Published Feb 8, 2026, 7:00 PM EST
Lewis is a Lead Writer for Screen Rant and has written for the site since 2022. This has allowed Lewis to explore a vast array of films, TV shows, books, comic books, and games from across the mainstream world of pop culture, reflecting his lifelong love of all media and typifying his experience in the world of fiction storytelling. To top this off, Lewis graduated from Northumbria University with First Class Honours in Film & TV Studies, truly exemplifying his experience in the medium.
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One line stands tall as the best in the Star Wars franchise, and it remains so to this day. The many Star Wars movies have rarely been known for their award-winning dialogue, but that is not to say the scripts aren’t memorable. In some specific cases, there are several genius Star Wars quotes.
This is without mentioning the iconic, recognizable, and even meme-able lines that exist across all eras of the Star Wars timeline. Many of these are how the stories from a galaxy far, far away remain relevant years or even decades later, something that upcoming Star Wars movies will look to replicate.
Be it franchise classics like The Empire Strikes Back or one of the worst-ranked Star Wars movies like The Phantom Menace, every installment includes at least one genuinely great line. Perhaps the very best of them all, however, is found in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. What’s more, this line stands the test of time.
"So This Is How Liberty Dies" Summarizes The Star Wars Prequels
In the final act of Revenge of the Sith, after the Jedi fall during Order 66, Palpatine takes control of the Senate and founds the Galactic Empire. In attendance are Padmé Amidala and Bail Organa, watching as the galaxy falls under Palpatine’s rule. As the Senate celebrates Palpatine’s declaration, Padmé drops one of Star Wars’ best lines that typifies the prequel trilogy.
Padmé says to Bail, “So this is how liberty dies… to thunderous applause.” The line is self-explanatory on paper, but made all the better by how it translates the thematic core of Lucas’ prequel, and how it can apply to real-world politics. After all, real fascism and the desire for control are often masked beneath other motivations, just as it is in Star Wars.
What Padmé is expressing is her disbelief at how Palpatine’s announcement of a fascist government that will oppress all of those beneath it, aka the death of freedom or liberty, is being met with jubilation. The Senate believes Palpatine is exerting his power out of benevolence, thanks to his own political scheming, thus explaining their support of him.
As Padmé and we, the audience, knew, though, this is where Palpatine began his reign of tyranny. The entire point of the prequel trilogy was to explore how he achieved this by manipulating the people of the galaxy into welcoming his rule and the Jedi into allowing it. Liberty died and was applauded, summarizing Lucas’ political story.
Revenge Of The Sith Would've Shown The Birth Of The Rebellion
Originally, Revenge of the Sith would have made Padmé's line even better. In the initial cut of the film, a deleted Star Wars scene shows her, Bail Organa, and Mon Mothma discussing Palpatine's rise to become Emperor. The scene explores how the three of them planned to oppose him, setting up the origins of the Rebel Alliance.
Of course, Bail and Mon Mothma go on to do exactly this and found the Rebel Alliance, with Padmé's fate being much more bleak. However, knowing that she was instrumental in the initial idea to counteract Palpatine would have made her line about liberty dying all the better due to the rebellion she planned to build.
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Star Wars' Rebel Alliance Explained: Timeline, History, & Leaders
The Rebel Alliance stood up to the oppression the Empire brought to the galaxy in Star Wars, and this is how they were able to fight back.
The line itself is great, and one of Star Wars' best, but Padmé isn't shown to do much beyond that where Palpatine is concerned. Revenge of the Sith pivots her story back towards Anakin after this, resulting in the birth of Luke and Leia and her death. If this deleted scene had remained, though, Padmé's story would be even better.
Although she would never get to act on it, the deleted scene would at least have shown her desire not to let Palpatine win. She would have backed up her line about liberty dying by trying to restore it to the galaxy. Not only would this improve one of Star Wars' greatest quotes, but it would have only improved Padmé's character and made her fate that much more tragic.
Andor Made Padmé's Line Even Better
That said, even if Padmé was not involved, Andor managed to make her line in Revenge of the Sith better. Andor is about the formation of the Rebel Alliance, focusing on characters like Mon Mothma and how she managed to circumvent Palpatine's oppressive rules and regulations to build what would eventually destroy his Empire.
This alone makes Padmé's line better, as it shows just how Palpatine kept his grip on the galaxy for so long and how someone like Mon opposed it. Beyond her story, though, Andor took the basis of George Lucas' politics from the prequels that were exemplified by Padmé's line and explored them in an even deeper way.
Andor offers the most thorough look at the Empire's oppression in the entire Star Wars franchise, from the Ghorman Massacre to the occupation of Ferrix and all other acts of control Palpatine exerted across the galaxy. At its core, Andor is about showing exactly how liberty continued to die long after Padmé did, and how that only stoked the fires of rebellion.
Padmé's line is one of the greatest in Star Wars, not only for how it summed up Lucas' prequels, improved her character, and applied to real-world politics, but for how it continues to be relevant today, even to the greatest stories in the franchise like Andor.
Movie(s) Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi, Star Wars: Episode IX- The Rise of Skywalker, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi, Star Wars: New Jedi Order
Character(s) Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Rey Skywalker, Emperor Palpatine / Darth Sidious, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Grand Inquisitor, Reva (The Third Sister), The Fifth Brother, The Seventh Sister, The Eighth Brother, Yoda, Din Djarin, Grogu, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, Leia Organa, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren
English (US) ·