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'Obi-Wan Kenobi': How the 'Star Wars' prequel became a cult on the Internet

The release of the 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' series on Disney+ on Friday was a major event for young 'Star Wars' fans, who grew up with the 1990-2000 trilogy and 'The Clone Wars' series.

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In the films, Anakin Skywalker, rejected by the Jedi Council, eventually turns to the evil Sith. One of the favorite comic springs of

"It's over Anakin, I have the high ground," "I am the Senate", "Hello there": In theory, these aren't the most famous lines from the Star Wars universe, but for a generation of internet users raised on Episodes I, II and III, released between 1999 and 2005, they are nonetheless the equivalents of "I am your father" or "May the force be with you."

Endlessly imitated, paired with offbeat situations, these clips from George Lucas' second trilogy have invaded the internet, to the point of becoming a mainstay of online humor, on a par with the animated gifs of funny animals or rage comics of their day.

The most popular link on Reddit

While the so-called "prequel memes" (in reference to the "prequel trilogy," so-called because the story takes place before the original trilogy) are popular on YouTube and other platforms such as 9gag, it is on the Reddit forum that they are most shared. That's where, three years ago, the "r/prequelmemes" section appeared, which now counts some 2.1 million users and 2,000 comments a day. So many, in fact, that it is hot on the heels of the general section dedicated to the series ("r/starwars") and its 2.2 million subscribers. Such is the popularity of the phenomenon that a "prequel meme" once held the record for most popular link in Reddit's otherwise rich history.

How can this success be explained, when the Reddit sections dedicated to the imitation of the other trilogies attract between four and nine times fewer people? And when two of the first three films of this prequel are generally considered as the weakest of the saga?

"While the first imitations of the prequel trilogy were initially intended to mock the films (like Darth Vader's scream that became the laughing stock of the internet from the early 2000s), they didn't immediately become sensations," said Matt Schimkowitz, a writer for the specialized site Know Your Meme. Indeed, it wasn't until 2015, and the annual release of new Disney-produced films, that the prequel trilogy found a new lease on life – and the "prequel memes" found new meaning.

The original trilogy? 'A thing of the past'

It was December 2016 and Rogue One had just been released. A year earlier, The Force Awakens broke all the box office records. This was the moment that a certain TheDStudge chose to launch the Reddit section "r/prequelmemes," which he fed with images and gifs from the prequel that he and his high school friends had been collecting for weeks. It was an instant success: Six months after its creation, it had amassed 250,000 subscribers.

The prequel trilogy memes resonate with "those aged between 13 to 30," said AdventurousSwine, co-founder of the subreddit with TheDStudge. The latter grew up with these movies and with the animated series The Clone Wars and Rebels. These are people who are just out of adolescence, or still in the midst of it, who wield ironic and self-deprecating humor. They are geeks who recognize themselves in this unloved trilogy, criticized by their elders, and who can gather around shared references.

On Twitter, there are French followers of "prequel memes." Aged between 24 and 26, those who we interviewed often liked the original trilogy, but still preferred the prequels. Bredan praised the political dimension of the work, as well as its settings, its casting, its music and its lightsaber duels, which are much more dynamic than in the originals. Flo defended the love scenes, almost absent from the other films in the saga, while Myriam evoked "a subtlety that the original trilogy did not have." "I would go so far as to say," she said, bravely, "that the original is a thing of the past."

Despite all this love for the prequel, the joke could have run out of steam. And indeed, the popularity of "r/prequelmemes" did seem to wane after six months. Until, that is, the 2017 holiday season, the first anniversary of the section, but also – and more importantly – the release of Episode VIII.

A good-natured war

In contrast to the 2015 and 2016 vintages, cautious films that had just about everyone in agreement, The Last Jedi is divisive. Is it too different? Too slow? Too "progressive" for some people? Whatever the case, it marked the end of the honeymoon between Star Wars fans and Disney. It also created a new youth for the "prequel memes," which have become a refuge for twenty-somethings already nostalgic for the "good old days."

"Fans who criticize the new films hold up the prequel films as examples of 'good Star Wars movies,' in the same way that some fans held up the originals against the prequel in the early 2000s," said Mr. Schimkowitz of Know Your Meme.

The conflict remains, however, good-natured; on several occasions, the "r/prequelmemes" section had officially entered into "war" against its little sister "r/sequelmemes." It was an opportunity to exchange insults and offbeat montages, insulting the enemy brothers. It was an opportunity, above all, to realize that the subscribers of both sections... were often one and the same.

Sometimes, however, prequel memes spill over from internet forums and social networks. TheDStudge, the founder of "r/prequelmemes," said that at conventions, fans are now sandbagging Hayden Christensen, the actor portraying Anakin Skywalker, in reference to some particularly ridiculous dialog from Episode II.

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In the summer of 2019, the actor Ewan McGregor, the darling of "r/prequelmemes," was called upon by Disney to don the costume of the young Obi-Wan Kenobi once more, 14 years after Episode III. After years of waiting, the series dedicated to him will finally begin broadcasting on Friday, May 27. What if it was (in part) thanks to "r/prequelmemes"? In any case, AdventurousSwine wants to believe it's true: "It's really funny. We never thought we'd have this kind of influence."

Update May 27, 2022: this article from 2019 has been republished to coincide with the release of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+.

Corentin Lamy

Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.

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