Courageous and fierce, Queen Padmé Amidala Naberrie was one of the most impressive characters written into Star Wars, which is why her being gone and pretty much forgotten is such a travesty. Originally a kind, brave teenage queen who was an excellent leader, her involvement with young Anakin Skywalker quickly corrupted her heroic story, turning it into a tale of tragedy and despair. Not only was her legacy as a queen and skilled fighter forgotten, but so was her very name, as she was never even mentioned in the original trilogy that was centered around her husband and twin children.
If we look at Star Wars through this lens, it could be ruined for us. When we think about the rendering of Amidala a side-note wife whom Anakin himself destroyed in order to foster his own tale of evil, to completely erasing her and giving her the most ridiculous reason for losing her life, it's difficult to enjoy the prequels, particularly Revenge of the Sith. A skilled perfomer such as Natalie Portman surely deserved a better role.
While J.J. Abrams, Rian Johnson, and company are writing female characters better today, we'll always feel like Amidala just got the short end of the light saber. The writing of her character was so nonsensical that most fans choose to forget the character entirely.
From Amidala's nonexistent status as the unmentionable Vader baby mama to her savage decline into damsel in distress, here are 20 Things That Make No Sense About Padmé Amidala In Star Wars.
20. Her age difference with Anakin
When Padmé first met Anakin, he was only nine years old; five years younger than the 14-year-old queen. While that wouldn't be a big deal once she's 35 and he's 30, it's a bit creepy at their age of marriage.
When you marry the person that you practically babysat, who followed you around like a little puppy dog while you were a teen queen, it's at least a little bit weird. Had Ani been the little girl and Amidala the young man, people probably would have been outraged over the marriage.
19. She ignores Anakin's extreme beliefs
Anakin Skywalker strikes the perfect balance between petulant youth and violent supervillain, making him the perfect antagonist everyone loves to hate. When he "jokes" about how the galaxy should just have a dictator in charge while enjoying a romantic picnic with Padmé, it's clear that he's not really joking but being completely passive aggressive.
Amidala, who is committed to peace and justice, doesn't seem all that bothered by the idea. Maybe she shrugs it off as a joke or gazes at him with rose-colored glasses because she's in love, but her experience as a queen should result in his statement raising some alarms.
18. Her Pregnancy Is Concealed From Anakin
In Revenge of the Sith, Padmé and Anakin dramatically reunite, and she nervously reveals her pregnancy to him. Anakin responds with unsettling surprise and reluctant enthusiasm. For Padmé to be able to hide her pregnancy from Anakin is beyond ridiculous. It makes no sense that a young man identified as one of the most powerful Jedi ever couldn't sense his wife's pregnancy.
How can Anakin not sense the news long before his wife shares it with him? He should feel the presence of his children the moment he is reunited with her-- or even all the way from the Outer Rim.
17. She Never Ages
Witnessing our favorite characters, like Han Solo, Leia Organa, and Luke Skywalker, grow older has been a really fun part of the Star Wars resurgence, especially given how little representation older heroes receive in the media already. Padmé Amidala Naberrie, on the other hand, never seems to age, even after she and Anakin haven't seen each other in a decade. Anakin goes from a little boy to a grown man, but Amidala looks basically the same.
Sure, we'd all love to refrain from aging in ten years, but that's just not logical. Amidala is a human female and we all know that human females age. Both of her children did, and so should she have.
16. She Gets Pregnant
Knowing how dangerous their secret marriage was to both their positions, Padmé and Anakin should have taken precautions against having children to help conceal their union. As strong as hormones are in young lovers, when the stakes are this high within both their careers it seems like something they wouldn't neglect.
Even if there is no birth control in the future (yikes), shouldn't Ani have been able to either engineer something or use his Jedi powers to help prevent pregnancy? Any kind of method, faulty or otherwise, should have at least been attempted by the couple. On the plus side, this plot hole gave us Luke and Leia Skywalker, but at great cost to Padmé.
15. She's Elected As Queen As A Teenager
Many things are far-fetched in Star Wars, from Calamari admirals to laser light sabers, and the push for young people to be the saviors of the world is among them. Most of the big heroes in the franchise are pretty young, particularly Amidala, who was queen at 14. In the galaxy far, far away, it's apparently fine for a 14-year-old to be the leader of a nation.
While that may have been the case centuries ago in feudal times, it seems regressive to go back to a time when kids and teens served as royal leaders, even if they are just seen as a figurehead.
14. She Married Anakin Without Getting Caught
In a galaxy far, far away, where rumors persist about everything from the susurrus of dictatorship and evil to the stirrings of rebellion, it seems rather unlikely that a romance between a queen and a Jedi could be kept secret. It doesn't matter how close Amidala and Anakin's friends and staff are, they are constantly under scrutiny due to their own positions in the world. It makes zero sense that they were not only able to successfully pull off a secret marriage.
It gets even worse when you realize that a war is breaking out. How could she have possibly sneaked off like that without a heavy security detail?
13. She Shrank Into The Role Of Anakin's Love Interest
Remember that important queen who had so much to do in The Phantom Menace? She seemed so capable and busy, much too important to be reduced to being someone's secret love interest, but that's exactly what happened to Padmé. Such an accomplished spy and incredibly impressive young queen should have been much too busy to make goo goo eyes with Ani, let alone shrink into the role that would ultimately lead to her demise.
Why present her as such a strong leader in the first place? To demonstrate that everything Anakin touches rots? Amidala deserved to be more than a plot device in Anakin's story.
12. Leia Claims To Remember Her
Everyone has a problem with Darth Vader failing to recognize his own daughter as he stands right before her in A New Hope. It's pretty ridiculous, but so is the fact that Leia says that she remembers her mother. How could you possibly recall a woman who perished immediately following your birth? That's some pretty wicked Force sensitivity.
It would seem as if this line was simply ignored during the process of making the prequel films in order to formulate a more tragic tale of woe in which neither baby can recall their mother. Despite Leia's claim of remembering her mother, her feelings about the loss of her mother were never really fleshed out the way Luke and Vader's dynamic was.
11. Her Name Isn't Mentioned ONCE In The Original Trilogy
Why do we never hear of Queen Padmé Amidala Naberrie until the prequel films? The answer is easy enough to admit: George Lucas and co. didn't feel as if the twins' mother, the very person Darth Vader supposedly followed the Dark Side for, was important enough to be named. This is even more egregious now that we know she was an accomplished queen who left a legacy during her brief reign and should be well remembered by her people.
While Lucas should be commended from trying to flesh out Luke and Leia's mother years later in the prequel trilogy, Amidala's absence from the original trilogy likely doomed the character from the beginning.
10. Clovis figures out her secret
In the Star Wars films, Anakin and Amidala are able to hide their relationship from the universe, but in The Clone Wars, Senator Rush Clovis of Scipio is somehow able to see their relationship when Padmé is asked to spy on him. Why would he be able to see their feelings for one another when no one else does?
It also makes no sense that Anakin is jealous of Clovis to the point of beating him up and ruining their work with the senator because he attempted to kiss Amidala when she clearly did not return the senator's feelings and explicitly told him to stop. Ani then went on to say that Amidala had "no say in this," which is outrageous in terms of both her agency and her rank.
9. She Has No Obstetrics Care
It is simply ludicrous that Queen Amidala had no access to obstetrics care. No matter where she was located, as a queen you'd think she'd have the best healthcare a person could afford. If secrecy was the issue, then she should have had her own personal medi-droid. Her own partner, Anakin Skywalker, is supposed to be some sort of programming genius anyway; did he not care enough to make sure she had a medical team in place to monitor her pregnancy and keep her healthy as well?
The fact that Amidala didn't have any medical care during her pregnancy simply boggles the mind.
8. She Kisses Anakin Over That Awkward Sand Comment
"It's coarse, it's rough, it's irritating... and it gets everywhere!"Anakin Skywalker's commentary on sand pretty much sums up how annoying he is in the prequel trilogy. It's an awkward, weird quote that has become a meme over a decade later.
While the sand comment cracks everyone, up it isn't remotely romantic-- although Amidala seemed to think it was as she laid one on Anakin right after he said it. We get that hormones are high for young lovers but really? This moment makes zero sense and doesn't even compare to Han and Leia's "I love you," followed by "I know."
6. She Goes From Powerful Queen To Damsel In Distress
The complete 180-degree flop that Queen Amidala does from a stately leader to a damsel in distress is just bad writing. This is not what the mother of General Leia and Jedi Master Skywalker would have done. The young woman who so daringly used a body double so she could embark on secret missions suddenly went from someone who makes things happen to a weak character who lets things happen to her.
What's worse is that Padmé's weakness seems attributed to her love for Anakin, which is not a great message to send. Love makes you weak and then offs you? Love turns you to the dark side? There are multiple interpretations here, but ultimately the queen-to-damsel downward spiral is too destructive for any of them to work.
5. The Jedi didn't know she was with Anakin
Jedi marriages are forbidden for obscure and nonsensical reasons having to do with emotional control. In fact, Vader's path toward the Dark Side is seen by some as commentary on the foolish of following such outdated celibacy rules. Given that Jedi aren't supposed to marry and that Jedi can sense just about anything with the Force, shouldn't Amidala and Anakin's powerful bond have been sensed by the other Jedi?
There are hints in the The Clone Wars series about Obi-Wan and Ahsoka knowing about the relationship, but even with Anakin's power of manipulation, it makes no sense that he could hide so much of his life from the entire council.
4. Her Twins Are A Complete Surprise
There are a lot of things about the Force that make no sense, particularly when Darth Vader can't even sense his own daughter in A New Hope. Apparently he, and every other Jedi, also couldn't sense her in utero, since the fact that the couple had twins was a complete surprise to everyone, even Obi-Wan Kenobi.
As often as fans of the franchise nitpick at every little detail one, it's surprising this revelation wasn't even covered by halfhearted explanation as to why the twins can't be sensed, but nope. Maybe Luke simply used mind tricks as a fetus, chanting "These are not the twins you're looking for," long before Obi-Wan or Yoda could give him any advice.
3. She could have been Co-founder Of The Rebellion
Knowing that Amidala was very nearly the co-founder of the Rebellion itself in a deleted scene makes her passing almost too much to bear. According to artist Iain McCaig, in another version of the script, she secretly works behind her husband's back to overthrow him after seeing the monster he's become. That's the story Amidala deserved.
It's not that tragedies have no place in a space opera; losses are necessary in a story about war. She still would have lost her life in this version when, with Anakin at knife point, she couldn't bear to off him and he took her out instead. Amidala's character deserved this more dignified ending and legacy.
7. Luke And Leia Don't Go To Her Parents
In the Star Wars prequels, it's clear that Padmé Amidala's parents are very much alive. They expressed great concern when she ran for office, or so she told Anakin. Why were the twins not only separated but shipped off to two households when they had two perfectly good grandparents who would raise them well?
Sure, Obi-Wan might have had their safety in mind as he tried to hide them in plain sight, but was Leia even truly that hidden in the first place? Separating them until they could rise to power didn't really work. Do they ever know who their grandparents are or have a relationship with them?
2. She Stays With Anakin Even After He Destroys The Younglings
After all we know about Padmé, the fact that she would stay with a man who would off a bunch of younglings is hard to swallow. She had to know he'd done it. As both a compassionate politician and the mother of Skywalker's children, Padmé should have left Anakin immediately.
Instead of completely remaining in character, she remained with her abuser until it took her life. If this had been used as a statement about the fear of leaving a violent spouse, it could have worked, but despite his violence, Amidala didn't perish at his hand, but due to something even more absurd.
1. She Perished Of A Broken Heart
Many fans who heard, "She's lost the will to live" saw red over the dialogue's sheer lunacy. Queen Amidala, who fought, ran for dangerous office as a teen, and gave Princess Leia her warrior genes, perished of a broken heart. Even when she had a new family of her own on the way? Nope.
Many fans have cool theories that, while not carrying enough evidence to be canon, make us feel a bit better about this complete outrage. Perhaps Palpatine cut off her life force to sever her ties with Vader. Imagine if she was secretly kept alive and created the Rebellion. Anything is better than pathetic write-off that erases her from the rest of the series.
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What else doesn't make sense about Amidala in Star Wars? Let us know in the comments!