We're Meant to Be Expendable

About

We're Meant to Be Expendable refers to a memorable scene from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated television series in which character Plo Koon and two clone troopers discuss their chances to be rescued while holding onto an escape pod in space.

Origin

On October 3rd, 2008, episode two "Rising Malevolene" of the first season of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated television series premiered.^[1] In one scene of the episode, Jedi Master Plo Koon and clone troopers Sinker and Boost find themselves stranded in a debirs field, holding onto an escape pod. In the scene, Plo Koon asks the tropers about why they are certain nobody is coming to rescue them.

- Sergeant, why are you so certain no one is coming?
- We're just clones, sir, we're meant to be expendable.
- Not to me.

Prior to May 24th, 2017, the first known post based on the captioned image of the scene was posted to /r/PrequelMemes subreddit by an unknown user, with the post reposted on Imgur on May 24th (shown below) and on Twitter on July 12th.^[2] The format did not see further spread until on April 5th, 2018, Redditor senorgrease reposted the meme in /r/PrequelMemes subreddit, gaining over 9,800 upvotes.^[3]

Spread

On April 8th, 2018, Redditor crabwaffleman posted a two-panel image captioned with the exchange to /r/prequelmemes subreddit.^[4] The post received over 26,400 upvotes in six months (shown below). A repost to /r/wholesomemememes subreddit received over 3,100 upvotes in the same period.^[5]

In April 2018, more posts based on the scene were posted to /r/PrequelMemes, including notable posts by Redditors Atrampoline^[6] (1,800 upvotes; shown below, left, ) and ArcticBanks^[7] (3,500 upvotes; shown below, right).

In the following year, the format received further spread on Reddit, being used both as a snowclone "We're Just X, Sir, We're Meant to Be Expendable" and as an exploitable.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References