The Last Words Of Every Fallen Star Wars Hero From The Prequel Trilogy

Even though they're controversial, the Star Wars prequels introduced fans to a lot of cool things in the franchise — complex lightsaber fights, more intel on the Jedi religion and culture, and amazing new planets, like Coruscant (which is one big city). But of course, the prequels also had their fair share of sad and tragic events. Like the original trilogy, the prequels retained the theme of war, and as with any war, there are casualties for the good guys. No fan wants to accept the fact that sometimes their beloved heroes might die in their favorite franchises, but it happens, and the Star Wars prequels are no exception.

One of the most interesting aspects of a hero's death is their last words before departing into the afterlife. Sometimes these final lines are optimistic, hoping that good will triumph over evil. In other cases, some of these last words are haunting, preceding tragic events. But whether these final lines inspire you or give you the chills, these are the last words of every fallen Star Wars hero from the prequel trilogy.

(Be warned — major spoilers below.)

Antidar Williams is one of the first chronological deaths in the entire Star Wars saga, so viewers don't know him for very long. In the opening scenes of The Phantom Menace, we see a Republic ship flying to meet the Trade Federation. See, the mean, old Trade Federation put up an illegal blockade, and the supreme chancellor is sending delegates to keep them in line. Little do the Federation leaders know, but the delegates are secretly Jedi Knights — Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi. 

With Republic pilot Antidar Williams flying their ship, the two Jedi board the Fedeation craft and wind up in a waiting room where they're told they will soon meet the Federation leader, Nute Gunray. However, Williams stays on the ship, which is parked in a bay. When Gunray discovers the delegates are Jedi, he decides to kill them, along with the pilots, at the orders of Darth Sidious. And while Williams is aboard his ship, he sees a turret turn and point directly his way. Knowing what's about to happen, he shouts, "Captain, look!" But sadly, it's too late. The turret fires, blowing up the ship, along with Antidar Williams.

Along with the death of Antidar Williams, we get the death of Maoi Madakor, who dies in the same explosion. Madakor is the captain of the ship that transports Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn to the Trade Federation vessel at the beginning of The Phantom Menace. From what we can tell, it seems that they didn't anticipate any violence when they boarded since they kept their ship in the docking bay without any defensive measures. In fact, Madakor is patiently sitting in her ship along with Williams when the Trade Federation decides to eliminate them with a ceiling turret.

Williams notices the turret turning towards their ship, so he cries out "Captain, look," at which point, Madakor commands, "Shields up!" Perhaps if they'd activated their shields in time, they would've survived the blast, but alas, they didn't react fast enough and were blown to smithereens. As movie lovers know, the opening scene is extremely important because it must hook the audience and set the tone for the rest of the movie and, in this case, the entire trilogy. The deaths of Madakor and Williams were George Lucas' way of starting off the prequels with action and seriousness.

Qui-Gon Jinn is one fascinating character, and we wish we saw more of him, but he falls in battle at the end of The Phantom Menace. Despite being a good guy through and through, Jinn was notorious for disagreeing with the Jedi Council. As Obi-Wan once pointed out to Jinn, "Master, you could be sitting on the Council by now if you would just follow the code." Nevertheless, Jinn repeatedly defied the Jedi Council, especially in the matter of training young Anakin Skywalker.

At the climax of The Phantom Menace, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon finally come face to face with Darth Maul. They have an epic lightsaber duel, but tragically, the Sith mortally wounds Qui-Gon. Before he passes away, Qui-Gon tells Obi-Wan, "He will bring balance. Train him." To give some context, Qui-Gon is telling Obi-Wan to train Anakin Skywalker to become a Jedi because, supposedly, Anakin will one day fulfill a prophecy to bring balance to the Force. Even on his deathbed, Qui-Gon had to defy the Jedi Council one last time. Obi-Wan fulfills this request, but it ends terribly because Anakin goes on to betray the Jedi, become a Sith, and plunge the galaxy into a dark age.

Corde is one of Padme Amidala's maids and loyal friends. But before we talk about Corde's death, we need to back up a little bit. 

In The Phantom Menace, Princess Amidala is trying to leave Naboo and arrive at Coruscant to persuade the Senate to do something about the blockade and invasion befalling her planet. Amidala is aware that she's a target for assassination attempts, so she does something very clever — she swaps places with Sabe, another one of her maids. In fact, Padme has quite a few maids, and they follow her around everywhere and even look like her, so the body double idea pretty good strategy. In Padme's own words, "[Sabe] is my decoy, my protection, my loyal bodyguard."

Padme uses this trick again in Attack of the Clones, but this time, it's with Corde. In the opening scene, Padme flies to Coruscant and lands her ship. Seemingly, all is safe, but right then, an assassin blows up the vessel. At first, it looks like Padme was caught in the explosion, but it was in fact Corde posing as Padme. The real Padme comes to Corde's side, and that's when Corde gives her last line: "I've failed you, Senator." Well, Corde, we completely disagree. We believe you succeeded in protecting Padme's life. We're just sorry you had to die in the process.

Shmi Skywalker is the mother of Anakin Skywalker. Originally, both were slaves on Tatooine, belonging to a junk trader named Watto. Eventually, Anakin leaves to become a Jedi, courtesy of Qui-Gon Jinn, but Shmi stays behind as a slave, which is a huge problem for Anakin. He frequently worries about her, which jeopardizes his Jedi training. According to Jedi Master Yoda, Anakin's fear of losing his mother could possibly lead him down the path to the Dark Side. And that's exactly what ends up happening.

On Tatooine, Shmi is tragically kidnapped and tortured by Tusken Raiders. Anakin finds his mother right before she dies, and while in Anakin's arms, Shmi starts to say, "I love ..." Tragically, Shmi never gets to finish her sentence, as she passes away. The scene is sad, but it only becomes more disturbing when Anakin angrily massacres the entire group of Tusken Raiders, including women and children. It's one of the first times we see Anakin go full-Darth Vader mode.

Mace Windu, frankly, was an awesome character who deserved more screen time, and it's a total shame that he had to die. It makes sense, though. At the time of his demise, Windu was one of the most powerful Jedi around, and there's just no way Palpatine could've established his empire with Windu alive.

Near the end of Revenge of the Sith, Anakin reveals to Mace Windu that Sheev Palpatine, supreme chancellor of the Galactic Senate, is in fact a Sith. Immediately, Windu takes a small cadre of Jedi to arrest Palpatine, but it essentially escalates into an assassination attempt ... one that massively backfires. Palpatine, who's incredibly skilled with the Force, quickly kills everyone except Windu.

Amazingly, Windu eventually gets the upper hand on Palpatine. It's here that a misled Anakin Skywalker interferes, insisting that Windu spare Palpatine. Windu rightly replies, "He's too dangerous to be left alive!" We completely agree, Windu. But unfortunately, Anakin chops off Windu's arm before he can kill the wrinkled, old Sith. After that, Palpatine blasts Windu into the air with Force lightning, and that's the end of Mace Windu. To think, the entire Star Wars saga could've been resolved right then and there had Anakin not been so horribly manipulated.

Ki-Adi-Mundi is one of those Jedi who doesn't get a lot of screen time, and you kind of always forget his name, but you totally recognize him. Ki-Adi-Mundi is the older-looking dude with a cone-shaped head and blue lightsaber. You get the vibe that he's really wise (he's on the Jedi Council, after all), but every time he talks, he's always wrong for some reason. In Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon Jinn delivers the news that the Sith have returned, but Ki-Adi-Mundi just belts, "Impossible! The Sith have been extinct for a millennium." Or then there's the moment in Attack of the Clones when Padme suggests Count Dooku could be behind her assassination attempt, and Ki-Adi-Mundi says, "He is a political idealist, not a murderer."

Anyway, Ki-Adi-Mundi is a brilliant fighter. He served in the Battle of Geonosis and also led his own battalion of clone troopers. But like so many other Jedi, Ki-Adi-Mundi perished in Order 66, a secret code that Darth Sidious implanted in every clone soldier. Once activated, the clones killed the nearest Jedi to them. At the time, Ki-Adi-Mundi was heroically leading his group of clones into battle, shouting, "Come on!" But they never followed him. Instead, they opened fire and shot Ki-Adi-Mundi to death.

Shut your eyes and cover your ears because this is easily one of the darkest moments in the entire Star Wars franchise. Near the end of Revenge of the Sith, Anakin Skywalker has fully embraced the Dark Side, and he's on a mission to slaughter the Jedi. One would hope the Younglings at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant would be excluded, but tragically, they're also on Anakin's hit list.

While clone troopers kill Jedi throughout the galaxy under Order 66, Anakin Skywalker heads to the Jedi temple and finds a group of young Jedi hiding. They foolishly approach Anakin, believing he's still on their side. One boy named Sors Bandeam asks, "Master Skywalker, there are too many of them! What we are going to do?"

Of course, Anakin isn't there to save them from the clones. The Jedi turned Sith is there to massacre them, which is exactly what Anakin does. Mercifully, this happens off-screen. This horrifying moment serves to show us just how far Anakin has fallen to the Dark Side. He, indeed, is Darth Vader at this point, in all of his evil. 

This final line is touching and very fitting for the character. Padme Amidala served as a senator in the Galactic Senate, fully devoting herself to the people, democracy, and the common good, all while surviving assassination attempts, fighting in wars, and tackling bureaucracy. She's not without mistakes, though, as demonstrated by her secret marriage to Anakin Skywalker. Needless to say, that relationship doesn't work out, as Padme becomes pregnant with twins (Luke and Leia) but ends up dying right after delivering them.

Leading up to the delivery, Anakin angrily Force chokes Padme, causing enough physical damage to kill her, although it doesn't immediately end her life. There's also a sense in which Anakin's change to the Dark Side emotionally killed Padme. But amazingly, right before she passes away, Padme tells Obi-Wan, "There is good in him. I know there is still ..." Always the optimist, Padme tries to convince Obi-Wan that it's still possible that Anakin could return to the Light Side. And it turns out she's right because Anakin eventually does redeem himself at the end of the Return of the Jedi.