PT Did Palpatine kill Padme?

Some time ago, someone here shared a fan theory which entailed that Palpatine killed Padme in ROTS via influencing the midi-chlorians. It was based on the fact that Sidious smiled sinisterly after telling Vader that he supposedly killed Padme in his anger, and it explains how the medical droids were dumbfounded.

What do you think about this theory?

 

I believe it.

I always wondered about his smile after he told Vader.

 

If this were the case, then it should have been explicitly stated in the movie, as it would be a big deal. I think Padme "losing the will to live" is the official explanation.

 

But it also gives Palpatine a bit more omniscience than I think was intended.
---

this

 

the smile is because he knows he is causing anakin pain. palps didn't kill her.

 

You know ... I always wondered - do you reckon Palpatine may have even been RESPONSIBLE for those nasty images and visions of Padme dying in childbirth in Anakin's mind? PLUS the fact Palpatine remembering how he 'never gave a Force!' about anyone or anything and he had no intention of even saving Padme - only hinting he would and consider if Palpatine was responsible for the Clone Wars, playing both sides for stupid long enough and the deaths caused directly and indirectly from the entire Clone Wars ... and the fact in the EU Palpatine committed murder already at a young age even before he met Darth Plagueis and he committed a bloodbath w' the slaughter of House Palpatine at just 17 years old and 'never giving a Force!' about it ... whose to say the killing of Padme would stumble or stymie his actions eh? Given how he influenced Anakin and later engineered and ordered Order/Protocol 66 and such - and so yes to a degree he must have done so - I mean he 'never gave a Force!' about anyone - and if he himself killed his own family at 17 and later murdered Darth Plagueis in cold blood by 'charging him with the utmost agony' and such ... and likewise how Palpatine is capable of dirty work himself if he chose to ... and given the lies and insecurities and fear he planted in Anakin's mind and FORCING him to do nasty things the moment the incident in Palpatine's office w' Mace Windu and the 3 other Jedi Council Members so ...

 

My intuition tells me that despite the elaborateness of Palpatine's scheming Padme's death was ultimately her choice, and other than his maneuverings leading to her feelings of despair and hopelessness, Palpatine played no direct part in her death. Though, if Lucas were to make the claim I would not be all that surprised given Palpatine's seemingly ubiquitous influence on the events in the films.

 

"Complications with the pregnancy".... That's all that was needed... The simple term "Complications with the pregnancy"

Yet, Lucas probably didn't want Anakin to be blamed for her death (though it's perfectly all right to have him kill Younglings)

^^ Edit: Never mind, was thinking about something else

I hope the theory is incorrect, because that would make Palpatine too powerful. Why not do that to Yoda or Luke or anyone else?

 

Doesn't sound anything like a decent theory at all.

Anakin effectively killed Padme, by his acts and his words. And that works much better than Palpatine killing Padme through the midichlorians. It seems unlikely you could even do that.
It is most certainly not a better reason than losing the way to live, because the latter is an actual factual thing that happens in the real world.

Palpatine is happy, because he is in charge of his Empire, having toppled the Jedi, with Anakin as his apprentice. He achieved everything he wanted to achieve. Padme being dead is good for him, because this way Anakin doesn't have a split loyalty. Anakin being responsible for her death makes this even better, because he will always blame himself.

Now that would have been weak compared to what actually is in the movie.

And how could you say that Lucas probably didn't wan't Anakin to be blamed for her death, when that is exactly what can be seen in the movie?
The movie really couldn't be any clearer that Anakin is causing all this.

 

I dislike the idea of Padme losing the will to live, especially after just having two kids. Plus the fact she believes Anakin can still be saved. Why would she lose the will to live? It doesn't make sense. She has hope for Anakin. Are people with hope still left the kind to lose the will to live? I don't think so.

It would have been better if she didn't die in ROTS. We didn't have to see her die on screen.

 

Yes, one of the main tragedies is that Anakin ironically ends up killing Padme by trying to save her with the dark side. In fact, that's one of the reasons ROTS is my joint favorite Star Wars movie along with ESTB. I was thinking about something else. Not sure why I put that there actually.

Her death is definitely Anakin's fault. I still find "losing the will to live" is a lame way out for Padme though. "Complications with the pregnancy" would have been (slightly) better, because it would have been caused by the Force choke and the broken heart combined in conjunction with the pregnancy.

 

If I remember correctly, the details behind the theory were a little more than just Palpatine's evil grin. Palptine's grin could be easily explained that he is relishing in Anakin's pain and torment, and is just sliding deeper into the Dark Side. This is only serves Palpatine more.

A larger part of the theory was how ROTS was edited in those final minutes.

First we have the scene where Anakin is getting the helmet put on, then next is Padme tells Obi Wan that Anakin still has good in him and she dies. The very next scene is Sidious telling Vader that Padme is dead as Vader is just being raised off the operating table.

Again, if I am remembering correctly the person who wrote the theory surmised that the events had to happen simultaneously because the scenes play out that the events of Vader being born and Padme dying happen at the same time. The way the scenes work is that as the helmet is put on, Padme dies, then the table that Vader is on is brought up to reveal the new monster that Anakin has become. The theory suggests that there is no plausible way that Palpatine would be able to know that Padme died as it just happened. Unless Vader remained on the table for hours upon hours after having the helmet put in place.

My personal belief is that Palpatine didn't have anything to do with Padme's death. While the editing of those scenes could be confusing, and I could understand how the theorist could come to the conclusion they did, I believe that the scenes weren't supposed to tell the story that way.

I don't like the theory myself. I tend to believe that because Padme was a Senator, and in order to protect Luke and Leia, Organa and Yoda would have wanted to get word out asap of Padme's death and how she died, they wouldn't have wanted to take the chance that Sidious knew Padme was pregnant and started looking for her. So as soon as she dies, Organa (because he is a Senator as well) tells the newly named Imperial Senate of her death, and as Vader is getting those last few adjustments done on the table, Palpatine is told right away because he is still the leader of the Senate as well as the Empire.

To have Palpatine be the actual reason behind Padme's death just doesn't feel right. I know some don't like the broken heart angle, but, I always liked it. To take the responsibility of Padme's death away from Anakin and put it on Sidious just takes away from the tragedy of what Anakin did.

 

Hard to tell for me. Neither in the books or in the movie it has been hinted that Palpatine could have killed Padme. The theory that Palpatine could have created Anakin is a more plausible one.

But I've always thought that Palpatine has always planned for Anakin and Padme to fall in love and to be married since, at the beginning of AOTC, Palpatine has insisted that Padme should be guarded by Obi-Wan and Anakin. He even went himself to convince Padme to return to Naboo and be guarded by Anakin alone. I still think today that it was a way for Palpatine to control Anakin's emotions and fellings since he knows that love and attachment can make a person weak. But would he have planned to kill Padme at the end? I don't know, but it's a possibility. Except that I won't bet hard for that.

He has planned the entire Clone Wars and the fall of the Republic since the beginning, so he would have also planned Anakin's fall by manipulating his emotions and feelings.

 

The Emperor's smile seemed obvious enough. He won. Anakin's got nothing left but to serve him and the Jedi are no more.

You really can't blame anybody but Padme for her death. She "lost the will to live". That pretty much gets everyone else off the hook.

 

It would have been better if she didn't die in ROTS. We didn't have to see her die on screen.
----------

I'm glad that didn't happen as I would have looked like a complete idiot

*sometime around 2002*

my sister: do we know what happens to Padme?

me: she dies in the next one, I guess we will find out how.

Plus important characters fates (I feel) shouldn't be left to EU, casual viewers do watch star wars too you know

 

I think he killed her. Even if he gets off from Vader's agony, the smile that he gives implies something far more sinister, more tangible intervention.

 

No. Grief due to her husband's horrid actions killed her.

 

I think anything would have been better than that pathetic excuse of a reason Lucas came up with. The way Padme went out still aggravates my nerve to this day. Back to the OP's question (sorry about that), I don't think he had anything to do with her death. I think your theory is very interesting though.

 

My thoughts just about. She died believing that Anakin still had good in him. It is this line from her alone that makes it hard for me to buy that his actions shattered her faith in him so bad that she just gave up on life as a whole (unfortunately I have to believe it bc that's how it played out onscreen). The kids thing. What bothers me the most about this is that she had every intention on being a hands on mother (just look at how her face lit up when she talked about raising the child(ren) on Naboo). Why have her forget that just because her husband became a Sith. I think Padme could have been a great single mother. This is the same woman who we saw step up for the sake of an entire planet as a teenager, so why not have her do the same for her own flesh and blood? IMO it's a slap in the face to the strong character we saw in the previous films IMO. To me her death comes across as "Well she wasn't in the originals so just have her give birth and get rid of her by any means necessary." What's worse, I don't even think Lucas pictured it that way. He probably thought people would find it poetic.

Plus I hate that they never had her show concern on where her children would end up. It would have been nice to hear her say something to Obi-Wan like " please, make sure my children are safe and that they lead happy and healthy lives." It would have been appreciated.

 

It would have been so much better in ROTS if they had simply explained away Padme's death because of some injury she sustained when Anakin choked her. Perhaps she suffered serious brain trauma when she couldn't breathe or hit her head severely enough to bleed internally when she fell.

 

Why this, when grief that her entire planet got conquered and no one seemed to give a *** didn't kill her?

Look, I'm not saying that there aren't women (and men) who just...shatter when faced with relentless trauma after trauma. But given what we know of her and *what she said seconds before kicking it* told me that no, no she wouldn't just give up the ghost. She'd keep fighting, though I'd expect she'd be fast friends with Mr. Liquor if worst came to worst. A bitter, angry, disillusioned woman who drinks all the time, yet still keeps fighting.

A tad clichéd, sure, but it's better than, "Obi-Wan, I just popped out two kids and believe still that my husband is a good man. Time for me to die-" urk.

 

Yep. With the way the movie was going, I think it would have been more interesting if Anakin's force choke was truly responsible for killing her. That or accidently stabbing her with his saber. However while that would have been interesting, I do realize why they didn't go there. Can you imagine learning that the saber Luke inherited not only killed kids, which was bad enough (I mean why Lucas, it could have been a separate saber with him also carrying his Jedi saber around -hidden- aka the one Obi-Wan picks up), but was responsible for his mother's death as well.

 

THIS!