About

"I see through the lies of the Jedi" is a quote from the 2005 film Star Wars: Return of the Sith. Online, it has been frequently used as a Prequel Meme, frequently portraying it as Anakin's ultimate ability or a universal truth. It has also been used as a simple reaction image or object labeling meme.

Origin

In the scene in question, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) confronts his apprentice Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) who has just turned evil. They speak back and forth, with Obi-Wan scolding him for turning against everything he used to stand for while Anakin insisting that he has triumphed over his old ways. The scene was uploaded to the YouTube channel The Droid^[1] on November 19th, 2016, getting 1.2 million views in five years (shown below).

Obi-Wan: "Your anger and your lust for power have already done that. You have allowed this dark lord to twist your mind until, now… until, now you have become the very thing you swore to destroy."
Anakin: "Don't lecture me, Obi-Wan. I see through the lies of the Jedi. I do not fear the dark side as you do. I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new empire."

The first meme regarding the quote was posted on the Subreddit r/PrequelMemes^[2] by /u/TheMagicalMark on April 30th, 2017, gaining 20,300 points in six months.

Spread

The meme didn't truly take off until 2019, with the first notable example being posted by u/Akroman01 on the r/prequelmemes^[3] subreddit on August 9th, 2019, earning 52,800 upvotes in two years (shown below).

With the more notable example re-energizing the format, more were made and posted to the r/prequelmemes^[4] subreddit, with u/jakeseyenipples/ posting another version on August 26th, 2019, earning 14,800 upvotes in two years (shown below).

The meme also had another resurgence in the middle of 2021, starting with u/plaguebacon's post on the r/prequelmemes^[5] subreddit on June 8th, gaining 44,000 upvotes in three days (shown below).

Examples

Search interest

References