One of the most troubling moments in Revenge of the Sith was the death of Padme. In the movie, we are only given the following:
Medically, she’s fine. We don’t know why, she’s lost the will to live
So why did she die exactly? For many people this part of the movie seemed a bit like a cop-out, and were still left wondering how she died exactly. Anakin as Vader is later troubled to find out she died. He was convinced that she was alive and could “feel” that she was alive. So what happened? Was it the Force-choke? Was it a broken heart? Let’s examine some of the theories.
1. The Force-choke
This one is a little plausible, but there have been cases, such as Motti for his lack of faith, where the victim survived fine. You’d think Anakin would use some bit of reservation when choking Padme, but maybe he was so angry that he just let it go. However, Padme is seen talking later in the film while giving birth, so how bad could it have been? I think this theory is not likely given that she is able to talk later in the film. The only possible alternative is more than just her throat was being constricted at the time and the injuries were enough to kill her, the problem with this and the throat choke death is the “Medically, She is fine” part of the statement above… if she is medically fine then there can be no damage.
2. A broken heart.
When Padme confronted Anakin on Mustafar, she pleaded with him and said that he was “Breaking [her] heart”. However, I’ve never heard of a situation where anyone died due to sadness, but who knows. When someone “looses the will to live”, they don’t just up and croak, but rather might just be depressed for a while. Therefore, I still chalk this one up to “not likely”, or at least not without some other super-natural intervention. I would think that the birth of her children would be more than enough reason to live.
3. Something or someone else? The Emperor perhaps?
I recently came across a video from Dash Star Wars on youtube on a theory about how Padme died. As the theory goes, The Emperor killed Padme through the Force. Not only that, he drained her life-force and used it to bring Vader to life. This theory is pretty awesome because it explains why she died in a way that makes the whole thing more tragic. It was literally her living force being sapped away. If such a Force-power requires training, then this could be the kind of thing that Palpatine learned from Darth Plagueis.
If it doesn’t require training, then it doesn’t even have to be the Emperor that did this. In fact it is possible that it was Anakin. Anakin was focused on Padme when she was dying/giving birth/he was being repaired, we know this because the first thing he asked when he woke was how she was. He said he could feel her and she was alive. This is because he was pulling her living force into himself to live, perhaps even sub-consciously as he lay there in the bed. She was the string that he tied his living-force to in his anger and love and when he began die he pulled on it. The Emperor knows Padme died because he was concentrating on Anakin. He could feel Anakin pulling on Padme’s life force which is why he TRUTHFULLY says Anakin in his anger killed her. Anakin did learn how to keep himself alive though he wasn’t aware of it, meaning not only did Anakin discover how to keep the ones he loved alive he did so killing the only one he wanted to keep alive.
What do you think happened? Leave your comments below.
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