Since 1977, we've been following a family in a galaxy far, far away. We watched Luke Skywalker leave his life behind to save the galaxy and help bring Balance to the Force. We saw (with mixed feelings) Anakin Skywalker become the iconic Darth Vader in fear of losing the woman he loved. We've seen a child hit on a queen and a smuggler woo a princess, both with incredibly successful results. For forty years now, we've been privy to a family drama that included everything from forbidden love to lost limbs to a planet-wide massacre.
It's an understatement to say the Skywalkers were a fascinating family in and of themselves, and they only became more interesting when fans made their own life stories for them. The internet now houses countless incarnations of the intergalactic family, with "what if" scenarios ranging from unrealistically romantic to hysterically true to the characters. With everything from Darth Vader and Leia's Father-Daughter Dance to fan theories to Anakin playing on a PSP, there are more memes and what if fan art than you shake a lightsaber at. Out of these endless possibilities we've found 15 hysterical memes about the Skywalker family to start you on your search.
15 1...2...3...
In The Last Jedi, we learned that Rae is not related to the Skywalker family. As it turns out, she's not related to anyone important in the Star Wars universe, despite her extraordinary connection with the Force. The news about her parents came from Kylo Ren though, so fans have been skeptical in accepting that there isn't anything special about Rey's lineage.
As this meme suggests though, Rey could, in fact, be related. Padme wore one giant bun on her head and Princess Leia wore two. With this trend, the third generation of Skywalker women would wear three buns, right? Kylo Ren probably wasn't lying to Rey about her parents, but even if the bun trend is a complete coincidence, it's still a pretty hysterical one.
14 FATHER-DAUGHTER DANCE
When your dad is Darth Vader, there are bound to be some awkward conversations. They can start with innocent questions like "how did mom die?" or they can be pointed outbursts about destroying an entire planet like we see here. If Princess Leia is that upset about losing her homeworld, chances are she isn't speaking with her dad much, either.
When she does finally have a conversation with him, it's probably at an important event, like her wedding. Not the best Father-Daughter Dance conversation ever, but hey, she's at least speaking to him and invited him to the wedding. There's a lesson here, dads: don't blow up a planet, especially if your daughter grew up there. It will come up at the most inconvenient time.
13 YOU CAN'T WIN WHEN YOUR DAD IS DARTH VADER
If Darth Vader is your father, there are some situations where you just can't win. For example, say you want to go out dressed like a slave girl. All the other princesses are dressing like that, and you'll never get a hot smuggler's attention any other way. If your dad says no, how are you supposed to get back at him? If you yell, scream, or tell him that you hate him, that just makes you one step closer to the Dark Side, which is totally fine with him.
Sure, having a dad who drives an Imperial Star Destroyer could be pretty great, but there would certainly be times where it wouldn't be any fun. Hopefully, long while robes will stay in vogue for a while.
12 FAMILY ISSUES
If you ever feel that your family is all kinds of crazy, just remember that there's a family that's even more messed up than yours in a galaxy far, far away. The Star Wars movies are essentially the Skywalker's dealing with their family drama and dragging out their issues across multiple generations and star systems. Just one of the issues Leia mentions here would be pretty terrible to have. All of them together is just plain ridiculous.
Yet another reason to love Star Wars: it shows that you can have the weirdest, most terrible family history ever and still end up awesome. Seriously, that fact that someone with this much baggage (and we haven't even mentioned that infamous incestual kiss) managed to become a tough-as-nails General for the Rebel Alliance is almost as miraculous as a stormtrooper hitting its target.
11 AWKWARD
The Skywalkers have an insane amount of family drama. There's some fairly normal stuff, like forbidden love, lies, and rash actions done in the name of love. Then we have some of the weirder Skywalker moments, like when Darth Vader cut off his son's hand right before he offered Luke the chance to join him in ruling the galaxy, or the time Vader found out the princess he had kidnapped and tortured for information was actually his daughter.
Then we have those moments that are messed up in a different sense, like when Leia kissed her brother (twice) without knowing they were related. The first time "for luck" was innocent enough, but that second time on Hoth? Yeah, they may need therapy for that one.
10 HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
Ok, we have to give Darth Vader some credit for being able to use three feature-length films to tell his kids how he met their mother. For real, it's almost as brilliant as making a multiple season TV show about it.
We have to wonder though, is he going to show them every part of these movies? Does he really want his kids to hear his corny attempts at flirting? And what is he supposed to say when they get to Revenge of the Sith? "Here's where I turned to the Dark Side and almost strangled your mother." Or, "That's why I wasn't there when you two were born. I was too busy burning in lava." That would certainly be an interesting family movie night.
9 OVERPROTECTIVE DAD
If you thought Darth Vader was intimidating as a Sith Lord, wait until you see him as an overprotective father. Seriously, you do not want to cross this guy. He's only seen Han Solo for about five minutes, and already the curfew went from midnight to 9 o'clock. To be fair, we'd expect any father to be at least a little concerned when their only daughter brings home a smuggler. Han's also ten years older.
Still, Vader is one of the last people you want your significant other to have as a father. Whether its the voice, the mask, the implied threat, or all the above, you definitely want to make sure you keep on Vader's good side. It's not just because you want to date his daughter, either.
8 FAVORITISM
To decrease Darth Vader's chances of finding them, Luke and Leia grew up on different planets with no knowledge of each other or their heritage. Leia became a princess on Alderaan. On top of that, her adopted parents gave her an education and upbringing that would prepare her for a leadership role in the Rebel Alliance.
Luke, on the other hand, grew up as a moisture farmer. His aunt and uncle discouraged him from anything remotely connected to his destiny, and his uncle tried to keep him from going to the Academy and putting the one skill he had to use. The Jedi decided the twin's fate presumably after Padme died. As this hilarious meme suggests though, the difference in the children's upbringing was completely the result of their mother's favoritism.
7 CAN YOU BE MY FATHER?
Luke wasn't very receptive to the idea that Darth Vader was his father. Vader offers him family, purpose, and power, and all the kid can say is "NOOOOOOOOOOO!"? It's almost a shame that Vader wasted the offer on Luke, as there are others who would be thrilled to take him up on it.
As we see in this meme, Batman would jump at the chance to be Darth Vader's kid. Poor Batman has never been able to get over the loss of his parents, and he already has the whole Dark Knight thing going on. He's an excellent fighter, strategist, and basically anything else you can think of (because he's Batman). And since he's Batman, chances are that he's Force-sensitive too. What Sith Lord wouldn't want Batman for a son?
6 FATHER'S DAY CARD
Finding the perfect gift for a normal father can be a challenge. Finding one when your dad is Darth Vader is next to impossible. For real, what are you supposed to get a guy who blew up your home planet or cut off your arm?
Maybe a gift isn't required in this situation. In this meme, Luke and Leia compromised and got their father a card that summed up their feelings about him. Does this card store exist in real life though? Because a place that sells cards like this and has an entire card section labeled "Rebels" is bound to be awesome. And with cards like the one Luke and Leia found, it could be a great place to shop for those less virtuous people we know.
5 DARTH VADER, FAMILY MAN
In a galaxy where Sith Lord's have 9-5 jobs, we find Darth Vader the family man. He might love to Force Choke employees but he still plans on watching his son play basketball. He might have Death Star plans in his cubicle, but he's still there when his daughter needs a ride to her piano lesson. Yes, he's still on the Dark Side, but he'll even bring back milk if his wife asks him.
It’s kind of a weird balance between fatherly duties and Dark Side operations, but we’re talking about a place where Imperial Officers wear ties, so we’ll go with it. Darth Vader can be a cool dad when he wants to be, and he certainly is here. He's even got a Galaxy's #1 Father mug to prove it!
4 PHOTOBOMB
With holiday festivities still fresh in our minds, we can appreciate just how hard it is to pose for a family photo. One person won't look at the camera, another keeps blinking, and then there's that person who just doesn't want any part of it and needs half an hour of convincing before they agree to it. Then everyone is finally in place, and some clown decides to be funny and ruins everything.
We don't even want to think how hard it was to get everyone to pose for this, especially since Padme's been dead for about twenty years by this time. All that work ruined for bunny ears on Luke? Really Darth? Hopefully, Darth Vader was satisfied with the outcome, and the family squabbles it likely caused. Maybe they can photoshop it out?
3 YOU WILL GIVE ME THE KEYS
Who wouldn't be tempted to use the Force outside of its traditional guidelines? There are so many ways moving things with your mind or influencing the weak-willed could come in handy around the house. Mundane tasks like making your bed and cleaning your room would be so much simpler, and just think how easy getting away from your younger sibling would be with the Force.
More challenging feats though, such as getting the keys the X-Wing, would probably only work on fathers with weaker minds than Darth Vader. Luke probably already knew this, but you can't blame a guy for trying. He probably needed the X-Wing for something really important, like going to Tosche Station to pick up some power converters.
2 ANAKIN AS A FATHER
There are seemingly infinite renditions of the young Skywalker family, although this scenario is one of the more realistic ones. Let's be real, even if Revenge of the Sith had ended differently, Anakin was nowhere near ready to be a father. He was still impossibly headstrong, immature, and self-absorbed. Sure, the responsibility of raising force-sensitive twins would have helped him grow up a little (at least we hope), but this is Anakin we're talking about.
For the first few years at least, Padme would probably have felt like she had three children on her hands instead of two. From what we know about Anakin, not it's surprising that he'd rather draw pictures and play video games than help his kids with their homework. Let's hope he grew out of this quickly.
1 I HATE SAND
We'd like to think Anakin would at some point be a great dad, but there is one scenario where he would be absolutely no fun at all: family activities and vacations involving sand. In one of the less thrilling scenes in Attack of Clones, Anakin tells Padme "I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere." Not the most enthralling line ever, but we can certainly see where he's coming from. Growing up as a slave on Tatooine would have given him this disdain for sand.
Anakin may have avoided sand-heavy planets as much as possible as a Jedi, but what happens when Luke and Leia want to play in the sandbox? What happens when the family wants to take a trip to the beach, or to Arizona? Most likely, Anakin will look something like he does in this meme.