Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith original ending actually did justice to Natalie Portman's Padmé

Sure, the Star Wars prequels were pretty much unsalvageable at this point, but this could have at least helped

Natalie Portman gets almost zero justice when it comes to franchise Hollywood: whether it be Star Wars' Padmé or Thor's Jane Foster, she's pretty consistently cast aside and under-used.

In Revenge of the Sith, Padmé had the great pleasure of dying because she, as a medical droid puts it, "lost the will to live", a grandiose way of stating that she essentially couldn't be bothered anymore.

You'd think George Lucas could summon up something a little more fitting for the woman who had proved herself a fierce, capable leader to her people from a young age.

In fact, Digital Spy uncovered an alternate ending for the film that actually did her character justice, tucked within a presentation given by concept artist Ian McCaig given at the Academy of Art university in 2016.

McCaig revealed that the original plot saw Padmé actively turn against her husband Anakin (Hayden Christensen) after discovering he'd been consumed by the Dark Side, taking the first steps in founding what would eventually become the Rebel Alliance.

The film saw her still travel to Mustafar to confront Anakin, but instead of begging and pleading to whatever goodness was left in him, only to be choked and left unconscious, Padmé actually attempted to kill him.

With her knife pressed against his neck, she realises she still loves him to much to do the deed, with McCaig stating the rest of the film pretty much followed the same trajectory, presumably meaning she still died in childbirth.

Sure, it wouldn't have miraculously fixed the Star Wars prequels, but it certainly would have made much more sense for Padmé to end her story this way.