#I did like fialleril's suggestion in Double Agent Vader that Palpatine stole Padmé's life force

[this-acuteneurosis]

What's your opinion on Padme's death? On the one hand, I am intrigued at the idea of love unbalancing Padme and Anakin - the parallel of Anakin burning himself alive in his rage and Padme drowning herself in her misery is very poetic ngl. On the other hand, I just sincerely doubt that a broken heart could kill Former Queen Padme "There’s always a choice! To live in fear – is no life at all" Amidala

My opinion on Padmé's death (and really her whole character) is I have written 450K words of what may end up being upwards of 800K of fic about Padmé being allowed to Do Her Fucking Job with her daughter and her staff of strong and capable female friends/associates, and with Padmé growing and changing as a person and facing her own failings and hypocrisies.

My opinion on Padmé's death is Padmé was a prop in the story of the fall of the Republic and Anakin Skywalker. She was silenced meta-textually and ignored textually. She entered the story as a self-actualized leader learning hard truths and making tough decisions and pushing back against people (esp men) that tried to tell her what to do, and was dragged into a vapid position of malicious compliance and inaction. The story tried to take Anakin's whole, "Are you an angel?" bit and cast her in that archetype. But like, not a cool, righteous, furious angel. No no. She's delicate and pretty and increasingly ineffectual in each movie she stars in.

My opinion on Padmé's death is that the prequels, at the time they were done, were supposed to take us to exactly where the OT picks up in many ways. RotS was supposed to end at a point where we weren't left wondering how Luke and Leia were where they were in ANH. The kids are separated, their parents are gone, there are "no" Jedi left, Obi-Wan and Yoda are already in exile, determined to do nothing.

Apparently Padmé has to die because we can't have a Padmé who's going to fight tooth and nail to retain a semblance of integrity in the Imperial Senate. We can't have a Padmé who tries to rally the remaining political leaders of the Separatists now that Dooku is dead and there's a side not run by a Sith Lord. We can't have a Padmé who is actually a founding member of the rebellion. Who helps track down the remaining Jedi and offers sanctuary on her home planet. Who actually stops walking Anakin's path with him and still makes him confront what he's lost with his decisions. We can't have a Padmé who still chooses to leave her children in someone else's care because she wants them to be safe and actually even if she cares about family a lot, that doesn't immediately make her good mother material.

My opinion on Padmé's death is that Padmé dying is a tidy story device to take us from point A to point B without loose ends, and yes it did make me cry the first time I watched RotS. But no, I do not buy the stupid "she died of a broken heart" bullshit. Have you met Padmé? She doesn't take betrayal lying down. She takes you to court, and if that doesn't work, she comes at you with a blaster. "Died of a broken heart." Bah!