Here at last is the final installment of the Star Wars quotes articles. You can find the Prequel Trilogy quotes HERE and the Original Trilogy HERE. While the sequel trilogy has been roundly criticized for many things, there are still nuggets of goodness in there to be had. Here are the 9 greatest quotes from the Star Wars sequels in chronological order.
WARNING: Truth of the universe #13: The minute you stand for something, you make an enemy. The minute you draw a line someone will be on the wrong side of it. Therefor I feel I have to say the following are my beliefs alone. They do not express the beliefs of THS or any of its personnel.
Greatest Quotes of the Star Wars Sequels: #1
Han: Chewie, we’re home.
The Force Awakens
In past articles I have tried to veer away from the pithy, fun quotes and stick more to the meaningful quotes with deeper meanings, but this one needed to be on the list. If you want a meaning behind this quote from Force Awakens, simply remember any time you have stepped back in time and revisited a childhood haunt. That feeling of returning to places of wonderful childhood memories, like you’ve come home.
To be honest though, this quote made the list not because of its importance but because of ‘that feeling’. The second trailer for The Force Awakens, when everything was new and hopes were high, hit screens across the world, fans wept at the final shot – Han Solo and Chewbacca, on board the Millennium Falcon with Han uttering the phrase. This had to be one of the single most emotional moments in Star Wars trailer history.
Greatest Quotes of Star Wars Sequels: #2
Han Solo: I never ask that question until I’ve done it.
The Force Awakens
The Force Awakens belonged to Han Solo. Despite its attempts to copy Episode IV in a new way, I enjoy this movie for one reason. Harrison Ford bringing back the scoundrel Han Solo. This quote could not be any more Solo if they tried. Han will never be accounted amongst the great strategists of the galaxy. He was known leaping blindly into messes and stumbling through them successfully despite the odds.
How many times in life do the numbers not add up? We look at every possibility and say it cannot be done. Many times we give up or turn away because everything in the world says it cannot be done. Then someone turns around and does it. A sports team upsets the team they never should have. you try for that opportunity that would never happen in a million years, yet it works out. Playing the odds will win you the pot more times than not, but sometimes taking that longshot takes us to places we could never dream.
Greatest Quotes of Star Wars Sequels: #3
Maz Kanata: If you live long enough, you see the same eyes in different people.
The Force Awakens
They say never judge a book by it cover, but at the same time, for those that are observant, people start to look familiar even when meeting them for the first time. Whether it be certain types of clothing, ways they carry themselves, or the look in their eyes, people can learn to read others at a glance. Con artists are very good at this.
Those that learn to read people can smart use of this. You will feel a con coming. You will tell when a person may lie of what type of person they might be beyond the performance, but it can serve another purpose. It can help see past meanness and tough veneers , and see if there is something else going on underneath that may be a source of redemption to those that know how to look.
Greatest Quotes of Star Wars Sequels: #4
Maz Kanata: The belonging you seek is not behind you, it is ahead.
The Force Awakens
All too often, people face change, and then find the loss of the past paralyzing. They cannot move past the loss of a person or place, and their future slips away because of it. We are all guilty of it. Moving on can be painful and difficult, but like Rey, we need to focus on what lies ahead instead of being controlled by our pasts.
Greatest Quotes of Star Wars Sequels: #5
Luke: It was a Jedi master who was responsible for the training and creation of Darth Vader.
Rey: And a Jedi who saved him. Yes the most hated man in the galaxy, but you saw there was conflict inside him. You believed he wasn’t gone. That he could be turned.
The Last Jedi
There are two reasons I love this exchange between Luke and Rey in The Last Jedi. The first is a throwback to Obi-Wan and his “point of view”. The second is Rey’s actions, which mirror Luke’s from the original trilogy.
The first takes us back to Obi-Wan’s ‘point of view’ speech. This whole scene Luke rails against the mistakes and failures of the Jedi. At the height of their power they were overthrown and raised the greatest evil the galaxy the galaxy has ever known in Darth Vader. Rey, however, saw the good they did and how Luke’s efforts turned Vader and saved the galaxy. They describe the exact same events, but Luke, lost in guilt, only sees failure while Rey, struggling to Believe Ben can be turned back sees what Luke did to save Anakin.
It is this last part that I like the most. Both Anakin and Ben’s stories show redemption, but in both cases it took a very special person to do it. So many tried to redeem Anakin and stop his fall like Obi-Wan and Padme, but they could not. For Ben, Luke failed. Han failed, Leia failed. Only Rey managed to turn him. Take this as a lesson as even the darkest person might be saved, but it takes not only the right person to do it but the right timing as well.
Greatest Quotes of Star Wars Sequels: #6
Yoda: Heed my words not did you. Pass on what you have learned. Strength. Mastery. Hmm. But Weakness. Folly. Failure also. Yes. Failure most of all. The greatest teacher failure is.
The Last Jedi
Luke falls victim to the greatest blunder of a teacher. Teachers and coaches teach others to be better. They want their charges to be successful of course, but what Luke forget needs to be lesson 101. Through failure we learn the most. If all we did was succeed, then do we truly learn? In those failures we find out who we are and what we are made out of. Do we stay down, or do we pick ourselves up and come at teh problem again?
When we fail we become hard on ourselves. We scold and beat ourselves up over the fact we were not good enough, but if a teacher shares their failures we see what types of growth are truly possible. An old saying goes: The difference between the master the apprentice is the number of scars.
Michael Jordan talking about his successes are cool, but when he talks about all he overcame to get to those heights we gain hope that anything is possible. The best in house example is the great James Earl Jones. He voiced the most evil voice in cinema in Darth Vader and gave true power to the king of the Savannah in Mufasa. Did you know this most iconic of voices stuttered? He learned to overcome this and became a Cinema legend.
Greatest Quotes of Star Wars Sequels: #7
Yoda: We are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters.
The Last Jedi
I really like this line from Yoda. For anyone who ever taught, it really puts teaching into perspective. We teach our students as best we can in the hopes they will do well, but it is when the grow beyond our means that we truly succeed. The teacher’s job ends when they become useless.
When one teaches lots of kids it becomes easier to ignore the feeling, but when you either train more one on one or have a star pupil, when their abilities outgrow the teachers, it becomes a moment of both pride and emptiness. They have succeeded, but your job is done and you have nothing more to teach them.
Greatest Quotes of Star Wars Sequels: #8
Leia (via Admiral Holdo): Hope is like the sun. If you only believe in it when you can see it, you’ll never make it through the night.
The Last Jedi
Hope. If there is a central theme to Star Wars it is this. When hope disappears, or a group finds new hope, tables turn and futures change. Anakin struggled with the dark side, but while he lost at times, he always found his way back to the light. Anakin Skywalker truly fell to the dark side after he betrayed Mace Windu. Because his actions caused the downfall of the second most powerful Jedi Master, he lost hope. How could the Jedi ever forgive what he did? How could he ever come back after his actions caused Mace’s death? Again he lost hope when Sidious informed him he killed Padme. Only when he learned he his son still lived, did Anakin resurface.
The Rebellion stands on the brink of ruin until Rogue group successfully beamed the Deathstar plans off of Scarif, or again when R2 shows up on Yavin with the plans.
When we lose hope, we lose ourselves. We think nothing can change and even though what we need may be right in front of us we cannot see it. Yet he who has hope can endure the darkest of times. They know something better awaits and as Samwise says: “Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it’ll shine out the clearer.”
Greatest Quotes of Star Wars Sequels: #9
Leia: Rey, never be afraid of who you are.”
Rise of Skywalker
You may notice the quotes from Rise of Skywalker being rather light. While it suffers from tons of problems, I did not think this to be one of them. I re-watched it to find any inspiring quotes and only this one stood out.
Leia tells Rey this as she leaves to find Exogol. Leia knows the truth Rey has yet to discover. Rey is a Palpatine. This will crush Rey later on when Kylo tells her, just like Luke. Finding out you belong to the most evil of bloodlines never goes over well.
But the truth is, where we come from does not define us. Even our past cannot define us unless we let it. Everyday is a new day to write who we want to be. Today’s world will tell you different. It will try to bind you to events and people long gone, but those do not define who we are today. IF you have faults embrace them. Accept them use them to understand who you are and build from it. Tyrion Lannister has one of the best quotes about this from game of Thrones. He told Jon the bastard: “Never forget what you are, the world will not. Wear it like armor and it can never be used to hurt you.”
Greatest Quotes of Star Wars Prequels: #10
Vergere: Choose and Act
New Jedi Order (Legends)
Wait. What? What movie is that in? You are correct. This final quote does not come from the movies. It comes from the legends books, specifically the New Jedi Order books, but it had to be in here. My favorite saying comes from Qui-Gonn in Ep I with ‘your focus determines your reality,’ but it is this quote that rings a very close second.
Too many times people get so hung up in what MIGHT happen, they lose the chance to MAKE something happen. Fear and doubt chew at us and gnaw at us until we cannot do anything. What if they say no? What if I don’t get the position? What if I fail?
Weigh pros and cons. Think about the possible consequences. Learn from your past mistakes and attempts, and then choose your path and ACT! If you fail simply return to quote #6 above. If you succeed keep going. Do not let fear and doubt control your decisions or you will make the wrong choice, or safe choice every time. What is wrong with safe? Playing safe may move you a few meters down the road, but what if you took that chance and traveled kilometers down the road! CHOOSE. And ACT.
Greatest Quotes of Star Wars Sequels: Final Thoughts
Well there you have it. The greatest quotes from the three trilogies. What would you add to the list? Star Wars became great not only for its Cinema accomplishments, but also for its wisdom. So much can be learned from these movies and following the journeys of its characters.
