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According to Star Wars: Episode III

MEDICAL DROID: Medically, she is completely healthy. For reasons we can't explain, we are losing her.

OBI-WAN: She's dying?

MEDICAL DROID: We don't know why. She has lost the will to live. We need to operate quickly if we are to save the babies.

Revenge of the Sith : Script

Medically healthy humans don't die for no good reason.

So what did Padmé die of, and how did they even know she was dying?

DavidW
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Valorum
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    the incredibly deadly disease "Because the Smegging Plot Says So" – IG_42 Dec 30 '14 at 23:33
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    it's a pretty common trope: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeathByDespair – Nacht Dec 31 '14 at 05:02
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    Spoiler in title? – rlms Dec 31 '14 at 14:41
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    @sweeneyrod - Everybody dies, eventually. – Valorum Jan 01 '15 at 10:31
  • Did anyone aside from me note that at the above citated statement obiwan had a knowing look on his face? As if he knew WHAT the reason is (not indicating that he caused it just that he seemed to have a good inclination what is causing her death)? – Thomas Jan 02 '15 at 08:14
  • @Thomas - My answer makes reference to this. Obi-wan (in the novelisation clearly has an inkling of what's happening. Unfortunately, the narrator doesn't elaborate. – Valorum Jan 02 '15 at 17:26
  • @richard yepp looked again and saw it. I take a huge guess the writer didnt get that info from lucas^^ but had the same incling as us there – Thomas Jan 02 '15 at 19:30
  • @Thomas - My understanding is that all the novelisations were done with access to both the full screenplay and Lucas' extensive script notes. – Valorum Jan 02 '15 at 19:39
  • @Richard I only wanted to indicate that lucas probably didn't mention it ANYwhere from what exactly she died (neither the notes nor the screenplay and thus the writer choose to not say exactly why) – Thomas Jan 02 '15 at 19:40
  • @Thomas - We know from the Radio Plays that Lucas has written huge piles of notes about each of the films that he's never shared with the general public. – Valorum Jan 02 '15 at 19:45
  • @sweeneyrod: She's dead in Episodes 4-6, which came out more than 30 years ago now, so I think the statute of limitations has passed. – Royal Canadian Bandit Jan 03 '15 at 11:58
  • But she didn't die, because when asked by Luke whether she remembers her real mother in Return of the Jedi, Leia recalls her as "beautiful, caring, but... sad" (re-translated from German, might not be the exact wording). Lucas really should have left the original trilogy alone... – DevSolar Jan 05 '15 at 09:11
  • @DevSolar - this was explained away by saying that Leia was remembering her adopted mother (Bail Organa's wife). – Omegacron Jan 06 '15 at 18:27
  • @Omegacron - I seem to recall reading something about "force memory" as a skill that would allow Leia to remember from birth. Frankly, it makes more sense to say that she's just delusional than to make up a back-story. – Valorum Jan 06 '15 at 19:10
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    I've just come across another theory, that Palpatine (remotely) drained the life from her to keep Anakin alive. I'm not familiar with the novelisations though, and I haven't seen the film in a while, so I can't vouch for how legit this is. – Martin Ender Feb 21 '15 at 13:09
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    @Richard: true. But the tags also reveal what the question is related to. And lets assume it will happen in the 3rd episode. I have to addmit (while I don't care too much) i was spoiled by this. – Zaibis Sep 17 '15 at 12:00
  • In the movie, the facility where she is being treated looks pretty dumpy. It's a small little habitat bubble on an obscure moon. Perhaps the droids treating her were substandard. –  Jan 13 '16 at 19:57
  • @fredsbend - They were! – Valorum Jan 13 '16 at 20:08
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    It's funny. You can't just die by losing the will to live. You need to at least attempt suicide first. – Bernard the Bear Apr 25 '18 at 08:29
  • I think it was just poorly handled plot death – komodosp Jun 20 '22 at 21:02
  • sadness, she dies of sadness – shanu Dec 21 '22 at 09:14
  • @shanu - I've found an additional example of this happening. Cliegg Lars also died of 'having a broken heart' – Valorum Dec 21 '22 at 10:34
  • @Valorum, both of them died because of Anakin, Padme directly and cliegg indirectly – shanu Dec 21 '22 at 12:40
  • @shanu - Pablo Hidalgo confirmed that there was no Force-related reason for her death – Valorum Dec 21 '22 at 14:11

10 Answers10

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Medically healthy humans don't die for no good reason

But she wasn't "medically healthy".

She was suffering from - at the very least:

  1. Twin birth. That's a pretty stressful thing to happen to a human body, especially if it was premature, possibly caused by, or at least correlated with...

  2. Injuries from Anakin force-choking her in a fit of jealous rage. She was unconscious at the end of it (when you lose consciousness, it can indicate Bad Things are happening in your brain):

    Padmé lies unconscious on the ground behind a glowering Anakin

  3. Also, psychosomatic effects from pure psychological shock does have a capacity to cause major physiological issues.

  4. To top that off, we don't know what the exact state of medical science/technology in TGFFA is. For all we know, they don't know how to help someone who's in cardiac arrest - meaning a heart attack could be written off as "broken heart, can't help here". Or, more likely, an aneurism (I didn't notice them scanning her brain at all).

    Remember, you (well your question) just trusted the opinion of a medical droid that declared a woman who just gave birth to twins a clean medical bill of health.

    Having said that, canon simply doesn't give an unambiguous answer that would be scientifically plausible, anymore than it cares about lasers and ion engines making sounds in a vacuum, or the ability of midi-chlorians to somehow cause a virgin birth in absence of DNA from a male reproductive cell in a species emphatically NOT designed to work that way. So,

  5. Complications from severe plot failure. She died of Lucas writing the scenario.

DavidW
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DVK-on-Ahch-To
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    The droid explictly states that she's medically healthy. The novelisation seems to concur; "“All organic damage has been repaired.” The droid checked another readout. “This systemic failure cannot be explained.” Not physically, Obi-Wan thought." – Valorum Dec 29 '14 at 16:36
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    @Richard - see #4. G canon isn't terribly clear on just how much internal damage those droids can detect and repair. – DVK-on-Ahch-To Dec 29 '14 at 16:38
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    As regards point 4, Palpatine's medical droids use a heart monitor on Anakin. – Valorum Dec 29 '14 at 16:38
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    @Richard - yeah, Palpatine generally tends to be 3 steps ahead technologically. Comes with the position. Also, if you keep pushing me, I'll change the answer to "Midichlorian Gom Jabbar" :) – DVK-on-Ahch-To Dec 29 '14 at 16:40
  • Note: there may be more info here but I'm not sure if it has any hard info short of Vader parroting what Palpatine told him. – DVK-on-Ahch-To Dec 29 '14 at 17:14
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    5. Complications from severe plot failure. She died of Lucas writing the scenario. Damn you Lucas... damn you. Must every tragedy in the SW universe be rooted in your incapabilities as a creative writer. – RLH Dec 29 '14 at 18:14
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    Midichlorian Gom Jar Jar what? Just what we need... Brian Herbert and Gorge Lucas to combine their world building skills to be a movie for J.J. Abrams.... –  Dec 29 '14 at 22:19
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    @MichaelT: Screenplay by Damon Lindelof and Michael Bay. – James Sheridan Dec 30 '14 at 05:37
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    About 4: there are many indications that medical technology in star wars is well ahead of ours: they have specific technology, such as bacta (roughly equivalent to automatic healing) or perfect protheses (implying they understand the nervous system pretty well), and also some generic technologies that would tremendously help our doctors (AI, 3-dimensional imaging). It would be very funny if they had developed all that without noticing that electric shocks can restart a heart. But maybe that's what 19th century people would say about our inability to use trepanation... – T. Verron Dec 30 '14 at 08:08
  • I think 3 is the most promising in combination with the pure stress her body had because of the twins. So could be it was just psychological breakdown that resulted in her death. Additionally I'm not sure though if it was ever stated it always seemed she and anakin were connected through the force and when he had chocked her he had turned away from her and that connection and that could have added to that (not sure if I'm correct about them being connected or not). – Thomas Dec 30 '14 at 09:31
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    I've seen it suggested that Anakin used his bond to her through the Force to survive his own injuries, inadvertently killing her in the process. Of course, that's entirely made up. But it makes as much sense as anything Lucas actually wrote... – Stephen Collings Dec 30 '14 at 13:34
  • Sperm cells can be derived from a woman's bone marrow, so there's that. – Zack Dec 30 '14 at 17:52
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    She died of complications from severe plot failure, and left more behind her when she died. If she had lived a few more years, they wouldn't have had to retcon Leia remembering her "real" mother. – KSmarts Dec 30 '14 at 20:33
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    @Zack And how would a self-fertilizing female under those circumstances produce male offspring? The point is Lucas doesn't care much for any of our fancy "science" or "logic" or "common sense". – KSmarts Dec 30 '14 at 23:02
  • I'd be happier with this answer if there was any word from George Lucas in it. – Valorum Dec 31 '14 at 13:51
  • @Richard - When was the last time Lucas deigned to explain his gaffes? Mind you, I'm not happy at all, but no information means no information. I'd tweet Leland Chee, but in my past experience it's futile to the infinity :( – DVK-on-Ahch-To Dec 31 '14 at 14:31
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    @Richard - the problem is, of course, that "medically she is healthy" and "she is dying" are contradictory. ONE of those two statements is necessarily wrong by the semantics of the ---English--- Common language – DVK-on-Ahch-To Dec 31 '14 at 14:33
  • @dvk - I don't disagree, I'd just like some kind of Word of God regarding her death. He's certainly made other statements about Jar Jar, for example/ – Valorum Dec 31 '14 at 14:35
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    @Richard - meesa not hearsa yousa – DVK-on-Ahch-To Dec 31 '14 at 14:36
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    @T.Verron - Electric shocks don't 'restart' a heart per-se, they stop it. Shocking a heart helps when the heart is beating irregularly - it stops the movement temporarily so when the impulses kick back in it should beat normally again. It does nothing for 'flatlining' patients, despite Hollywood's insistence of the contrary. – Robotnik Jan 01 '15 at 10:48
  • As she was phsically ok there are only 2 possibilities left anyway in that universe: a.) Psychological problems (aka dying of a broken heart) or b.) The force (either an action anakin accidently did through the force or the will of the force itself [if it can create live aka anakin it can diminish it also aka padme]) – Thomas Jan 02 '15 at 08:12
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    Just wanted to put this bbc article about parthenogenesis (virgin birth) here. I have some faith that the nececessary genetical intervention would not be that difficult for advanced nanobots (eh, I mean midichlorians). – yoniLavi Jan 02 '15 at 14:17
  • This is good, because think if you were a robot programmed to calculate the best and most efficient way to save lives - pregnant woman comes in with minimal bodily harm about to have twins, do you A) preform extended scans of brain and arteries to possibly save one life when two others are in danger, or B) Save two lives with a high level of success rate knowing that the quick scans said the woman was more or less "ok" – Mateo Jan 04 '15 at 18:38
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    @DVK I don't know how to break this to you, but giving birth to twins is not usually a fatal condition. – Jon Kiparsky Jan 18 '15 at 07:15
  • Plus mention that they live in another universe (far far away, btw) than we do. So they may have droids and awesome lightsabers, but maybe they didn't invent seperal medical practises, like we did. – Trollwut Feb 21 '15 at 13:41
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Life force is a proven thing in Star Wars, remember what was said in ANH about all living things, apparently distinct from physical bodies - see the ghosts like Ben Kenobi. Maybe the droid was saying her body was fine but her soul was drifting away. Since they can detect the Force potential with instruments (midichlorian counts), maybe they can detect the presence of a life force soul with instruments too.

Why would it do that? She was just the victim of evil magic.... the droid doesn't really get it and explains it as "lost the will to live", but it could be some after effect of Palpatine or Anakin's Force stuff, or a direct murder. Palpatine isn't above rigging up a self-fulling prophesy, after all.

Adam D. Ruppe
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According to the (Disney Canon) "Star Wars in 100 Scenes" book, she died from losing the will to live. Apparently that's a thing you can die of in the Star Wars universe, noting that Cliegg Lars also succumbed to the same fate after his wife's death. The book also mentions that the medics are largely incompetent so that may have been a contributing factor towards her baffling diagnosis.

LEAVING MUSTAFAR, Obi-Wan takes Padme to the planet Polis Massa, where Yoda and Bail Organa are waiting. Medical droids try to save her life, but their efforts are in vain - she has lost the will to live. The droids deliver not one baby but twins, and the dying Padme names them Luke and Leia. Yoda, Obi-Wan and Bail Organa know Anakin Skywalker's children will be strong with the Force. They must find a way to prevent them from being found by the evil agents of the new Sith Emperor.

The Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (junior novelization) gives us some additional information from Obi-Wan's perspective

“Medically, she is completely healthy,” the droid said. “For reasons we can’t explain, we are losing her.”

“She’s dying?” Obi-Wan said, horrified. No, no! He couldn’t take another loss like this.

But the medical droid bobbed its head. “We don’t know why. She has lost the will to live.”

I know why, Obi-Wan thought. Anakin has broken her heart.

Obviously this identifies why she lost the will to live, but not necessarily how this resulted in her death.

And in the Revenge of the Sith novelisation, Obi-Wan comes to the conclusion that her death isn't the result of physical damage, suggesting that there's something metaphysical happening to her:

“All organic damage has been repaired.” The droid checked another readout. “This systemic failure cannot be explained.”

Not physically, Obi-Wan thought.

Unfortunately, he doesn't complete this thought...

The scene in Star Wars : Revenge of the Sith - Illustrated Screenplay has an additional line. Evidently, her "energy" was depleted:

OBI-WAN: You have twins, Padme They need you...hang on.
PADME: I can't...

Padmé winces again and takes Obi-wan's hand. She is holding Anakin's japor snippet.

OBI-WAN: Save your energy.
PADMÉ: Obi-Wan...there...is good in him. I know there is...still...

A last gasp, and she dies. Obi-Wan studies the necklace.

The film's VFX Supervisor John Knoll ascribes her death to "a broken heart"

After Padmé dies of a broken heart, her body is taken back to her home planet for a state funeral

Creating the Worlds of Star Wars: 365 Days

Moving down the canon scale, the Star Wars novel "Coruscant Nights II : Street of Shadows" states that Padme's cause of death (at autopsy) recorded her cause of death as strangulation:

There were conflicting reports, of course, but all the autopsy reports were in agreement on two things: that she had been strangled, and that the child had died with her.

But exactly how the former had been accomplished, no one was quite sure. The evidence of strangulation had been there, and obvious: the fractured hyoid bone, damage to the larynx, and compression of the trachea were all clear indications of fatal throttling. But... There were no signs of bruises on her neck, no scratches or signs of congestion... no indication of exterior trauma at all. Her throat had been pristine. It was as if she had somehow been choked to death without physical contact. And there was only one power in the galaxy that Typho knew of that could accomplish such a thing.

The Force.

That being said, in-universe it's made clear that her autopsy has been tampered with and falsified. The results may be incorrect on a number of counts. Out-of-universe this conflicts heavily with the film canon. The medical droid clearly stated that her body was physically healthy whereas broken bones and a compressed trachea would be instantly obvious on even the most cursory of medical inspections, as well as preventing her from speaking.

We also have confirmation from the (now canon 2016 Edition) Star Wars: Character Encyclopedia, which relates that the official reason for her death was that she was attacked by one or more rogue Jedi.

Padme had supported Apailana's bid for election. Although the official explanation for Padme's death is that she died at the hands of renegade Jedi, Apailana privately believes otherwise.

Valorum
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    Considering that the report also stated that she died while pregnant, it was clearly made up, which is why I explicitly decided to exclude that source from my answer. – DVK-on-Ahch-To Dec 29 '14 at 21:26
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    @DVK - I was merely including it for completeness. Note the major caveats at the bottom of the answer. – Valorum Dec 29 '14 at 21:27
  • Of course the records would say that. Palpatine DID tell Vader that he had killed Padme. The least he could do was make it look so on paper. – Nigralbus Dec 30 '14 at 17:00
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    @nigralbus - It was Yoda and Ben who arranged for the fake autopsy. – Valorum Dec 30 '14 at 17:29
  • Genuine interest : Oooh, I must have forgotten about that. Where is it mentioned ? – Nigralbus Dec 31 '14 at 08:58
  • Well we assume. It's clear that they faked her pregnancy so they must have also had a hand in faking her autopsy – Valorum Dec 31 '14 at 15:49
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    I have always assumed that Anakin was an untrained but powerful user of the Dark Side of the Force, and he was very angry at Padme... and his anger killed her in some way more subtle than a Force Choke. It's something he would never have consciously chosen to do. If I'm right, it is yet another way that the Dark Side messes up your life ("forever will it dominate your destiny" as Yoda said). Sadly, I think I have given this more thought than George Lucas did. – steveha Jan 01 '15 at 07:14
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A broken heart. Remember in Episode 3, she tells Anakin that he's breaking her heart. That's what killed her, to know that the man she loved could so easily destroy what both she and he worked so hard to protect, and to just throw away their lives the way he did. There have been perfectly healthy people in the real world that have died from broken hearts.

It could also be attributed to the fact that she actually lost the will to live. Her life had just been obliterated, she no longer had anything to live for or any reason to live. She didn't want to continue living, so she just gave up.

Robert
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    Although stress-related cardiac conditions are real, there would be a ton of other symptoms. – Valorum Dec 29 '14 at 16:42
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    True. I'd have to reiterate what DVK said. Perhaps Organa's droid was unable to detect the other symptoms. I highly doubt, though, that a woman about to give birth wouldn't have high blood pressure, chest pain, or shortness of breath. So chances are, the droid was a horrible, horrible doctor who needs to have its medical license revoked..... Then again, we could always resort to 'blaming it on the midichlorians' – Robert Dec 29 '14 at 16:48
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    I quite like the idea that her medical droid is just really rubbish. – Valorum Dec 29 '14 at 16:49
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    I actually like this answer. I like to believe that the droid is not referring to the medical conditions explaining why she died, but merely the fact that there are those conditions but we can't explain why they are happening. +1 – MAF May 27 '15 at 20:40
14

The answer is clear:

She has lost her will to live.

Free Will of humans has always been considered independent of the physical body (sometimes it is attached with soul even by scientists like Descartes, Laplace, Newton), so your material physical health can't ensure your survival if you don't have will to live. In other words, you always have some amount of will to live and you can willingly die (Death at Will isn't easy thing and it is considered achievement in some religions. Check Nirvana).

Such things arose because scientists in old times, who believed in the deterministic nature of nature, couldn't explain our free will. Modern scientists like Stephen Hawking believe that human behavior is deterministic and can be solved by mathematical equations (Source: The Grand Design book). But, non-deterministic free will guided by true self (soul) is still in influential existence thanks to religions (and, Will to Live medical things and miracles). And, nobody can deny it scientifically. One can only give opinion.

So, out of universe, it has influenced Star Wars for sure. And, in-universe, such thing is scientifically valid (which shouldn't be surprising since we have Force Ghosts and Death at Will by Kenobi).

DavidW
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user931
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Who's to say that "humans" who lived in a galaxy far far away, long long ago, are the same as the humans watching the films? Do we have midichlorians? So maybe their physical health was more sensitive to psychological or emotional states than ours is.

I took medically healthy to just mean that her body didn't have any physical damage, defect, or infection that could explain her condition. A person's psychological state can alter their physical well-being, and that's what the implication was.

anotherguy
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A broken heart. Her connection with Anakin was on a much greater scale than just love. When Anakin was starting to sway towards the dark side, Padmé became ill because their love for each other was so strong.

When Anakin was being seduced by the dark side her sickness began.

Valorum
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jenni selman
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3

Medically healthy humans don't die for no good reason.

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (does have some symptoms)

Is It Possible?

Elderly who die soon after their spouse.

Elderly who pick their time of death.

And somewhere, but I don't have a citation, heard about a spy in WWII, under torture who willed himself to death.

But it's not common, nor easy (at least for depressive / suicidal people). Or very few people would make it through junior high.

DavidW
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anon3082
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    As I've said on multiple occasions, while I accept that you can die of heart conditions related to stress, they're always accompanied by a veritable boat-load of symptoms that only an incompetent could miss; elevated blood pressure, unconsciousness, etc. – Valorum Jan 03 '15 at 11:22
  • Also, the case you've quoted; Sam Londe is a textbook example of occam's razor. Is it more likely that he died of cancer (and had a botched autopsy, one of dozens that occur each year) or that he died of condition so rare that it's not been seen before or since? – Valorum Jan 03 '15 at 11:24
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    Well, if every contra-example is going to be ignored / dismissed with an attack on the investigators (incompetent) or a hypothetical (made-up?), unknown and unseen condition - then of course you're obviously correct! More power to you. Class dismissed: you obviously know what you need to know already - no need for school. Simply put, if you're not looking for it - you're going to be unable to find it. – anon3082 Jan 04 '15 at 23:18
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    "the more extraordinary a claim, the heavier is the burden of proof demanded". A single case that shows that a man can die of a purely psychosomatic condition is something that defies (present) medical understanding and hence would require more than a single example to provide proof that such a thing exists, especially when an the person in question already had a previously diagnosed terminal condition. Your comment above suggests that you view any skeptical assertion as a personal attack, please rest assured that this isn't the case – Valorum Jan 04 '15 at 23:24
  • Medically healthy humans don't lift large rocks or spaceships around with their minds either. You can't apply real world logic to a fantasy world. – JamesRyan Jun 20 '17 at 16:27
0

There's an article out there called, "Padme Didn't Die Of A Broken Heart." The gist: Palpatine used his ability to manipulate life force to steal Padme's, in order to keep Anakin alive. It's a neat and tidy theory, and very well explained.

Jason Willis
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She died of a broken heart she gave up her will to live a form of suicide.even in space love is really the only thing worth living for.It goes to show without love we are lost

Linda Valdez
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