The prequels are not any Star Wars fan's favourite subject. Even if you kinda liked them (and they definitely have their awesome moments, no matter what you think of then in general) they have some serious flaws, such as plot inconsistencies, midi-chlorians and the monstrosity that is Jar Jar Binks. The prequels are probably the most controversial part of the whole canon: the horror of Jar Jar alone is enough to spark fights, should anyone dare defend him.

But, for better or worse, they are part of the Star Wars universe (we think, at least) and any fan worth their salt knows them inside and out just as well as the original series by now, for better or for worse. We have here a collection of comics about the prequels that any true fan should get and appreciate instantly, even if they don't agree with the sentiment.

Some of them are funny, some of them are weird, some of them are heartbreaking, some of them are just brutally honest and likely to incite someone to break things. We hope you enjoy all of them.

25 Springtime For Palpatine?

Many people have accused the prequels of basically betraying the spirit of the original series in the same of shameless money-grabbing. Others have blamed laziness, and still more have blamed a combination of both. But what few have considered is the possibility that Lucas wanted everyone to hate them. Success comes with a lot of pressure to continue to succeed, you see, and some people will just want to take their money and be left alone, say what you will about artistic responsibly and yadda yadda yadda. Maybe Lucas just wanted people to think his creative powers were so busted that he would have the responsibility taken away from him and everyone would just leave him alone. Who doesn't want some peace, after all?

Comic by Dorkly.

24 There Can Only Be One Vader, And They Wasted It On Emo Boy

Whatever you believe, there are definitely some tonal shifts between the two trilogies; some would say the movies have gotten shallower. Take the villains, for example. Darth Vader, the big baddie of the original trilogy, was one of the greatest movie villains of all time. He had presence, authority, and was frighteningly, palpably evil without even needing to do anything: all he had to do was breathe. He was, in short, awesome. The prequels don't have anyone like that. Darth Maul looks like a poor-quality slasher villain; Dooku is just forgettable; Palpatine is a weak old man with scary underlings. Not bad characters at all, but not classics like Vader was—some would argue not even Star Wars quality to begin with, although that's a debate for another time, and probably one that would start another bar fight.

Comic by Dorkly.

23 Maybe It's A Good Thing He's Not Just Like Her Dad

And the protagonists of the prequels are also a bit more meh then those of the originals, especially in the romance department. The big romance of the original trilogy was between Princess Leia and Han Solo; Luke was thought of as being part of a love triangle with these two at first, but that went out the window when it turned out he was Leia's brother. Han Solo is kind of a jerk, but we love him, he's one of the best bad boys in movie history, and we want him to get the girl. What do we have in the prequels? Anakin and Padme. Their romance is half of the entire point of the prequels trilogy, and we already know how it's going to end. But they're both kind of whiny and brooding. We just can't root for them the same way.

Comic by Dorkly.

22 Unloaded The Canon!

The question of what is and isn't canon often involves minute details that nobody else would even notice. And since Disney took over, the Star Wars canon has been shaken up quite a bit. What is known as the extended canon, all the stuff from novels, etc, written over the years and accepted into the continuity was wiped. Disney built a plot from just the movies and new ideas. But some have wondered: are the prequels even still canon, or is it just the original series? Some details from the sequels imply that Disney has granted many a fan's wish and removed them from the canon along with the novels and the comics; others will insist that is insane, and Disney also denies it. But still, the fantasy is tempting for many, although you can't just "not observe" them like this guy does.

Comic by JoyOfTech.

21 The Bad Dreams Are Real

Okay, the prequels are pretty hated among a wide sub-set our own culture, but we all need to accept that they did very much happen. They were not a mass delusion; George Lucas is not innocent. Although, despite this, some people would like to close their eyes and plug their ears and pretend that the things that they did not much care for never happened, and continue their lives in a fantasy world where the number of Star Wars films never went over three. However, this is not a healthy practice for human beings to engage in, although the guy in this comic may have taken it a bit far in driving that point home for his stubborn friend. Let's defend reality, but let's no not commit felonies while doing so.

Comic by Optipess.

20 But Let's Be Fair

That the prequels are bad is often presented as objective fact, and hatred of them is often taken as a given for any rational person. However, there are plenty of people who like them, and can make a fair point that they aren't really that horrible: maybe not as good as the classic original trilogy, sure, but far from really objectively bad movies. What is really forgotten is that many people grew up with the prequels and have memories of them just as treasured as those older fans have of the original series. Personal taste is personal taste, and we all grew up at different times—we should all try to get along. Nobody ever does on the internet, of course, no, but it's a nice sentiment and worth repeating.

Comic by Killb94.

19 May The Feels Be With You

We all face major choices in our lives, and some of them will define everything in our lives that comes after them. Anakin Skywalker made one of these momentous choices when he decided to save Palpatine from Mace Windu, join the dark side and thus become Darth Vader. Because this choice feels so predestined, nobody really thinks about what the alternative might have looked like. This comic does, and it breaks our heart. We can only imagine how many times Anakin's heart broke thinking about just this over the years, and it's a lot more satisfying a drama than the "noooooooo!" that we got. We can only imagine what could have been, and we can only guess at how often Vader's heart was breaking thinking the same—not just having a family and happiness, but having prevented so much death and destruction too! It could have been.

18 Sith Weren't Dumb Enough To Announce Themselves Like This

In-jokes are the lifeblood of the internet, but it's possible to go a bit far, especially when you start sewing together different fandoms and stuff. Only the few initiated into the inner circles of both Star Wars and Pokémon are going to truly appreciate all the joke in this. Just look at this. They even threw in "did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the wise?" Which is a big fandom in-joke for some reason... We're not sure why. But hey, definitely fits! This is one of the more normal of the strange in-jokey fandom-fusion comics we found during our research, and one of the few that weren't too obscure to be presented to a general audience without causing confusion. The internet is a very weird place.

17 Well, Both Are Technically Under The Ground

It seems that Star Wars and Pokémon is a popular combination in internet-land. This one is related in subject to the first but is quite a bit sadder... quite a bit. What can we say? Memes can be very cruel, especially when it comes to the subject of the Star Wars prequel films. Here, we find out Ani is a closet Pokémon fan, and is excited to participate in a rollicking game of “who's that Pokémon?” He thinks he's pretty on the dot when he guesses its Diglett. But our hero is in for a nasty surprise: it's actually his wife's grave. Hahaha... um, yeah. The internet is full of sick people but, as fellow people of the internet, we can appreciate it—because we, unfortunately, have to laugh.

16 Meesa Not Welcome

One of the most universally accepted facts of both the Star Wars fandom and pop culture, in general, is that Jar-Jar Binks is annoying. He is so annoying that even in the much-hated Episode I, he is often singled out as the worst misstep made. The character is also somewhat racist, bringing to mind comical “darkie” characters from 1930s and 40s characters, from the accent to the appearance which brings to mind Jamaican Rastafarians. So bad is Jar-Jar that someone actually made a re-cut version of The Phantom Menace with him completely edited out. He is so bad that even Lucas took the hint and reduced his role in the next two prequel films, but some (most) wish he had figured out the problem earlier and gave the creepy thing what was coming to him right out of the starting gate. This comic illustrates that fantasy.

Comic by Geek-Tastic.

15 Senator Skywalker

Anakin Skywalker was in the tradition of the prequels trying way too hard to be cool, a rebellious bad boy. Even when he's a good guy, long before he goes on to become Darth Vader, he makes no effort to follow the rules, and that's why we're supposed to root for him: men should want to be him, women should want to bed him, yadda, yadda, yadda. We're supposed to take this very seriously, but this artist did not and chose to make a comic showing Ani as a senator in the Galactic Senate, a job which he would be very bad at, given this temperament. Or good, depending on your opinion on politics. Whatever the case, we doubt that this comic is very far off.

Comic by Shorelle.

14 Use The Bop It!

The main story arc of the prequel trilogy centers around the journey of Anakin Skywalker from innocent child slave to Jedi “chosen one” to Sith Lord asshole. But some would say the final transition from hero to horror is a bit abrupt and... randomly easy at points. Take order 66, which Palpatine famously convinced Vader to carry out, the murder of the younglings and all, with only the words “do it.” Many people have considered this completely absurd, given how recently Anakin was, rebelliousness aside, a straight up good guy. He even reported Palpatine to the Jedi council just a few hours earlier! Why is he suddenly so okay with killing kids? We get that it had to happen for the trilogy to end with stuff set up for the original films to happen, but they could have done this with a lot of subtlety.

13 Anakin So Basic

One of the good things that the prequel trilogy did was bring Samuel L Jackson into the Star Wars universe—or it's a bad thing, depending on whether or not you think Lucas was just trying to earn cool points by doing this, which he probably was. But you have to admit that Mace Windu is a good character. Windu was one of the most powerful Jedi masters of all time, and he faithfully led the Jedi council through the declining, decadent years of the Republic until his untimely demise at the hands of a corrupted Anakin Skywalker. But even though Anikan got the upper hand in the end, Mace had some genuine badassery than the little boy from Tatooine will never have, at least without the help of massive life-support machinery.

12 Anakin Still Pretty Basic

But, nonetheless, Anakin gets his upper hand, and he has a zinger ready for the moment. It may not be quite as good—it really isn't, kind of meh actually, puns are overrated—but he tried, and it hit pretty close to home at least. And puns feel weirdly appropriate coming from Anakin, we can believe that he's a very punny gentleman. But he also goes too far and tries to slip in another sly reference at the end, and that might be driving the whole thing a bit too far. Basically, these two just need to stop—they just do. And Mace Windu, doomed and oblivious as he might be, still comes off as way more badass than young Anakin Skywalker does or, let's be honest, ever will.

11 Making The Galaxy Great Again

Some people like to watch movies and draw comparisons between their plots and real-world events, and the creator of this meme comic is one of these people. The point trying to be made is that there is a parallel that can be drawn between the events of Revenge of The Sith and the stuff going on in American politics right now, casting Emperor Palpatine as US President Donald Trump, and arguing that the manipulation of the truth going on at the end of the republic isn't that different from the manipulations of truth going on in the contemporary United States. Some would argue that he isn't really that far off the mark, some would argue that he's right on the mark—but whatever the case, this is likely to start a few heated arguments in some comment sections.

10 Probably Didn't End Up Very Proud

The development of the relationship between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker is important. By the end of The Phantom Menace, Kenobi has taken the young Skywalker on as his Padawan. He wants to train the gifted youth as a Jedi. But the relationship often feels more like a father/son relationship than a teacher/student one. This is particularly when you consider how incredibly rebellious the young Padawan is. Anakin feels more like a moody teenager than a disciplined disciple. He is basically a parent on top of a full-time teacher. Obi-Wan probably wishes he had prepared more for the role than basically just saying “cool, yes.” And Anakin probably really was subject to a few of these frustrated rants off-screen. Most kids will get like this from their overstressed parents.

Comic by TinyMintyWolf.

9 Probably Should Have Been Taken As A Warning Sign

Anakin is definitely, without a doubt, not your average Padawan: he is not really the obedient “student” type, frequently defining his Jedi Master to do his own thing. We can see just how un-Padawan-ish easily by comparing this master-student relationship with the one existing between Obi-Wan and his own Master, Qui-Gon Jinn. Jinn was a calm, level-headed master, and Kenobi was a good, obedient student, who calmly accepted his master's judgments without (much) question. Whereas Kenobi and Skywalker are basically always what we see here. This is typical, but the chosen one doesn't have to be typical—I guess? Obi-Wan tolerates and still admires his student, despite him breaking a large number of the strict Jedi rules. Maybe he does think of him as more of a son than as a student, or at least as much.

8 Knowing About The Raisins Actually Does Make It Justifiable

But, as we all know, things end badly: Ani Skywalker decides to choose the dark side, becomes the Sith Lord known as Darth Vader, setting us up for the classic, familiar opening of the original trilogy. The main motivation behind this transition was indeed selfish. But he was told by Palpatine that switching to the dark side was the only way to save his beloved wife Padme, who was also pregnant with his first children. But maybe there was another, deeper reason hidden in the back of his mind, and maybe Obi-Wan figured it out. Cookies! Yes, it might be true that the good guys have some, but they have raisins and we all know that makes them worthless. The Siths have wonderful, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate chip, which are amazing and not even the chosen one can resist the delicious.

7 Good Thing He Was In This And Not Dune

Anakin Skywalker's arch-nemesis is no Sith Lord or Jedi, no clone or criminal, no human or alien. It is sand: as everyone well knows, he absolutely hates it. It gets in your mouth, your eyes, its coarse grains feel awful on your skin, what isn't to hate? Especially when you grew up surrounded by the stuff, the billowing waves of sand the setting of your miserable poverty and slavery. So Padme and Obi-Wan might be being a little mean by doing this—but no, it's just a really, really silly thing to be bothered by when you're a Jedi, and Lucas is kind of cheaply trying to rip off Indiana Jones's fear of snakes to win Anakin some cool points. But sand is not snakes, and Ani is not Indy, and he merely inspired a host of sarcastic internet memes.

Comic by RabidDog008.

6 A Look-Alike He Is Not

We all remember Darth Vader as the main bad guy in the first Star Wars film, what with his imposing presence and all-around cool factor. But we forget that he was actually subordinate to this guy called Grand Mott Tarkin, who goes down with the Death Star. We sort of forget about it, maybe, but he's a pretty important character and a powerful, influential bureaucrat of the Galactic Empire. So they had to make sure he at least gets a short cameo before the prequel trilogy comes to an end, and he does—the only hitch was that Peter Cushing, the original actor, was long gone. So they had to find someone else, which they did, but this someone else kinda... didn't really look... anything like Peter Cushing. Which should be seen as a problem. But apparently not.

Comic by Strastomacca.