. Averted with the First Order Stormtroopers, which are better-trained and actually show it on screen, to the point that "Nines" (the "Traitor!" trooper) is a Memetic Badass.
  • Captain Phasma was considered one in The Force Awakens because of her buildup as a badass character and a major threat, only to be thrown into a garbage chute by Chewbacca. Offscreen. It got worse in The Last Jedi where, after coming back with a vengeance, she got defeated in an anti-climactic fight with both Finn and Rose and seemingly falls to her death.
  • There's also Greedo, who's a Memetic Loser both in and out of universe. The poor guy is the Butt-Monkey of the galaxy and can't kill Han Solo when he's sitting barely a foot away from him.
  • The Battle Droids, in and out of universe for being even worse marksmen than Stormtroopers.
  • Darth Plagueis the Wise an in-universe example as Palpatine's mentor is memetic as a famous chump who Palpatine still enjoys mock-eulogizing.
  • Kylo Ren, for being a tryhard who wants to be Darth Vader 2.0 but is too unstable to play the part effectively or make an effective Supreme Leader.
  • Snoke, for his ridiculous name, his horrible taste in clothing, and for getting killed halfway through the second film with less dignity and fanfare than even Boba Fett in Return of the Jedi, let alone Palpatine.
  • In the sequel trilogy, Rey has achieved this reputation, even as Luke of all people was amazed at her enormous potential. Because their fights are not as spectacularly choreographed as in the prequels, many consider that Rey could not even defeat a Jedi knight or an Inquisitor. Some outright say she couldn't beat a Padawan.
  • Whenever he's not getting the Memetic Badass treatment, Boba Fett is subject to this due to his relative lack of action in the Original Trilogy and rather undignified defeat in Return of the Jedi. While The Mandalorian seemed set on taking him out of this territory, The Book of Boba Fett brought him back into it due to the show's mixed reception and the feeling by some fans that he came across as less competent than usual, not helped by two episodes barely featuring him to focus on characters from The Mandalorian.
  • General Grievous. This only applies to the Canon version, as his Legends counterpart was a nigh-unstoppable Jedi killing machine. His canon version, while effective against Jedi in combat, only kills one Jedi (Nahdar Vebb, an inexperienced Jedi Knight) onscreen and spends the rest of the time either retreating from fights or suffering humiliating defeats (he was once beaten by the Gungans, though this was only possible due to General Tarpals sacrificing himself as a distraction). His obsession with obtaining lightsabers is also exaggerated for comedy.
  • Shaak Ti has gotten a reputation for dying a lot, because she has gathered a lot of death scenes throughout the years from Deleted Scenes, Alternate Timelines, adaptations and more. Just to name some, she had two deleted death scenes in Revenge of the Sith (she's either executed by Grievous in the battle of Coruscant or killed by Anakin at the Jedi Temple), the latter of which actually made it into the original LEGO Star Wars, and in The Force Unleashed she's defeated by Starkiller and falls into a Sarlacc.
    YouTube video: George Lucas explains Shaak Ti's death
    Someone in the comments: Which one?
• Memetic Molester:
  • Palpatine, just for his lines to Anakin in The Phantom Menace and Revenge of the Sith. The Expanded Universe makes it even worse.
  • Padmé Amidala gets this due to her romance with Anakin despite meeting him when he was 9. This ignores the fact that she was also underage at the time, and that the two didn't get romantically involved until both were adults, but the meme persists.
  • Jabba the Hutt, because of his... interest in humanoid slave girls.
  • Snoke from the sequel trilogy earned this status due to his manipulation of Kylo Ren since childhood being reminiscent of child grooming. His creepy interactions with Rey - including stroking her face whilst she's relatively helpless - just add to this trope.
  • This hearkens all the way back to Grand Moff Tarkin (chillingly portrayed by the great Peter Cushing) caressing Princess Leia's face briefly and her disgusted reaction. This subtle moment is classic in adventure films all the way back to the silent era (as is the dialogue in that scene) and tells us all we need to know about Tarkin.
• Memetic Psychopath:
  • While the Republic did became more corrupt as time went on, and the Jedi Order fall right into Palpatine's manipulations, viewers have also started noticing how by real life standards, they commit a plethora of war crimes. For one, our leads used fake surrender quite a few times during the Clone Wars.
  • There's a semi-serious theory floating around that Jar Jar is actually a Sith Lord, and a very cunning one at that.
• Misaimed Merchandising: One of the most infamous aspects of Star Wars. Because of its ubiquity as a Cash-Cow Franchise, every major release will be aggressively marketed to every demographic imaginable; because the franchise is very popular with kids, they get a healthy amount of marketing, which often comes across as very silly to older fans. This is especially prevalent with popular villains such as Darth Vader (the Series Mascot), Darth Maul, and Kylo Ren, who are often marketed in inappropriate ways considering that they make generally poor role models. The Phantom Menace was particularly bad with this, to the point where we got ridiculous products such as Queen Amidala body wash, a preschool phonics book that heavily featured Sebulba, an unpopular Dastardly Whiplash alien who didn't even speak Basic, and horror of horrors, the infamous Jar Jar Binks tongue lollipop◊.
• Misblamed:
  • Hayden Christensen often comes up as a main culprit for the Prequel Trilogy quality or lack thereof, with the role arguably becoming a Star-Derailing Role, despite that he's done work outside the franchise where he received praise for. He was hardly the only actor affected by the Prequel Trilogy's backlash. Natalie Portman, who would become a major star and an Oscar winner a few years later, said she had trouble getting quality work due to a perception from the Prequel Trilogy that she couldn't act. It's a fact that in general, very few actors starting in Star Wars have big careers due to the Sci Fi Ghetto where agents and producers believe that such films are mainly VFX showcases and not an indicator of acting ability. In the original films, only Harrison Ford was able to have a successful career^note and mostly because he haggled and tried to get out of its shadow ASAP because he didn't see it as a "real" acting gig and had to be cajoled to finish the trilogy. By comparison, Mark Hamill, despite some good roles in The Big Red One, became obscure until his voiceover work, while Carrie Fisher became more successful as a writer, screenwriter and script-doctor. The backlash to the Prequel Trilogy only made it worse, since it added to the perception of "even the fans didn't like him". Many also note that a lot of the off-putting stuff about Christensen's Anakin was very much an Intended Audience Reaction, i.e. Lucas and Christensen wanted Anakin to come off as a little weird, inarticulate, and petulant precisely to deconstruct Darth Vader's cool reputation and others also point out brilliant acting scenes in the third film. When he reprised the role in Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka, his portrayal of Anakin/Vader in those shows was received much more positively.
  • Jake Lloyd still suffers from this. Putting aside the fact that he already had a huge amount of pressure on him (since The Phantom Menace was one of the most widely-anticipated movies ever and he'd be responsible for "originating" one of the most recognizable characters in cinema history), nine year old children are generally not amazing actors. And then there were the fans who channeled their opinion that Vader's childhood should not be known about into criticizing Lloyd as though it were his idea (even before the movie came out). The vitriol heaped on him for "ruining" Vader when it was hardly his fault still continues to this day. It's got to the point where even Mark Hamill has stepped in, telling people to cool it.
  • Ahmed Best, the voice-actor, and motion-capture performer for Jar-Jar Binks also got a lot of vitriol for the character. In 2018 he pointed out how the backlash upset and hurt him so much that he flirted with suicide. Much like Christensen and Lloyd, he was targeted for the hatred fans felt towards his character. Jar-Jar becoming a punchline and laughing stock completely obscured everything else about his performance and contribution. Chiefly that Jar-Jar was the first all CGI character and Best and the VFX team were pioneers in motion-capture performance, which set the standard for Gollum and the Na'vi, but the stigma of playing Jar-Jar has rarely let his contributions being properly respected, nor as his other diverse talents, as a stuntman, and dancer, and voice-actor (Jar-Jar is absolutely not his real voice) gotten notice.
  • The actors in the Sequel Trilogy have not escaped this either. The most notable is the insane amount of vitriol directed at Kelly Marie Tran, who had the misfortune of debuting in the most vocally hated film of the trilogy and playing its most divisive character to boot. It wasn’t really her fault that her character was so divisive, since she played the part exactly as written, but more that the way her character was written didn’t resonate well with fans. And as the most major new character introduced, moviegoers decided to attribute the bulk of the movie’s problems to her in particular. The harassment toward her got so bad that she even deleted her entire social media presence, and similar to the case with Jake Lloyd, Mark Hamill had to step in to stand up for her. Daisy Ridley ended up in a similar situation where she also felt the need to leave social media due to Star Wars fan harassment, despite her also just playing her character as written and some fans not liking that character.
  • It's unlikely any creator of a popular franchise is as vocally disliked by some of its fans as George Lucas, despite the fact that the franchise is entirely his creation and vision and would simply not exist were it not for him. Some of the criticism directed against him (the tinkering of his films on home video) is fair, but some fans take this to the extent of dismissing Lucas entirely, by downplaying his contributions, claiming that the films are at their best when he is least involved, by citing The Empire Strikes Back, despite the fact that Lucas was solely responsible for the main plot twist of that film and indeed a number of other elements in it. At the height of the Prequels' hatedom, rumors even began to circulate that most of the well-liked aspects of the Original Trilogy had actually been created by someone else, from whom Lucas had stolen credit a la Bob Kane (the most common guesses for this person's identity were Marcia Lucas, George's editor and former wife, producer Gary Kurtz, screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, or some combination of the three) - all of which ultimately proved to be a combination of oversimplifications and outright falsehoods. This attitude initially continued into the Disney era, where fans assume by default that a new Star Wars theatrical film will be good just because of Lucas' non-involvement, at least until The Last Jedi's backlash.
  • Following Lucas's decision to leave his company and hand it off to Kathleen Kennedy, many of the same criticisms that were applied to him — and several new ones — have been transferred over to her, with some fans even hypocritically backtracking on their disdain for Lucas by saying that her stories somehow disrespect his vision (when it's been established that many of the new projects derive from his ideas). Case in point, Kennedy is often Misblamed for making the franchise "feminist" when it's been that way since 1977.^note Indeed J. W. Rinzler in his The Making of A New Hope pointed out that Lucas considered making Luke into a female protagonist and fretted about having few women characters in his films insisting he wouldn't want a film without any female roles. More to the point, while Kathleen Kennedy is overall producer she is quite hands-off in many respects, deferring to Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson, and supporting their vision, when much of the blame (with the exception of Johnson, who became just as big a scapegoat as Kennedy after The Last Jedi came out) is rarely directed at them.
  • An unusual case of a film getting this treatment rather than a person or group of people. After John Boyega's GQ article in which he talks about being sidelined because of his race in the trilogy after his introduction as a lead, fans of The Last Jedi, who were already unhappy with The Rise of Skywalker being a Contested Sequel, immediately pointed the finger at Rise of Skywalker for sidelining Finn. This is in spite of the same article recording how Boyega discussed the "re-ordered character hierarchy" in The Last Jedi, while viewing Rise of Skywalker as a "relative salvage job". Directly comparing the films, it's easy to see why Boyega feels he was better treated by Rise of Skywalker, as while he isn't given an arc in that film, his past as a Stormtrooper is explored, his force-sensitivity is explored and he becomes a Resistance General, turning the tide of the final battle... rather than being the butt of every joke, having his trauma actively ignored as other characters teach him about the civilian cost of war and causing the deaths of most of the Resistance from his own uncharacteristic incompetence, as in Last Jedi.
  • Following JJ Abrams' interview with Collider magazine, where he discusses "the importance of having a plan", the Star Wars fanbase exploded at him, deriding him for not coming up with a plan for the trilogy. While a plan for the trilogy would obviously have made for a better, more cohesive story, at the time the plan should have been made - before The Force Awakens even released - JJ was tasked with directing one of the movies, not two. It was Disney that specifically did not want a plan, letting each of its directors enforce their own creative vision, and by the time Abrams returned to the Skywalker Saga to direct the ninth episode, any ideas he had set up for later on in the trilogy (Rey being a Kenobi, Luke not being cut off from the Force, the script treatments for episodes eight and nine) were, for better or worse, tossed aside by Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi (just as the script treatment for episode eight was), leaving no clear route forward for the trilogy.
• More Interesting as a Villain: When he was first introduced, Jar-Jar was almost universally hated by the fanbase due to him being seen as annoying comic relief. However, as time went on, fans began to reevaluate the Prequels and attempted to redeem Jar-Jar. Many of these fans latched onto the theory that Jar-Jar was secretly a Sith Lord who was manipulating things while pretending to be a clumsy fool. This allowed many fans to see him as a brilliant Chessmaster as opposed to the comic relief he was presented as in the film.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • A lightsaber igniting is a movie sound fans love.
    • No, every sound a lightsaber makes.
    • Luke Skywalker's second lightsaber makes a distinctive sound on ignition (described as "snap-hiss") that is heard nowhere else in the Star Wars galaxy.
  • Similarly, Darth Vader's breath mask. Even the prequels and the Narm-iest Big "NO!" in the series couldn't take away from the chill when Darth Vader takes his first tech-assisted breath.
  • That "powering up" sound when Han pulls on the levers and makes the Falcon jump to lightspeed never fails to send a thrill down my spine.
  • Similarly, the "powering down" sound that the tractor beams make when Obi Wan turns them off.
  • If you're playing the Empire in Empire at War FoC. "Death Star ready to fire" means an enemy capital ship, or their planet is about to die.
    • On the topic of the games, the “WHOOOSH” sound in Jedi: Fallen Order upon evading is pretty damn satisfying.
  • The cries of the varactyl, Obi-Wan's lizard mount in Revenge of the Sith. A mixture of dog and coyote yelps makes for a very endearing noise.
  • The unique roar of TIE fighter engines.
    • Which is the reversed sound of any giant lizard in a sixties 'Lost World' movie.
    • According to the source, it's traffic on a rain-slick highway mixed with the trumpeting of an elephant.
  • "Lock S-foils in attack position." Prelude to epicness, especially combined with the characteristic high-pitched whistle of the X-Wing's engines.
  • Lasers from TIE and Rebel ships.
  • Ben Burtt makes Most Wonderful Sounds for a living. And he is really good at his job.
  • The low descending note, BWOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo if you will, just prior to the Death Star's main laser firing.
    • To the man pulling the switch, however, it was anything but wonderful.
  • "Roger roger."
  • R2-D2's beeping.
    • BB-8’s as well.
  • The opening fanfare. The first few notes especially. There's something about the blasting trumpets coupled with the giant STAR WARS logo that has the tendency to make one squee with delight. There's a reason that the first track on any Star Wars soundtrack CD is the 20th Century Fox fanfare..
  • The noises Chewbacca makes.
  • The sounds of the giant turbolasers mounted to the capital ships.
  • WHRRRRRRRRRR thunkCLANK - sound of AT-ATs walking, which is just the sound of a mechanical punch press (like those used to stamp out body panels in auto factories).
  • The deep, powerful chugging of Sebulba's podracer in The Phantom Menace.
  • The seismic charges dropped by the Slave I in Attack of the Clones. May fans rejoiced when the charges, and their sound effect, returned in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett.
    • To a slightly lesser degree, the sound of Slave I's laser cannons. They have a unique combination of high pitched ringing and deep bass booms.
  • If you grew up in the mid-'90s, and you were first introduced to Star Wars via the 1995 VHS releases, you got treated to an awesome introductory trailer—narrated by the legendary Jim Cummings—every time you popped the movies in. Cummings' whole speech is incredible—but when he says "The Force...is forever!"? Those four words can give any Star Wars fan the chills.
  • From The Last Jedi, the indescribable, intense TWAAAANG! made by a cruiser hyperspace-ramming a Mega Star Destroyer.
  • Rogue One:
    • None other than Darth Vader's iconic breathing, returning to the big screen properly for the first time in over a decade. The sound of Vader's lightsaber igniting in the darkness (after nearly two hours of the weapon being absent from its home franchise) was also enough to invoke glee.
    • The sound of the turbolaser emplacement on Eadu. It really finally sounds and feels like the heavy weapon platform it is. BOOM.
  • The Rise of Skywalker had Palpatine's Force Lightning attack be accompanied by an earth-shaking bass drop. Palpatine chucking around lightning is nothing new of course, but this was Force Lightning on steroids, something that this noise really helped hammer home.
    Palpatine: Do not fear the feeble attack, my faithful... NOTHING WILL STOP THE RETURN OF THE SITH!!
    [short Beat]
    [BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMM]
• My Real Daddy:
  • Even if his name is ubiquitously associated with Star Wars, Lucas' position as the primary creator of Star Wars has been questioned by some fans of the franchise. A lot of fans argue that the Original Trilogy movies ought to be credited less to Lucas than his collaborators. Lucas wrote and directed A New Hope by himself, many argue that producer Gary Kurtz ensured "quality control" over the final product^note In actual fact, producer Kurtz negotiated final cut for Lucas at Twentieth Century Fox meaning he was never in position to say anything about the "quality" since that was entirely Lucas' domain. Others also credit George Lucas's wife at the time, Marcia Lucas^note After the initial cut assembled by British editor John Jympson turned out to be absolute crap which some point out is a normal phenomenon for any rough cut in film history, it's called "rough" for a reason. Marcia (an experienced editor who worked on Taxi Driver, among other films) recut the film from scratch and that George couldn't make any suggestions until she and co-editors Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew had assembled a complete edit. Which is more or less normal practice for any editor. Meanwhile, Mark Hamill and Steven Spielberg contend that Lucas was solely responsible for the overall vision and aesthetic of the films (a Space opera B-Movie done on the scale of an Epic Movie with mixes of Japanese Jidaigeki and The Western) and that he had to constantly fight naysayers, producers, and cast and crew who didn't take the film seriously because the subject matter seemed childish to them, as it did to most audiences of Science Fiction B-Movie before Star Wars. In the case of The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas served as producer and writer; while the film was directed by Irving Kershner, Lucas was entirely and solely responsible for the film's central Plot Twist (Luke, I Am Your Father), as well as deciding on the Han/Leia romance, creating the characters of Yoda and Lando Calrissian, without which it's unlikely that The Empire Strikes Back would be as respected as it is. Lucas was also more hands-on in Return of the Jedi owing to the contentious direction of Richard Marquand.
  • Dave Filoni is highly regarded by the fanbase for fixing and improving on the highly contentious prequels. His series Star Wars: The Clone Wars is beloved even amongst prequel haters for restoring the mysticism of the Force and humanizing the prequel characters, especially Anakin who actually became a likable and sympathetic figure. His work on The Mandalorian was similarly well-regarded for the world-building and characterization of the Mandalorians.
  • Jon Favreau for showrunning The Mandalorian, the Disney era Star Wars live-action entry that has by far the least amount of Broken Base compared to the films made since the buyout.
  • The commercial success of Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy in addition to being important for the Expanded Universe also played a big part in convincing Lucas that interest in Star Wars hadn't died. While little of Zahn's works would ever be directly adapted into the live-action films, the city-planet of Coruscant first debuted in his pages, as well as a few other details which ultimately appeared in Lucas' Special Edition and later the Prequel Trilogy themselves. Thrawn himself even appeared in Rebels.
• Narm Charm:
  • Many scenes come across as being cheesy, but they don't detract from how awesome the films are that much. Many of the examples listed on that page qualify for this trope as well.
  • Yoda's way of speaking. One would think it would be laughed at, but something about it just works.
  • A lot of fans agree this is the reason why they enjoy the Prequel Trilogy. Openly admiting that they can be goofy and awkward, but they somehow manage to work.
• Newer Than They Think: A number of features of Star Wars fandom are a lot more recent than you would expect given how widespread it is:
  • As evidenced by Kevin Smith's Clerks, the idea that The Empire Strikes Back was better than Return of the Jedi didn't go from niche to mainstream until The '90s^note Where the opinion is initially shown as "blasphemy" before Dante defends his viewpoint, the punchline of the gag depends on such an idea being blasphemy at the time. The Empire Strikes Back was Vindicated by Cable but initially and in the aftermath, Return of the Jedi was the more successful and critically acclaimed work.
  • The level of vocal criticism towards the changes in Special Edition, and the level of knowledge people have of George Lucas Altered Version is also pretty recent. These were originally non-controversial on initial releases, with only a few fans noticing the changes made there and getting little reproach from critics on these grounds^note Most complaints were still on the level of "Star Wars is still popular" and "this ruined American cinema". Most of the collaborators behind-the-scenes such as Irvin Kershner, director of The Empire Strikes Back wholeheartedly approved them. The general public did not notice these changes or became aware of the extent of Lucas' alterations until the spread of the internet (late-'90s-2010s), and the very recent mainstreaming of nerd culture (The famous South Park parody was the first time many learnt about it) and now it's one of the biggest things known about Star Wars.
  • The least controversial of Lucas' retcons, i.e. the original renaming of Star Wars into Episode IV: A New Hope comes from the 1981 re-release. Nowadays, it can be hard to remember that the original film was simply marketed and titled as Star Wars without sub-title, with even the IMDB pages (which as a rule list the original release titles of the theatrical films) using A New Hope. The original Star Wars print is a rare object available only at the Library of Congress, and even the more "authentic" versions (i.e. less retouched) editions still have Episode IV: A New Hope.
• Nightmare Fuel: Star Wars has its own page of horrors.

O-S

• Older Than They Think:
  • The polarizing depiction of the Jedi Order in the Prequel Trilogy, such as their aloofness, rigidity, commitment to tradition, which made them come off as callous and insensitive, as well as the idea of them using Child Soldiers was inherent in the Original Trilogy. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda had intended to manipulate Luke into unintentionally committing Patricide, and still order Luke to do it after he learns the truth, believing that Vader was beyond saving. Yoda's training also demanded that Luke do nothing about the torture of his friends at Vader's hands which he could feel through the force, and likewise, on first meeting Luke, after dropping his eccentric routine, Yoda even calls out to Obi-Wan that Luke is "too old to begin the training" which while not spelling out Child Soldiers did hint that Jedi novices were younger than Luke's teenage or early adult age.
  • Many fans reacted negatively to Canto Bight for what they saw as its subversive undermining of the Rebels ideology by showing that they buy weapons from shady types, and shining a light on poor exploited children who the rebels don't seem to care about, at least not overtly. But the indifference to injustice of this nature was highlighted in earlier films. Namely, The Phantom Menace, where Qui-Gon Jinn is unsurprised about the practice of slavery on Tatooine despite Padmé Amidala noting that the Republic made it illegal. Qui-Gon openly told young Anakin, "I'm not here to free slaves" and the revelation that Tatooine was the same Crapsack World ruled by Jabba the Hutt during the Republic as it was during the Empire was a similar shock to many fans. Likewise, Rogue One also highlighted that the Rebellion of the New Hope era indulged in assassinations, in-fighting with extreme groups, surveillance, and/or executing informants when they have outlived their usefulness. In other words, the Republic has always prioritized its goal of toppling the Empire and restoring its institution over questions of other forms of injustice.
  • Lucas wasn't by any means the first or only major film-maker to edit and alter films for re-releases. He was merely the one with the biggest mainstream fanbase and with the most resources to actually go ahead and do it thoroughly (a unique combination). Orson Welles removed an entire scene from The Trial between an early screening and a later release. Stanley Kubrick did the same for 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, Eyes Wide Shut. The French film-maker Jacques Tati for the 70s re-release of his 50s comedy Mr. Hulot's Holiday added an entire new, anachronistic, gag about Jaws to try and update the film for new audiences. Charlie Chaplin also altered many of his films for re-releases ^note And among film buffs, his "sound version" of The Gold Rush (in which he added a voiceover) is seen as a far better case of a film-maker ruining his own film than any of Lucas, since Chaplin fundamentally changed the nature of the film. For sake of analogy, it was as if Lucas made the Star Wars into a silent film complete with intertitles. David Lean collaborated in the restoration of Lawrence of Arabia which brought back his original near four hour version, and got Peter O'Toole and other actors to re-record dialogues decades later. This was also common in other mediums, namely literature, where authors have made changes and retcons between reprints. J. R. R. Tolkien altered the original version of The Hobbit to better tie in to The Lord of the Rings for a later reprint.
  • A villain who is cool, who gets the audience to root for him and sympathize with him, who is also a Fallen Hero who comes to blows with his best friend, and who despite his death spawns a spin-off franchise dealing with his origins. That's all true for Harry Lime, from The Third Man, whose iconic portrayal by Orson Welles defined the cool memorable villain in The '40s and The '50s during Lucas' childhood. Lime spawned a spin-off radio show and a number of novels, which are Prequel Trilogy dealing with his adventures before The Third Man showing how he went from the relatively decent man Holly Martins remembered to the scoundrel we see in the movie. Lime also tries to get Holly to join him by preaching his own amoral philosophy much like Vader does to Luke. The fact that Welles was one of Lucas' first choices for Vader's voice is not an accident.
  • Some of the plot elements in the sequel trilogy are from Lucas' original outline, including a younger generation resembling Han, Luke, and Leia, Luke becoming a hermit and mentor figure at a Jedi temple on an island, and the remains of the Death Star II being submerged on another planet and explored. Other elements are from the sequel trilogy are based on Star Wars Legends. Luke and Mara have a son named Ben, while Han and Leia have Jacen and Jaina. Jacen turns to the dark side while Jaina becomes an ace pilot, similar to Kylo and Rey. Anakin's lightsaber was recovered from Bespin in The Thrawn Trilogy. Palpatine returns as a clone from the Unknown Regions in Dark Empire. Palpatine having a secret offspring is from The Glove of Darth Vader. The Sith have been hiding out in the Unknown Regions on Korriban, much like the planet Exegol. Jump Troopers have appeared before in Star Wars: Poe Dameron and Star Wars Battlefront II (2017).
  • Obi-Wan's memetic line "Hello there!" is most often associated with his Ewan McGregor incarnation, specifically the scene in Revenge of the Sith when he (literally) drops in on General Grievous and his guards.^note  He says it again to young Luke in the last episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi. The line actually originated with Alec Guinness in A New Hope, to R2-D2, when he rescues him and Luke from the Tuskens — in fact, it was the first line ever spoken by the character on screen.
  • A teapot tempest blew up around the Disney+ TV series after several characters the Disney era survived getting Impaled with Extreme Prejudice with lightsabers, whereas Qui-Gon Jinn didn't in The Phantom Menace. In the intervening years, Mace Windu had survived a lightsaber through the gut at the climax of the Legends novel Shatterpoint (his Internal Monologue specifically notes that the injury is not as severe as you'd think since lightsaber wounds are self-cauterizing), and something similar can happen to the Player Character in one chapter of Star Wars: The Old Republic's expansion Knights of the Fallen Empire—made Hilarious in Hindsight by your companion Koth incredulously saying that he's never heard of anyone surviving such a wound before.
• Once Original, Now Common: As renowned as the Original Trilogy is, the movies can feel dated at times, especially due to their ubiquity in pop culture and advancements in filmmaking and special effects. A New Hope in particular has a plot that has been imitated and referenced countless times, to the point that it'd be a Cliché Storm if released as a modern movie (and lo and behold, The Force Awakens was criticized by some as a Cliché Storm because it copied A New Hope's overall plot and structure). This might have been one reason why Lucas insisted on constantly revising the movies, to highly mixed results.
• One True Pairing: Just about every fan of the franchise ships Leia and Han.
• Only the Creator Does It Right: There are some who feel the franchise went downhill once Lucas left it. This is largely caused by most of Disney's films being controversial in one way or another; Lucas's films were all original, the retcons rarely affected anything major, and the prequels spawned a lot of memes. By contrast, Disney's films have been heavily criticized for overriding the ending of Jedi, their rushed writing, rehashing the plots of the original trilogy and slowly declining in quality.
• Opinion Myopia: Occurs quite a bit among fans, especially the more zealous haters of the prequel or sequel trilogies and passionate fans of RedLetterMedia who tell fans they are stupid or Disney sycophants for liking/disliking them.
  • Regarding the prequels, the initial backlash from fans and criticism within the online community was significant. However, the broader success of these films can be attributed to factors beyond the online fandom. The enduring popularity of the Star Wars brand, George Lucas's vision, and the massive marketing campaigns played pivotal roles in their box office success. Despite vocal criticism from certain quarters, the films resonated with a wider audience, contributing to their substantial commercial achievements.
• Pandering to the Base: Most Disney-era Star Wars projects are full of this, with elements meant to appease fans (especially Original Trilogy fans) and extensive use of fan-favorite characters such as Darth Vader and Han Solo, along with the live-action movies taking on a more adult and less whimsical tone (with Rogue One being a very strong example). Disney-era projects also benefit from better acting and dialogue overall, addressing two of the most widespread complaints about the Prequel Trilogy. Tropes Are Not Bad; after the fanbase's very rocky relationship with George Lucas and his apparent focus on gimmicks, action, melodrama, and excessive effects in the prequel era, many people find this to be a breath of fresh air and are optimistic for the franchise's future. However, some fans find that this pandering comes at the expense of originality, with stories becoming more derivative and predictable and feeling more like ham-fisted tributes to the Original Trilogy than anything else, despite having more consistent execution.
• Play-Along Meme: Ian McDiarmid plays Senator Sheev Palpatine and his alter ego Darth Sidious. In his role as Palpatine, he will always be wearing gaudy outfits and putting on a face of benevolence, but as a Sith Lord, he wears a hooded black cloak with a Face Framed in Shadow. The fans love to pretend that there is no way the two people are the same. Similarly, they love to pretend that Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader are two different beings and can't possibly be the same person.
• Pop Culture Holiday: May 4th is commonly known as "Star Wars Day" due to the pun "May the Fourth be with you" (as in, "May the Force be with you"). May 5th and May 6th are sometimes celebrated as "Revenge of the Fifth/Sixth" to celebrate Sith Lords and other villainous characters from the franchise.
• Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • Anidala for Anakin Skywalker (who is also sometimes nicknamed Ani) and Padmé Amidala.
  • Reylo for Rey and Kylo Ren (it also works with Kylo's other name of Ben Solo.
  • Kylux for Kylo Ren and Armitage Hux.
  • Obitine for Obi-Wan Kenobi and Satine Kryze.
  • Damrey for Poe Dameron and Rey.
• The Problem with Licensed Games: Back and forth. Usually, original EU games turn out fairly well (helped that they're games designed to be standalone products and not cash-ins to the movies), with some even being considered classics but for the most part direct adaptations of the movies suffer. The Super Star Wars trilogy were not only the most notable aversion, but they were also freakin' hard. The Rogue Squadron and X-Wing series, Knights of the Old Republic and the Dark Forces Saga are generally considered among the best and most popular Star Wars games. LEGO Star Wars is widely popular and considered one of the best Lego games.
• Recurring Fanon Character:
  • After the release of The Force Awakens, Lucasfilm creative executive Pablo Hidalgo tweeted a joke about General Hux having a cat named Millicent. It took off on Tumblr and, as of April 2020, Millicent the Cat is tagged as a character in over 800 sequel-trilogy-period works on Archive of Our Own.
  • Glup Shitto is a made-up character parodying the tendency of fans to get excited over the appearance of minor characters with ridiculous names.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Anakin Skywalker was viewed as The Scrappy for a time, especially for his portrayal in Attack of the Clones, where people felt he came across as extremely whiny, immature and not nearly as badass as they were expecting. It doesn't help that he's the younger, pre-evil version of Darth Vader, easily one of the most famous and popular characters in the whole franchise. However, due to his universally praised and fleshed out portrayal alongside Matt Lanter's popular performance in The Clone Wars, Anakin has largely been Rescued from the Scrappy Heap and is viewed more as a decent character than a universally despised one. A significant group now believes it was more dodgy scripts that were to blame than Hayden Christensen's performance and that Anakin's numerous flaws retroactively make logical sense because of how he was presented in The Clone Wars (and were probably intentional, given that Anakin's issues is what led him to the Dark Side in the first place).
  • Ahsoka Tano, of all characters, was initially seen as a Scrappy when The Clone Wars first began airing, with viewers finding her to be a whinging and irritating Bratty Half-Pint who was just there to appeal to the kids. However, during the third season, it was revealed a lot of this behaviour was due to Ahsoka's feelings of insecurity around being Anakin's apprentice. She subsequently becomes a lot more balanced and mature, culminating in her not just being Rescued from the Scrappy Heap, but becoming one of the most the beloved characters in the franchise.
• Ron the Death Eater:
  • In a rare example of this trope redeeming a character, some fans theorized that Jar Jar Binks was originally supposed to be a Sith Lord, pulling the strings to help catapult Palpatine to power in the Prequel Trilogy. He'd subtly manipulate other characters while hiding behind his mumbling persona. Had this idea been brought to completion, it would have made the payoff of Jar Jar's antics worth it, since then he would become a Hate Sink in retrospect.
  • In the original Legends canon, before the retcon of the inhibitor chip in the Clones, Ki-Adi-Mundi was killed immediately by his troops because he was callous with their lives. In the actual films, this wasn't hinted at and he looks very betrayed when the Clones level their weapons at him. Over time, there were revelations that he was allowed to marry to keep his species from going extinct^note claimed as hypocritical of the Jedi and Mundi in particular despite the necessity for his species for him to stay in the gene pool unlike humans who are much more widespread, that he was allowed into the Order past the normal age^note he was 4 and actively using the force in undisciplined and dangerous ways due to his power and inexperience unlike Anakin was much older and, while more emotionally unstable, was not causing random things to explode with unregulated Force powers, that he acted cold to prevent his hotheadedness from causing him to fall to the dark side^note exemplified by his original purple lightsaber and aggressive fighting style, that he wasn't allowed to love his family (consisting of 4 wives and 7 daughters) to prevent attachments^note something he notably failed at and even resisted falling to the Dark Side when they were all killed, his use of flamethrowers on Geonosis^note despite the fact the Geonosians were using arguably even more horrific weapons thus invalidating this as a war crime, and that his dual brains meant he coldly considered people (including Yoda when he was hearing Qui-Gon in his head) as a liability ^note Mundi was afraid that the Sith were using dark side powers to attack the Jedi through the bond Yoda shared with Count Dooku. Despite the fact that Mundi was a bright reflection of what Anakin could have been if he stayed in the light and that all of his above actions were justified, people have started to paint him as a sociopath and everything wrong with the Jedi Order. Mundi was allowed to be an exception to so many rules because he was so disciplined, self-reflective, forward thinking, and morally grounded unlike Anakin who was showing constant red flags.
• Rooting for the Empire: The Trope Namer. Combine the sky-high Evil Is Cool factor of Darth Vader and Palpatine, a varied set of particularly stylish and intimidating uniforms for the Stormtroopers and other military personnel, a fleet composed of almost nothing BUT Cool Starships, a comparatively milquetoast opposition and the fact that they replaced a corrupt, obstructive bureaucracy, and you have a recipe for one of the most sinister-yet-endearing villainous forces ever created. There is a reason why the 501st Legion, the largest Star Wars cosplaying organization on the planet, themed itself after the bad guys...
  • Apart from the deliberate choice to model the Empire after Nazi aesthetics (themselves deliberately chosen to maximize Rule of Cool and Victory Through Intimidation), Lucas has stated that he modeled the Empire on the US and the Rebels on Vietnam. Compare fans of the Empire with right wing fans of Star Trek who ignore the deliberately left wing intent of the franchise due to the military aesthetic of Star Fleet. The fans identify with some familiar aspects and ignore others to root for the Empire.
• Sacred Cow:
  • The Original Trilogy. Just trying to tell someone you don't like it or even suggesting it might have some shortcomings tends to create a lot of backdraft. Notably, David Brin was a huge recipient of this when he published his critical views on the nature of the franchise.
  • Darth Vader as the most famous character in the franchise and the alleged Trope Codifier for Evil Is Cool. Most fans hold Vader in extremely high regard and do not take kindly to violations or modifications of his character, which is one reason his arc in the Prequel Trilogy proved to be contentious.
  • The Empire Strikes Back also has this status among the films since The '90s. It's genuinely popular and few would deny that it's a great movie, but a few fans go to the extent that the franchise should have ended with The Empire Strikes Back and not continued onwards, arguing that the cliffhanger ending is the true finale of the franchise. Others are not so extreme but it's still considered the benchmark on which all films after it are to some extent found vaunting or the other, and trying to make a case for some films as being "as good as, if not better than The Empire Strikes Back" or even arguing that A New Hope, also acknowledged as a great film, is better is bound to set a firestorm.
  • Many of the Original Trilogy's protagonists — Luke, Han, Leia, R2-D2, Chewbacca, Lando and Obi-Wan — have also become regarded in a heavily idealized fashion over the years, to the point that some vehemently hostile Flame Wars have been started over the ways the Sequel Trilogy handles these characters (much like with Darth Vader in the Prequel Trilogy), which usually involve portraying them in a way that deals with their failures, killing them off, or just plain not using them. The latter in particular is one of the few characters both Original and Prequel Trilogy fans consistenly enjoy watching. Worth noting is that one of the movies from the Sequel Trilogy, The Last Jedi, actually makes this trope a core facet of its Central Theme and it is discussed In-Universe numerous times.
    Luke: "The Jedi are romanticized, defied. But if you strip away the myth and look at their deeds, the legacy of the Jedi is failure. Hypocrisy. Hubris."
  • Likewise with the heroes and Vader, Emperor Palpatine is universally regarded as the franchise's greatest antagonist, and is also one of the few characters that fans of the Prequel Trilogy and Original Trilogy can agree on as being executed well in both trilogies. It also helps that like Vader, Palpatine comes with his own array of memorable quotes, arguably being the most quotable character in the franchise, as well as his actor, Ian McDiarmid being a nice guy, and that Palpatine is very terrifying, especially in Return of the Jedi.
• Sci Fi Ghetto: The franchise has the paradoxical reputation for breaking Out of the Ghetto and mainstreaming science-fiction, fantasy, and other nerd stuff, while also in time becoming ghettoized and sub-ghettoized.
  • A New Hope is the only Star Wars film to be nominated for Best Picture and the only film to get an actor nomination (Alec Guinness for Best Supporting Actor). It also won the most awards with 6 Oscars but the Sequel Trilogy has never gone beyond technical nominations and wins, or for the music score. After The '70s (a decade where the Academy was open-minded in terms of award nominations and wins), no other action science-fiction franchise or genre work would do as well until the The Lord of the Rings and later Mad Max: Fury Road.
  • Science-Fiction writers, authors and fans have had mixed feelings about Star Wars since the Space Opera genre it popularized and defined had been something that science-fiction authors had been moving away from in The '60s and The '70s (the "new wave" era). In their eyes, the success of Star Wars undid all their efforts, with the likes of David Brin calling it regressive and reactionary in terms of its influence on the genre. Others also call it not science fiction, but Science Fantasy, starting a huge debate on whether Star Wars is a Category Traitor.
  • Actors have suffered the most on account of the ghetto. With few exceptions (Harrison Ford and those who were pre-established in pre-Star Wars films, such as Natalie Portman^note the latter notably complained that her career dipped during the Prequel Trilogy because "everyone said I was a bad actress" based on the limited role and the weak dialogue of the Prequel Trilogy), none of the actors and actresses who were launched by Lucas in the Original and Prequel Trilogy have done well owing to the perception that the films were mainly effects-laden feasts. Carrie Fisher despite her influential performance as Princess Leia won more fame as a writer and character actress. Mark Hamill despite having the most physically demanding performance in the original films (and in the case of The Empire Strikes Back doing enough of his own stunts that he was actually entered into the British stuntman's union to continue working) never got enough credit for his turn, owing to the perception that Luke was a conventional Vanilla Protagonist and that his performance was "easy".^note As Lucas and others point out, it was Hamill's performance as Luke that made Star Wars come alive, citing the Dagobah sequence, where it was mostly Hamill months on end doing his best to sell the idea of Yoda as a character rather than a puppet owing to his immersion in the role as Luke. His more character-centric turn in The Last Jedi despite wide praise didn't get nominated either. He found more fame as a voice-actor in his post-Star Wars phase than as a live-action actor.
• Signature Sound Effect:
  • The ksssssshhhhhhh!! of a lightsaber igniting, and the distinct humming nose it makes after being unleashed, with small variations when it's kept still and when it swings through the air.
  • Darth Vader's iconic breathing.
• Sliding Scale of Social Satisfaction: Categorized as "True Neutral". Given the fact the setting comprises an entire galaxy, it's only logical for there to be all kinds of societies with varying life standards and satisfaction levels in their populations. On one extreme, there are planets like Tatooine, with slavery being its primary economical sector, and Neimoidia, where the younglings are basically subjected to a Battle Royale to weed out those not enough ambitious and unscrupulous. On the other extreme, there are planets like the peaceful, democratic Naboo and Mandalore which, after years of war, set to a pacifist culture inside domed cities.
• Spiritual Adaptation: Long before Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was released in 2017, the Star Wars franchise as a whole was the closest we ever got to a live-action adaptation of Valérian, and indeed it is widely speculated to have been a major visual influence on the films.
• Stoic Woobie: Princess Leia, considering she loses her planet and is forced to watch Han be frozen in carbonite, but doesn't dwell much on either of them.

T-W

• Take That, Scrappy!: In Star Wars: Droid Tales a non-canon CGI Lego series, a running joke is for Jar Jar to be continuously killed off over and over, clearly in response to his unpopularity in the fandom.
• Theme Pairing: Din Djarin (from The Mandalorian) and Boba Fett gained popularity as a romantic pairing of two badass Mandalorian bounty hunters who follow a personal code of honor and who were both involved in loving father-son family relationships.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The revisions made to the Original Trilogy over various re-releases were not well received by all fans. Those who grew up with the Original Trilogy were considerably outraged about the changes that affected the story and the music. And don't even mention the issue of Greedo shooting first.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!:
  • Jean-Claude Mézières felt the franchise was a rip-off of his comic, Valérian.
  • Others argue that it's a rip-off of Frank Herbert's Dune which Lucas did admit was an influence, and which led the author Frank Herbert to himself list a number of similarities between Star Wars and Dune.^note the desert planet Arrakis inspired Tatooine, the Bene Gesserit priestly caste inspired the Jedi (at least partly), and the blend of Eastern motifs with science-fiction (Islamic in the case of Herbert, Buddhist in the case of Lucas), and Jabba the Hutt was based on the God Emperor Leto, though in Lucas' case he moved the action to multiple planets rather than just one as in Dune, and differed a lot in the plot and characterization.
  • Averted with Jack Kirby who did remark on what he thought were borrowings from his Fourth World comic book series to Star Wars, chiefly the character Darkseid who is similar to both Darth Vader and Palpatine, while Darth Vader's costume seems like a black-palette version of Doctor Doom's costume, and the Force is similar to the Source. Kirby however was quite pleased with this and was more bemused about how it vindicated his ideas as being commercial over that of his editors who believed It Will Never Catch On. He also became good friends with Mark Hamill.
• Too Cool to Live: Too many to count. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Yoda, Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, Savage Opress, Mace Windu, Jango Fett, Pre Viszla, The Zillo Beast, Count Dooku, General Grievous, Darth Maul, the Rogue One crew with emphasis on Chirrut, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and almost the entire Jedi Council. Awesomely subverted by Boba Fett and Darth Maul who were simply too cool to die and were retconned as having survived their deaths — Boba managed to fight his way out of the Sarlacc; Darth Maul somehow made his way to the planet Lotho Minor and eked out an existence there until his brother found him and eventually outlived Savage and fought Obi-Wan as an old man on Tatooine before dying peacefully in his arms when he learns of the Chosen One being protected by Obi-Wan.
• Tough Act to Follow: Ever since it gained its reputation, every film has in some way been stuck under The Empire Strikes Back's shadow. Many believe this also played a big part in many fans' dislike of the Prequel and Sequel Trilogies, failing to live up to the Original Trilogy.
• Uncertain Audience: This has been an issue with Star Wars since the beginning and it has colored everything from tone and content, and the actual reception of the films:
  • The Original Trilogy was unambiguously a light-hearted adventure story for all audiences and it was a Spiritual Successor to The Wizard of Oz and the The Thief of Bagdad (1940) as popular children's fantasy that adults could see with them. The dark tone of The Empire Strikes Back was the exception (and it was divisive on release) before returning full circle with Return of the Jedi (far better received upon release than later). When The Phantom Menace came out and achieved an even lighter tone than the first film, the audiences who regarded The Empire Strikes Back as the best generally rejected the film and the Prequel Trilogy.
  • A common criticism of the Prequel Trilogy in general is that they contain cartoonish characters like Jar Jar that only young children would find funny, but also scenes of realistic political debate that only adults would understand.
  • George Lucas himself stated that the franchise was primarily for children, to the point that many of his edits and decisions seemed to fit into the Fleeting Demographic Rule; for example, he tried to make sure that the premiere of the 3D version of The Phantom Menace would be mainly screened for kids and teens. However, because adults make up a comparably large and much more vocal part of the fanbase, Star Wars could never really lean more towards its kid demographic in the best interests of merchandising and marketing, not helped by the fact that many Star Wars creators other than Lucas were fans of the franchise themselves and saw it from an adult-pandering, adult-oriented perspective - which would become the norm for the franchise after its sale to Disney. That said, the Fleeting Demographic of young children has always been an important part of the Star Wars audience (if not always the primary one), and so the franchise continues to be marketed to them and never really goes above a soft PG-13 rating outside of the Expanded Universe.
  • The other debate is also "new fans" and "old fans". It is partly to keep the franchise fresh for newer audiences that Lucas keeps updating his special editions with newer special effects and changes. Likewise, the demand by fans for a more integrated continuity also led Lucas to more carefully interweave the Prequel Trilogy with the Sequel Trilogy and correct elements across the Saga, and yet fans of the original Star Wars trilogy reject these changes.
  • With The Force Awakens, we have the same issue. Initial critical reception has been excellent but generally notes that it caters to the nostalgia for the Original Trilogy and repeats elements from the plot and setting, rather than tell a new story. In keeping with this, the movie is more "adult" than previous Star Wars movies, with more intense violence, less whimsical humor and a lessened Kid-Appeal Character presence, but is still marketed to kids just as much. As the Disney era went on, this continued with Rogue One and The Last Jedi, which were even darker and more adult than TFA, but still marketed to kids as well as adults, which is standard for both Star Wars and other sci-fi action blockbusters. At this point, it can be assumed that Disney-era Star Wars is a bit less cartoonish and strikes a balance between pandering to adult fans and yet be whimsical and fantastical enough to be loved by kids. A perfect example is BB-8, the only new Kid-Appeal Character in TFA, who is very cute, marketable and "toyetic" but is also beloved by the adult fanbase.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • The Jedi Order of the prequel trilogy.
    • The Jedi exclusively recruited very young children, compared to Luke and many pre-Prequel Trilogy EU works depicting Jedi beginning training as teens or adults. This led to a portion of fans viewing the prequel-era Jedi as brainwashed child soldiers. The Jedi also practiced non-attachment, which doesn't mean they disallow having emotional bonds or even relationships but some fans have interpreted it that way because of a lack of knowledge about Buddhism and Buddhist philosophy by western audiences. The positive reception of the Prequel's and the Jedi in Japan where Buddhism is a primary religion highlights this discrepency. They could be fairly snooty as well with Qui-Gon insisting to Shmi he didn't come to free slaves in The Phantom Menace and Mace Windu's distrust of Anakin in Revenge of the Sith being notable examples.
    • Ditto the clone army: it's one thing for slavery to exist on a backwater Wretched Hive like Tatooine (and for Qui-gon to say he didn't come to the planet to free slaves, which while unfortunate is literally true in context), and quite another for the Jedi to willingly command an army of millions or billions^note depending on whether you read Legends- or Disney-era sources of purpose-bred Slave Mooks. While Star Wars: The Clone Wars takes a much more sympathetic view of the Jedis' participation than the Legends-era Republic Commando Series did, it never really faces up to the fact that being nice to your slaves doesn't make them not slaves.
  • Anakin Skywalker. He's meant to be a basically decent guy who's grappling with a dark side until Palpatine pushes him over, but he really doesn't need a lot of prompting to do so, with some feeling that killing children should have outright put him Beyond Redemption. Even on his own terms, he seems like kind of a maladjusted jerk. His relationship with Padme is meant to be awkward but earnest and loving, but it's so badly written that he comes off as a creep lusting over someone he hasn't seen in ten years instead, and he also acts like a whiny brat, especially when talking to his master, Obi Wan. The heroic acts that would normally make up for this are instead mostly confined to expository dialogue. The Clone Wars is often praised for rectifying this through retroactively presenting Anakin with more heroic qualities, as well as the events leading to his inevitable descent into evil with more depth and nuance.
  • The sequel trilogy tries to portray Vader's self-proclaimed successor/grandson Kylo Ren as a tragic Anti-Villain who was lured to the Dark Side due to Snoke's manipulations, and was Driven to Villainy when his mentor sensed his inner darkness and attempted to murder him in his sleep. By the end of the trilogy, Kylo Ren pulls a Heel–Face Turn and sacrifices himself to save Rey, in a manner that is deliberately reminiscent to Vader's own Heel–Face Turn and Redemption Equals Death. However, despite his emotional struggle with his inner Light vs. Dark dichotomy, Kylo still willingly chose to serve the First Order (even usurping Snoke as the Supreme Leader of the Imperial remnants in the second movie), during which he killed millions, murdered his father, indirectly caused the deaths of Luke and Leia, and spent the large portion of the last movie as an unapologetic bad guy who almost killed Rey multiple times, making his last minute redemption at the final act appear "too little, too late" for many viewers.
• Unpopular Popular Character:
  • In-universe, Darth Vader is rather accurately described by Rey as "the most hated man in the galaxy". Out-of-universe? He's the Series Mascot and is one of the most famous and popular villains not just in Star Wars, but in cinematic history, frequently showing up on "Greatest Movie Villains of All Time" lists.
  • The Millenium Falcon. It's one of the most iconic spaceships in science fiction, but seen as an old piece of junk In-Universe. "Seen" being the keyword as, despite its outward appearance as a decrepit cargo ship, it souped-up "under the hood" allowing it to move very fast for smuggling. The appearance allows it to remain beneath the suspicion of authorities while still being able to make a hasty getaway if need be.
• Viewer Pronunciation Confusion: While the name "Palpatine" first appeared in the novelization to A New Hope, it's never spoken at all in the Original Trilogy, with even the credits for Return of the Jedi identifying him as just "The Emperor". As such, there was some disagreement over whether the last syllable of his name was pronounced "tyne" or "teen", until The Phantom Menace settled it once and for all.
• Viewer Name Confusion: Names in the films tend to be rather evocative, whether of real names or concepts, so casual viewers or non-viewers are often heard speaking of "Hans Solo" or "Dark Vader", to name a few. There's also a few people misspelling C-3PO's name as C-3P0.
• Vindicated by History:
  • While the prequels still have plenty of detractors, opinions of them are generally much more positive today than when they were first released, with fans generally willing to acknowledge their strong points alongside their flaws. Whatever their flaws may be, most fans at least appreciate their imaginative worldbuilding, breathtaking visuals, and general willingness to take creative risks and try new things. This attitude has become more widespread since the release of the sequels, which (while generally more liked) were widely criticized for hewing way too close to the story, tone, and visual aesthetic of the Original Trilogy, and taking few real creative risks. It also helps that the prequel trilogy's overarching story was planned from the beginning, which made it feel more consistent in direction and tone (for better or worse), while the sequels got quite a bit of criticism for the creative team (seemingly) largely making up the story as they went along.
  • Solo has also gotten this to an extent. While fans generally agree that it didn't have to be made, more people have begun to view it as a fun and enjoyable experience that explores new and interesting aspects of the Star Wars galaxy, as well as adding a little more depth to Han's character.
• Wangst: Anakin does this in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. A notable example being his complaining about having to wait to take the Jedi trials — ironically proving why Obi-Wan wants him to wait. Although, The Clone Wars retroactively vindicates this by revealing that Anakin has trained a Padawan learner and that said Padawan had been royally screwed over near the end of the war, which explains his distrust of the Council and Obi-Wan's decisions.
• Watch It for the Meme: This can certainly apply to all the films in the franchise, but Revenge of the Sith in particular takes the cake. Part of the reason it's the most popular of the prequels (along with the story) is for the goldmine of memes.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?:
  • Some viewers have noted that the Prequel Trilogy has a lot of things that could be construed as attacks against George W. Bush and conservatism in general, especially when using Palpatine to pass similar decrees. Lucas insists that Palpatine was actually based on Richard Nixon and later Adolf Hitler. That being said, many have noted that Anakin's telling Obi-Wan "If you're not with me, then you're my enemy" was just a little too similar to Bush's infamous statement that "Either you're with us, or you're with the enemy" in the aftermath of 9/11 for it to be purely coincidental.
  • The fall of the Old Republic/birth of the Empire also directly mirrors the fall of the Roman Republic and its transition into the Roman Empire. Those who think George Lucas was taking potshots at the American political climate at the time should have been a lot more concerned about how the parallels mapped... (That being said, the rough plot of the prequels was already planned all the way back to 1977).
  • William Kristol has come out saying the Galactic Empire is an ideal Neoconservative government.
  • Athena Andreadis has some things to say about the Star Wars universe's issues in terms of gender preconceptions and human community vs. cold, sterile, antiseptic environments:
    A cold, airless locker. There are no families, no civic life beyond power politics, no artists or scientists, no (pre)occupation except endless wars... no song, no laughter, no intimacy, no friendship beyond schoolboy camaraderie, and no sex for either love or pleasure...
• Woolseyism: In Latin America, R2-D2's name is sometimes pronounced as "Arturito" (Little Arthur), which has a similar prononciation as "Artoo-Ditoo", and it has been quite popular.

Canon works with their own YMMV pages:

For the Expanded Universe's main YMMV page, see here.

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Live-Action Films

Prequel Trilogy

• Episode I: The Phantom Menace
• Episode II: Attack of the Clones
• Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Original Trilogy

• Episode IV: A New Hope
• Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
• Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Sequel Trilogy

• Episode VII: The Force Awakens
• Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
• Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker

Anthology Films

• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
• Solo: A Star Wars Story

Animated Series

• The Clone Wars
• Rebels
• Resistance
• The Freemaker Adventures
• The Bad Batch
• Tales of the Jedi

Live-Action Television

• The Mandalorian
• The Book of Boba Fett
• Obi-Wan Kenobi
• Andor
• Ahsoka

Video Games

• Uprising
• Battlefront
• Battlefront II
• Secrets of the Empire
• Squadrons
• Jedi: Fallen Order
• Jedi: Survivor
• Ragtag

Web Series

• Forces of Destiny

Literature

• Master And Apprentice
• Queen's Shadow
• Dark Disciple
• Catalyst
• Ahsoka
• Adventures in Wild Space
• Lords of the Sith
• Tarkin
• Lost Stars
• Thrawn
• Thrawn: Alliances
• Thrawn: Treason
• Thrawn Ascendancy Trilogy
  • Greater Good
  • Lesser Evil
• Last Shot
• A New Dawn
• Servants of the Empire
• Ezra's Gamble
• Guardians of the Whills
• From a Certain Point of View
• Heir to the Jedi
• The Aftermath Trilogy
  • Aftermath
  • Life Debt
  • Empire's End
• Phasma
• Join the Resistance
• Tales from a Galaxy Far, Far Away Volume 1: Aliens
• Before the Awakening

Comic Books

• Star Wars Adventures
• Darth Maul
• Kanan
• Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith
• Star Wars Rebels Magazine
• Princess Leia
• Star Wars (Marvel 2015)
• Darth Vader
• Doctor Aphra
• Lando
• Shattered Empire
• Poe Dameron

Short Stories

• Orientation
• Blade Squadron

Star Wars Legends

Star Wars Legends

• 1313
• Agent of the Empire
• Allegiance
• Battlefront
• Battlefront II
• Battlefront: Elite Squadron
• Black Fleet Crisis
• Bounty Hunter
• The Callista Trilogy
• Choices of One
• Clone Wars
• Clone Wars Gambit
• The Corellian Trilogy
• The Courtship of Princess Leia
• Crosscurrent
• Crucible
• The Crystal Star
• The Customizable Card Game
• D20
• Dark Empire
• Dark Forces Saga
  • Dark Forces
  • Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
  • Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
  • Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
• Dark Lord The Rise Of Darth Vader
• Dark Nest Trilogy
• Dark Times
• Darth Bane
• Darth Plagueis
• Darth Vader
• Dawn of the Jedi
• Death, Lies, and Treachery
• Death Troopers
• Droids
• DroidWorks
• Empire at War
• Ewok Adventures
• Ewoks
• Fate of the Jedi
• The Force Unleashed
• Galactic Battlegrounds
• Galaxies
• Galaxy of Fear
• The Glove of Darth Vader
• The Hand of Thrawn
• The Han Solo Trilogy
• The Holiday Special
• I, Jedi
• Jedi Academy Trilogy
• Jedi Apprentice
• Jedi Starfighter
• Junior Jedi Knights
• Kenobi
• Knight Errant
• Knights of the Old Republic
• Knights of the Old Republic II
• Legacy
• Legacy of the Force
• Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor
• Star Wars (Marvel 1977)
• Masters of Teräs Käsi
• Maul
• Millennium Falcon
• Miniatures
• New Jedi Order
• The New Rebellion
• The Old Republic
• Outbound Flight
• Purge
• Radio Dramas
• Rebellion
• Red Harvest
• Republic
• Republic Commando
• Republic Commando Series
• Revan
• Roleplaying Game
• Rogue Squadron
• Shadows of the Empire
• Splinter of the Mind's Eye
• Star Tours
• Super Star Wars
• Tales from Jabba's Palace
• Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina
• Tales of the Bounty Hunters
• Tales of the Jedi
• The Thrawn Trilogy
• TIE Fighter
• The Truce at Bakura
• Underworld
• Union
• X-Wing
• X-Wing Alliance
• X-Wing Miniatures
• X-Wing Series
• X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter
• Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
• Young Jedi Knights

Star Wars Infinities

• The Star Wars
• LEGO Star Wars
• Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars
• Tag and Bink
• The Yoda Chronicles

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