#padme amidala critical

[antianakin]

I think one of the funniest things to see in Star Wars fandom is this idea that Anakin and Padme would actually genuinely be good for each other and be a happy, healthy couple if only Anakin didn't go dark or if only Palpatine hadn't manipulated them or something along those lines.

And I'm over here like "based on what common values and interests?"

The things they share the most in common are the things that make them TOXIC, it's the very traits they share that lead them to their shared doom and destruction. Their shared selfishness, greed, and ambition is what allows them to throw aside their ideals in order to be together no matter the cost. Their shared willingness to ignore reality in favor of what they WANT to believe is what allows their situation to continue to deteriorate.

Padme fights for democracy, and Anakin believes in dictatorships.

Padme wants a large family because she has fond memories of her childhood with her own family, and Anakin wants one person whose life revolves around him and him alone.

Padme (usually) believes in mercy and justice, and Anakin believes in might makes right.

What about them would make anyone think they'd actually ever be a functional couple when the only stuff they have in common are the lies they tell themselves about each other?

[revenge-of-the-shit]

Luke and Leia would have been so fucked up if Anakin and Padme actually raised them

[jedi-enthusiast]

I just came across a post someone made where they basically just said that Padme telling Anakin “it’s human to be angry” after he commits the Tusken Massacre is fine because she was “empathizing with him” and also criticizing the SW fandom via satire for criticizing Padme for that and saying that there was still good in him.

So one thing I need people to understand before they ever start getting on the- “you can’t criticize Padme, she did nothing wrong, she was just in love” -soapbox, is that her and Anakin’s love story is inherently toxic on both ends.

There is no version of their story that ends well if they stay together.

Anakin is a narcissistic abuser*, and Padme is an enabler of his behavior.

(*Keep in mind, when I say “Anakin is an abuser,” I mean the emotional abuser sort—as he doesn’t ever physically harm her until RotS)

This post is primarily about Padme, though, so I’ll just make another post analyzing Anakin—if that’s something y’all would be interested in.

—————

Think about it, though.

Anakin commits mass murder, including the murder of literal children, and Padme—someone who the fandom loves to point to as being morally perfect—basically says that it’s fine because being angry- (and committing mass murder because of it ig) -is normal.

She even rewards him by marrying him like, what is it, a day later? And she never tells anyone about it because god forbid Anakin face any consequences.

Anakin almost beats a man to death and then blames Padme for her own assault, she says he scares her and they need to take a break…but then she goes back to him soon after and apparently forgets all about the whole- “almost beating a man to death” -thing and is so excited to raise a family with him.

Because growing up in a household where their father regularly gets incredibly angry, and physically violent when he is, totally won’t traumatize the kid or anything! Raising children with a child-murderer totally isn’t cause for concern!

Anakin takes part in a genocide, massacres the Temple, ONCE AGAIN MURDERS CHILDREN…and she’s still begging him to stay with her so they can raise their perfect little family on Naboo.

And apparently he’s still a good person.

Right.

—————

Anakin never receives any consequences or pushback from Padme for his actions/behavior and, on the rare occasions she does push back, she goes running back to him—plowing over her own boundaries—almost immediately because she refuses to let go of her own delusional fantasies about their relationship.

That is what people are criticizing for, not for falling in love in the first place.

Anakin has his own set of issues that make the relationship toxic, but Padme also takes part in that toxicity by enabling his behavior—and people are well within their rights to criticize her for it, just like they should criticize Anakin.

[girlrandomstuff]

SHUT UP, FINALLY A SW NOVEL FOCUSING ON MON MOTHMA AND BAIL ORGANA!

also this has to be one of my favorite art cover design of star wars books

THOUGHTS:

I'm so excited cuz I have RANT for literally YEARS, about Star Wars not giving characters like Bail Organa, Breha Organa and Mon Mothma the appreciation and development they deserve, and here it comes, this is so personal to me, I it's going to be like my entire personality for the next months.

Still, I'm a bit, idk if 'worried' is the word to go with but I can't find other, because of how they're going to handle them, I have read that the books are going to explore "Padme's legacy" and if you know me well, you know I'm not a big fan of this character, so I'm really like worried that they will make Bail Organa and Mon Mothma "Padme's legacy", which they are not, Bail became Palpatine's #1 oppositor YEARS before Padme became a senator, Bail and Mon were allies and worked together to achieve good things years before Padme became senator, Bail Organa and Mon Mothma were the ones to put together the Delegation of the 2000 before Padme joined them, it was Bail's office the first place in which the first meeting took place, and I can say many other things they both did because they were good people and great leaders, not because in memory of a lost ally/friend, and I just really hope they give Mon and Bail the appreciation, the development, the story they are worthy.

[lightdancer1]

I will also note on the Anakin-Padme relationship:

That I really do tend to see it, and write it, as an innately toxic thing but for entirely human reasons, because if Anakin is always one set of footsteps away from Darth Vader then what was there for him to fall? Where I view the toxicity stems from a dynamic not unlike what I write for and with Death and Dream in Sandman, though explicitly romantic where the other isn't.

Anakin puts Padme on a pedestal and worships the ground she walks on, where actual human Padme Naberrie is far more complicated than that. She is as impulsive as he is, and where he is unapologetically violent and capable of swift steps to it, she calls it 'aggressive negotiations' and jokes about it while pretending that the ultimate result is not, in fact, the same. Nine in ten of the flaws stem from Anakin ultimately rushing into a marriage with the first woman he saw after a week and never considering the consequences, nor that a relationship takes a lot more work than that, and that he's ultimately a rabid golden retriever garbage fire man.

The other tenth was the secrecy that ultimately, given Anakin has zero impulse control or ability to consider the consequences of his actions blended with great power, I believe was Padme herself. And ultimately that she was willing to lie to her friends and her family about the marriage to, in my view, keep one thing for herself that was Padme Naberrie's and neither the Senator nor the former Queen's, and this is a not unimportant part of why things failed. I also believe that in this regard that if Anakin Skywalker were left to himself he would have led a ticker tape parade celebrating that he won the most beautiful woman in the Galaxy as his.

He wouldn't have reckoned on how literally anything else with that might have complicated his life because he's Anakin Skywalker, thinking is for other people. Padme, OTOH, would have much greater awareness of all those risks and wouldn't consider, either, the pressures of keeping a marriage secret and what it'd mean.

It all ultimately stems to incompatible expectations and Anakin never seeing the real Padme, as appreciating the actual woman and her rationales for the marriage might have given him second thoughts. I also think if he and Sabe had ever had the chance to meet beforehand that he might have fallen head over heels for the person trying to actually get the Tatooine slave system ended over the Queen, with that exact same impulsiveness and lack of control he did with Padme, and that exact same lack of thought. Anakin is both a rabid golden retriever and a Siberian tiger sized orange cat, great power but never had a thought and never will. Wouldn't matter who, if anyone, he fell in love with, much of the same dynamics would apply for much of the same reasons.

[donttouchmeimsleeping]

Okay, now I do not have a lot of problems with Padme.

But where I do have problems, is whenever/wherever Anakin is involved.

"Do you like Anakin?"

"She sounded like the girl she'd been, huddled under blankets, asking questions"

"I understand why you like Anakin"

"He's completely devoted to you"

"but when he's angry, he scares me a little bit"

"He's very powerful in a way I could never understand"

"His sense of justice is extreme"

"There was an incident with a Tusken encampment on Tatooine"

If it's not obvious, Padme had most definitely been manipulated with force suggestion by Anakin.

Padme is clearly described to be acting like a teenage girl or more closely like a insecure girl, rather than the queen and lady she is.

Which mean these insecurities came from somewhere or more accurately someone. Anakin is known to have such insecurities, especially where his own feelings are involved. I am not above believing that he projected such things onto Padme with the force.

Sabe does not sugar coat what she sees between Padme and Anakin, but she has enough respect and loyalty to Padme to trust Padme can take care of herself. But doesn't change the fact she's calling it how she sees it, just softly.

Padme would have definitely called what Anakin did on Tatooine to the Tuskens for what it was, but do you know who would called it an incident? Anakin.

Because he didn't mean to lose control, didn't mean to get his emotion get the better of him. At least, that what he's trying to convince himself, and in turn force suggest to Padme so she can help enforce that. But Padme heard he had killed children.

No, I don't believe Padme would've called this an incident if she wasn't being manipulated.

This has also been explored in Clone Wars, where their relationship is not treated as a healthy or sustainable one. Despite them technically being inseparable throughout the seasons whenever their in the same episodes. And there are times where Padme breaks from the force suggestion, because it's just suggestion, and insists this relationship is a bad idea.

Which fuels the notion that Anakin is very much manipulating with his use of the force to keep them together. And no matter how you spill it, it foreshadows how this love story ends in tragedy.

"Do you like Anakin?" Padmé asked. She sounded like the girl she'd been, huddled under blankets, asking questions about Harli Jafan all those years ago. "You're really the only one who has spent any time with him as an adult."

"I understand why you like Anakin," Sabé said. "He's a little bit intense for me. He's completely devoted to you, which I admire, but when he's angry, he scares me a little bit."

"He's very powerful in a way I could never understand," Padmé said. "His sense of justice is extreme. There was an incident with a Tusken encampment on Tatooine when we were there."

Star Wars Queen's Hope, E.K Johnston

[groove-on-boogie-down]

Just watched Attack of the Clones and noticed more parallels between Anakin Skywalker and Osha Aniseya.

(Long post ahead, with visuals!)

In AotC, Anakin's mother dies before she can tell him, "I love you," and Anakin descends down a path of destruction out of grief.

Osha force-chokes her father figure before he can say, "I love you," because she grieves his betrayal and the loss of her family.

Now these are very different forms of paternal love by Shmi and Sol, but I LOVE comparing and contrasting Anakin and Osha because these situations lead to different outcomes and reactions. Yet at the core, they have these strong emotions they hold inside. In the simplest form, they have both lost parents and both lost their mothers.

Both Osha and Anakin are born with the help of the Force, we know this. Anakin is born completely of the Force. Osha and Mae are born through their mother's magic augmented by the Force. Anakin didn't care for his home planet. He was born into slavery and trauma. But his mother loved him dearly. He left because he dreamt of better. To be a Jedi and return to free her too.

Osha came from a family that loved and protected her, but she longed for individuality and to explore the galaxy outside of their coven walls. Anakin finds his mother in her last moments, and the dark side takes over him. He seeks revenge and kills the Tusken camp out of rage.

Osha learns the man who raised her killed her mother. Her silent anger is simmering. She doesn't lash out the exact same way, she's in shock.

Their reactions work for both of them. Anakin had his emotions building inside of him. In his feelings of inadequacy, he tells Padme that he is used to fixing everything, but this is the one time he failed. Anakin thinks he lost his mother due to his own weakness and believes more power will prevent it in the future. However, he is also ashamed of how his anger manifests and the act he committed in the camp. Padme tells him, "To be angry is to be human." (And as I am typing this RotS is on and Palpatine tells him the same, that seeking revenge on Dooku is natural despite his unease). But because of his training, Anakin says, "I'm a Jedi. I know, I'm better than this."

Osha has power, but she doesn't realize it. Striking out at Qimir catches her off guard. Killing her master startles her to shock. She's not seeking power. Osha seeks an understanding of herself and to be understood. Just like Anakin, Osha believes she failed as a Jedi for showing her anger. For not being able to accept loss. Qimir pushes her to confront his realization, and similar to Padme, he tells her, "This anger, this pain. This is who you are."

Anakin and Osha descend to darkness in similar ways. They feel and emote in similar ways. The Jedi are not successful in teaching them how to healthily deal with their feelings. So these experiences mirror, but they are still distinct examples of Jedi that are seduced to the dark side.

To me, Anakin Skywalker and Osha Aniseya are incredibly compelling characters that are only strengthened when analyzed together. End.

[jaydude1992]

[The Phantom Menace begins with two Jedi intervening on behalf of a planet currently being blockaded by a greedy, ruthless corporation looking to bully the Republic into reducing trade route taxes cutting into their profits. Serving as official ambassadors, they hope to resolve things through peaceful negotiation, but end up forced to fight against the corporation's armed forces; first in self-defense, and later to keep the planet's ruler out of the corporation's grasp. It's soon very strongly implied that the corporation plans to get its way by starving out the planet's population, and said corporation is later indicated to be a part of the Republic's ruling elite via having a voice in the Galactic Senate, while also (implied to be*) controlling the Republic's head of state through bureaucracy and bribery.]

Jedi critical folks: The Jedi are just violent hired thugs of the Republic ruling elite and don't care about the common folk!

*Technically speaking, Palpatine/Sidious is the one making this claim, and he's doing so in order to manipulate Padmé into effectively making him the head of state in Valorum's place. I don't know what's said on the matter outside of the film, but given that one of Lucas's themes in the Prequels is the Senate being corrupt, I wouldn't be surprised if Palpatine was telling the truth here.

[sammys-magical-au]

Y’know I think the thing that people don’t take away from Star Wars is that anger is not an evil emotion. It’s a motivator that can lead to evil actions when not controlled or mitigated, but anger in itself is not an indicator of being a bad person.

People tend to largely ignore Padmé’s existence at times and I wonder if this is why that message doesn’t get through - after all, she was the one to tell Anakin “to be angry is to be human”, immediately after he told her that he’d slaughtered an entire village. Not “you’re evil for this” or even “you need to control your emotions better” - the first is not true, the second is something he already knows and has been told again and again countless times before, and by people who refuse to help him learn how to do so.

The Jedi fell because they were afraid of anger. They were afraid to acknowledge it as anything more than the path to evil, when in reality, pretending that any emotion is just “evil” rather than learning to work with it, suppressing it and dismissing it as quickly as possible instead of allowing it to pass, that is when it becomes dangerous, that is when it leads to thoughtless action, and a lot of those actions could be considered evil.

My point being; if actual emotional management had been taught by the Jedi instead of constant preaching about how “fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to the dark side”, they would have been much stronger and they would never have fallen so easily, because Anakin - and every other Jedi in the entire galaxy - would have had a healthy enough grasp on their emotions to know how to handle them and not react rashly (as many of them often did, not just Anakin).

[happycattail]

This made me think of this wonderful fic by Virdant (if you haven’t read their fics totally check them out)

It’s just a conversation between Obi-Wan and Leia who’s been raised by Anakin and Padme and boi does it hurt

I can't stress enough how funny and unrealistic "padme and anakin raise the twins and everything is good and happy 😊" aus are to me. Neither of them would be good parents I can like promise you that

[sstarssucker]

Girls don't wanna have fun.

Girls want to have that pretty yellow-pink-purple dress Padmé wears in Attack of the Clones.

[antianakin]

No Order 66 AU where Anakin leaves the Order after the war ends and he and Padme end up retiring to Naboo to try to raise the twins together, but neither of them ends up feeling particularly satisfied with life on Naboo (for Anakin it just doesn't give him any purpose the way he desperately needs and for Padme it's always been this perfect rosy dream and reality doesn't measure up), so they end up leaving the twins behind a lot so they can pursue other things and are pretty absentee parents in general. They mostly end up getting raised by Padme's parents instead, and while they're perfectly good guardians for the twins and raise them kindly and love them a lot, there's always an obvious elephant in the room regarding who ISN'T there.

This causes a bit of a rift between Luke and Leia because while Luke is trying to keep the peace and give their parents the benefit of the doubt as he moves on and figures out his own life with what he DOES have, Leia is less willing to just forgive and forget.

Luke ends up becoming a pilot working for the royal palace for a while, but Leia goes into politics (something she'd entered while younger because it's what her mother did and she'd been hoping it would get Padme's attention and bring the two of them closer; it didn't work out that way at all and now Leia's sticking with it at least partly to spite Padme) as an aide for her cousin Pooja who is now Senator of Naboo.

And it's here, once she finally makes it to Coruscant and starts working in the Senate, that Leia meets Bail Organa, still working as Senator of Alderaan. The two of them click IMMEDIATELY and Bail ends up becoming Leia's mentor in politics, as well as the person who actually introduces her to the Jedi themselves. Anakin and Padme had never really bothered to do so, both because they were so rarely around, but also because they had chosen not to give Luke and Leia to the Temple and decided at that point that it would be easier to keep the twins and the Jedi separate. Bail of course has no such compunctions and even if he knew about Anakin and Padme's feelings on the matter, I imagine he'd find ways to allow Leia to accidentally bump into some of the Jedi while she was on Coruscant. If he just so happens to double book himself for lunch with both Leia and Obi-Wan, it's hardly anything malicious and they may as well all eat together!

Leia finally feels like she has a parent who gives a damn about her, someone who acts like a parent to her, the parent she's always wanted. Her grandparents had always been incredibly kind and they obviously had to do a lot of parenting, but they'd always been very strict about making sure the twins saw them as GRANDPARENTS and not their actual parents, which just make the absence of their parents that much more obvious and painful. But with Bail, she's finally got someone who doesn't care that Anakin and Padme aren't there and doesn't feel the need to create a wall between them for Anakin and Padme's sake. Bail takes her under his wing, teaches her everything she knows, allows her to explore things she'd never been allowed to explore before, connects her to even more people who can help her understand herself better than she's ever been able to before. THIS is what a parent was supposed to do for her and she knows it, THIS is what selfless love looks like from a parent and she THRIVES under it for the first time in her life.

She eventually decides not to stay on as Pooja's aide because she has no real desire to become a senator for Naboo at any point, but she IS good at politics and desperately does want to help people any way she can, so she starts up some sort of organization of her own to help people around the galaxy (and connects it to the Jedi because deep down she KNOWS she was supposed to be one of them even though that path is now closed to her). But she doesn't go back to Naboo, she doesn't make her home on her mother's home planet.

She goes to Alderaan instead. And this time, she gets to stay there for the rest of her life.

[revenge-of-the-shit]

I think Padme's character deserved to become unhinged and go absolutely batshit, as a treat. I want a scene where she's confronted by someone else - one of her handmaidens, Riyo Chuchi, Bail Organa, Captain Typho, someone - about how her love for Anakin has shown that she is outright compromising her morals, and how what she has isn't what it seems, and she just loses it, she demands, Why can't I have this one thing for myself, just once? I've given everything for Naboo!, and indeed she has - she lost her childhood, her chance to be a kid and then a teenager, she lost her safety and parts of her personhood in pursuit of making her planet better, and she just wants the illusion of this ONE thing, just this one thing

[jedi-enthusiast]

There’s another question I want to ask

Do people think Padme and Shimi would agree to annihilation of the galaxy just to prolong their lives?

And why? Why would they?

I think that, in some cases regarding Padme, the answer is yes---people think that Padme would be completely fine with the galaxy being brought to its knees, as long as she was the ruler of it- (or someone who she approved of was). And, to be completely honest, while I do think that people who think that are fundamentally wrong---I don't really blame them for holding that belief for her.

Mainly because we see her excuse things like the Tusken massacre and the Jedi's genocide. So they're basically just taking the "she would excuse/ignore it, as long as Anakin was the one doing it and he went forward in a way that would allow her to ignore it" aspect of her to the extreme and saying "she would want that done for her," even though I do think she would never actively want something like that.

For the most part though, I don't think people ever think about Shmi or Padme in regards to Anakin at all, unless they can use them as tools to uplift him or excuse his atrocities.

When people talk about- "the Tuskens killed Shmi so Anakin killed them, so it's ok, they deserved it!" -or- "the Jedi took Anakin away from Shmi/the Jedi wouldn't let him see Shmi, so they caused/deserved their genocide!" -or whatever, they are only thinking about Anakin.

Shmi, her wants, her wishes, how she would feel about all of it...none of it matters to them, all that matters is Anakin---what he wants, how he feels.

It doesn't matter that Shmi is the one that kept insisting Qui-Gon take Anakin to the Temple, it doesn't matter that Shmi would've been horrified and disgusted by what Anakin did in her name. All that matters is Anakin.

The same goes for Padme---how she would feel or what she would want is of zero importance to these people, as long as they can use her as a tool to uplift Anakin.

For Anakin stans and apologists, the women in his life are nothing except tools and character canon fodder---they don't matter unless they can be used and exploited to frame their favorite fascist man-baby in a favorable light.

[confused-much]

Padme is the original delulu because if my husband killed kids not once but TWICE, openly admitted to serving under a Sith and Force choked me, I would not, in fact, say on my deathbed that there is still good in him.

Quite the opposite, I would probably beg Obi-Wan to hide my kids from that guy.

[starbeltconstellation]

Fascinating meta. 👏👏

Having one of your posts appear in Tumblr recommendations is the only time the dubious algorithm actually recommended something I DO like.

Could you talk about Padme and empathy in aotc? I saw you comment on something in another post and I would love to know more

aww thank you SO much! and yes, i'd be happy to!

when i think about empathy with regards to padme amidala, i think of the four barriers to empathy, which i learned about in a course at the university of chicago called "nowhere lands: utopia, dystopia, and the afterlife of empire." we read the work of an australian philosopher called roman krznaric, who created a definition of empathy in an attempt to explain why people do or don't stand up against injustice (specifically with regards to revolutions against imperial regimes). the four barriers are both social and political: prejudice, authority, distance, and denial. i'd argue that every single one of these barriers is as work with regards to padme in this scene.

prejudice and authority both influence padme's ability to empathize with the tuskens. she is unfamiliar with tatooine and with the tuskens, and the people who are more familiar with them (anakin, cliegg, aka the authorities on tatooine culture compared to her) describe them in very prejudiced ways. this makes it easier to discount them as sentient beings. distance is also factor; padme has never had to interact with the tuskens, and she does not see the carnage and aftermath of anakin's massacre personally. this distance makes denial easier- the crime feels less tangible, so it is easier to shy away from acknowledging it, especially when acknowledging it would require her to confront feelings like guilt, fear, and horror.

it is so much simpler for padme to ignore the tuskens, a distant group of people whose suffering she never had to witness, and so much easier for her to acknowledge anakin, a friend whose distress is presented right before her eyes. she has empathy for anakin's pain, is likely grieving shmi's death herself to an extent, but she allows this empathy for someone she knows to override empathy for the entire tusken village, specifically because she does not know them. she holds more empathy for anakin than she does for the multiple innocent children--and likely also infants--that died at anakin's hands. because it allows her to maintain her current worldview, and her affection for anakin, and it absolves her of any moral responsibility without leaving behind any uncomfortable feelings like guilt. every single barrier to empathy makes it easier and more comfortable for padme to ignore the tuskens' suffering and death. and so that's exactly what she does.

it's very interesting to me that padme's reaction to anakin is almost entirely about herself, not about him. she wants to maintain her own comfort. she wants to preserve her affection and respect for anakin rather than challenging her opinion of him. she likes his friendship, she likes how he makes her feel, and she doesn't want to risk losing it by angering him (disagreeing with him or reporting him to the jedi). it is easier to partake in anakin's racism towards indigenous occupants of a planet than it is to acknowledge that her friend is a prejudiced murderer and that she is party to a massacre. she wants to acknowledge her own grief for shmi and for her friend, while disregarding the pain and grief of those who were hurt because of it. she wants to absolve herself of any guilt related to her own role in facilitating anakin's return to tatooine. (her own attraction to anakin is also more about herself- her girlhood, her lack of identity, her obligation to be selfless in every aspect of her life- than it is about him. but that's a separate essay!)

this scene in attack of the clones is a fascinating juxtaposition to padme's role throughout the rest of the prequels as a proponent of democracy and of justice. and it's so incredibly realistic. padme will fight for ideals; she will fight for the nebulous ideals of democracy and freedom and peace, and she will fight for her planet of naboo. and when she does, the benefit to the galaxy as a whole is massive. there is absolutely no denying that padme's career was a tremendous force for good overall. but attack of the clones shows the limits of padme's empathy and righteousness, and that limit is with anakin in particular.

we spend a lot of time in this fandom discussing how anakin consistently puts padme above the greater good, but this is a striking example of padme doing the exact same thing. it proves that even the most striven, empathetic proponents of justice have limits to both empathy and justice that are selfish and very human. and it raises excellent questions about how to weigh the good someone does with regards to the harm they are willing to condone.

idk padme is just so fascinating and i wish i could crack open her brain and study it in a petri dish. she embodies so many amazing parallels to both the blessings and inevitable pitfalls of real-world activism and justice.