General Grievous' Lightsabers

General Grievous' Lightsabers, also known as Grievous' Lightsaber Collection, refers to a series of GIFs, videos, photoshops and memes depicting animated character Grievous from the Star Wars universe and his obsession for collecting lightsabers. Typically the theme of such memes involves an exaggeration of Grievous’ desire to add additional sabers to his collection, by editing him into scenes where he dives after them, sprouts additional arms and has a ludicrous amount of lightsabers extending from his body. The creator of the meme, Redditor Thibson34, subsequently reached celebrity status on the platform.

Origin

Throughout much of General Grievous’ presence in the Star Wars franchise, it was canon that he had a thing for defeating Jedi and collecting their lightsabers. The reason for this intense hatred of the Jedi stems from their alliance with the Huks, who enslaved Grievous’ people during the Huk War. Known as a “Jedi Hunter,” Grievous was adept at slaying members of the Jedi Order, and upon doing so, he would claim their iconic weapons and add them to his “collection,” which was quite extensive. This can be seen during the beginning of Star Wars Episode: III Revenge of the Sith (released in 2005), particularly the clip where Anakin and Obi-Wan confront him on a Separatist ship battling above the planet Coruscant during the Clone Wars (featured below), Grievous can be seen taking the pair’s sabers and uttering the quote, “Your lightsabers will make a fine addition to my collection.”

Later on in the film, there’s another popular scene used or referenced in these memes where Obi-Wan and Grievous battle on the planet Utapau. During this clip (shown below), Grievous can be seen extending his four arms, each with a unique lightsaber he took from a slain Jedi.

Spread

Though the theme of these memes was already somewhat canon in the Star Wars franchise, users began extrapolating this concept to new, ridiculous levels over the years since General Grievous was introduced as a new character. Through the “This Will Make a Fine Addition to My Collection” meme, which rose to prominence around 2017, General Grievous and his obsession for lightsabers slowly evolved into its own meme.

On Reddit’s r/PrequelMemes sub, Redditor^[1] Thibson34 first began posting the series “Every day General Grievous adds a unique lightsaber to his collection,” beginning with Day 1: Anakin's lightsaber on February 9th, 2020. The image (seen below) included Grievous on a white background with a single lightsaber, receiving over 7,100 upvotes, 121 comments and a Reddit gold award.

On March 11th, 2020, after Thibson34 had been posting their series each day for roughly a month, one of the memes posted by the user was removed by the automoderator following multiple complaints of “karma farming,” which subsequently sparked a viral debate on the subreddit. Redditor^[2] Red_Mayhem512 posted a meme that day referring to the removal (shown below) and received nearly 9,000 upvotes and 50 comments.

Ultimately, the post was unbanned and the series continued. On March 12th, 2020, Redditor^[3] Thibson34 resumed the series and posted Day 33 of the collection. This image (seen below) was upvoted over 62,500 times, commented on 852 times and gifted numerous Reddit awards.

On March 19th, 2020, Redditor^[4] Yusi-D-Jordan uploaded an extended version of the scene where Obi-Wan confronts Grievous to the r/PrequelMemes sub, depicting him with several new arms and sabers. The edit (shown below) received over 142,000 upvotes, 1,400 comments and dozens of Reddit awards.

Redditor^[5] Execute-order_66 continued building off the theme on March 22nd, 2020, with a video edited to show Grievous diving after Kylo Ren’s lightsaber from Episode 9. This video (seen below) was upvoted over 152,000 times, commented on 1,400 times and also given countless Reddit awards.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References