For the Better, Right?

About

"For the Better, Right?," also known as the Anakin and Padme 4-Panel and Clueless Padme, is an exploitable image macro format based on screenshots from the 2002 film Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. The meme format is arranged in a common four-panel layout, with the setup, response and punchline in the following panels. Differing from other four-panel memes, the punchline and setup are combined in the first panel, with the other panels being auxiliary.

Origin

In the scene depicted, Anakin (Hayden Christensen) and Padmé (Natalie Portman) are on a romantic picnic while discussing their pasts and how they have different views on the Galactic Republic's system of governance. The dialogue includes the other memed phrase "I Don't Think the System Works". The dialogue in the captions used in the meme format is never actually said in the film, during the depicted scene or elsewhere. The subtitles are entirely invented, albeit still based on the film's overall theme of Anakin's progression to becoming an evil Sith. This scene was first uploaded to YouTube^[1] by the channel Nathanael Gratias on February 4th, 2016, and acquired 149,000 views in five years (shown below).

The first instance of the meme is found on Twitter^[5], posted on April 21st, 2021 by @starwarsposting, an account dedicated to sharing fake Star Wars quotes, gaining roughly 100,000 upvotes and 16,000 retweets in two months (shown below). The following day, the template was posted on subreddit /r/memes,^[2] by Redditor DaltarIT24, gaining 42,300 upvotes in one month.

Anakin: "I'm going to change the world."
Padmé: "For the better, right?"
Anakin: (gazes in silence)
Padmé: "For the better, right?"

The setup and punchline shown are the same as found in the Mr. Lovenstein comic 'Change' in which a Turtle says he wants to change the world, and then is questioned further by a Frog. The comic^[6] was posted on August 5th, 2019 (shown below).

Spread

The template slowly gained traction across various subreddits in the following weeks, though not including the most obvious one of /r/PrequelMemes like most other Star Wars formats. The first post of this specific meme to spread to other subreddits was by Redditor XipingVonHozzendorf, who posted it to /r/dankmemes^[3] on May 21st, 2021, gaining 83,200 upvotes in 12 days (shown below).

The meme did not gain traction within /r/PrequelMemes until the first week of June, including a version that points out that the dialogue is, in fact, made-up and not from the film. This example was posted on May 31st, 2021, by Redditor^[4] kyrroti and attained 32,700 upvotes in three days (shown below).

Various Examples

Template

Search interest

External References