Revenge of the Sith occupies a unique place in the Star Wars saga. It is the last of the prequel, or Republic, trilogy. It is the last Star Wars film released, signifying the completion of the saga and the end of an era for fans who have followed the series since 1977. Yet it is also the film that sets up the subsequent Imperial trilogy. The cycle ends and another one begins.
This makes for an interesting parallel with the themes of birth, death, and rebirth in Revenge of the Sith. The film features the birth of the Empire, the birth of Darth Vader, and the births of Luke and Leia. It also features the deaths of the Republic, the Jedi Order, Padmé, and Anakin, as he once was. The brilliantly-edited sequence near the end of Sith shows how life and death are intertwined. As Yoda tells Anakin earlier in the film, death is a part of life. Padmé's life ends as her children are born and as the Anakin she knew and loved is subsumed into Darth Vader. For every end, there is a beginning.
The beginning of new life is the successful transfer of genes from the parent to offspring. Procreation certainly plays a part in the Republic trilogy. First, there is Anakin's mystical origins revealed in The Phantom Menace where he was said to be conceived by the midichlorians, created by the Force itself. In Attack of the Clones, the courtship of Anakin and Padmé -- which produces Luke and Leia -- is juxtaposed with the cloning facility on Kamino and the droid factory on Geonosis. As Paul McDonald wrote in a 2002 essay about Attack of the Clones, "The film is basically about procreation, and it is a supreme irony that neither the great clone armies produced on Kamino nor the droid armies being manufactured on Geonosis provide the galaxy with salvation. At a time when the Republic is being torn apart, it is ultimately the union of the young lovers on Naboo in a small, quaint wedding ceremony that bring about a new hope (1)."
In Revenge of the Sith, Padmé is pregnant with Luke and Leia, a crucial part of the saga fans had been anticipating for years. And once again, Anakin's origins come into question. The opera scene in particular is interesting because as Anakin and Palpatine are discussing Darth Plageuis's ability to create life and save others from death, the ballet they are watching looks like a giant fertility symbol. The large bubble resembles an ova, and it is made of water, long a symbol of life. The Mon Calamari swimming around and through the bubble have long streamers that make them resemble sperm fertilizing an egg. Perhaps it could be seen as the "conception" of Anakin's collaboration with Sidious to bring down the Jedi and the Republic. After all it is the conception of the twins that set the stage for Anakin's nightmares about Padmé dying in childbirth. Or, it could be seen as a sign that life will go on after the horrors to come.
From the middle act of the film until nearly the end, Revenge of the Sith shifts its focus to death. First, there is the betrayal and death of Mace Windu, then the execution of Order 66. No one is spared, not even the youngest of the Jedi. Night falls, and with the exception of the sequence on Coruscant where Palpatine declares himself Emperor, Yoda and Obi-Wan go to the Temple, and Obi-Wan speaks with Padmé on her veranda, the skies are dark most of the remainder of the film. Once the Jedi are dead, Palpatine effectively destroys the Republic by declaring himself Emperor. Padmé mourns the death of liberty.
Despite doing literally everything in his power, Anakin is unable to prevent Padmé's death. His actions even contribute to her demise. He is also unable to save his body from mutilation and immolation on Mustafar. He clings to life afterwards, but he will never again be the same. His body can no longer sustain life on its own. He is taken back to Coruscant and is transformed, reborn into the familiar villain from the Imperial trilogy. "Anakin Skywalker is very much like a post-modern Osiris, being continually dismembered and resurrected" McDonald writes in his essay "When All The Galaxy Was Young" (2). Anakin's destroyed body is reassembled with the help of mechanical limbs and machines that perform virtually all of his functions for him.
It is worth noting that the medical chamber where Vader is transformed is dark and womb-like with umbilical-like mechanical arms reaching down to him. Grotesque measures are taken to preserve Vader's life while the baffled droids on Polis Massa do nothing extraordinary to keep Padmé from slipping away. It is ironic that Vader originally sought to save Padmé from death, yet it is he who cheats death for the next couple of decades. It isn't through the power of the Force, but by surrendering to technology and becoming "more machine than man."
Of course, this was not what Anakin had in mind when Palpatine tempted him with the Dark Side's alleged ability to preserve life. He had hoped to stop the "pain, suffering, death" that he feared would happen to a loved one. Literature is filled with tales of those who sought to cheat death. But those who seek to avoid death through extraordinary means never succeed and/or pay a terrible price. In the paper, “Aging and Death in Folklore,” D.L. Ashliman explains, “One of mankind's most persistent dreams is to postpone death. Folktales describe many such attempts, cloaked in a variety of symbolic garbs. They rarely succeed, even in the fantasy world… (3)” In Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine claims Darth Plagueis could save others from death but could not save his own life from his own apprentice. Physical immortality eludes Plagueis despite his vast knowledge of the Force.
Revenge of the Sith touches on another form of rebirth, and that is the soul living on after physical death. The Imperial trilogy already revealed this was possible, since the spirits of the departed appeared to and conversed with Luke. Revenge of the Sith explains it is a secret Qui-Gon discovered and could teach it to the still-living. Beforehand, the Jedi believed the individual soul was absorbed into the Force itself after death, which is why in the Attack of the Clones novelization, Yoda was shocked he could hear Qui-Gon's anguished "no" during the Tusken massacre.
The Revenge of the Sith novelization mentions that the path to spiritual immortality isn't the Sith's greed and manipulation of nature, but compassion. Most religions that believe in some form of existence after death teach that a positive outcome is the result of living a good life. Wikipedia states that “One notion of afterlife which is common to Judaism...most sects of Christianity, and Islam is that human souls go on for eternity to a place of happiness...such as heaven...Many religions hold that after death people get reward or punishment based on their deeds or faith (4).” Qui-Gon, as the pure mystic of the Order, apparently learned the greatest good is compassion. It's through him that the surviving Jedi learn the great secret that eluded Darth Plagueis. It likely involves surrendering to death when the time comes. Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Yoda, and eventually Anakin yield to death, choosing not to resist it. Qui-Gon tells Obi-Wan it is too late for him; Obi-Wan stands down and allows Vader to kill him; Yoda tells Luke twilight has fallen for him and he is not strong enough in the Force to prevent death from happening; and when Anakin is dying, he gently resists Luke's entreaties to hang on to life. He more than anyone knows the price one pays to try and avoid death.
We do not know what becomes of Padmé's spirit after she dies, but we do know she is in a sense reborn through the children who enter the world as she leaves it. Each of them carries some part of her. Leia continues to fight for Padmé's political ideals, serving in the Senate and as a leader within the Rebel Alliance. Luke is Padmé's avatar in bringing Anakin back to the light. He hears her last words and unconsciously they become the focus of his quest many years later.
The end sequence of Revenge of the Sith reflects this view: "Each moment of life is a birth and a death. Joy arises in us and fades away. Perceptions come and go. A skin cell dies and another is reborn...(e)very moment we are born and every moment we die, and through it all we continue (5)." Padmé's funeral is in the dark, while Vader and Palpatine stand in a darkened Star Destroyer bridge watching the "birth" of the Death Star. Yet, the people of Naboo's candles reflect an undying memory of their former queen and her ideals. Dawn is seen faintly in the sky, signifying a new era is faintly appearing on the horizon. Sunrise breaks over the mountains on Alderaan as Bail delivers baby Leia to his wife, while the binary suns of Tatooine are on the horizon as Luke is brought to the Lars homestead. Amid tragedy, there is hope.
Footnotes:
1 McDonald, Paul. "When All The Galaxy Was Young." Suite 101.com. 30 May 2002. <http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/star_wars/92258>
2 McDonald, Paul. "When All The Galaxy Was Young." Suite 101.com. 30 May 2002. <http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/star_wars/92258>
3 Ashliman, D.L. “Aging and Death in Folklore.” Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts. 3 December 2002. <http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/aging.html#contents>
4 “Afterlife.” Wikipedia.com. 29 November 2005. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afterlife>
5 Bortolin, Matthew. The Dharma of Star Wars. Wisdom Publications. Boston. 2005. p. 117.
