Meaning
What does You Have Become the Very Thing You Swore to Destroy mean?
You have become the very thing you swore to destroy refers to a memorable quote from Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, uttered by Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Online, the line is used as an exploitable image macro meme, depicting things, that are devoured by the things they were meant to prevent.
Origin
What's the origin of You Have Become the Very Thing You Swore to Destroy?
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith premiered in the United States on May 12th, 2005.
In the final scenes, when Obi-Wan confronts Anakin (portrayed by Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen respectively); shortly after the lines My Allegiance Is to The Republic, to Democracy and I Have Brought Peace, Freedom, Justice and Security are said, Kenobi says “You have become the very thing you swore to destroy”.
Spread & Usage
How did You Have Become the Very Thing You Swore to Destroy spread?
An isolated clip of the scene was uploaded to YouTube by Gerstuvies on May 29th, 2018, under the title “You have become the very thing you swore to destroy”.
Not long after, memes, created from the scene started appearing online, predominantly on forums and image boards, related to Star Wars like r/PrequelMemes, as well as 9GAG, iFunny and Imgur.

External resources
- Star-wars-memes.fandom.com –You have become the very thing you swore to destroy!
- Reddit.com – r/PrequelMemes