“This is how liberty dies,” Senator Amidala says. We can imagine that Senator Amidala’s statement would receive thunderous applause in the Senate chamber. But the saga shows the flaws in the Republic’s foundational constitutional structure: an unorganized hierarchy, an obsession with thin formal legality, and an inability to articulate a purpose or animating vision.
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Padme Amidala
The first line of the movie Star Wars: This is how liberty dies comes from Senator Padme Amidala. She is a member of the Senate who witnessed the ascent of the Sith lord, Palpatine, to the role of chancellor. She is ashamed of her fellow senators for clapping in approval of the Sith lord. It is not only her husband who signs over her rights to a Sith lord, but her own son who has become a Jedi.
The film also demonstrates the fundamental constitutional weakness of the Republic’s system, which is made even worse by its thin formal legality and muddled hierarchy. As the saga climaxes with Palpatine’s declaration of the reorganization of the Republic into the FIRST GALACTIC EMPIRE, Senator Amidala announces, “This is how liberty dies.” And to top it all off, the audience applauds in applause.
Bail Organa
Bail Organa, the rebel leader from the original Star Wars movie, is a key character in the latest installment of the saga. She was a leader of the rebellion when the Empire first destroyed the planet Alderaan with the Death Star. Her final victory over the Empire ultimately comes at the cost of her life. After the film ends, we’re left with the question: how does Bail Organa die?
As the Republic crumbles, Bail becomes an even more important figure. He does not retreat to Dagobah to take up arms, as many of his comrades did. Instead, he manages to keep his Senate position and secretly build the Rebel Alliance. Ultimately, Bail is the ultimate politician and spies. But even in death, his legacy lives on. While the Empire may have killed his father, he has accomplished more for galactic liberty than anyone else.
Senators
Senators die in Star Wars this is how we lose liberty! In Star Wars: Episode VII, Padme is sent to the Separatist capital of Raxus Prime to find Senator Bonteri, a Separatist of idealism. Ahsoka had hoped that she would be able to learn something about politics on this trip, but Master Anakin’s views on war are far too simplistic.
While the prequels often get a bad rap for the amount of political dialogue they contain, this deleted scene offers us a little insight into how the Empire got to where it is. Opposing Senators do not appear until Star Wars Rebels, but it does show just how long the Empire planned to destroy the Republic before it was overthrown. It’s also a good time to consider what the Empire does to its citizens once it has achieved its goal.
The Emperor
When the Empire first came to power, the galactic republic had just begun to crumble. After Palps’s failed conversion attempt to a Jedi, the Emperor created a massive army to fight the rebels and prevent them from separating from the Republic. Sidious later became obsessed with the Unknown Regions and commissioned an investigation to determine how many more Emperors there are in the galaxy.
This movie shows the constitutional weakness of the Republic, exposing its thin legality and muddled hierarchy. Palpatine declared the Republic would be reorganized into the FIRST GALACTIC EMPIRE, and Senator Amidala proclaimed that the republic would die. The film ends with a scene in which Palpatine is applauded as the Emperor declares that his people are in danger of falling into tyranny and weak government.
The Force Awakens
In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Leia realizes that the First Order is a threat to her freedom. She decides to fight them, despite the fact that her country was unwilling to confront them. This is a frightening image, and it is easy to see how the concept of “this is how liberty dies” could be relevant today. But the question remains: how does this play into the politics of our society?
In the original film, the Jedi knights are the yin to the Sith Lords. They are overpowered but ennobled by their philosophy and their superior fighting ability. Interestingly, the dualism in the film is not dialectical, but is rather drawn from Far Eastern philosophies. The Jedi, in particular, are not subject to the will of the people, but instead are loyal to a higher power.
