Memes / The Rise of Skywalker

The dark side all-purpose tool.

General Hux: I'm the meme.
Poe Dameron: I knew it!
Finn: No, you did not.

Return to the main Star Wars meme page here.

Please add entries in the following format:

• The meme. ^Explanation The explanation behind the meme.
  • Further mutations and successor memes, if any.

---

• Star Wars Celebration debuted a teaser trailer immediately followed by a surprise appearance from Ian McDiarmid to further hype up the audience, immediately leading to multiple memes:
  • "No one's ever really gone." *Cue Evil Laugh* ^Explanation The trailer used this line to tease Emperor Palpatine reappearing. People juxtapose the line on other characters who clearly died like Biggs Darklighter and Count Dooku.
  • "Oh, I'm afraid the Emperor will be quite operational when your friends arrive..." ^Explanation Repurposing the Emperor's line about the Death Star II to refer to himself.
  • Star Wars: The Emperor's New Groove ^Explanation The Emperor's New Groove is an animated Disney film, and Star Wars is now a Disney property.
  • "In case of Last Jedi failure break glass" ^Explanation Image edit of a fire alarm replacing the "In case of fire break glass" text and adding a picture of Emperor Palpatine behind the glass. The meme suggests his return is an attempt to Win Back the Crowd of people who disliked the named film.
  • "A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one!" ^Explanation Repurposing Palpatine's line from The Phantom Menace to acknowledge his surprise return, which wasn't foreshadowed in the previous two films but still delighted many fans.
• The droid D-0's name is pronounced "Dee-Oh", which became meme-fuel for many JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fans, as well as a resurgence in references to an episode of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.
• "They fly now!?" ^Explanation Finn, C-3PO and Poe's reaction after seeing First Order Jet Troopers chase after them is of bewilderment and surprise even though jet packs are nothing new in-universe.
  • "They [X] now!?"^Explanation "Fly" gets swapped with another word depending on the context.
  • "They been using them since the Clone Wars."^Explanation John Boyega's response to this line.
• "Palpatine fucks." ^Explanation Using the existing "[X] fucks" meme to react to The Reveal that Rey is Palpatine's granddaughter via his newly-revealed son, who is presumed to have been conceived via intercourse, though supplementary material later revealed that he was actually a clone. The idea of the not-so-attractive Palpatine having sex with anyone is squicky/hilarious.
  • "Execute Order 69." ^Explanation Order 66, which was Palpatine's order for the clones to kill Jedi, plus the sexual position.
  • "Druish princesses are often attracted to money and power." ^Explanation Using this quote to express that Emperor Palpatine's status is why a woman would willingly hook up with him and bear his child.
  • "Do It" ^Explanation Echoing Palpatine's words when telling Anakin to kill Dooku. Implied to be what Palpatine would've said to a sexual partner.
• "Palpatine wins." ^Explanation A declaration that Palpatine's death and failure to re-conquer the galaxy is still a victory because he set in motion Ben Solo's fall, which resulted in extinguishing the Skywalker bloodline and ruining many of their efforts. In a sense, getting a spiteful last laugh victory over the Skywalkers, on top of Rey, his genetic heir, taking the Skywalker name, replacing their bloodline.
  • "The Palpatine Saga" / Episode IX: The Rise of Palpatine ^Explanation Renaming the saga or the film to say the saga had been turned into a story about the Palpatines since Rey is part of this bloodline, she ultimately defeats her grandfather instead of Anakin or his descendants, and the Skywalker bloodline dies out.
• Evil C-3PO ^Explanation In the D23 trailer, a shot of C-3PO with red eyes is followed by a red Wave-Motion Gun firing into a planet. Cue jokes that C-3PO had turned to the dark side, or was the true Sith Lord behind everything like the Jar Jar/Darth Darth Binks meme.
• "The Saga Ends" ^Explanation Marketing for the film consistently played up the fact that this is the end of the Skywalker Saga, while 3 more Star Wars movies were already confirmed to be in development at the time, leading to jokes about the next movies and their hypothetical titles.
• Due to the sheer amount of leaks about this film months in advance, an entire fandom subculture rose around them on r/StarWarsLeaks and several other web forums, leading to many memes and in-jokes.
  • "General Hux gets eaten by a giant space turtle in the third act." ^Explanation  One particularly absurd leak claimed that a giant space turtle would appear and eat the star destroyer that General Hux is on. This became a stock fake spoiler, spawned image edits such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles getting ready to eat a pizza labelled "General Hux in the third act," and drew comparisons to Stephen King's It, the climax of which also features a giant turtle from space.
  • Matt Smith. ^Explanation Pre-release leaks and retracted Disney promotions that Matt Smith was cast led to rumors about what role he'd play. Seemingly-plausible ones alleged he'd play a young Palpatine or a Sith acolyte who would be possessed by Palpatine's wraith to battle Rey and Ben. As more characters were revealed in promotions, the community joked that Matt Smith was playing them.
  • "Never to be seen again / N2BSA / The Yeetening." ^Explanation A mostly-accurate plot leak included a claim that Palpatine would shoot (or "yeet") Ben into a pit to an Uncertain Doom, "Never to be seen again." The leaker insisted it was true in the face of mixed reactions, and the phrase became an ironic meme. The meme has outlasted the confirmation of Ben's actual fate.
  • "No, I do." ^Explanation A supposed leak about the final scene included dialogue after Rey's "Rey Skywalker" line where the questioner reveals themselves as a living Ben Solo. He wishes her luck, she thanks him and wishes he'll find what he seeks, and Ben responds with the nonsensical line, "No, I do." This became a popular random reply.
  • Burger King. ^Explanation About a week prior to the theatrical release, German Burger Kings had a marketing campaign referred to as the "Spoiler Whopper". Customers could tell a spoiler to the "Spoiler Whopper" app to get free food. The app directly sourced the spoilers from r/StarWarsLeaks. The community proclaimed this campaign could only happen with Disney's approval, therefore the leaks were false and a trap laid directly by Disney. The Spoiler Whopper spoilers all turned out to be true. This bizarre incident spawned Burger King-related memes.
  • "Then our worst fears have been realized" ^Explanation A line by Mace Windu from Revenge of the Sith, which some people began using as a response when trailers began confirming some of the plot leaks they weren't keen on.
• Evil Rey "Swiss Army" Lightsaber ^Explanation Similar to jokes made about Kylo Ren's crossguard lightsaber after the reveal trailer for The Force Awakens, fans went wild with editing Evil Rey's folded-out saber to contain red glowing versions of various tools that are often on a Swiss Army knife. Incidentally, a similar joke was previously made regarding Darth Maul's lightsaber in Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars.
  • 6 blades for better comfort ^Explanation Just have 6 copies of the saber next to each other and you have a good razor from Gillette.
• "Poe stole my parents" ^Explanation In a Twitter feud between Reylo shippers and Poe fans, one of the former tweeted: "he is not a abuser stop crying bc Ben is hot and strong but Poe is just a parent stealer for political reasons" [sic], which quickly went viral and mutated into this phrase.
• Buried on Tatooine? In sand?! ^Explanation  Joking that Anakin is horrified that Rey buried his lightsaber on a planet he hated, on the Lars Homestead where he buried his mother, and in sand. Formats include comics, image edits, and dialogues such as Anakin's Force ghost scolding Rey or complaining to Obi-Wan.
  • Adding Leia, Luke, and/or Shmi Skywalker Lars to this. ^Explanation Leia's only experience on Tatooine was Go-Go Enslavement when rescuing Han from Jabba the Hutt, Luke and Shmi both made Lars homestead their home but Luke's adoptive parents were murdered there and Shmi is buried there, so other memes feature them responding poorly to Rey burying Luke and Leia's lightsabers there.
• Wet Kylo Ren ^Explanation Twitter fans went viral with reactions to Kylo Ren walking out of a wave during his final duel with Rey
• "Rey who?" ^Explanation An old woman asks who Rey is, leading to Rey taking the Skywalker name. People are swapping "Rey Skywalker" for all kinds of humorous variations, usually just puns.
  • "I'm [Name]." "[Name] who?" "[Name] Skywalker." ^Explanation Other characters take Rey's place, usually in a 4-panel sequence where they're asked who they are, look the side at Luke and Leia's Force ghosts, and answer with "[Name] Skywalker".
• Force healing ^Explanation People joke that this technique would have been useful in prior movies like when Qui-Gon was impaled by Darth Maul, when Shmi was dying in Anakin's arms, or when Darth Vader choked Padmé.
• Apolitical Chewbacca ^Explanation The visual dictionary describes Chewbacca as staunchly apolitical. Since this conflicts with Chewbacca fighting in all three major wars of the saga, it’s led to jokes that he doesn't actually care what's going on and just wants an excuse to kill people.
• Grievous would've been unstoppable! ^Explanation Rey defeats Darth Sidious by calling on the strength of all the Jedi and reflecting his Force Lightning back at him with two lightsabers. People joke that General Grievous would easily defeat Sidious since he wields four lightsabers.
  • If Mace Windu had a second lightsaber... ^Explanation Joking that Mace Windu could have defeated Sidious in Revenge of the Sith if he had a second lightsaber when he was deflecting Sidious' force lightning.
  • Why Dooku had to betray Ventress. ^Explanation Joking that the real reason Sidious ordered Dooku to kill his apprentice Asajj Ventress was that she dual-wielded.
• "No homo!" ^Explanation Poe and Finn are ostensibly paired with Zorii Bliss and Jannah, leading to joke that these characters exist as a "no homo" to the Ho Yay between Poe and Finn. The words or their sentiment are added to images of the characters or part of parody dialogues.
• John Boyega and Oscar Isaac's lack of fucks. ^Explanation During film promotions and when asked about it after release, Oscar Isaac and John Boyega seem dissatisfied with the film and ready to move on in their careers. Isaac called Disney "cowards" for not allowing Poe and Finn to become an Official Couple and said he has no interest in reprising the role of Poe, while Boyega took the piss out of Reylo fans and admitted that he didn't like Finn's character arc over the trilogy.
  • "Disney overlords." ^Explanation Referring to Disney using Oscar Isaac's specific phrasing in answer about Poe and Finn during an interview: "I would try to push it a bit in that direction, but the Disney overlords were not ready to do that."
• Force-pushed into the friendzone. ^Explanation Joking about using the Force to "friendzone" people and saying that when Rey Force-pushed Finn away from her fight with Kylo Ren on Kef Bir, she was physically putting him in the "friendzone."
• Rey really is a Disney Princess. ^Explanation The movie reveals that Rey is Emperor Palpatine's granddaughter and the Sith throne is her birthright, thus she has Royal Blood.
• *sigh* Somehow, Palpatine returned. ^Explanation Poe's line when he tells his fellow Resistance members that Palpatine has come Back from the Dead via unknown means; he seems exasperated or tired. People reuse this in the context of other unexplained things.
  • Somehow, [X] returned. ^Explanation Further applying this phrase to other franchises with villains inexplicably coming Back from the Dead in hypothetical sequels, such as Voldemort, Sauron, and Thanos.
  • "Dark science. Cloning. Secrets only the Sith knew." ^Explanation Beaumont Kin's line theorizing how Palpatine returned, taken out of context to answer other questions about how something happened.
  • The Dead Speak! ^Explanation Related to the above, and in a similar reaction to "War!" The very first words of the Opening Scroll became notorious for failing to properly explain Palpatine's return and feeling out of place.
  • Fortnite ^Explanation The Mysterious Broadcast established in the Opening Scroll premiered in a Fortnite crossover event of all things, much to the confusion and disbelief of many fans.
• "Ow." ^Explanation Ben Solo's only line of dialogue after he sheds his Kylo Ren persona and then throws his lightsaber into Kef Bir's ocean, used in contexts where it's clear it's quoting Ben.

• Good Boy Sweater™ ^Explanation As part of his Good Costume Switch, Ben Solo wears a black crew neck sweater with a hole where Rey impaled him. Participants in the Ben Solo Challenge often wear a similar sweater while imitating his Han Solo-esque shrug.
  • Ben Solo Challenge ^Explanation People recreate the scene where Ben is surrounded by the Knights of Ren, slowly and unexpectedly draws the Skywalker lightsaber from behind his back, shrugs like Han Solo, then launches into battle. People use lightsabers or other objects, and sometimes wear a Good Boy Sweater™.
• "If this mission fails, it was all for nothing." ^Explanation  C-3PO says this line in a few trailers, which some viewers applied in a meta-sense to The Rise of Skywalker and Sequel trilogy as a whole following the Broken Base reaction to The Last Jedi, with Rise having to Win Back the Crowd.
• The Fall of Skywalker ^Explanation Renaming the film to say "Skywalker" cannot "rise" with all the biological Skywalkers dead and Rey's adoption of the name "does not count."
  • "Did you ever hear the tragedy of the Skywalkers?" ^Explanation Referencing Palpatine's memeworthy line from Revenge of the Sith, "Did you ever heard the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?"
• "Let me guess, Death Star?" "It was, and it was beautiful." ^Explanation Reacting to the first shot of the Death Star II's ruined superlaser dish by repurposing an exchange between Doctor Strange and Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War.
• Rendemption / Bendemption ^Explanation  Fan Nickname for Ben Solo's Heel–Face Turn, which people had been predicting and/or hoping for since The Force Awakens
• "He may have been your grandfather, but he wasn't your granddaddy." ^Explanation An adapted quote from Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 saying he was Peter Quill's real daddy unlike Peter's biological father; it's applied to Rey's biological-only relationship with her grandfather, Sheev Palpatine.

• Ben getting thrown off a cliff to music. ^Explanation Videos with music added to the scene where Palpatine uses the Force to throw Ben out of sight and into a pit, often reacting to complaints that it's "too graphic."
• "Holding Out For a Hero" / "I Need a Hero" ^Explanation Videos with the song "Holding Out for a Hero" and footage of Ben running and fighting the Knights of Ren to help Rey on Exegol.
• "Forced too hard." ^Explanation Joking about how the otherwise-healthy Luke, Leia, and Rey all died from overexerting themselves using the Force.
• An imagined exchange:
  Marketing department: How many TV spots do you want?
  Disney/Lucasfilm: Yes. ^Explanation New TV spots and mini trailers were released almost every other week before the theatrical release.
• Palpatine's Bass Boosted Lightning ^Explanation Palpatine raises his arms and shoots his Force lightning at the Resistance ships, accompanied by what sounds like a bass drop at a huge rave. People have added electronic/dance music samples to make Palpatine drop the bass.
• This exchange:
  Palpatine: I am all the Sith!
  Rey: And I... am all the Jedi. ^Explanation Image edits to change the characters saying this and/or the dialogue; they're the final words they exchange before Rey reflects Palpatine's Force lightning with Luke and Leia's lightsabers, killing him.
  • "(And) I am all the Senate!" ^Explanation Blending this meme and the "I am the Senate" meme from Revenge of the Sith. Some have made jokes about him being able to beat Rey if he said this instead of the actual line.
• "Taking one last look, sir... at my friends." ^Explanation  C-3PO speaking to Rey, Finn, and Poe before his temporary memory wipe, edited to show him looking at or holding a photo of the Original Trilogy cast.
  • He'd better be saying this to Chewie and R2! ^Explanation  Joking that C-3PO is actually addressing Chewbacca and R2-D2, and sometimes Lando, who aren't in the scene but have been his friends for decades.
• "There's no source material." ^Explanation In a pre-release Rolling Stone interview, Kathleen Kennedy mentioned the challenges of writing original material as Star Wars isn't based on books or comics. People pair quotes from this interview with pictures of Star Wars Legends works.
• Kylo reacts to Evil Rey. ^Explanation Edits of Kylo looking Distracted by the Sexy of Rey's Dark Side self and wanting an Unholy Matrimony.
• "He lost the star wars." ^Explanation An alleged draft of Episode IX: Duel of the Fates by Connolly and Trevorrow has this quote: "Hux realizes the tragic truth. He lost the star wars." Memes use it with or without the original lowercase for characters, Disney, George Lucas, and more.
• The shot of Kylo and the Knights of Ren walking down the hall, accompanied by epic music. ^Explanation  It become the Star Wars equivalent of the "Me and the Boys" meme. (i.e.) "Me and the boys coming back from recess".
• "Still a better love story than Reylo." ^Explanation  Detractors of the Reylo ship rephrase the old Twilight meme in response to the pairing in this movie.
• "Your Snoke Theory Sucks" ^Explanation  Originally a The Last Jedi meme popularized by the Steele Wars podcast and embraced by Rian Johnson, now used to mock this film's reveal that Snoke was just a clone puppeteered by Palpatine all along.
• "Come on, that move's one-in-a-million." ^Explanation  Poe uses this line to explain they don't pull off Holdo Maneuvers to destroy the Final Order's Star Destroyer fleet, which became a meme since in attempting to address the Fridge Logic as to why ramming ships at light-speed hadn't been used before The Last Jedi, it opens the awkward new Fridge Logic that not only was Holdo betting her own "bad odds" in a desperate attempt to save the Resistance (which she admonished Poe for), it leads to the awkward image that her Heroic Sacrifice had incredible odds of her just failing and shooting off to safety like a Dirty Coward. More jokingly, it can also be used to refer to Luke's "one in a million" shot blowing up the Death Star in A New Hope, as stated by Han Solo.
• "I don't care if X win. I just want Y to lose!" ^Explanation  General Hux's justification of pulling an Enemy Mine with the Resistance. He doesn't actually care about them or their goals, he just wants to get back at Kylo Ren for treating him badly. This becomes a popular template for Enemy Mine situations where both sides hate each other's guts but are willing to have a Teeth-Clenched Teamwork against a mutual foe.
• Live Slug Reaction^Explanation A person on Twitter◊ falsely claimed that after the shot where two female Resistance soldiers kiss, marking the first gay kiss in a Star Wars movie (that was noted to be shown so briefly as to be easily cut for foreign markets), the camera then lingers on a frowning slug-like alien named Klaud for twice as long. It soon became popular to take implicitly or explicitly queer scenes from other media and photoshop in a "Live Slug Reaction" depicting said frowning slug.
  • Homophobic Slug^Explanation People critical of Disney's limited queer representation and amused by the suspicious timing of the slug shot started calling Klaud homophobic in memes.
  • Homosexual Slug^Explanation A correction to the above Tweet revealed that the whole clip ends with Klaud receiving a hug from a human male, whom fans proceeded to ship with him.

---

Luke: A thousand memes live in you now.

---