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i am a pretty soldier, like my father before me

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happy valentine’s day!

from the moment i met you, all those years ago, not a day has gone by when i haven’t thought of you…

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Padmé’s death lands as a major societal taboo while embracing Star Wars' oldest influences. This reaches across aisles and gives everyone a reason to be pissed off. Padmé is a mother character who loves her kids but finds herself unable to go on: she is a woman who rejects motherhood in the most basic sense. She is also a classic Ophelia-lite character, a tragic heroine who dies when betrayed by her love. Moreover, Padmé operates as a withering personification of democracy, of peace, of hope for unconditional love in the face of brutality. The trilogy loses her as it plunges fully into darkness. All of this is blunt and operatic and not easy to fit into some pre-approved Good Female Character mold. So it is blanket-dismissed as degradation, an insult to Padmé's previous triumphs and unworthy of analysis. And so it goes that most call Padmé's death inexplicable, and shy away from the big word: suicide.  This essay aims to bridge that gap, taking Padmé's death seriously and arguing against commonly pitched fix-its. It also serves to set up my following essay, “The Skywalker Suicides Part II”, and establish a thematic connection to Luke. In short, this is a good faith, overwrought close reading of the one thing no Star Wars fan will stop laughing about. (x)

the first part of my "Skywalker Suicides" essay is up on my site! 7k words of padme suicide truthing! leave me a comment! :)

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Why is the SW fandom only just now noticing that Anakin says similar things to Padme (in the fireplace scene) and Palpatine (in his fall to the dark side scene)? Is this not, like, iconic and common knowledge?

And why are people interpreting this parallel solely as something horrible? Yeah, it’s fucked up when he says it to Palpatine, but that’s the point. Padme and Palpatine are foils. In-story Padme is Palpatine’s most formidable political adversary. And on the level of themes, imagery, and symbolism, they are constantly compared and contrasted. They’re both from Naboo. They both have disguises and someone who serve as their ‘decoy’. And so on. And since they are intended to be read as foils, parallels between them should be read as being ‘in conversation’ with one another, to provide some contrast or meaning, not as somehow implying they are ‘the same’.

The point is that Padme is worthy of Anakin’s devotion; Palpatine is not. In relation to individuals in positions of political power, Anakin is inclined towards the role of the enforcer, the right-hand man, not being the one in charge himself. Given this inclination, the ideal person for him to serve was always Padme. That’s his ideal role, to be her knight in a courtly love fashion. I would say this is his ideal role in life even moreso than being part of the Jedi Order. Serving another person is not a negative thing when it’s chosen freely and motivated by true love and devotion. That’s kind of the whole idea behind courtly love (that it is at once humbling as well as morally elevating and transcendent). And Anakin loved Padme first, before he joined the Order. Anakin met Padme first, before he met Palpatine. If Padme represents truth and justice in the galaxy, then Anakin is the one who should have been serving and protecting her (and through her, those ideals). Ironically enough, just like Obi-Wan said the Jedi had once done (aka been ‘the guardians of peace and justice’).

To me, there’s nothing weird about Anakin passionately declaring his forbidden devotion to Padme and saying ‘I will do whatever you ask’ — it’s only unsettling when he subsequently kneels before Palpatine. The juxtaposition of these scenes is supposed to show that he’s (tragically, ironically) aligning himself with Palpatine instead of Padme at that moment.

Is that upsetting? Hell yeah! But it also in turn highlights the fact that when Vader-turned-Anakin throws Palpatine down the reactor shaft in RotJ, he’s not only destroying the Sith, sacrificing himself to save his son, and fulfilling his destiny as the Chosen One — he’s also symbolically aligning himself with Padme once again.

Making Padme into Palpatine’s foil helps to connect the Prequels and Original Trilogy even more thoroughly, and it renders Vader’s redemption and his overthrowing of Palpatine even more meaningful and significant. Especially since it directly fulfills Padme’s dying words and vindicates her faith in him.

Personally, I’m just not into reading a bunch of negative implications into this type of thematic symbolism and mirroring when the actual outcome of the story is about overturning that negativity and bringing Anakin back into alignment with Padme again.

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giving my funko pops body dysmorphia

you would not believe what i found at my local place. love at first sight

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you would not believe what i found at my local place. love at first sight

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finally completed my set... ^__^

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you can't even call jango fett the most underdeveloped antagonist in the star wars universe anymore. because of snoke.

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Anakin Skywalker | Song for Roger Maris

(ob*kins don't interact)

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the public voted for more vaderdala and who am I to deny the demads (it was only one person)

this belongs to this AU

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padme's prophecy

the phantom menace script (george lucas) / attack of the clones script third draft (george lucas) / anne carson / revenge of the sith script (george lucas) / return of the jedi script (george lucas & lawrence kasdan) / hanif abdurraqib

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HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN as Anakin Skywalker Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)

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i hate him with burning passion (affectionately)

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ND-5 in STAR WARS OUTLAWS

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Definitely the wrong interpretation of Padmé’s character to say that she wouldn’t have stayed with Anakin had she lived. Of course, in the context that he remains Vader, it’s obvious she wouldn’t stay by his side then, she’d be actively against him. But a redeemed Vader, that’s once again Anakin Skywalker? There’s no doubt that her undying love for him overpowers all. He’d have a looooot to make up for, but Padmé is the kind of person who’d be on that journey alongside him. Padmé said it herself that they’d always be “one” no matter what happened. She was always ready and willing to forgive him no matter what he did, or where he went. She was always going to his, just as much as he was always hers.

And we see this very clearly even after what’s happened on Mustafar, and after Padmé found out that everything she heard was the truth. But there’s a reason why she still had unwavering faith in Anakin. She knew he still had goodness in him, and she wanted him back. She didn’t fight tooth and nail on Mustafar to bring him back to her, begging him to stop and tell him that she loves him, only to leave him in the end. She wanted him back more than anything. Why? Because she wanted to be with him. To run away to the lakes on Naboo, where she can live out her days with him and their kid(s).

❉ ❉ ❉

“The most powerful, the most repressed thought of all could have emerged from the darkness: Padmé … and her undying love for someone he once knew well. And despite all the terrible, unspeakable things he’d done in his life, he suddenly realized he could not stand by and allow the Emperor to kill their son. And in that moment, he was no longer Darth Vader.”

[Ryder Windham’s Episode VI: Return of the Jedi novelization]

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and when they try to use their powers on you, suddenly it's not as easy as they thought. Becasue you'll be right back here with me, playing pazaak, where they can't reach you.

been playing a lot of kotor 2, so heres my jedi exile Philothea Surik with Atton Rand, my fave companion this go around!