PT Do you believe Palpatine killed Padmé?

So it is an old theory that has been floating around for a while now. I actually believe Palpatine had killed Padmé. My reasons for this are:

• The droid didn't officially diagnose Padmé as dying of a broken heart, as well as being scientifically impossible. The medical droid merely noted an observation of what it had witnessed.
• Why would you lose the will to live if you have just given birth to twins? Surely, this would make you fight to live.
• The droid wouldn't have known about Padmé dying due to the influences of the force.
• Palpatine knew about Padmé's death and she would have been a massive barrier for Darth Vader to remain on the dark side, killing her would have been central to his plan.
• Having it as an elusive way of killing her would show Palpatine's true power and his omnipresence across the galaxy.
• Palpatine's smile reveals his cunning plan and perhaps his deceit if he killed Padmé.

So that's what I think of the situation, I don't like the idea of someone dying of a 'broken heart', it just appears lazy and doesn't make sense in Padmé's context. Also, Palpatine was so gentle and kind towards her in epI and II, it would appear sinister of him to finally kill her in ROTS; in his true identity.

(I apologise if this has been asked before)

What do you think?

 

Nope.
How he knew Padme died is pretty mysterious I admit, but I think he just sensed this through the force, or considering the unknown time lapse between the interweaving scenes, he could have been told by his informants.

I agree it was in his best interest that she died, and he probably never intended to help Anakin save her, but it is just something that worked out in his favour to solidify Anakin's turn.

My headcanon is basically that the couple became kind of symbiotic in AOTC; when Anakin says on pledging to Palpatine "I can't live without her" it is actually meant to be taken literally. Think of Anakin and Padme both incapacitated at the same time on Geonosis, Anakin and Padme sensing each other during the ruminations scene, Padme crying when she senses Anakin killing the younglings (and hence killing a part of Padme and himself), and when Anakin breaks her heart by destroying everything she stood for (plus sells his soul and, again, destroys part of himself) it basically saps her strength. Padme can't live without Anakin, and on hearing Padme has died, Anakin metaphorically "dies" as well.

 

nope. Not in a million parsecs.

 

There was someone who posted something like this recently, but I can't seem to find the post/thread ...

He referred to this site:
Part I
Part II

 

Yes! That's one of the websites I found when searching about it! He makes an interesting case...

 

Short answer: No.


Long answer: No.

 

I think the author of that site does make a point and for me it's fully believable because Palpatine is such a schemer.

 

No, she died of exhaustion, stress, child birth and emotional trauma. And a little bit of strangulation. Palpatine saw it coming though, but Anakin had a choice up til the end.

 

I think it would have been way more effective if Palpatine had been the one to kill Padmé as apart from Mace Windu and three other Jedi we don't really care about, Palpatine doesn't actually directly kill anybody in the entire saga. I mean, obviously I know he's responsible for more people's deaths, but having Palpatine directly responsible for Padmé's would have been so much more effective, and really made Palpatine the evil b word we know him to be, so yeah, Palpatine somehow killing Padmé can go in my personal head canon, whatever that means.

 

He killed Kit Fisto, Kolar, the other Jedi dude, and Mace Windu.

 

Her death was definitely one of the my big "WTF are you kidding me?" moments of the PT (and I like ROTS quite a bit.. I just learned to overlook it). Seriously that was just silly "lost the will to live" COME ON!!

That being said, whether Palps killed her or not I do LOVE that he told Vader that Vader killed her... that was just pure evil

 

It can certainly be thought of that way, and the way it was shot can support the idea, although I don't think that's what George intended. I like to believe Palps used Padme's life to have anakin survive, but unless George himself says so, it's not the case.

 

Here's another thought: did he set things up so Anakin's mother would die? If Shmi lived, Anakin would've been less desperate.

 

It is probably better that it was left just due to fate. Palpatine planned many things, but controlling Shmi's demise is a little too direct for me.

Anakin and Padme getting together on the other hand? Palpatine doesn't say or do much without a reason, so is it just coincidence that he was the one to suggest Obi-Wan and Anakin being assigned to protect Padme?

Plus, he talks with Senator Amidala to convince her to go off-world with Anakin during the crucial GAR vote.

 

Well, he certainly fueled the fires by supporting Anakin's thoughts about the Jedi holding him back, which included visiting/saving his mother.

HevyDevy
I always thought it was quite obvious that Palpatine orchestrated the reuniting of Anakin and Padme on purpose. He has a very wicked look on his face when saying, "Perhaps an old friend, like... Master Kenobi". It looks like he knows what he's doing.

 

dp

 

I don't like the way he kills Padme in the fan theory I've seen I think it makes him too OP
but She certainty didn't lose the will to live in my canon

I'd rather think Palpaine killed her in some other way

 

No I don't think Palpatine killed Padme. Her death was a reuse of a unused idea from a early ANH draft. In that draft, Luke has a brother who is spiritual injured by Vader. C3PO, attempts to give him aid but fails, remarking that spiritual injuries caused by the darkside contradict with science and logic. My feeling is Anakin spiritual wounded Padme besides all the other complications. It is a far out concept.

 

About the Padme thing. Did Palpatine know that the first attempt at her life would fail?
I think it very likely that he knew that Jango had been sent to kill her, this served his interest in two ways. One, Padme stood in the way for the army vote, which he needed. And two, Nute and the TF would not join until Padme was dead. So a dead Padme was very much in his interest.

After the first failed attempt he does suggest Obi-Wan, knowing this would bring Anakin into this. Did he know how Anakin felt about her? That is quite possible.
Did he know that Padme would fall in love with him? That is much more uncertain.
Maybe he put them together hoping that Anakin would mess up and he and Obi-Wan would get tossed out and Padme would then die. This would discredit the Jedi along with removing an obstacle. Plus it would mess up Anakin, loosing someone he was obsessed about.
Or they would just fail to protect her, which again would discredit the Jedi and mess up Anakin.

After the second failed attempt and I don't think Palpatine had planned for this.
Now he had to get Padme off planet so that she wouldn't obstruct the vote anymore. So he orders her off planet. To salvage something, he has Anakin with her, knowing that this will feed his obsession for her.
As in TPM, Palpatine thinks on his feet and quickly changes his plans to suit a new situation.

Bye for now.
Old Stoneface

 

While I don't discount theories like these, in the end it's not really relevant to the power of the film. Padme's death is a thematic shift, a thematic stroke, showing the death of the mother alongside the death (and Frankenstein-ish rise) of the father. It is the final deathblow of the feminine energy, the anima, that is being killed throughout the prequel trilogy. The reason(s) 'why' she died, aside from Vader being a factor, doesn't actually matter aside from the fact that Vader's tied to it & helps cause it (Lucas taking several cues there from Faust. In other words, for it to thematically work, by the end of the film, Padme's got to be gone, and that's got to be at least partially Vader's fault.). A film is like a dream, and with Lucas that is especially the case -- seen in this way her death has symbolic value in the grand scheme of the Star Wars universe; it is unnecessary to contrive special or rational reasoning for it though because the language of Star Wars isn't rationality, it is the language of myth and dream.

@Slicer87's on to it. It's a thematic thing. When Luke stares into the sunset, we don't have to know the ins and outs of it. The basic strokes are enough, because it connects on a visceral level. Think of Padme's death like this.

 

thinking about it, it makes alot of sense

thinking about it, it makes a good amount of sense, palpatine always had his eyes on anakin, and most likely knew about padme and anakin straight way, i mean palpatine could have put them dreams in anakins head to make him more easy to turn to the darkside, and without padme actually dying anakin would have never turned truely to the darkside,

and like you said dying of a broken heart would be abit stupid but it could have been palpatine the whole time im pretty sure their are force powers were you can attack the inside of a human, he could have done that to her heart

 

he used the life left in Padme and extracted it and then placed it in Vader to allow Vader to live after his traumatizing injury...Another thing, Emperor had no clue about Padme dying unless he did that because he told Vader that she had died but how would he know unless he didnt kill her himself?

 

It wouldn't make sense for him to kill Padme, as she was Anakin's motivation to actually stick to the dark side.

 

No. Padme just gave up to live...

 

Exactly, Padmé was a crucial part to Sidious' plans. I love the way Palpatine expressed his false concern and empathy for when there was an assassination attempt on her life in AOTC, having him kill her would certainly be add to the contrast between his two characters.