{"id":253,"date":"2025-01-02T23:56:21","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T23:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spacelolita.com\/?p=253"},"modified":"2025-10-18T04:30:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T04:30:36","slug":"the-skywalker-suicides-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacelolita.com\/?p=253","title":{"rendered":"The Skywalker Suicides: Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Case for Padm\u00e9<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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TW: This essay discusses suicide, postpartum depression, and other mental health issues. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Length: 7k+ words<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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A woman lies on an operating table. Around her are floating screens and skeletal droids. Two men, an alien, and a droid look on. One medic-droid approaches the men. \u201cMedically, she\u2019s completely healthy,\u201d it says. \u201cFor reasons we can\u2019t explain, we are losing her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s dying?\u201d One man says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know why,\u201d the droid says. \u201cShe has lost the will to live. We need to operate quickly if we are to save the babies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other man: \u201cBabies?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The droid: \u201cShe\u2019s carrying twins.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All goes quiet. The scene progresses with little other dialogue. A privacy screen is brought in and another droid, which says soothing nothings as the twins are delivered. The woman is distraught: she cries, she screams. The first man looks on. At first, the woman only speaks to name her children: \u201cLuke\u2026Leia.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her movements are limited and she barely manages to raise a hand. After giving birth, the woman\u2019s eyes are closed, brow furrowed. \u201cObi-Wan,\u201d she says, breathing uneasily, \u201cthere\u2019s good in him. I know there\u2019s, still\u2026\u201d She dies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So goes the much-maligned death of Padm\u00e9 Amidala, heroine of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. While Padm\u00e9’s death is far from the most-mocked thing about the prequels (that\u2019ll probably always be Jar Jar Binks), it may be the most mocked part of her character. Padm\u00e9’s romance with Anakin has gained a following over time; discussions around her death are relatively static. This Gizmodo <\/em>article<\/a> from 2012 ranking Padm\u00e9 as second-most \u201cundignified\u201d death \u201cin Science Fiction and Fantasy\u201d could\u2019ve been published last week. For many, Padm\u00e9 losing the will to live retroactively ruins any good moments she had, solidifying her spot in the Bad Female Character canon. It is simply too egregious, too preposterous, a stretch too far for even the most explosive Star Wars third act. But\u2013why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

True, Padm\u00e9’s death complicates previous lore and is a big dramatic set piece that\u2019s hardly grounded or elaborated on. The same can be said for most of the Star Wars prequels. (And of all things, Leia remembering Padm\u00e9 isn\u2019t that difficult to explain. She has the force! Plus, unlike Luke, she was raised by someone who knew Padm\u00e9. Sloppy yes, but not unreasonable. Obi-Wan calling Yoda \u201cthe Jedi Master who taught me\u201d when he at most took a beginner force-wielding lesson from him as a youngling bothers me much more.) In our current digital age where every stray and unsightly corner of the Star Wars prequels has been refashioned into nostalgia, Padm\u00e9\u2019s death is kept to the shadows. There is something about this moment that enrages people on a pure, knee-jerk level. Something that registers as off across galaxies, demands to be written out in fanfics and made into a punchline in every recap. Again\u2013why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Padm\u00e9\u2019s death lands as a major societal taboo while embracing Star Wars’ oldest influences. This reaches across aisles and gives everyone a reason to be pissed off. Padm\u00e9 is a mother character who loves her kids but finds herself unable to go on: she is a woman who rejects motherhood in the most basic sense. She is also a classic Ophelia-lite character, a tragic heroine who dies when betrayed by her love. Moreover, Padm\u00e9 operates as a withering personification of democracy, of peace, of hope for unconditional love in the face of brutality. The trilogy loses her as it plunges fully into darkness. All of this is blunt and operatic and not easy to fit into some pre-approved Good Female Character mold. So it is blanket-dismissed as degradation, an insult to Padm\u00e9’s previous triumphs and unworthy of analysis. And so it goes that most call Padm\u00e9’s death inexplicable, and shy away from the big word: suicide.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This essay aims to bridge that gap, taking Padm\u00e9’s death seriously and arguing against commonly pitched fix-its. It also serves to set up my following essay, \u201cThe Skywalker Suicides Part II\u201d, and establish a thematic connection to Luke. In short, this is a good faith, overwrought close reading of the one thing no Star Wars fan will stop laughing about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Case for Suicide<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

For the above Gizmodo<\/em> article, Charlie Jane Anders writes, \u201c[Padm\u00e9’s] basically a giant plot device and it’s not even clear what kills her other than the needs of the storyline.\u201d Goes a 2023 viral tweet: \u201cThe funniest thing about the Star Wars prequels is that Padm\u00e9 dying from a traumatic twin delivery is entirely plausible and yet she had to die of a broken heart??\u201d (Told you that thing could\u2019ve been written today.) In her book Star Wars Meets The Eras of Feminism: Weighing all the Galaxy\u2019s Women Great and Small<\/em>, Valerie Estelle Frankel concurs: \u201cPadm\u00e9 dies for no clear reason\u2026her death makes no sense medically.\u201d All reflect a common sentiment: Padm\u00e9’s death is unclear and illogical. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Admittedly, the phrase \u201cdied of a broken heart\u201d doesn\u2019t get much across. It’s become the go-to line for her death, but it’s far from all the films say. Let\u2019s go over what we are told about Padm\u00e9, and what we know. Star Wars often uses droids as expository devices (see: the whole first stretch of A New Hope) and, at least in George Lucas\u2019 hands, is shot in a straightforward documentary style. We are given no strong reason to doubt what we\u2019re seeing and hearing, and what we see and hear is the following: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Padm\u00e9 is a pacifist who has been opposed to the current galactic war since it began. A former child soldier, she is hesitant to go into battle or wield a weapon in adulthood, and routinely says she wants a diplomatic solution to crises. While Padm\u00e9 voices her politics freely, she speaks of her personal wants rarely. Her early conversations with Anakin are consumed by politics, her child-queen upbringing, public perception; only on the brink of murder is she able to tell him she loves him. This confession comes with another: \u201cI\u2019m not afraid to die.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of all the trilogy’s characters, Padm\u00e9 has the most storied relationship with death. She’s been in public service since twelve and by the age of fourteen not only is her life under constant threat but she knows how to wield a blaster and command an army. The only reason Padm\u00e9 isn\u2019t dead before twenty is because of her identical handmaidens, who serve as doppelgangers for enemies to shoot instead of her. Attack of the Clones <\/em>opens with Padm\u00e9 witnessing her own assassination, then finding herself unable to comfort her dying decoy. She only finds words to speak of the moment when talking vaguely, asking others to find her killer. When Anakin tells her he\u2019s had a vision of her dying in childbirth, her reaction is pragmatic: \u201c…and the baby?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This slow dance with death comes with a lifelong political inertia. Padm\u00e9\u2019s reason to become a Senator is because she \u201ccouldn\u2019t refuse\u201d the incumbent Queen\u2019s request. \u201cI was relieved when my two terms were up\u201d, she confesses. By the time of Revenge of the Sith<\/em>, she openly fantasizes about abandoning her senate post and running away with Anakin. This desire for family is voiced alongside a declaration of escape: “this baby will<\/em> change our lives.” Padm\u00e9 wants kids but foremost, she wants a different life. This can easily be read as Padm\u00e9 wanting to live, for the first time, not in the service of others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ani, I want to have our baby back home on Naboo. We can go to the lake country where no one will know…where we can be safe. I can go early and fix up the baby’s room. I know the perfect spot. Right by the gardens.<\/p>Padm\u00e9, Revenge of the Sith<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Then it all goes wrong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time in their relationship, Padm\u00e9 tells Anakin \u201cI don\u2019t know you.\u201d His downfall comes at the expense of everything Padm\u00e9 has ever cared about: peace, freedom, love. She witnesses the Republic become the Empire through a burst of applause. Her husband calls her a liar and physically abuses her, cementing his turn to the dark. Padm\u00e9 observably survives the attack\u2013Obi-Wan checks on her and finds she\u2019s breathing, the droid tells us she\u2019s medically fine\u2013but her hope for a future dies on Mustafar. \u201cYou’re going down a path I can’t follow,\u201d she begs of Anakin\u2013and she can\u2019t. She loses the will to live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We don\u2019t need a space therapist to declare Padm\u00e9 a suicide victim to make a diagnosis here. Firstly because Padm\u00e9 is not real, and secondly because the film spells it out just as boldly. All other options are ruled out on-screen, in plain terms: \u201cShe was alive! I felt it!\u201d\/\u201dMedically, she is completely healthy.\u201d Any other explanation requires a twisting of these words\u2013the suicidal reading only asks we pay attention. If Padm\u00e9 has lost the will to live, we must conclude that she wants to die. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Padm\u00e9’s death is the most clear cut suicide in the franchise. She has no indication that her death will benefit anyone, nor has she been told by anyone that death is on the horizon; and yet, she wants to. The love of her life has become master of Hell, the father of her children has set the galaxy aflame, and the ruling body she gave her life to has gone obsolete\u2014indeed, always was. How could we talk Padm\u00e9 off the ledge at this moment? How could anyone? Ultimately, the film doesn\u2019t ask us to. This is a tragedy. The point is not to berate our protagonists into healthier living choices, but to watch them fall into the abyss. At the end of every good tragedy, there\u2019s nothing else left. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Padm\u00e9 falls neatly into the canon of self-annihilating tragic heroines. Her death is not inspiring, or productive, or well-adjusted, but it is her <\/em>death. The means, the reasons, the aftermath, all belong to her. Padm\u00e9, the victim of multiple assassination attempts from the ages of fourteen to twenty-four, warrior on the frontlines of the battles of Naboo and Geonosis, survivor of Nexu claws, force choking, and a difficult trauma-informed birth, dies firmly and exclusively because she wanted to. If she wanted to live, she would\u2019ve lived. This is not a weakening death, especially when compared to oft-cited \u201cstrong\u201d deaths like having Anakin kill her. One wonders: how is Padm\u00e9 choosing to die less<\/em> empowering than having that choice taken from her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In discussion around Padm\u00e9 I tend to see two main rebuttals to the concept of Padm\u00e9 killing herself. The first concerns her status as a mother and the second as a #StrongFemaleCharacter. While said rebuttals may be catchy and well-intentioned, they tend towards snappy dismissals of depression, a remarkably narrow view of what female characters should say or do, and an aggressive strain of genre illiteracy. Though I welcome critique and what-ifs on Padm\u00e9’s ending, I believe these rebuttals are fatally flawed and only serve to cull more thoughtful discussion. I will go into my issues with them below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note:<\/strong> When writing about fandom, quoting people I disagree with is inevitable. For the sake of sticking to actual arguments instead of inter-fan fighting, I will not be naming or linking back to any post or comment I mention here. I will be naming and linking back to actual published articles, as I believe publishing an article implies a willingness to exist in public conversation that being mean to me on Tumblr doesn\u2019t. Additionally, for the record: I don\u2019t intend anything I write as harassment or singling-out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Won\u2019t Somebody Please<\/em> Think of the Children?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

After years of fraught discourse, locating the most widely spread post about Padm\u00e9’s death would be a fruitless\u2014and most importantly, boring\u2014task. But if you ask me, it\u2019s this Tumblr post from 2017, with almost 80 thousand notes: \u201cstill can\u2019t believe that someone would write Padm\u00e9 dying from \u2018loosing her will to live\u2019 after just having two beautiful babies and meanwhile that burned circus peanut has enough will to survive 100% burning and tripple amputation. only a man could write that bullshit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s since been deleted, so I added the post to my queue to screenshot it. The things I do. <\/summary>\n

A more popular version of this post comes with a lengthy addition pitching the \u201cPalpatine sapped Padm\u00e9\u2019s life-force theory\u201d, which I\u2019ll get into later. For now what matters is that \u201ctwo beautiful babies\u201d line and the assertion that no man could understand a mother\u2019s devotion. The former would find new life in Kristin Devine\u2019s 2019 article \u201cDefenders Of The Gold Bikini 2: The Fempire Doesn\u2019t Strikes Back\u201d<\/a>, where she writes, \u201cPadme swooning and dying ostensibly over a man\u2014under any circumstances\u2014but particularly when she had two beautiful babies to care for[?]…No one does that.\u201d She goes on to describe Padm\u00e9\u2019s death as \u201c[dying], because, feelz, [rather] than liv[ing] to raise her children, or to use her considerable influence over Anakin to try and stop him.\u201d Padm\u00e9\u2019s death, she writes, \u201creduces\u201d her \u201cinto a quivering disaster and frankly a terrible mother.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2017 article Devine cites (and Frankel, later on), \u201cDid Inadequate Women\u2019s Healthcare Destroy Star Wars\u2019 Old Republic?\u201d<\/a> by Sarah Jeong, at least admits \u201cdepression after giving birth, and death caused by emotional shock, are both real things\u201d, but counters with \u201cyou\u2019d think that if Padme were dying from being very sad, someone would at least mention <\/em>postpartum depression? You know, in passing.\u201d This article has a clear tongue-in-cheek bent but neither it\u2019s popularity and frequent use of the premise of Padme\u2019s death, of mothers being suicidal, as comedy fodder have done Padme analysis any favors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traces of Devine can be found in both a recent comment on my page, \u201cI’m a Mom and if my husband turned evil I’d be like \u2018fuck you!  My baby and I are outta here!\u2019 My little boy comes first before ANYTHING else. Padme just suffered the double whammy of being poorly written by a clueless male\u201d and a recent reblog on a post from the currently-deactivated husborth: \u201cthe whole plot of ROTS is clearly written by somebody without a uterus[.]\u201d I resent that the trace of a valid critique\u2013Star Wars as a whole is<\/em> rather squeamish about the non-panty-ripping working of female bodies, and Padme\u2019s pregnancy is<\/em> given an odd distance\u2013must come couched in such ugly bioessentialism, and a refusal to believe that mothers can be sad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A more popular version of this post comes with a lengthy edition pitching the \u201cPalpatine sapped Padm\u00e9’s life-force theory\u201d, which I\u2019ll get into later. For now what matters is that \u201ctwo beautiful babies\u201d line and the assertion that no man could understand a mother\u2019s devotion. The former would find new life in Kristin Devine\u2019s 2019 article \u201cDefenders Of The Gold Bikini 2: The Fempire Doesn\u2019t Strikes Back\u201d<\/a>, where she writes, \u201cPadm\u00e9 swooning and dying ostensibly over a man\u2014under any circumstances\u2014but particularly when she had two beautiful babies to care for[?]…No one does that.\u201d She goes on to describe Padm\u00e9’s death as \u201c[dying], because, feelz, [rather] than liv[ing] to raise her children, or to use her considerable influence over Anakin to try and stop him.\u201d Padm\u00e9’s death, she writes, \u201creduces\u201d her \u201cinto a quivering disaster and frankly a terrible mother.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2017 article Devine cites (and Frankel, later on), \u201cDid Inadequate Women\u2019s Healthcare Destroy Star Wars\u2019 Old Republic?\u201d<\/a> by Sarah Jeong, admits \u201cdepression after giving birth, and death caused by emotional shock, are both real things\u201d, but counters with \u201cyou\u2019d think that if Padm\u00e9 were dying from being very sad, someone would at least mention <\/em>postpartum depression? You know, in passing.\u201d This article has a clear tongue-in-cheek bent but neither it\u2019s popularity nor it’s frequent use of the premise of Padm\u00e9 ‘s death\u2014of mothers being suicidal\u2014as comedy fodder have done Padm\u00e9 analysis any favors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traces of Devine can be found in both a recent comment on my page, \u201cI’m a Mom and if my husband turned evil I’d be like \u2018fuck you! My baby and I are outta here!\u2019 My little boy comes first before ANYTHING else. Padm\u00e9 just suffered the double whammy of being poorly written by a clueless male\u201d and a recent reblog on a Tumblr post from the currently-deactivated husborth: \u201cthe whole plot of ROTS is clearly written by somebody without a uterus[.]\u201d I resent that the trace of a valid critique\u2013Star Wars as a whole is<\/em> rather squeamish about the non-panty-ripping working of female bodies, and Padm\u00e9’s pregnancy is<\/em> given an odd distance\u2013must come couched in such ugly bioessentialism, and a refusal to believe that mothers can be sad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Surely we can interrogate George Lucas\u2019 way of writing female characters without propping up pregnancy as some magical, singular act that only women are so blessed to understand. The idea that women are destined for the sacred duty of motherhood, something men could never comprehend (so they\u2019d best not go to any of those doctor appointments, no, they just wouldn\u2019t get it), is basic conservative ideology. This is not an ideology that loses its power when disguised as a toothless jab at a man. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How many more examples do I need? Writes a commenter on Star Wars fansite The Imperial Talker<\/a>: “as a mother myself, I was upset that she couldn\u2019t summon the will to live for her children\u2019s sake.\u201d Another, on the Jedi Council forums: \u201cPadm\u00e9 was about to have children…that only strengthens someone’s will to live.\u201d Screenrant<\/em><\/a>, solving depression: \u201carguably, she would have been more determined, wanting a better life for her unborn child.\u201d  Rachel Bolton in a Padm\u00e9 retrospective<\/a>: \u201cOne facet that my younger self focused on was imagining all the different ways Padm\u00e9 could have survived. Dying of a broken heart was dumb! Why didn\u2019t she try to stay alive for her children?\u201d A 2017 Tumblr anon argues \u201cthe losing the will to live made no sense when a) she had two children that needed her\u201d, echoed neatly in a 2012 comment on SWTOR forums: \u201cHow come she lost the will to live? She got 2 newborn children to take care of! The love of children is probably the strongest emotion of woman<\/a>.\u201d Another comment on this thread: \u201cIt is because Padme, in the end, was selfish. She couldn’t have her man and kids be darned if she didn’t get to keep her man then she would rather be dead. Who cares what happened to her kids. She wanted her Jedi\u2026At least, that was what I took from it lol.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a 2014 post<\/a> speculating on Padm\u00e9’s mental headspace in Revenge of the Sith, <\/em>the writer known as starwarsanon<\/em> uncritically stresses that motherhood \u201cis supposed to be a woman\u2019s greatest achievement and one of her greatest moments[.]\u201d On a different starwarsanon<\/em> post<\/a>, in response to her writing that Padm\u00e9 did \u201cnot want to face the world where she had born children to a monster\u201d, a commenter says, \u201cthis one is a harder sell. Most parents would endure hell and high water to see their children grow up.\u201d She concurs: \u201cYeah, I struggle with Padme giving up on life and not living for her children as well\u2026how can you not live for your children??\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On fangirlblog<\/em>\u2019s 2012 article \u201cThe Power to Save Padm\u00e9\u201d<\/a>, an anonymous commenter: \u201cThere\u2019s one huge problem with the \u2018she has nothing left to live for\u2019 argument: the baby(s)…As a mother and an army wife who has had contact with other wives who have given birth after losing their husbands in combat I can tell you right now the idea of Padme giving up with her beloved husband\u2019s child in the equation is nonsense.\u201d Questions a 2021 Quora post<\/a>: \u201cWhy did Padme lose her will to live? She just had 2 kids. Doesn’t that make her a bad parent?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another response to one of my posts: \u201cYeah actually I tend to really really hate mother characters who give up on their children. Same intense dislike I have of Tolkien\u2019s R\u00edan, who is so sad boohoo about her husband dying that she abandons her son to go and drop dead on his grave.\u201d They concluded: \u201cGet up woman. You have shit to do.\u201d (No, I don\u2019t believe this user\u2019s hasty add-on in the tags that they think deadbeat fathers kind of suck too makes this any less vile a statement.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The use of “woman” as a pejorative. Ugh.<\/summary>\n

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And on, and on, and on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, Sociologist Orna Donarth published her book Regretting Motherhood<\/em>, in which she recorded multiple testimonials from women who regretted their choice to give birth and raise children. Her intent was not, as she clarifies, to provide an \u201c\u2018emotional freak show\u2019 of \u2018perverted women\u2019\u201d but to give voice to \u201ca wide range of emotions about motherhood that are begging to be dealt with\u201d:\u201da deep seated taboo.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Mothers who regret are branded as selfish, insane, deranged women and immoral human beings who exemplify the \u2018whining culture\u2019 we allegedly live in.”<\/p>Orna Donarth<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

She identifies this as a structural issue: \u201cWestern societies vehemently push women not only into motherhood but into the subsequent loneliness of dealing with the consequences of this persuasion.\u201d Women are told constantly to have children, that they will regret not having children, and pressured into giving up any other aspirations to detrimental, and subsequently, suppressed effect. Obviously, all children deserve to grow up in a healthy and caring environment\u2014the home of a mother who was coerced into having them and is now regretful, not being one. Collective shaming and refusal to think beyond the nuclear family model only worsen both child and mother’s fate. Back in 2004, Lee Edelman\u2019s No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive<\/em> coined the term \u201creproductive futurism\u201d as a way of describing how society prioritizes potential future children over all other concerns, positing the amorphous public idea of \u201cThe Child\u201d as \u201cperpetual horizon of every acknowledged politics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously in my need to write Padm\u00e9 Amidala apologia, I am doing neither of these texts due analytic diligence. My bad. What I want to argue here is that common discourse about Padm\u00e9’s death frequently kowtows to both societal refusal to discuss depressed mothers and cultural worship of \u201cThe Child.\u201d Padm\u00e9’s fantasy of raising her children in domestic bliss takes a cultish precedence in analysis. No matter that the man she wanted to raise her kids with just choked her and killed countless other children. No matter that the galaxy has become an infinitely more hostile place to live. Mothers are supposed to go on, raise their kids, and be happy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is seen in how often people cite real mothers as opposition to Padm\u00e9’s fate. While some may argue Padm\u00e9’s death contradicts her prior characterization (as established, I don\u2019t think this holds water either), the vast majority characterize her death as flying in the face of immutable biological fact. Babies make<\/em> moms happy. Moms don\u2019t<\/em> get sad. Moms always<\/em> stick it out for their kids, and if they feel anything other than complete joy, that\u2019s their<\/em> failure. Naturally this goes hand in hand with calling suicide a selfish act and Padm\u00e9 a weak, selfish person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(One commenter helpfully informed me that \u201cit\u2019s still a selfish act to abandon a living creature that depends on your for survival\u2026Instead of getting into a debate about the moral implications of a mother killing herself and leaving her kids behind, maybe you should be more concerned about helping all parties out of that scenario ALIVE.\u201d Unfortunately I cannot make Padm\u00e9 real and give her counseling, so I had to block them.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Padm\u00e9 does not need to be a textbook example of postpartum depression or a regretful mother for the societal biases against these to be weaponized against her. Indeed, the veil of fiction and severity of real life biases work hand in hand here, allowing people to leverage toxic language against characters who will never reply or change and therefore can be shamed for all eternity. This is but a particularly determined strain of reproductive futurism: entirely fictional children and scenarios, used to deny real shades of human complexity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is employed here are not children as people, but children as the political props that they become \u2013 the things in whose name awful things are done. \u201cThink of the children\u201d being a slogan that almost completely forecloses any possibility of actually doing so.<\/em><\/p>Elizabeth Sandifer<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Frankel writes that Padm\u00e9 dies having \u201cfulfilled her biological destiny\u2026a person with [no] life or priorities outside of [Anakin\u2019s] (even her children!)”: “Technology and evil triumph visually over motherhood[.]\u201d Again, I resent that Frankel\u2019s more valid critiques must come with stock outrage at Padm\u00e9 not prioritizing her babies. It would be more accurate to write that Padm\u00e9’s death is a rejection of supposed biological destiny. Padm\u00e9 escapes the trappings of endlessly caring feminine archetype, if not into real humanity, then into something intangible and boundless. This is what people recoil from. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis woman should be dragged out into the street, her teeth should be remove [sic] with a claw hammer, and then every child in the town should be lined up and made to cut a piece off of her with a knife. Then she should be burned alive.\u201d<\/p>A comment on one of Orna Donath’s articles, recorded in Regretting Motherhood<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 1964, science fiction legend Isaac Asimov published \u201cFirst Law\u201d<\/a>, a short story wherein a man at a bar tells his friends about a time a robot supposedly broke free of their programming and \u201cinjure[d] a human being, or through inaction allow[ed] a human being to come to harm.\u201d The robot in question: Emma Two, who choses to protect the life of her miraculous robo-baby over a human\u2019s. The final line: \u201cWhat is even the First Law compared with the holy ties of mother love?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFirst Law\u201d was a quick, early work that doesn\u2019t fit in much with Asimov\u2019s later canon and one he’d dismiss in the 80s as a \u201cspoof\u201d, but it\u2019s central logic of motherhood transcending futuristic limitations is as familiar now as it was then. Am I to believe Isaac Asimov, remembered by Judith Merril and other women as \u201cthe man with a hundred hands,\u201d was conquering gender divides and identifying some crucial female perspective when writing that last twist? Or was he writing what he knew? This idea of motherhood as purifying and uncomplicated, how is this anything but the dull face of all we all so forcibly taught? Is something not more interesting happening when Padm\u00e9 smiles at Luke, and then her smile fades\u2014full of love, but it’s not enough? Her prophetic final words, declaring there is<\/em> some part of her husband she does still know, delivered through heavy breaths\u2014how haunting, for it not to be enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our discourse is trapped between two poles: if Padm\u00e9 is good, she\u2019s a healthy, happy mother (and her death is a betrayal); if Padm\u00e9 is bad, she\u2019s an awful, neglectful mother (and her death was necessary). Surely amidst the wreckage, we can find some non-exhausting way to talk about Padm\u00e9 and motherhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Padm\u00e9 Amidala Did <\/em>Die of a Broken Heart<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s where I tread more lightly. There\u2019s no getting around Padm\u00e9 having a significantly reduced and responsive role in Revenge of the Sith. <\/em>\u00a0She\u2019s one of the prequel\u2019s two notable female characters along with Shmi and both die to further Anakin\u2019s development. The deletion of her \u201cMother of the Rebellion\u201d scenes means Padm\u00e9 only makes three real choices in Revenge<\/em>: to have kids, to go see Anakin on Mustafar, and to die. As noted previously, the distance the movie keeps from Padm\u00e9’s pregnancy, not even allowing her the \u201cthrowing up in a toilet\u201d clich\u00e9 and fitting her with a tiny, practically dainty baby bump, is significant. Both Anakin and Padm\u00e9 are sweaty and battered during their climactic death\/rebirth, but Anakin\u2019s wounds are allowed to up the rating to PG-13, whereas Padm\u00e9’s birthing set-up goes to great lengths to hide the messy reality of her body. This is gendered treatment. These final choices reflect the prequel trilogy as a whole\u2019s regretful fidelity to Padm\u00e9-as-ornament. Natalie Portman herself described<\/a> Padm\u00e9’s arc in Revenge <\/em>as \u201cit’s not that she goes through this big change internally, but that external things are changing around her.\u201d Taken <\/em>in account with the prequels’ other female characters, from Sabe to Beru Lars, being decidedly background with no autonomy, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet. There are a great many arguments that use this reduction as a springboard to say Padm\u00e9’s death is bad because it is \u201cweak\u201d, that Padm\u00e9 is not worth caring about because she doesn\u2019t do everything exactly right, and to judge Padm\u00e9 not by the story she is in or her characterization, but by their own strict ideas of what a strong female character is. This is not feminism. This is barely critique. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These arguments amount to a stripping of agency. What decisions Padm\u00e9 does make in Revenge<\/em> are taken from her or distorted and Padm\u00e9 is remade into a character that not only wouldn\u2019t fit in a tragedy, but has no arc or thematic significance. It judges Padm\u00e9 by strict competency: is she a good enough leader at fourteen? Is she proficiently skilled at untangling herself from a codependent relationship? No? Then what’s the point of her?

Not only does this kind of talk hold Padm\u00e9 to an odd standard few male characters are held to, it\u2019s a shallow take on female characters, full stop. As Anika Dane writes in her 2015 essay \u201cThe Queen\u2019s Sacrifice\u201d<\/a>: \u201cA universe populated by cookie-cutter \u2018strong\u2019 women is not really so much better than a universe populated by cookie-cutter \u2018weak\u2019 women.\u201d Observing how Padm\u00e9 fits into wider trends of female characters is one thing; dismissing her because she doesn\u2019t meet a set quota of #GirlBoss moments is another. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These arguments pitch a Padm\u00e9 that died by Anakin\u2019s choking, or after an attempt to kill him herself, or somehow survived, a Padm\u00e9 that never loved Anakin and was being mind-tricked the whole time, and so forth. Again, it\u2019s one thing to write fanfiction and explore alternate scenarios, and another to proclaim these alternate endings as \u201ccorrect\u201d and the canonical ending as \u201cincorrect\u201d: a refusal to engage with the text. The latter is what I write about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The title of this portion comes from “Padm\u00e9 Didn’t Die of a Broken Heart”<\/a>, Joseph Travano’s massively influential 2015 essay. Whether or not this essay invented the “Palpatine killed Padm\u00e9” theory, it went a long way towards popularizing it. The sum of Travano\u2019s theory is that Padm\u00e9 wanted to live, actually, but neither droids nor Jedi could sense that Palpatine was sapping her lifeforce across space, draining her energy to revitalize Vader. Sometimes this theory is revamped to make it Anakin that took Padm\u00e9\u2019s lifeforce but the general idea is the same. Padm\u00e9 died through intra-dimensional force draining. She had nothing to do with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could spill a good deal of ink going over this essay\u2019s fragile claims (Travano argues that Palpatine could\u2019ve only known about Padm\u00e9\u2019s death if he killed her in the same breath that he cites Palpatine on Coruscant sensing Vader dying on Mustafar, shoddy stuff, c\u2019mon), but that wouldn\u2019t be an honest rebuttal. This is an outline of a theory, not a study, and the vague notion of \u201cPalpatine killed Padm\u00e9\u201d is what I really take issue with\u2013and what really caught on. The \u201cPalpatine sapped Padm\u00e9\u2019s Lifeforce\u201d Theory is immensely, persistently popular. It is the<\/em> go-to explanation for Padm\u00e9’s death. I\u2019ve seen it on TikTok. I\u2019ve seen it on Reddit. I\u2019ve seen it on Twitter. I\u2019ve seen it scrolling Pinterest looking for Padm\u00e9 concept art. This is not a theory that exists as a school of thought on its own, but as an add-on, a patch: oh, you don\u2019t like canon? Well here is this secret other canon, just for you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A common thread among fans of this theory is a rejection of genre, specifically romance and tragedy. Travano concludes: \u201cSo please, please<\/em>(!)\u2013stop talking about murderous broken hearts in Revenge of the Sith<\/em>. The film deserves better treatment than that, and you deserve to watch this classic one more time.\u201d Frankel derides Padm\u00e9’s death as \u201ca gothic storm,\u201d wherein \u201cshe succumbs to despair”, praising “[s]mart, colorful fan theories…suggesting the Emperor saps Padm\u00e9\u2019s life to raise Vader…or that Padm\u00e9\u2019s throat injuries really are fatal but she forces herself to live long enough to save her twins.” A 2021 Reddit thread re-pitching the theory: \u201cSo we can all agree on the fact that the medical droid saying she lost the will to live because of sadness is the cause of her death is a bit lame.\u201d Questions CultureSlate<\/a><\/em>: \u201cWhy else would Lucas show both scenes simultaneously in Revenge of the Sith?<\/em> Was it just a poetic representation of what was happening?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This can be seen in other writings on Padm\u00e9\u2019s death. Anthony Price for Yahoo<\/em> UK & Ireland<\/em>: \u201cShe doesn\u2019t even get a heroic death, instead dying from a lack of a will to live. A broken heart. Clich\u00e9 anyone?\u201d (This article has since been deleted and wasn’t archived, so just trust me, this was said.) Writes Tricia Barr for the aforementioned \u201cThe Power to Save Padm\u00e9\u201d: \u201cCertainly it could have been worse, whether a Romeo-and-Juliet Shakespearean suicide or a melodramatic \u2018I can\u2019t live without him\u2019 overt declaration of hopelessness.\u201d Reddit: \u201cI feel like in that case ‘complications arising due to being force choked and left sprawled out on the ground’ would be a better explanation than ‘lost the will to live’ but Lucas thought he was doing Dramatic Storytelling.\u201d Another fangirlblog <\/em>commenter: \u201cit\u2019s all on George, who I suspect felt uncomfortable with having her death occur offscreen between the trilogies (or maybe he genuinely thought such a death was romantic?).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here is the truth this line of thought skirts: Padm\u00e9\u2019s death is <\/em>romantic. Dying because she can\u2019t bear to live without her partner is a tragic staple and Star Wars is not the poorer for pulling from Shakespeare. Such tropes are not above critique, but they do have one thing this theory forfeits: autonomy. Juliet choosing to die without Romeo is equally her refusal to live in a world that forbids their love and wishes to enslave her in any number of passionless marriages. If her body is to be bought and sold, she’ll stop it at the source. No part of this choice would be improved by Paris sucking her life-force or Friar Lawrence calmly informing Juliet that she is suffering from some hyper-specific grief disorder. Tellingly, neither Screenrant<\/a> <\/em>nor CBR<\/a> <\/em>get into what the theory means for Padm\u00e9\u2019s character in their articles, instead praising the theory for for \u201cconfirming the lore of Darth Plagueis\u201d and \u201censur[ing] the Chosen One is forever plagued by anger, despair and guilt\u201d, respectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point of grand, operatic moments like Padm\u00e9’s demise is not to mimic a perfectly healthy and well-adjusted love affair, but to show love the way it is felt: galaxy-defining, endlessly consequential, and yes, life-and-death. Padm\u00e9 really, truly loves Anakin. This is shown even in the concept art of her arriving at Mustafar with a knife, as pitched by<\/a> artist Iain McCraig: \u201cShe gets off that ship with the knife. She runs up, throws her arms around him – he lets her. She\u2019s got the knife at his neck, she\u2019s going to kill him – he lets her. And she can\u2019t do it, she loves him too much to stop him, even when he\u2019s become the monster.\u201d Padm\u00e9 embodies the saga\u2019s positive controlling idea of unconditional love. She must die as Vader\u2019s hate rises: \u201clove won\u2019t save you Padm\u00e9.\u201d This is the language of the genre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The other thread among fans of the Palpatine-killed-Padm\u00e9 theory\u2013and haters of her death as a whole\u2013is that Padm\u00e9\u2019s death is wrong because it’s not \u201cstrong\u201d. Again and again, a line between a good female character and a woman who died tragically, is drawn. Writes starwarsanon<\/em>: \u201cI have a lot of conflicting feelings about [Padm\u00e9] that have constantly changed over the years.  On the one hand, she is a strong, political leader.  On the other, she lost the will to live and died of heartbreak.\u201d Under the otherwise enjoyable fangirlblog <\/em>article \u201cWhat is Strong?\u201d<\/a>, the comment section strikes one note: \u201cI\u2019m disappointed that you don\u2019t talk more about Padme\u2019s death in this article, because that\u2019s a such a major sticking point for everyone I\u2019ve heard criticize Padme\u2019s portrayal. I personally have a hard time believing in the strength of a character whose identity is so bound to one person that they literally die from that person\u2019s loss, or disillusionment in them, or shame at being unable to save them\u201d, and \u201cshe just gives up because the man she loves has turned evil? No, it doesn\u2019t wash with me. In fact, it angers me that this strong woman was given such a pathetic end.\u201d Another comment on \u201cThe Power to Save Padm\u00e9\u201d: \u201cthe argument is that Padme is a strong<\/em> and heroic<\/em> character \u2013 and a character like that should not be written with a death contingent on her own emotional weakness.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n


As a female fan, I\u2019ll also admit I\u2019ve struggled at times with Padme\u2019s character. She does make some poor choices \u2013 but so do Luke, Han, Leia, Lando, Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Yoda. <\/em>Was it a lack of strength that caused her to fall in love with Anakin? Not at all. The biggest bad decision \u2013 to lie to everyone about their marriage \u2013 was one they made together\u2026So why then is Padme\u2019s choice to love and be loved often met with the most disdain?\u2026wasn\u2019t that love, which is so strong, heroic and mythic in Luke Skywalker, exactly what Padme expresses in her dying breath in Revenge of the Sith?<\/em><\/p>Tricia Barr<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Under SWTOR forums post \u201cPlease explain Padme\u2019s death\u201d: \u201cPersonally, I would tell me daughter that the force choke did it. I wouldn’t want my daughter thinking that some baby (annakin) could have that much power over a strong woman like Padme.\u201d Screenrant<\/a><\/em>, again: \u201cThat Padme would have lost the will to live is somewhat bewildering given how much she had overcome” (in 2024! War never changes). Summarizes Lizy Cole:<\/a> \u201cThe critics never liked Padme\u2019s death because she\u2019s supposed to be a strong female character and yet she was weak enough to fall for Anakin in the first place and weaker still to just pine away and die because he joined the Dark Side.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I won\u2019t make the argument that Padm\u00e9\u2019s death is an infallibly feminist piece of writing. Nothing about Padm\u00e9 is. But these are flimsy, exceptionally loose lines of thought that require little justification other than \u201cfemale character succeeding = good, female character failing = bad.\u201d Not only do they ignore that the prequels are a tragedy and Padm\u00e9 is a tragic character, but they ignore the rest of Star Wars. Padm\u00e9 attempts the same deprogramming that Luke does in the climax of Return of the Jedi<\/em>. Is she weak for being interrupted by Obi-Wan, a factor entirely outside of her control? How is Anakin not the weakest person in this equation for falling to the dark side in the first place? But\u2013and there it is\u2013Anakin\u2019s psyche is a focal point of Star Wars and can be properly wrung for sympathy. Anakin\u2019s traumatic upbringing and somehow rougher young adulthood, riddled with exploitation and a religious, self-eviscerating belief in one\u2019s importance, climaxes in violence. Padm\u00e9\u2019s own climaxes with grief. Yet Anakin has a weapon, and yells, so it is Padm\u00e9 that goes out foolish.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Padm\u00e9, like Anakin\u2013like Luke, like Leia\u2013is terribly human. She makes choices guided by idealism and hope, choices affirmed in Star Wars\u2019 larger narrative, if not her fate. If Padm\u00e9 debuts in Star Wars showing these ideals through more traditionally \u201cstrong\u201d means\u2013charging into battle, staying stoic in the face of death\u2013then progresses into quieter means, committing to diplomacy and a faith in her troubled husband, this only signifies that Padm\u00e9 has tried the ways of being strong that would make her a simpler character, and chosen to move beyond. By trying to pin Padm\u00e9 down as falling too hard on either side of a capable\/incapable divide, critics end up flattening her completely, only bothering to mention that she dies thinking of Anakin, never to ask why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Padm\u00e9 can\u2019t join Anakin, that would go against everything she stands for. She can\u2019t fight him, she made that choice back in Attack of the Clones<\/em> when she agreed to marry him. She can\u2019t talk him out of it, she tried and failed. She does the only thing left to her, or so she believes in that moment. She dies. If protecting her was what drove Anakin to this horror then she will take herself out of the equation.<\/p>Anika Dane<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here I return to the criticism of Padm\u00e9\u2019s death existing only to darken Anakin: so does Dooku\u2019s. So does Qui-Gon\u2019s. So do the younglings\u2019. So does the entirety of Order 66. Everything in these movies comes back to Anakin, because they are the Anakin movies. Every choice Obi-Wan, Bail, and Yoda make in the final act of Revenge of the Sith is about Anakin. Padm\u00e9 is, in fact, the sole character who\u2019s narrative alignment to Anakin is reciprocated\u2014virtually every choice he makes in Revenge <\/em>is about her. Both Yoda and Obi-Wan\u2019s final decisions come with little build-up. The difference is they get to orally explain what they\u2019re doing, whereas Padm\u00e9 is so overcome with despair, she can only sob. Obi-Wan relegates the rest of his life to raising Anakin\u2019s son. Yoda abandons his fight with Darth Sidious to isolate himself in a stupid and homophobic swamp. Are these passive, anti-man choices? Are they a betrayal of all the young men looking up to Obi-Wan and Yoda? Or are they the kind of melodramatic options left at the end of a tragedy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not necessarily the right choice or a good choice. It\u2019s not the choice I want her to make. But it is her choice. She owns it and we shouldn\u2019t condemn her for being wrong or being weak unless we are also going to condemn everyone else in the movie. And I believe that to do that would be missing the point. It is an entire film, an entire trilogy, of wrong and weak choices. <\/em>Maybe that\u2019s why so many people hate the prequels. They succeed in telling their story and their story is sad. It has to be, that\u2019s the only way the original trilogy works.<\/em><\/p>Anika Dane, cont.<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Frankel argues that Padm\u00e9 in The Phantom Menace \u201cworks as a metaphor for contradictions of third-wave [feminism]\u201d: \u201cas queen of a planet, she literally has it all, and yet has little power to save her people.\u201d Queen Amidala, she writes, is a \u201cgirl power\u201d flavor of child prodigy common in the “nineties and 2000s”, citing \u201cXena, Warrior Princess, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the Powerpuff Girls\u201d as peers. Padm\u00e9 shows strength and intelligence but has youth as a handicap to her abilities, as \u201cto make [her] less threatening to the traditional gender dichotomy.\u201d From these origins to a Shakespearean ending, Padm\u00e9 emerges as a woman out of time. Dane writes, \u201cin Episode Two<\/em> Padm\u00e9 moves away from the Leia archetype and in Episode Three<\/em> she becomes someone unrecognizable from her daughter and her younger self. Throughout the series of three movies, Padm\u00e9 fades away before our eyes.\u201d Perhaps the best word for this illusive duality is \u201cimmaterial\u201d, which itself comes with two warring definitions: \u201cunimportant under the circumstances; irrelevant\u201d and \u201cspiritual, rather than physical.\u201d These qualities make Padm\u00e9 more complex and therefore more rewarding to study. The prequel trilogy would be worse without them. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Coda<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

George Lucas is an abstract filmmaker. He got into filmmaking and editing via a series of abstract shorts in college. Dale Pollack\u2019s Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas<\/em>, published in 1984 and updated in 1999, recalls him particularly adoring a short called \u201c2187\u201d, which consisted \u201cof news footage with image and sound juxtaposed out of context. Halfway through the film, a man wakes up and says, \u2018You\u2019re 2187, aren\u2019t you?\u2019 and smiles, the only dialogue in the film.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said, \u2018That\u2019s the kind of movie I want to make\u2014a very off-the-wall, abstract kind of film.\u2019 <\/p>George Lucas to Dale Pollack<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Former Industrial Light & Magic employee Dave Johnson is quoted in the book recalling: \u201cHis forte was designing and constructing film stories, but his attitude was \u2018Let someone else work with the people.\u2019 Look at his student films\u2014they\u2019re all about things and facts. People are just objects.\u201d In 2022 Disney+ docuseries Light & Magic<\/em>, Lucas says \u201cMovies are kinetic. It’s about movement. Forget the actors. Forget the story. It’s all about movement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His directing is at its best when he lets this imagery, this momentum, overtake all cinematic needs. The two parallel scenes of Darth Vader\u2019s birth and Padm\u00e9\u2019s death, originally intended as separate then collided in the editing process, stand among his best work for this reason. Such sharp visual contrast\u2014black and white, birth and death, blood and machine\u2014lends itself naturally to the allegorical opera so many people pretend the prequels aren\u2019t. All the great extremes Anakin spends the three films battling between (light vs. dark, good vs. evil, man vs. child, mother vs. father, self-creation vs. self-annihilation, joy vs. sorrow) are present in the sequence. Of course it\u2019s suicide. Of course it\u2019s rage that revives Vader and despair that kills Padm\u00e9. For now in the film there exists nothing but emotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here all critiques of logic and contingency with the original trilogy fall apart. Firstly because this is far from the most illogical or canonically incoherent moment in the prequels, and secondly because Anakin living through pure rage and Padm\u00e9 dying from pure sorrow does <\/em>have a sound, operatic logic to it. The two affirm, rather than contradict the other. To nitpick this logic is to reject the language of these films as a whole. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To those who do care for the people, the parallel provides a fittingly high voltage resolution to Padm\u00e9 and Anakin\u2019s shared grooming by Palpatine. For all that Padm\u00e9\u2019s child-queen status is glossed over in fandom, a good chunk of The Phantom Menace<\/em> rests upon Palpatine\u2019s ability to manipulate a fourteen-year-old girl with no other apparent mentor figure, to guide her tongue and berate her as \u201cyoung and naive.\u201d Padm\u00e9 is present as Palpatine looks down at a nine-year-old Anakin and selects his next target: \u201cwe will watch your career with great interest.\u201d Whereas Palpatine works to bring out Anakin\u2019s messier, darker emotions, planting within him lifelong seeds of jealousy and suspicion, he stifles Padm\u00e9 completely. She serves not as his right-hand, but a vessel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through all the tragedy, this moment reverses his manipulations. Anakin is transformed into a cold, industrial creature, sleek in ways only machines are. Padm\u00e9 cries in front of more than one person and screams, both for the first time. Palpatine\u2019s dark, bloody surgery center; Padm\u00e9\u2019s bright, white tomb.
The effects of child abuse are realized in two stunning extremes. Frankel writes, \u201cShe\u2019s wearing the simplest white gown she\u2019s ever worn in the series\u2014the personality that shone through all her costume choices has faded away,\u201d but one could equally read Padm\u00e9\u2019s simple gown as freeing contrast to the hopeless complication of Vader\u2019s machinery. Padm\u00e9 leaves the world no longer in the most elaborate costumes of her powerless years; Vader enters the worst stretch of his life encased in metal. We bear witness to both the beginning of Vader\u2019s lifelong servitude to Palpatine, and what we know it will lead to: a great, defiant scream, however near the end. The parallel also gives us as neat a microcosm of why the Jedi failed as any: Palpatine weaves a tale, Obi-Wan says nothing at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tricia Barr closes \u201cThe Power to Save Padme\u201d with the following: \u201cit\u2019s worth considering why Padm\u00e9\u2019s death scene has affected so many people\u2019s perceptions of her character so substantially\u2026Why does one weak moment, disappointing as it is, undermine everything else about Padm\u00e9\u2019s strengths to such a degree? Is there a double standard at play \u2013 would a male character with an equivalent weak moment be judged so harshly? Perhaps he would, but I wonder.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A welcome moment of nuance from an article I otherwise disagreed with wholeheartedly\u2014but also, not a hypothetical. We haven\u2019t had to wonder how Star Wars fans would respond to a male character\u2019s suicide since 1980, when Luke Skywalker let go. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next Time: The Skywalker Suicides, Part II: The Case for Luke<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Case for Padm\u00e9<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacelolita.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacelolita.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacelolita.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacelolita.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacelolita.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/spacelolita.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":575,"href":"https:\/\/spacelolita.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions\/575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacelolita.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacelolita.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacelolita.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}