PT What Is/Was the Best Way for Padme to Die?

What Is/Was the Best Way for Padme to Die?

Inspired by this thread: https://boards.theforce.net/threads/why-some-people-hate-padme-dying-of-sadness.50055365/

 

Vader kills her the dude is evil nothing he can’t do

 

I don't know why Lucas didn't go with this. It would have been a lot better than losing the will to live.

If Lucas thought it was took dark, what about the frigging younglings?

 

This works as well. I just think losing the will to live makes literally no sense when you have two new born babies

 

I agree with most of this but it's hard for me to imagine Padme voluntarily giving up her kids. There would have to have been some kind of explanation where she had to give up her kids to keep them safe. Maybe because Vader could sense her presence? But then wouldn't Vader go looking for her?

This is my preferred way where we don't have to explain why Padme gave up the kids voluntarily. It's also more tragic which fits with the Anakin/Vader story.

 

The best way? For her to die after giving birth to the twins. Oh wait . . . that's exactly what happened.

 

Which would be option 1 or 2 in the poll or maybe option 3 or 4.

There are a lot of possible ways you can die after having twins in this situation.

 

Palpatine sucking the life out of her to keep Ani/Vader alive.

 

I personally don't like the idea of a character like Padme just dying offscreen and waiting for a novel or comic to explain how. Its like if Episode VII had Luke, Han, or Leia die in a major unnamed conflict that will be explored later. In a saga like SW, a main character's fate should not be left to ancillary material.

 

1. Leia didn't describe that her mother died when she was 3-5, moreover, 3-5-year-old daughter remembers her mother very good, but Leia remembers almost nothing.
2. The whole dialogue is a decoration, to know something about her mother.
3. Obi-Wan said absolutely exactly that they were hidden from the Emperor and Vader, when they were born.

Padme's survival in the Episode III is absolutely impossible, because, if it happens, the Emperor and Vader will find her and Leia, and, possibly, Luke.

By the way, even if Padme survives, to leave Leia with her doesn't make any sense. On the contrary, she should be taken away from her as far as possible.

 

Many people have trouble remembering more than "feelings" and "images" from events that took place when they were 3.

 

No, it's just a difference between Luke and Leia. There is a principle which is called "Occam's razor" - "entities should not be multiplied without necessity". There is no "backstory" in the movie. There are only memories.

A newborn Jedi, especially if she is the daughter of the strongest Jedi in existence, may remember her mother. The fictional galaxy far far away is pretty different from our homeworld: the Force, lightsabers, hyperspace, etc.

 

Yup. The junior novelization had Luke with his eyes shut and Leia with her eyes open, for that scene:

"It's a boy," the medical droid said, holding him up. The baby was wrinkled and red-faced, his eyes squeezed tightly shut against the light, but Padme smiled and reached for him. "Luke," she said, her fingers just brushing his forehead.
"And a girl," the second droid said. Unlike her brother, this babyís eyes were wide, and she stared in Padmeís direction as if she wanted to see and memorize her face.
"Leia," Padme said.

but that's a bit of a kludge.

 

Their ability to use the Force means that they can have a possibility to remember their mother, not necessity.
Luke can remember his mother or not. Leia can remember her mother or not.
Just like I can remember something or not.

Luke doesn't remember his mother, Leia does, because they have differences in their personalities, traits, abilities, etc. They don't have to be absolutely the same, they may have different memory abilities, for instance.

And, by the way, when Leia finds out that she is Luke's sister, she says: "Somehow... I've always known".

So, this makes sense.

 

She dies during childbirth but it's made clear at some point (to the audience) that Palpatine is responsible for it.

Was it established in the OT that Luke and Leia were twins? Because if not, an easy fix would have been to simply make Leia a year or so older than Luke.

 

Ben: "The other he spoke of is your twin sister."

Ya he did specifically say twin. Otherwise this would have been a great solution. Have Leia as a toddler during the events of ROTS.

 

Leia remembering her mother is a non-issue, considering that the Force is strong with her and it's a path to many abilities that we don't understand.

As for Padmé's death, I think it would've been a good idea to clarify why and how she died. My headcanon explanation is that she could have lived but chose not to summon her strength. To give her children a better chance of survival, she allowed the immense stress of heartbreak + childbirth to kill her, so the Sith could be fooled into thinking the twins had died with her.

Now, I don't think that's exactly what GL had in mind. I imagine he saw it more as the severing of the unhealthy bond between Padmé and Anakin killing her while he clung to life by unnatural means. It was a spiritual death for both of them, with different outcomes. Which is kind of poetic in a twisted way, since he kills her soul by selling his own to the devil.
Giving her agency would make her stronger and send a more appealing message, though. A few lines of dialogue could have done the trick.

 

Saying "The Force did it!" as an explanation is lazy writing.
And just because the Force exists does not mean that you can just make up whatever powers you want.
Having people teleport, time travel, breathe fire, shrink to atom size or whatever.
Or rather, you can do that but again that is lazy writing.
Like in stories with magic in them, that every time the character are in trouble, they make up some new spell that sorts that out. "A wizard did it!"

The Force has not been established as giving you "memories" of people you did not really know.
Plus if you make up this "Force memory" power you then have to explain why Luke remembers nothing.

A far simpler explanation is that Bail told Leia about Padme and so she has fooled herself that she remembers her.

And this very clearly was backstory.
Just as when Obi-Wan talks about Owen in ANH, "He didn't hold with your fathers ideals, he thought he should have stayed here and not gotten involved."
That is backstory, it tells us how Owen and Lukes father were different and they disagreed about some things. It also tells us that Lukes father was from Tatooine. Which was implied earlier when beru said that Luke was not a farmer, that he had too much of his father in him. Implying that Lukes father had lived on the farm but were also restless and wanted to leave, like Luke.

In the RotJ script, Obi-Wan makes it super clear, Leia went with her mother to Alderaan while Luke went to Tatooine. Here Owen was Obi-Wans brother. This was also in the novelization.
So the backstory Lucas had in mind at the time was that Luke and Leia were split up and Leia went with their mother and that is why she remembers and Luek does not.
Simple.
And that is pretty much what the film says as well.

To the OP.
If the PT is as it is now then Padme needs to die in ep III. Given how obsessed Anakin is about her, he would never leave her alone. The only possibility is that if they somehow fake her death and Anakin is somehow unable to sense her.

I have said before that it was very possible to make a PT that did line up better with RotJ.
Say if Anakin and Padme go their separate ways in ep II. She is pregnant but neither one knows about that. She marries Bail Organa and Leia is presented as their child.
You could add that Anakin had talked about dreams about a son and wanting to give his lightsabre to him one day. So Obi-Wan figures that Anakin/Vader might be thinking about a son so he might overlook a daughter.
Or you could have Leia as the child of Bail and his wife and Padme is just there with them.
So neither Anakin nor Palpatine knows about Padme ever being pregnant with Anakins child.

That Padme would let one child go is no problem to me. If Obi-Wan says that Anakin has foreseen a son so Luke must be taken away and if enough could be done to make Leia seem like Bails child. Then Padme has given up one child but is able to be around the other. But the sadness of that missing son leaves a mark on her. As noticed by Leia later.
If Padme give up both children but Vader/Palpatine come after her, she is no safer. If they probe her mind they would see that she gave birth to twins and possibly where each child is.

What would be the best option with the PT as is?
Have Padme die from complications while giving birth, made worse by Anakin injuring her on Mustafar.
So the damage he did was not fatal on its own but combined with giving birth and the less than top of the line medical facility, it kills her.

Bye for now.
Blackboard Monitor

 

I believe in context it was the best option, at the heart of this is that Star Wars and especially the Prequel trilogy was driven towards children. Dying of sadness is a real thing, dying during child birth is a natural thing and doing either in the context of the film itself is (if she must die) the best way because it is peaceful, and did so only after saving her children.