PT Anakin's Nightmare of Padme's death

Was it a vision, a mere dream, or was Palpatine using the force to influence his dreams. I think the latter.

 

Little boy Anakin Skywalker had the vision about Qui Gon "freeing" him when they met.

Skywalker seems to be able to predict stuff on his own. The wonder boy is real savvy with the force midis.

So I would venture to say the dreams and premonitions were on his own. Palps might have been working some ESP to "read" what was in Skywalker's mind - but doubtful he could work some DiCaprio "Inception" magic.

 

Personally I think Palpatine didn't need to create the dream. Padme does, after all, die similarly to how it is seen in the nightmare, so it makes sense that Anakin would have a premonition about it. Unless of course you think Palpatine knew for a fact that she was going to die, and thus created the dream... but that doesn't fully make sense to me.

 

It's called a self fufilling prophecy. He dreamed about her dying, panicked, let his fear take over, allowing Palpatine, who has been watching him, and can sense his fear, and has guessed about Padme, to twist and manipulate him. He then turns to the Dark side, force chokes Padme, which combined with her broken heart, kills her.
Had he ignored it, it probably would have never come true.

 

I very much doubt that it was simply a dream since Anakin explicitly mentions they were just like the ones he had about his mother (which turned out all too true). As for whether or not they were sent by Palpatine or merely visions, one fact that supports Palpatine having a hand in them is the fact that he even knows about them to begin with. Then again, from what we saw in ROTJ, Palpatine can predict the future to a degree, so he may simply be attuned to this possibility. I think it's highly likely though, that at least some of the dream was due to Dark Side influence combined with Anakin's anxiety about Padme and her pregnancy.

It's difficult to say whether Padme would have survived if he had ignored the dreams, though. The way the birth plays out is different than what little we glimpse of Anakin's dreams (Padme doesn't call out his name and Obi-Wan doesn't tell her to hang on), so it might have come to pass regardless. It definitely became a self-fulfilling prophecy, but considering his dreams of his mother came true due to his inaction it's understandable why Anakin was so desperate to stop Padme from suffering a similar fate.

 

A vision from the Force, not Palpatine.

 

that.

 

Personally I think Palpatine didn't need to create the dream. Padme does, after all, die similarly to how it is seen in the nightmare, so it makes sense that Anakin would have a premonition about it. Unless of course you think Palpatine knew for a fact that she was going to die, and thus created the dream... but that doesn't fully make sense to me.



I think many fans have a bad habit of trying to dump a lot of the negative choices and feelings of the characters upon Palpatine's shoulders. It's easier to blame him for all of the bad choices made in the PT, instead of acknowledging that the good guys made a lot of their own bad choices or made their own mistakes.

 

That begs the question: why would Palpatine sense exactly what the dream was whereas every other Jedi did not? I actually like the idea that he sends the dreams to Anakin because it makes him seem that much more evil and manipulative. Also, I don't understand why the force would constantly send these visions to its Chosen One that only result in death, violence, and heartbreak. The whole Shmi situation seemed a bit random and convenient for Palpatine as well.

 

What I wonder is: did Anakin actually see Padme die, or he just made assumptions based on his previous nightmares about his mother? Was Padme's death inevitable at this point?

 

I don't think he saw Padme's death and we definitely didn't see it in the fragments we saw. He didn't actually see his mother die in his visions, either.

I think he came to the conclusion on his own.

Padme's death during childbirth being an inevitability wouldn't really fit with "always in motion is the future."

 

The story in ROTS is basically 'MacBeth'. He sees a vision of his wife dying and by trying to prevent it he eventually causes it and makes the vision come true. And again, Anakin could always predict the future, its not something Palpatine implanted. He saw Padme dying at childbirth and that happened. Palpatine knew his vision cause he sensed that Anakin's concerned like Vader sensed Luke's concern about Leia during their duel on Death Star II

 

Perhaps, but the visions changed to keep up with the shifting future ("always in motion, the future is"). If Palps was just making it up I doubt it would have unfolded that way.

 

It's just weird that we don't see Padme die in the vision. It's a bizarre directorial decision. In fact, we see he making a face that many women make during childbirth. Seeing her dead would have at least made Anakin's decisions more rational.

 

You're right. She's not necessarily dying; she's suffering. Anakin makes an unwarranted leap based on the outcome of rescuing his mother, who he also claimed to see "suffering". There's no explicit evidence, based on what we're shown, that what Anakin glimpses is actually a death of a loved one. In the words of Obi-Wan from the previous movie, he is "focusing on the negative". While it's a no-doubt-unsettling experience that Anakin has, he jumps to a false conclusion ("Always on the move") -- and it's all downhill from there.

 

i think Palpatine was using the force to influence his dreams so in the end he could revel himself to anaking as friend who is trying to help him save padme from death

 

Honestly in the case of this dream, I think it was more of a inner fear of his. Because the images are so vague it could be anything. He should of worked on focusing and trying to get more clearer edges before going into panic mode. He should of also told Padme more about it and what he was going to try and do and even asked her if she would want him to use the force to keep her alive.

 

Pretty much what everyone else said. All he saw was her screaming and looking exhausted after giving birth. Naturally, he drew on past experiences of this kind of thing and assumed she was dying.

Of course, I do wonder why he didn't ask her (or at least look up on galactic net) on how human women give birth.

 

I think that the moment Padme told Anakin of her pregnancy, his fears got the best of him. This fear manifested in his dream or premonition of Padme in the middle of childbirth. She didn't die in his dream. But Anakin being true to himself, assumed the worst and allowed his fear to get the best of him.

I don't believe that Palpatine did anything to manifest those visions within Anakin. But once he learned about them from Anakin's hints, he did his best to exploit the latter's fears. That is what he does best - exploit the fears of others. That is one thing that many politicians are very good at. When he and Count Dooku created the Separatist movement, they were simply exploiting the negative feelings that other systems already harbored, thanks to the Senate's actions or lack of them.

 

Anakin's destiny to the darkside happened because of a bad dream and the chemicals in his dream, Vs., the bad guy inplanting visions of his mind with his evil superpowers, vs. the Force creating a self fullfilling prophecy.

Can't tell which one is the better idea, or canon.