Untitled

On TV Tropes, "fridging" is known as Stuffed Into the Fridge, which is thusly defined in the Laconic version:

A female character — usually a loved one — is killed, maimed, or traumatized solely to motivate the actions of a male character.

Or on the main page:

When a female character is hurt, killed, maimed, assaulted, or otherwise traumatized in order to motivate a male character or move their plot forward.

Older definitions of the term also specified that the harm to the female character (usually a love interest) to be specifically targeted by the villain for the express purpose of causing "man pain".

Other than defining the trope, the article also goes into its etymology (i.e. why it's called "fridging") and the main criticism against it:

"Fridging" is often given a very negative connotation as it is all too often a hallmark of supremely lazy writing — quickly hurting or killing an established female character as "cheap anger" for the male protagonist, and devaluing the life of a female supporting character in the process, instead of giving the villain something actually interesting to do that can involve all three characters and more emotions than simple anger and angst.

In essence, the argument goes that "fridging" is a misogynistic trope that disproportionately targets female characters and devalues them to their relationship with the male protagonist instead of seeing them as individuals in their own right.

As of 2022, the article has been listed as a fandom slang term and a Definition-Only Page by forum consensus, with the page itself disambiguated between related tropes about "a loved one's death as motivation" to account for off-site usage. As a definition-only page, no examples are allowed on the trope article or any work articles.

Premise #2: The narrative significance of Padmé's death

In ROTS, Padmé's death by heartbreak in childbirth is the culmination of a self-fulfilling prophecy as Anakin tries to prevent it. Or is it really just that?

In the Prequels narrative as a whole, Padmé Amidala symbolically embodies the ideals of the Republic: justice, democracy, natch. When the Republic falls, she falls with it: hence, symbolism. As a politician, she loses faith in the Senate for their refusal to help her homeworld when it is invaded in TPM, but she chooses to keep fighting for its ideals until she grows disillusioned by that too (re: ROTS) before symbolically dying.

But Padmé Naberrie is also her own person who wanted to retire from politics (re: AOTC staircase conversation), but remains trapped by duty in the Senate throughout the Clone Wars and never got the happy ending and peaceful retirement that she deserved. The Prequels are a tragedy, so her arc as a main character must also end in tragedy: that's just how the genre works.

Finally, with respect to her relationship, the symbolism of Padmé and Anakin dying together at the same time (re: ROTS visuals) illustrates their soulmatism, and her death (and Palpatine lying about the cause) is what seals Anakin's fate in the end.

(Of course, there is much fandom discourse related to the definitive cause of her death, but this is irrelevant in the context of the current question, just that she dies at all at the end of ROTS. Plus, the fact that the film and the trilogy end with her death as a tragic conclusion instead of using it as an early motivator hammer in its narrative significance and symbolism.)

Argument: Is the coffin refrigerated?

On TV Tropes, Padmé's death is listed under The Lost Lenore (i.e. the dead love interest who haunts the narrative) to the point of being the page image, Cynicism Catalyst (i.e. a traumatic event, e.g. a loved one's death, that makes a character a more cynical person), and I Let Gwen Stacy Die (i.e. a character, usually the hero, blames themself for a loved one's death).

While these tropes may fall under the umbrella of "fridging" in common parlance (i.e. are listed under Stuffed Into a Fridge's related tropes section), in the stricter definition of "a female character being hurt solely to motivate the male protagonist", this is certainly not the case for Padmé's death: it has far more narrative significance than just that.

What's also important to note is that Padmé's agency is otherwise vital to the PT: she chooses to escape Naboo, explore Tatooine, and take her planet back in TPM; she chooses to bait her assassins, go to Tatooine and Geonosis, and whether to enter a romantic relationship in AOTC; she chooses to co-found the Rebel Alliance (deleted scenes) and go to Mustafar in ROTS; and she continues to haunt the narrative in the OT through her children, the Rebel Alliance, and her husband. It's not like she's just a passive girl/woman whose actions have no significant impact on the core saga's plot, and likewise her death cannot be simply reduced to how it relates to "man pain".

(Another closely associated trope to Stuffed Into the Fridge, even moreso than either of the two mentioned above, is Disposable Woman, where "a minor female loved one is killed early on to motivate the hero" to get revenge or otherwise take action and "has little relevance afterwards", much closer to the textbook definition of being "fridged". Shmi is listed as an example, but personally I think her case is more nuanced than that: questionable writing and execution aside, her death is indeed Anakin's proverbial ground zero and cynicism catalyst even before Padmé; but at the same time Shmi received at least some characterization in her limited screen-time and was the one who established Anakin's true self to be good in the first place, thus setting up his potential for redemption even before Padmé's deathbed prophecy, so I would argue that Shmi continues to haunt the narrative in ROTJ and isn't actually "disposable", so to speak. But that's a debate for another time.)

Conclusion