About

Obi-Wan vs. Vader, also known as Darth Vader vs. Obi-Wan Kenobi or Star Wars Blue vs. Red Fan Art, refers to a fan art depiction showing a confrontation between the Star Wars characters Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi. The illustration was initially shared on DeviantArt by artist MizuriAU in June 2022, growing as an image macro and object-labeling meme in the following years as users on TikTok, Reddit and Twitter / X added text overlay regarding "good" or "bad" scenarios, relatable lyrics or a divisive topic to the two characters.

Origin

On June 24th, 2022, DeviantArt^[1] user MizuriAU posted a Star Wars fan art titled "Obi-Wan vs. Vader," which is inspired by the battle between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader in the Obi-Wan Kenobi TV show finale. The art (seen below) amassed over 18,000 views and 259 favorites in three years.

One of the earliest known posts using the fan art in a memetic format was posted on May 20th, 2023, by iFunny^[2] user @Dismayic_2018, who added a purple lightsaber user below the original illustration, with each panel using a lightsaber color to symbolize the idea of how people should treat others. The meme (seen below) amassed more than 38,000 likes and 405 likes in two years.

Spread

The Vader vs. Obi-Wan fan art gained virality on TikTok as an object-labeling meme in the mid-2020s, in which users added divisive topics of discussion to the image.

For instance, on January 16th, 2024, TikTok^[3] user @hashbrown_fanpage123 added a series of overlay texts in the blue lightsaber image about the end of relationships and the breakfast food hashbrowns text over the red lightsaber illustration. The post (seen below) received roughly 8.9 million plays and 1.6 million likes in two years.

On May 18th, 2025, TikTok^[4] user @le6la1 posted a series of object-labeling memes featuring Taylor Swift lyrics, each being positioned as contrapoints in the red vs. blue lightsaber illustration. The post (seen below) amassed over 787,000 plays and 168,000 likes in five days.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References