Padmé Amidala in the Darth Plagueis novel

[chameleon_irony]

Even though Padmé is almost completely absent from the novel, it makes several major revelations about her or connected to her. Yes, this post contains SPOILERS.

- Now we know why she is so messed up.

Comments

[philstar22]

Personally, I loved the idea that Palpatine is the one who convinced her to run. Because that means that he majorly underestimated her and thought she would be weak and easy to control. Which is awesome.

[chameleon_irony]

Me too. It's still my headcanon. We don't actually see them convince Padmé - all we know is they tried. For all we know, maybe she refused, and then Palpatine personally convinced her. That's how it's going to happen in my fic.

[tine_marie]

Next: TPM in 3D

Aaagh I was going to ask if you were going to see it in theatres! I'm almost embarrassingly excited for it. Along with RotJ TPM is my favourite as well as being the movie that started the entire Star Wars thing for me so the temptation to go with my hair in some kinda crazy Amidala-esque updo is huuuge. I'm gonna lose my shit watching this movie on the big screen again.

Also you should go to school and do a thesis on Star Wars or something. It'd be legit.

[chameleon_irony]

I don't think they are even showing it in my town. Certainly not in English. I'll have to go to Montreal.

being the movie that started the entire Star Wars thing for me

Same. :D

Also you should go to school and do a thesis on Star Wars

I know someone who has done a thesis on Star Wars. But I don't see how I would have the opportunity while studying law or undergrad psychology. (I don't want to have to write a thesis on anything, ever!)

[wyncatastrophe]

I know someone who has done a thesis on Star Wars.

Hey, I resemble this remark! Well, I guess not really, because my thesis was more about the fanfic. But still. Academic theses on pop culture products FTW! I support this endeavor. Do you know if it's published?

[chameleon_irony]

I don't think he has published it. And no, I haven't read it. It's technical filmmaking stuff, not really my specialty.

[aleysiasnape]

I did buy the book! Going to read it over the weekend. I'm trying to talk my brother into going to see it in 3D. Well both of them. No luck yet. Let me know how it is!

[chameleon_irony]

I'm not sure when I'll get the chance to see it. I have to travel pretty far. They aren't showing it in my town.

[pronker]

Have just today finished the book and am interested in your thoughts, which you stated here: Jobal is the only woman that Palps *or Luceno, for Palps* describes in an admiring manner. Luceno is just so darn good at weaving in references to the EU characters and situations that I have to applaud that, on a little sidenote.

Also, Luceno did something with midi-chlorians and their uses; he really did delve into their uses in a scientific manner.

[chameleon_irony]

No, Jobal isn't the only one. There's also the hostess on Malastare, the one he seduces (p. 168-170). She is described from his POV as A dark-haired human beauty with big blue eyes. That makes it even more suspicious, doesn't it, that he looks at Jobal in a similar way.

Have you read Luceno's Cloak of Deception? It contains a fascinating sequence written from Palpatine's point of view in which Queen Amidala's beauty is described as "exquisite". I'm not making this up.

darn, it's back at the library so I cannot mess around in it ...

[pronker]

... but okay. It's nice and a bit creepy to think of him as a Romeo .. and yes, when it was first published. I don't recall a whole lot about it.

[chameleon_irony]

Very creepy. Typical sociopath.

[wyncatastrophe]

Exceedingly glad you posted this, largely because I have no good feelings about when I'll get around to reading Darth Plagueis, and in fact probably wouldn't have tried if I hadn't seen from your post that Padmé was involved (this may become important for academic reasons later on). But, whoa. Plagueis was around in TPM? Which means … there were three Sith doing their thing? That … wait … help … I don't even …

Okay, I'm just going to have to read the book and figure this out. Maybe over Spring Break. Which is a ways off, but still.

[chameleon_irony]

Yup, there were three. Both Plagueis and Sidious believed themselves to be above the Rule of Two. And to quote James Luceno, "Sidious doesn't follow rules of any sort" (source).

Your comment reminded me to add a spoiler warning. Which, you know, I should have done before posting. Oops.

that Padmé was involved (this may become important for academic reasons later on)

Important how? This sounds really interesting. The amount of meta I've written about her characterization, and the amount of mental effort I've made to understand her character over the last 5 years, amaze me, as does the fact that I always find more to say about her. I think I could write a thesis about her, even though the idea of writing a thesis about anything makes me want to run for the hills.

[wyncatastrophe]

Important how? This sounds really interesting. The amount of meta I've written about her characterization, and the amount of mental effort I've made to understand her character over the last 5 years, amaze me, as does the fact that I always find more to say about her. I think I could write a thesis about her, even though the idea of writing a thesis about anything makes me want to run for the hills.

I've been toying with the idea of focusing my dissertation around Padmé somehow. I'm not ready to discuss it at length yet. But at the very least I think it's no great secret to say that I am interested in her representation(s), in the various media of canon and in fan fiction, and that I think her character(ization) merits further critical exploration. So: stay tuned? :)