Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith Ending Explained [SPOILER!]

SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, or better, come back to this article later!

SPOILERS AHEAD

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith Plot Summary

Above Coruscant, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker lead a mission to rescue the kidnapped Supreme Chancellor Palpatine from the cyborg Separatist commander General Grievous. After infiltrating Grievous’ flagship, the Jedi battle Sith Lord Count Dooku, whom Anakin overpowers and decapitates at Palpatine’s urging. Grievous escapes the battle-torn ship, which the Jedi crash-land on Coruscant. There, Anakin reunites with his wife, Padmé Amidala, who reveals that she is pregnant. While initially excited, Anakin soon begins to have nightmares about Padmé dying in childbirth.

Palpatine appoints Anakin to the Jedi Council as his personal representative. The Council, suspicious of Palpatine, approves the appointment but declines to grant Anakin the rank of Jedi Master and instead instruct him to spy on Palpatine, diminishing Anakin’s trust in the Jedi. Obi-Wan travels to Utapau, where he kills Grievous, and Yoda travels to the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk to defend it from a Separatist invasion. Meanwhile, Palpatine tempts Anakin with his knowledge of the Force, including the power to prevent death, which he offers to teach him to save Padmé’s life. Anakin deduces that he is the Sith lord behind the war and reports Palpatine’s treachery to Mace Windu, who confronts and subdues him. Desperate to save Padmé’s life, Anakin disarms Windu before he can kill Palpatine, who sends Windu falling to his death. Anakin pledges himself to the Sith, and Palpatine knights him Darth Vader.

Palpatine then issues Order 66, which commands the clone troopers to kill their commanding Jedi officers, thus sending the Jedi Order into near-extinction. Meanwhile, Vader and a battalion of clone troopers kill the remaining Jedi in the Jedi Temple, after which Vader travels to the volcanic planet Mustafar to assassinate the Separatist leaders. Palpatine declares himself Emperor before the Galactic Senate, transforming the Republic into the Galactic Empire, and denounces the Jedi as traitors. Having survived the chaos, Obi-Wan and Yoda return to Coruscant and learn of Anakin’s turn to the dark side. Yoda orders Obi-Wan to confront Vader while he faces Palpatine.

When Padmé learns of Anakin’s treachery, she travels to Mustafar – with Obi-Wan stowing away on her ship – and implores Vader to abandon the dark side, but he refuses. Sensing Obi-Wan’s presence, and thinking that they are conspiring to kill him, Vader angrily uses the Force to strangle Padmé to unconscious. Obi-Wan then engages Vader in a lightsaber duel that ends with Obi-Wan severing Vader’s legs and left arm. Obi-Wan retrieves Vader’s lightsaber and leaves him for dead at the bank of a lava flow.

On Coruscant, Yoda battles Palpatine until their duel reaches a stalemate. Yoda then flees with Senator Bail Organa and regroups with Obi-Wan and Padmé on the planetoid Polis Massa. There, Padmé gives birth to twins, whom she names Luke and Leia, and dies soon after, having lost her will to live. On Mustafar, Palpatine retrieves a barely alive Vader and takes him to Coruscant, where his mutilated body is treated and covered in a black armored suit. Palpatine tells him that he killed her out of anger, devastating Vader.

The Ending

Obi-Wan and Yoda plan to conceal the twins from the Sith and go into exile until the time is right to challenge the Empire. As Padmé’s funeral takes place on her homeworld of Naboo, Palpatine and Vader supervise the construction of the Death Star. Bail takes Leia to his homeworld of Alderaan, where he and his wife adopt her, while Obi-Wan delivers Luke to his step-uncle and aunt, Owen and Beru Lars, on Tatooine before going into exile to watch over the boy.

Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).