Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) Andor Season 2 (2025) Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Anakin Skywalker // Sheev Palpatine // Hego Damask
Darth Vader // Darth Sidious // Darth Plagueis
Text from Darth Plagueis by James Luceno
one of the hundred things I love about Andor is that in the end, all the villains were destroyed not in an epic showdown with the rebels or whoever but by the machine that they worked for. syril was a faceless casualty of the genocide he helped create. dedra was done in for putting ambition over conformity to the machine, and she took down partagaz, who essentially created her, along with her. even heert was quite literally killed by his own droid and his own men. all of them were crushed by the wheel they dedicated their lives to keep turning. it's just so deeply deeply satisfying.
"You give way to an enemy this evil, with this much power, and you condemn the galaxy to an eternity of submission. The time to fight is now!"
ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (2016) dir. Gareth Edwards
@pscentral event 37: color challenge (insp)
Padmé’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—indeed, always was. How could we talk Padmé off the ledge at this moment? How could anyone? Ultimately, the film doesn’t 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’s nothing else left.
So Padmé falls neatly into the canon of self-annihilating tragic heroines. Her death is not inspiring, or productive, or well-adjusted, but it is her death. The means, the reasons, the aftermath, all belong to her. Padmé, 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’ve lived. This is not a weakening death, especially when compared to oft-cited “strong” deaths like having Anakin kill her. One wonders: how is Padmé choosing to die less empowering than having that choice taken from her?
-“The Skywalker Suicides Part I: The Case For Padme”
revenge of the sith rerelease means people are talking about padme’s death again so i’m promoting my essay
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