Dies of Big Sad

About

Dies of Big Sad is a phrase commonly attributed to the death of the fictional character Padmé Amidala in the 2005 film Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Online, it is a common theme for jokes on the character's seemingly pathetic demise and thus the poor quality of the Prequel Trilogy's narrative.

Origin

In the film, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Evan McGregor) has just defeated his former apprentice Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) on Mustafar, and takes Anakin's wife Padmé (Natalie Portman) to a medical facility on Polis Massa. A droid informs him that she's dying for no clear reason other than sadness over her husband's evil.

GH-7 droid: "Medically, she's completely healthy. For reasons we can't explain, we are losing her."
Obi-Wan: "She's dying?"
GH-7 droid: "We don't know why. She has lost the will to live."

Spread

The earliest known example of the situation being made into a meme came on March 19th, 2018, when a plate toss edit was posted to r/PrequelMemes^[1] (shown below, left). It gained 15,400 points in six months. A second example that referenced the film Inside Out was posted on February 24th, 2019,^[2] gaining 6,600 points in six months (shown below, right).

The popularity of the argument led to some memes making a counter-argument defending the death. An example posted to /r/PrequelMemes^[3] on November 10th, 2020, which gained 12,800 points in six months, defends Padmé as a legitimately strong female character and argues that her death receives unfair attention (shown below, left). Another posted on March 25th, 2018 explores a theory that the reason she died was not only due to sadness but also because Sheev Palpatine uses the Force to steal her life power in order to save Anakin's life. The post gained 38,900 points in six months.^[4]

Various Examples

Search interest

External References