Yes, There's Something I DON'T Like About Star Wars...

As Mother's Day quickly approaches I find myself reflecting on the ending of Revenge of the Sith. More specifically the death of Padme. Now call me naive but I got the impression from Return of the Jedi that Padme actually survived childbirth. I mean, Luke asks Leia point blank, "Tell me about your mother, your real mother." Leia goes on to say that she does not remember much because her mother died when she was really young.

Now to me "really young" is between 2 and 5 years of age. I mean, how much do you remember from your infancy? Come on, Leia was only a few minutes old when Padme died. So this now leads me to believe that Leia never knew she was adopted and the memory of her "mother" is of Bail Organa's wife. Which then leads to the question: why was she sad? Was she sad because the Republic no longer existed or was her health a reason for her sadness? Clearly, I must do some more reading on this matter.

Next, my thoughts on Padme. How could someone that was so headstrong, who risked her life on many occasions, just give up and die when her man turned evil? She sensed the good that was still in Anakin and she was strong enough to give birth. It seemed she did not fight for her children. The man she loved was no longer there so she stopped fighting. As a mother I cannot comprehend this. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband dearly, but the love that I have for my girls is on a totally different level. If I were Padme I would totally mess up the story. I would have fought to live for my children. I could not leave them alone to face the monster that their father had become. I could not risk him turning them to Dark Side. Now I must add that I don't know if my feelings would have been different had I not been a mother when I first read the story (yes, I read the book before I saw the movie). To this day I break down in tears every time I read of Padme's death or see that part in the movie. I don't cry for Padme, I cry for Luke and Leia. They never really knew their real mother and they never had the chance to. That is the real tragedy.

Jedi J