Star Wars/YMMV

• A New Hope
• The Empire Strikes Back
• Return of the Jedi
• The Phantom Menace
• Attack of the Clones
• Revenge of the Sith
• The Force Awakens
• The Last Jedi
• The Rise of Skywalker
• The Star Wars Holiday Special
• Star Wars: Clone Wars
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars
• Star Wars Battlefront
• Star Wars Expanded Universe
• Star Wars Legends

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• Accidental Aesop: As has been commented on many times, despite Star Wars being anti-war, the heroes constantly being caught flat-footed by the latest batch of warships has led to good arguments over why it's important to have a standing army.
• Acceptable Political Targets: Any politics is fair game, from the Good Is Impotent politicians who can't garner sufficient votes for their socially conscious bills all the way to the Corrupt Politicians who use their positions to line their pockets. The heroes themselves, aside from being pro-democracy, generally get the job done because they aren't hindered by politics. But the biggest acceptable target is without a doubt fascism, the Prequel Trilogy being a warning about how right-wing extremism can cause fascism to take over a functioning democracy.
• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Quite a bit of this in fandom. Anakin Skywalker is a Base Breaker (as stated below) - is he a self-involved brat who always whines how hard his life is or a hapless Pawn of Prophecy or a poor misunderstood Woobie who would have been fine if those cold and unfeeling Jedi had just tried harder to understand him? Well, it depends which fans you ask.
  • His mentor, Obi Wan Kenobi also gets his fair share and it's arguable that some inconsistencies are the results of Retcons in the prequels from things already established (or implied) in the Original Trilogy - and then there are things thrown in from the EU (such as the Jedi Apprentice novels). For instance, some cite his Chessmaster tendencies in the original trilogy and see him as self-righteousness and authoritarian in the prequels, but the novelisation of Revenge of the Sith characterises him as so self-effacing, that he genuinely doesn't realise his true value and abilities as a Jedi (His reaction when the Jedi Council announce that they are sending their "most cunning and most tenacious Master" to deal with General Grievous is both touching and amusing. He asks who they intend to send and then it dawns on him that everyone else is looking at him).
    • It could also be inferred that Obi-Wan himself is something of an Unreliable Narrator who tends to emphasise his own failures and relative culpability (which would fit in the self-effacing characterisation mentioned above). For instance, When Obi-Wan tells Luke that Anakin's fall was partially his fault because "I thought I could instruct him as well as Yoda. I was wrong." in Return of the Jedi it somewhat implies that Obi-Wan must have arrogantly demanded to train someone that Yoda would have been willing to train and done a better job with. Come The Phantom Menace this is shown clearly not to be the case. Obi-Wan is perhaps a little arrogant in the way he demands to train the boy, but it seems clear that a) Yoda was not willing to do the job and b) the demand is driven by his promise to a dying man rather that any belief in his own abilities as a teacher. And there doesn't seem to be any cases where Obi Wan tries to represent his role in events to be bigger or better than is actually seen or to place blame for his problems on others. Maybe he really is that humble and/or shy of taking praise or credit?
  • One that's seen more rise on YouTube after The Rise of Skywalker. Given how Palpatine wants Rey to kill him whereupon he'll possess her body, some have asked if he was doing the same to Luke in the climax of Jedi or if indeed, his whole goal has been to Body Surf into healthy young Force users for eternity. Adding more credence to this theory, when Anakin threatens to kill Palpatine in Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine encourages Skywalker to go through with it.
• Badass Decay: Padmé Amidala, when she becomes pregnant with twins in Revenge of the Sith. Though quite justified as she's eight to nine months pregnant!
• Base Breaker:
  • Anakin Skywalker. Was he a Tragic Villain who was gaslit into becoming someone he wasn't and was a good person deep down? Or was he an Entitled It's All About Me borderline Sociopathic Hero who indulged in his Wangst? The comics make clear that he legitimately does want to rule the Empire and would kill the Jedi all over again if he had to but also that he regrets many of the deeds he did during his time as a Sith Lord. Per Word of God, while holding onto Ahsoka's lightsabers during the later days of the Clone Wars was an act of love, tinting them blue like his own was his toxic selfishness at work.
  • Rey. Detractors have gone so far as to label her as a Mary Sue who stole the title of hero from the Skywalker family. Those who like her will cite that the detractors are a Hypocritical Fandom as her journey is quite similar to Luke's.
    • Among her own fans, what was the better origin story? Coming from nothing or being Palpatine's granddaughter?
  • Luke as portrayed in The Last Jedi. Did his actions make sense or was he Out of Character?
  • The Jedi. While the franchise never tried to hide that they're out of touch demagogues who bought their own hype and rested on their laurels for too long, Luke outright says what fools they were in The Last Jedi, fans will go back and forth over whether the Jedi, while flawed, were still good people who wanted peace, or a cult of baby snatchers who endorsed the brutally corrupt and inefficient Republic, being content to hide away in their Temple.
    • The most divisive Jedi is probably Mace Windu. One half of the fanbase is fascinated by Yoda's powerful Number Two, who did manage to defeat Palpatine in their duel (according to some), latching onto his Hidden Depths and Luke's later approval of him. The other half sees him as a Holier Than Thou Jerkass given that his blatant Lack of Empathy during the Clone Wars created Darth Vader, noting that while he nearly saved the galaxy from evil, he created that evil while also setting Boba Fett down the path to becoming a bounty hunter. It also doesn't help that the novelization for Revenge of the Sith had him strongly implying that his and the rest of the Jedi's decision to have Anakin spy on the Supreme Chancellor was more out of completely self-serving reasons of keeping Anakin under their thumb by removing Palpatine's influence on him [and all that was before they learned he was a Sith Lord] rather than any genuine concern for the Republic.
  • Spinning off that, the Galactic Republic. An example of Democracy Is Flawed but still a benevolent state that could have been saved and made something better if a non-corrupt Chancellor had been in charge? Or was Palpatine just accelerating the rot and exacerbating its flaws and the Republic would have become the Empire even without him?
• Better on Disney+: If you get the Complete Saga collection, you'll get all the movies so that you don't have to buy them separately. This makes it slightly easier for a viewing experience, as all three trilogies were originally sold separately. It counts also even for the regular editions (including as a DVD release), as all three films of the trilogies are collected in the set instead of separately.
• Broken Base:
  • There is a schism between fans who insist that the original trilogy is the best and that everything else can piss off, the fans who believe that the entire series is good, and the fans who enjoy other eras but find the originals to be outdated. There are also fans who enjoy the Expanded Universe and those who don't care for it. More generally, there is a related but not identical schism between pro-Lucas and anti-Lucas fans.
    • The Rise of Skywalker. With Unpleasable Fanbase being what it is, it was never going to make everyone happy but was the Grand Finale a serviceable, if not perfect, ending to the Skywalker saga, while also leaving the door open for more adventures, or was it an insult to the prior films, Return of the Jedi in particular, and the fanbase?
    • The Prequels have permanently split the fandom in two.
    • Following The Last Jedi, Star Wars media very noticeably took a Revisiting the Roots approach, focusing near-exclusively on the Imperial era (or at least only a few years after ROTJ). Is this Star Wars finally listening to its fans or simply Pandering to the Base and throwing out lots of potentially interesting stories set in other epochs?
  • Two of the home video releases, the 2006 "Limited Edition" DVD release and the 2011 Blu-ray release. Most other releases were either generally liked or generally hated.
    • For the 2006 "Limited Edition" with the original theatrical versions, some fans were gleeful/grateful that Lucas finally let them see Han shoot first, see Sebastian Shaw's ghost instead of Hayden Christensen's, hear Jason Wingreen as Boba Fett, watch Jabba's performers sing "Lapti Nek", etc. Other fans were extremely critical about the poor quality of the originals and believed that Lucas was intentionally creating an inferior product to suit his own purposes.
    • For the Blu-ray versions, on one hand, you have the picture quality, the boatload of extras and the opportunity to watch all the movies in brilliant hi-def. On the other hand, you have the various edits (and Lucas' refusal to revert old unpopular edits such as Greedo shooting first), horribly lame cover art that shows how much Lucas loves Jake Lloyd, and the picture quality.
• Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch: The vocal Hate Dumb is not exactly hard to miss on any Star Wars related site. However, a particularly sad example can be found on the Amazon.com page for the Star Wars Complete Saga Blu-ray collection. Well, long story short, there is more "it's not the original versions!" or "and replaced Puppet!Yoda in every film with the CGI model" than actual reviews for the collection explaining the legitimate problems the collection may/does have.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: All of it. Yes, we do mean all of it. Check the Star Wars folder on John William's page and believe.
• Defanged Horrors: Each movie gave us a new, different creature for our heroes to go up against.
  • A New Hope had the dianoga, the monster in the trash compactor scene.
  • Empire had the wampa, as well as a brief glimpse of some swamp creature, and the space slug on the asteroid. Deep-freezing Solo could also be considered unsettling.
  • ROTJ had the rancor and the sarlacc.
  • The Jedi faced three underwater beasts in The Phantom Menace.
  • The arena scene in Attack of the Clones also had three creatures, each trying to kill one of the heroes.
  • Revenge of the Sith, oddly, had no creature feature, unless you count the lizard-dog Obi rode during the attack on Grievous. However, Word of God says there was originally supposed to be something waiting for Obi-Wan after he fell into the canyon during Order 66. But the idea of interrupting the most heartbreaking and emotional scene in the whole movie with Obi-Wan sneaking past a Loch Ness monster probably came off as a bad idea.
  • The way Anakin becomes Darth Vader (being mutilated and burnt almost to death while screaming to Obi-Wan "I hate you!") is definitely disturbing to watch.
• Designated Protagonist Syndrome: A sizeable portion of the fanbase believe Luke to be the least interesting character in the original trilogy due to his status as an Audience Surrogate, starting the series as an inexperienced teenager and for being surrounded by a more complex and interesting supporting characters.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Though there are many Tragic Villains (Vader, Maul, Grievous) in the saga, it doesn't change the fact that there are those fans who will overlook their slaughter of populated worlds without any hesitation.
• Enhanced On Blu-ray: The Blu-ray release of Star Wars removes small mistakes in the original trilogy that were missed (such as the lightsabers in the Darth Vader and Luke fight in ROTJ) and includes re-rendered CGI for many scenes of the prequels and (in a controversial move) replaces the Yoda puppet from TPM with the CGI one.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: With the amount of time Star Wars has been around, there have been many, but none so much as Boba Fett, whose death in Return of the Jedi was eventually changed so that he survived falling into the Sarlacc pit. Also, Wedge Antilles, who went from a single appearance in the first film to appearing in all three of the original trilogy and considerable EU following. The X-Wing series, anyone?
  • From the prequels we have Darth Maul (for being a very sinister-looking supreme Badass) and Mace Windu (a more heroic example - also for being a supreme Badass, but played by Samuel L. Jackson in this case). Both are exceedingly popular despite their reduced roles compared to other characters (especially Maul).
  • Kit Fisto also seems to be quite popular with fans of the prequels, even though he only appeared a couple of times briefly in Episode II, and once (before he dies) in Episode III. His grin seems to be what does it for most people.
    • Also the fact that his last name is "Fisto" does it for some.
  • Admiral Ackbar. A lot of people forget that he only appears in the second half of Return Of The Jedi, but a combination of his unique look, his voice, and a three word phrase of warning propelled him into fan consciousness.
  • Grievous as well.
• Evil Is Cool: Darth Vader pretty much kicked this trope into high gear and set the standard for future fictional villains. Most of the series' other villains are well-loved too.
• Fan Dumb: Some critics and fans viewed the Hype Backlash to the Jedi in the Prequels as this. The Jedi were already Doomed by Canon. Why did people go into the Prequels expecting Invincible Hero Warrior Monks?
• Fandom Heresy:
  • Criticizing Yoda.
  • In the right circles, admitting you liked the Prequels, Sequels (or worse, the Updated Rereleases of the originals) can be this, too. Among the absolute most "purist" fans, even Return of the Jedi isn't always safe.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • Star Wars vs Star Trek is the Fandom Rivalry. The internet in The Nineties was flooded with Trekkies and Star Wars nerds debating who would win in a fight. In The New Twenties however, it's died down as the two franchises have moved away from one another, tonally, and both have faced internal schisms regarding their new media.
  • The old EU vs the Sequel Trilogy. Many fans who grew up with the world of Star Wars Legends don't want to say goodbye to it for what they viewed as an inferior follow-up to Jedi. Though the rivalry seems to largely be one-sided as a good chunk of the younger generation who grew up with the post-2015 canon doesn't seem aware of, or just simply doesn't care about, Legends.
  • Following the property's acquisition by Disney, it's really not a good idea to mention Red Letter Media around Star Wars fans given RLM's toxic Take Thats at Star Wars fans in their reviews.
• Fandom Specific Plot:
  • The Republic or Empire finds Earth and the Terrans prove such utter badasses that they lead the charge in toppling the Empire. Expect copious usage of Rock Beats Laser and America Saves the Day.
  • Someone travels back (usually Luke and/or Leia) or forward (usually Anakin) in time to learn how to stop the rise of the Empire.
  • Luke is sent to be raised on Alderaan while Leia grows up on Tatooine. Or they grew up together.
  • For a crossover, someone from another property winds up in the galaxy far far away and is found to be Force sensitive. If they show up during the era of the Prequels, then they, or an ally from their canon, must give the Jedi Council a "The Reason You Suck" Speech for their attitudes.
• Fanon Discontinuity:
  • There is a small, but vocal, segment of fans that consider the prequels and edits to the original trilogy non-canon. There is also a substantial segment of the fan base that would like to pretend that all of Lucas's entries in the series after Return of the Jedi never existed.
    • Also, The Star Wars Holiday Special is one of those things that the fans, nonfans and George Lucas refuse to acknowledge the existence of.
  • When the Sequel Trilogy came out, all the hate for the Prequels shifted to them due to them enacting a Happy Ending Override for the Original Trilogy and haters arguing that they turned all of Anakin's struggles into a Shaggy Dog Story.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Han/Leia.
• First Installment Wins: Elements from the first four films (A New Hope through The Phantom Menace) are known among the general public, but A New Hope is by far the most parodied and referenced.
• Follow the Leader: Inspired so many.
  • The original Star Wars film itself drew from many sources. The Hidden Fortress connection is well known. The Dune-Tatooine inspiration is pretty obvious. You can tell George Lucas must have seen at least Space Battleship Yamato episodes 26, 1, and 8, in that order, so we can probably pin his famous trip to Japan down to early 1975, when the series went into reruns. Isaac Asimov noticed some similarity to his Foundation series but didn't take it personally. As Wilson Mizner observed, stealing from everybody is just called "research."
• Fountain of Memes: Whenever Palpatine opens his mouth, a meme is born.
• Franchise Original Sin: Everything that the haters take offence with in the Prequel and Sequel Trilogies; such as the Conspicuous CG, Narmy dialogue, engineering designs that don't make a lick of sense, Villain Balls, Romantic Plot Tumors, Writing by the Seat of Your Pants; can easily be found in the Original Trilogy. But the OT was much Denser and Wackier/Lighter and Softer than most of what followed and, a result, these flaws are much more noticeable in the more grounded Darker and Edgier entries that followed. Rumor has it that the OT's love story would've been even more cheesy, had Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher not come up with far superior lines on their own.
• Freud Was Right: To wit, Luke has a sexual attraction to his sister, hates his father while considering him a masculine role model, and wants to know about his mother. Anakin's first step to the dark side is avenging his mother.
• Fridge Horror: If you don't know who your father is, any girl you meet could be your sister.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • With Indiana Jones, another brainchild of George Lucas.
  • With, of all things, Harry Potter. Commonalties include Luke and Harry having similar character arcs, the similarities between the Force and magic, and a Big Bad who seeks immortality. Became more pronounced as, come the 21st century, the Potter Verse fans learnt what it felt like to have disappointing prequels and sequels to the main story. Though the friendship seems more pronounced on the Harry Potter side of things given that most crossover fanfics generally feature Harry coming to the Star Wars galaxy and making everyone look like a Straw Loser.
  • Following Disney acquiring both properties, there's a lot of love shared with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with many eagerly awaiting the day that Disney will officially cross over the two. Even the Hate Dumb segments of both fanbases get along as they complain about how Disney has ruined their franchises.
  • Many Star Wars fans enjoyed Family Guy‍'‍s Blue Harvest trilogy.
  • There's a surprising amount of overlap with Transformers.
  • As it homages much of the Original Trilogy, a decent number of Star Wars fans enjoy She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • A planet with two suns has been discovered by NASA.
  • "That's no moon... oh wait, it actually is. Never mind."
  • In Star Wars Infinites: A New Hope, the Imperial Palace is a redecorated and defiled Jedi Temple. While the Legends timeline had the Palace and the Temple as two separate buildings, Disney's EU would have the Imperial Palace be the former Jedi Temple.
• Ho Yay: Very little outside the Expanded Universe, but Luke and Han have a few longing stares in Episodes IV and V.
  • 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 Fan Service for the ladies and some men and actually have it be meaningful, such as Obi-Wan's "I loved you." and Anakin's retort "I HATE YOU!!!"
  • The Droids cartoon has quite a bit between C-3PO and R2-D2 as well. Including "Artoo? You look lovely..." while suffering Amusing Injuries.
• Hype Backlash: The Jedi. After being touted as powerful Warrior Monks in the Original Trilogy, the Prequels showed them to have long decayed into complacency combined with blind loyalty to outdated dogma compounded by them recruiting their recruits as infants all the while hiding away in their Temple while turning a blind eye to the corruption of the Galactic Republic. As Luke says in The Last Jedi, they were a far cry from how they viewed themselves.
• Hypocritical Fandom:
  • During the era of the prequels, George Lucas raped everyone's childhood. During the era of the sequels, George Lucas in the only one who can save the franchise from Disney.
  • Virtually every complaint that Sequel Haters level against Rey can be easily levelled against Luke's character in the Original Trilogy. Both come from a desert planet, have an affinity for the Force and fighting, and seek validation from the previous generation of Jedi masters as a substitute for their biological family while thinking, despite what their masters say, that the apprentice of the Dark Side can be redeemed. But according to these fans, Luke is the greatest character in Star Wars and Rey is a Mary Sue. The only real difference between the two seems to be that Rey is a biological female.
• Internet Backdraft: Depending on what forums you go to, mentioning anything but the Original Trilogy could start a war.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks: A common complaint is that the films broadly go through the same motions. Though Lucas has occasionally said the use of repeating motifs is intentional, to evoke the feel of classic myths, tying into The Hero's Journey archetype. Of course, when The Last Jedi dared to not be the same and try and take the franchise in a new direction, guess how the fanbase reacted.
• It Was His Sled: In case you didn't know, Vader is Luke's father, the little green muppet is Yoda and Palpatine is Rey's grandfather.
• Iron Woobie: Obi Wan Kenobi endures an excruciating amount of personal loss and suffering without complaining about it or visibly cracking under the pressure.
• Jerkass Woobie: Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader.
• Magnificent Bastard: Palpatine in the Prequel Trilogy. In the original trilogy he's more of a Smug Snake.
  • He takes on 4 Jedi Masters (one of them Mace Windu) and kills three of them in seconds. He only allows Windu to defeat him so he can present himself as a helpless victim to Anakin and get him to perform an irredeemable act that will turn him to the Dark Side. He's also not above using himself as bait in traps, exposing himself to considerable danger in the process. His kidnapping at the start of Revenge of the Sith was orchestrated to get Anakin into a position where he could kill off Dooku and potentially also get Obi-Wan killed in the line of duty and deprive Anakin of his restraining influence. More famously, in Return of the Jedi he used his presence aboard the unfinished second Death Star to make a sortie against the battle station all the more irresistible to the rebels, allowing him to ensnare them in a trap that would wipe out their ships and leaders, eliminating their ability to oppose his rein in any organized way once and for all.
• Memetic Badass: Han Solo, of course.
  • R2-D2
  • Mace Windu demands to know why he and his purple lightsaber are third on this list, motherfucker!
  • Kyle Katarn from Star Wars Legends is being treated as the SW universe's answer to Chuck Norris.
  • Yoda, ever since his duel with Count Dooku in Attack of the Clones. Ever since that movie, anytime a Pint-Sized Powerhouse character is fighting, you can guarantee that they will fight exactly as Yoda does.
  • Din Djarin.
• Memetic Loser:
  • C-3PO and his constant terror makes him a prime target for mockery.
  • The B-1 Battle Droids.
  • To some, Kylo Ren will forever be a Wangsty Psychopathic Manchild.
  • Jar-Jar Binks and his comic relief antics are near universally loathed by the fanbase. While he did have some contributions to the battles, they were more down to dumb luck than anything else. Though to some, Jar-Jar is a Memetic Badass for secretly being Darth Jar-Jar.
  • The Stormtroopers and their bad aim.
  • Yoda is an odd example because it's not related to anything he's done, or even a piece of media that he even appeared in, but after Grogu appeared in The Mandalorian, people began casting the Grandmaster as a deadbeat dad.
• Memetic Molester: Palpatine, just for his line to Anakin in The Phantom Menace. The Expanded Universe makes it even worse.
• Memetic Mutation: Just about everything. The original trilogy alone has easily the highest degree of quotes per movie ever; for example, doing a Google search for virtually any line from Episode IV will result in an auto-fill. The prequels slightly less so. Just as general concepts, "The Dark Side" and "The Force" have entered mainstream culture.

Admiral Ackbar: "It's a trap!" Darth Vader: "DO NOT WANT!" Darth Vader: "I find your lack of X disturbing."

• Memetic Sex God: Lando seems to be quite the ladies' man and it only increased when he was played by heartthrob Donald Glover in Solo. Originally, Han was written this way as well.
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • The Galactic Empire has almost as much fandom as the Rebellion. This overlaps with Draco in Leather Pants quite often, but goes one step further with the 501st Stormtrooper Legion, a fanclub for people who like to make and dress up in stormtrooper costumes... and do charity appearances at children's hospitals. On the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, they marched rank-and-file at the Rose Parade, lead by a guy in a Darth Vader costume, with the Imperial theme tune playing in the background. Needless to say, everyone was cheering for them. The Empire. Yes. StarDestroyer.Net is proof that these aren't just a few random crazies either. Though for most of the world, it's likely due to Vader and the Stormtroopers being Series Mascots.
  • Star Wars also has quite a few fans who politically identify as conservative, touting the Original Trilogy as a great example of the moral righteousness of conservatism. This is despite the fact that series creator George Lucas is quite a hard left-winger, basing most of the villains in Episodes I-VI on American conservatives of the 1970s and 1980s. Even Palpatine began as a caricature of conservative President Richard Nixon with the Republic's transition to an Empire meant to be a warning of what could happen to the United States if Republican demagogues, like George W. Bush, kept getting elected. One has to wonder if the more explicit left-wing themes post-2014 are the IP trying to make its political stance clear to these fans.
• Moe: Grogu. Every time the Ridiculously Cute Critter moves, the internet has a cuteness overload.
• Moral Event Horizon: Palpatine crosses this when he tells his troops to execute Order 66. Subverted by Anakin, given his Redemption Equals Death plot in Return of the Jedi, either when he slaughtered Tusken Raiders in Attack of the Clones, or when he massacred Jedi children in Revenge of the Sith.
  • He'd orchestrated a major intergalactic civil war that has caused the deaths of countless billions on hundreds of planets solely to cement his political power and weaken or destroy all rivals to that power. And he'd been planning it for years prior, to say nothing of all the other evil stuff he ordered in The Phantom Menace, and everything we're told he'd done in the Expanded Universe up to this point. Moral Event Horizon? That hardly counts as Tuesday. He'd done waaayyyy more evil stuff than that throughout the series.
• Most Wonderful Sound: Pkshhhhhhhh! Wommmm wommmmm wommmmm Psh!
  • During the filming of the prequels, they had to keep reminding Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen to stop making lightsaber sounds with their mouths because their lips could be seen moving when they did it. In one interview, Liam Neeson also admitted to doing this in rehearsals.
• Narm: A common complaint levied against quite a bit of the dialogue, especially in the prequels. Lucas admitted his weakness as a writer of dialogue, but is also a fan of melodrama (at one point, Hayden Christensen tried to deliver a line in a calm, realistic manner, but Lucas ordered him to redo it in an over-the-top fashion).
  • Star Wars holds the distinction of being the only film franchise to have its own Narm page. Of course, many of these examples overlap with Narm Charm. Many scenes come across as being cheesy, but they don't detract from how awesome the films are that much. Mark Hamill even argues that this helps people enjoy the films.
• Older Than They Think: A lot of people have accused Rey of being a Mary Sue Replacement Scrappy. Ultimately however, the only major difference between her and Luke is that she's biologically female. She left her adopted home planet, a desert planet to boot, on the Millennium Falcon and proved a better pilot than Han. She then got Anakin's second Lightsaber, annoyed a cynical old Jedi Master with her optimism, and later discovers that she's descended from a powerful Sith Lord. Even the controversial way she defeats Palpatine, reflecting his Force lightning right back at him, is exactly how Mace Windu defeated him in ROTS and the original ending for Return of the Jedi. The only difference is that Anakin didn't swoop in to cut off Rey's arm and allow Palpatine a second wind. Even Daisy Ridley herself mentioned this when asked how she responded to Rey's criticism.
• The Problem with Licensed Games: Back and forth. Usually original EU games turn out fairly well 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're were also freakin' hard. The Rogue Squadron and X-Wing series, Knights of the Old Republic and the Dark Forces Saga are considered among the best Star Wars games. Lego Star Wars widely popular, and considered one of the best Lego games.
• Protection From Editors: Widely believed to be at least partly responsible for the stumbles in the Prequel Trilogy. When making the Original Trilogy Lucas consulted other film-makers he was on good terms with (including Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola) and awkward dialogue was frequently replaced with ad-libbed lines. By the time of the Prequels, most of Lucas' film-industry friends weren't available, and everyone else was far more hesitant to criticize or question the man who invented Star Wars.
• Ron the Death Eater:
  • The Jedi Order gets this a lot given that their Black and White Morality played a very large role in turning Anakin to the Dark Side of the Force, them being unable to offer him any useful advice in processing his emotions. That they recruit by taking infants away from their parents doesn't help. It also doesn't help that how actions are judged in their Black and White Morality generally tends to depend on whether or not that action benefits the Jedi.
  • Darth Jar-Jar Binks. Though this does serve to make him somewhat of a Memetic Badass.
• Rooting for the Empire: The Trope Namers. It is not hard to find whole YouTube channels defending the Empire and its various policies, like destroying planets and enslaving whole species, on the basis that if you're human, the Empire wouldn't be the worst place to live in given its many job opportunities and that it provided security to the Outer Rim.
• Ruined FOREVER: Just anything (especially, in the prequels) could cause the fans to cry out "Ruined FOREVER!"
• Sacred Cow: The Original Trilogy.
• Scapegoat Creator:
  • George Lucas is the Scapegoat Creator, being attacked for any slight change. It got so bad that the man retired from making Star Wars movies.
  • In the Disney era, both J.J. Abrams (for It's the Same, Now It Sucks) and Rian Johnson (for They Changed It, Now It Sucks) have taken severe flack for their creative decisions. Kathleen Kennedy is also quite a popular target as many accuse her for being responsible for a perceived over-saturation of women and minorities in the era of the Sequel Trilogy. Even Disney itself has gotten a huge amount of flak from haters even though the upper management of Disney has next to nothing to do with post-2014 Star Wars content beyond scheduling releases and setting time tables. All decisions, good or bad, come from Lucasfilm and no one else.
• The Scrappy: See the Star Wars section on The Scrappy page. The franchise has produced a lot of hated characters. Though most have been Rescued From the Scrappy Heap or have had hatred of them overblown by a Vocal Minority, some seem doomed to languish here forever.
  • Creator's Pet: Jar Jar and Anakin are mild examples. Although Lucas toned down Jar Jar's presence in the second two prequels, he has not criticized Jar Jar or Anakin in any way (to the point where he ended up starting the What Do You Mean It's for Kids? debate; see below) and proceeded to insert them into a Re Cut of Return of the Jedi. Anakin was a main character in Star Wars: The Clone Wars with Jar Jar as a recurring character, but in later seasons both characters were Rescued From the Scrappy Heap for many people.
• Seasonal Rot:
  • Return of the Jedi is generally viewed as the weakest of the original trilogy. Though it's still well-liked enough.
  • As a whole, the Prequel Trilogy is largely viewed as a step down from the Originals owing to the half-baked Anakin/Padmé love story, Anakin's general emo-ness in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, the perceived stiffness of Hayden Christensen's performance, the overuse of CGI, Jar-Jar Binks, how drawn out it could be in some areas, and the Jedi not living up to the hype. The saving graces are considered to be Palpatine and Obi-Wan. As films though, it's generally accepted that Prequels invert this with each film.
  • The last film of the Sequel Trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker, is quite noticeably regarded as that trilogy's weakest entry, with professional critic scores generally falling in the mid-fifties to high-sixties compared to the high-eighties to low-nineties scores of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. Most of the criticism mainly amounts to TROS being a Cliché Storm of already done Star Wars ideas that were pushed through to try and appease the Vocal Minority of right-wingers who attacked The Last Jedi for its progressive themes and rejection of Star Wars clichés. Even among audience scores, TROS generally hovers around a grade of "B+" while the previous two scored "A".
• Shocking Swerve: 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.
• Unfortunate Implications: A few elements of this were present in the films. Most notably:
  • The revelation by George Lucas that the Galactic Empire was meant to represent America, and that the Ewoks and Rebel Alliance were meant to represent the Vietcong and to a lesser extent the NVA (with the latter apparently having the VC as their basis since 1973 when he started penning the storyline). Let's just say that, taking into account some of the atrocities the VC as well as the NVA have committed both during and after the Vietnam War, one can understand if someone is exceedingly reluctant to root for the heroes after knowing their basis. Return of the Jedi makes it even worse due to it also creating the implication that the Rebels may have been Soviet soldiers that armed the VC. It's arguably even worse in James Cameron's History of Sci-fi, where he not only reiterates the inspiration of the Rebels being VC members, but he also makes it VERY clear he was aware of their status as terrorists and deliberately modeled them after such.
  • To a lesser extent, Lucas when explaining his philosophy of how democracy turns into dictatorships during the Cannes premiere for Revenge of the Sith, used as one of his examples the French Revolution regarding the basis of the Old Republic becoming the Galactic Empire, and effectively implied that he supported Robespierre's Reign of Terror when saying "Why did France after they got rid of the king and that whole system turn around and give it to Napoleon?". While his examples of the Weimar Republic becoming Nazi Germany and the Roman Republic turning into the Roman Empire at least fit with the generalities of what was going on, the bit about the French Revolution and Napoleon comes across as jarring at best since the French Revolution if anything was a bit closer to the Rule by Fear under the Empire, and essentially paints the Republic by implication in an even worse light as a result.
• Unpleasable Fanbase: No one can appease the Star Wars fandom. The Prequels were so different from the Original Trilogy that reactions could be anything from Fanon Discontinuity to the fans criticizing Lucas personally. It go so bad that Lucas eventually retired from making any more Star Wars films, stating that the fans had taken all the fun out of it. Then when the Sequel Trilogy came out, Disney made The Force Awakens which fans said was too similar to the Original Trilogy. Then The Last Jedi was too different, along with pushing too many social themes, and The Rise of Skywalker tried to split the difference but didn't make anyone very happy. Hey they're called the Fandom Menace for a reason.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks: The revisions made to the original trilogy were not well received by all fans. Those who grew up with the original trilogy and were considerably outraged about the changes that were made to the story and the music. And don't even mention the issue of Greedo shooting first.
  • This will be more prominent than ever now that the Blu-ray release of the Original Trilogy has had even MORE changes to it.
    • Let's face it, Star Wars is this trope, because even if we did get remastered versions of the original theatrical versions, people are still likely to complain for some reason.
  • More or less every complaint about The Last Jedi can be boiled down to this.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks:
  • The writers and artists of Valerian saw more than a few similarities between their work and the Star Wars films that followed a decade later. George Lucas' Suspiciously Specific Denial regarding not using Valerian as reference art didn't help matters.
  • A similar thing happened with the Dune series, though in this case, Lucas admitted that Dune was an inspiration.
  • And The Dam Busters. Though Lucas said that the attack on the Death Star was meant to be a homage.
  • Averted with Jack Kirby. He saw some similarities between Star Wars and New Gods but was quite pleased by them as he felt that they validated his ideas.
• Vindicated by History: People don't like a Star Wars film? Wait until the next Star Wars film comes out and they'll rave about the prior one.
  • The Prequel Trilogy as a whole got a lot less hate when the Sequel Trilogy came out. And some fans are already predicting that the next film will cause haters to view the Sequels as an underrated gem.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Industrial Light and Magic was literally made for this movie.
  • And would you believe that the guy behind the lightsaber effect was also the guy who founded the unpopular AKOM?
• Vocal Minority: All three trilogies had people who grew up watching them and who identify that era of Star Wars as their favorite. But the fans of the Original Trilogy are so much louder than their younger counterparts could ever hope to be.
• Wangst: Anakin spends most of Episode II and III being a whiny man-bitch.
  • It's a genetic disorder. His son spends most of Episode IV whining.
• The Woobie: Anakin grows up as a slave, loses his mother twice, the seconds time around she dies, he is forbidden to love by an old out-of-date set of rules, and ends up causing himself lose everything, including his best friend and wife! Jeez.
  • It gets worse when, if you loosen the definition of 'slave' even a little, the only time Anakin was his own master was the thirty minutes between dumping Palpatine down the shaft, and dying in his sons arms.
    • First he was the slave of a greedy machine shop owner, then an apprentice to Obi-wan (not knocking him, but an apprenticeship is essentially writing off your right to opinions until your training is complete), then a Knight in the service of the Jedi Order (the issues with that has already been covered), then an apprentice again to Darth Sidious who he grew to hate and yet cannot break from, in effect returning to slavery. And finally, after he has released himself from the bondage, he still cannot walk without the help of his son thanks to Palpatine's lightning shorting out his life support suit, and with it the machinery required to move his limbs (in fact, probably the only thing that was still intact and working on its own was his life support mask and mechanical lung, and even the latter as evidenced by the strained rasping was just barely functioning).
• Too Cool to Live: Obi-Wan Kenobi. Thankfully prequels and Force Ghosts exist.
• What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: According to Word of God. Lucas first claimed that Star Wars was for kids to defend the blunders in The Phantom Menace and seems to be leaning more towards this as time goes on, probably as a way to claim that he knows what he's doing and that his various blunders are justified. He also used a similar defense for Red Tails.
  • Of course, to his credit, the 3D conversion was decent at best; there were quite a few objects in Episode I that seemed to pop out at the viewers besides the title screen, and there were a few other scenes that demonstrated some depth, but nothing truly outstanding; this was, after all, a film that didn't have 3D in mind when it was originally made.
  • Ian McDiarmid has made clear that Lucas intended the movies for kids, saying that Star Wars was partly to teach the younger generations about the dangers of fascism.
• What Do You Mean It's Not Political?: The Prequel and Sequel Trilogies (The Last Jedi especially regarding the latter) are rather contentious for delving into and being rather overt into pushing Anvilicious levels of anti-fascism messaging in the story. All that being said, however, even the Original Trilogy had hints of this going on, due to the Rebels and Ewoks being based on the Vietcong and the Empire being based on America and given Nazi-esque attire to strongly imply that America's involvement in Vietnam, invading another country, was comparable to Nazi Germany.
  • There was also Obi-Wan's statement of "Only a Sith Deals in Absolutes." If How Star Wars Conquered the Universe by Chris Taylor is of any indication, Lucas added in the line as a deliberate response to the 2002 State of the Union address, believing most of his viewers would appreciate the nuance lost in the speech, and being inspired by the 2003 Bay Protests against the Iraq War that were occurring around the time of development. Needless to say, saying that reception to the line was polarizing is a gross understatement.

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