macabre-muses

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rewatched aotc and it's crazy how abnormal padmé is about anakin. in the dinner scene when he's cutting the shuura in half the camera cuts to her looking at him like she wants to EAT HIM. like ok freak.

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Also, let's not forget that Padme was 7-8 months pregnant, just watched her life's work collapse, had her husband openly admit that he not only helped (by way of killing children and a ton of other people) but did it in *her* name, and then got strangled into unconsciousness. Yes, the whole "lost the will to live" thing is silly, but Padme's physical and psychological health was in the toilet long before she was induced.

hi!! honestly i don't think it's silly at all. it fits perfectly in the tragic and melodramatic genre of the prequels and it's a pretty common trope in that. we kinda need to focus on what's more impactful thematically then what's medically realistic. "padmé lost the will to live" means she DIDN'T WANT TO, it's not a crazy reach, it's the closest thing to a suicide we have in the saga. i do think it could have been handled better but i don't think it's absurd, sometimes some suspension of disbelief is needed when watching a movie like this.

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I know it's kinda an unpopular idea, but I do read Naboo as a rather traditional society (and like that doesn't have to read as a copy of Western traditional society because there's obviously differences as well!).

But it's fairly obvious with the Queen that rituals and symbolism is important regarding costume, make up, etc. There's very much a way of doing things and following those is seen to be important.

You've also got the (not very elaborated on) idea of Gungan society being the victim of human prejudice in TPM.

I also think a society that elects pre-teen and teenage girls as Queens because of their 'purity', could have some troubling issues re: the sexuality of teenage girls in general, or more specifically, the sexuality of their Queens after their reigns end.

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revisited my star wars watchlist with some movies that served as actual references in the making of the saga and then others i have seen or plan on seeing that contain tropes or vibes i wish to explore in a sw context

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also this exact thing has probably been said before many times, but THAT discourse sadly always stayed the same, so i will keep saying this until either i or the discourse die.

going THERE again just to say once again that "she had kids to live for" is not the feminist girlboss empowering take you think it is (twitter in particular needs to hear this but i'm too much of a coward to post there). and before you come at me, yes she did want those children, but you also have to consider the circumnstances in which she made that choice. when she got pregnant she could still look forward to her life in the dream house on naboo with anakin, she could still look forward to the war being over and to the republic being set on the right path, she could still look forward to raising her children with the love of her life in a peaceful galaxy. at the time of her death all of those dreams were gone. i'm not saying she didn't love luke and leia, but imo having a family for her was always connected to having her perfect life. is it terribly idealistic? yes, but idealisim is one of padmé's core traits, it always was (that's not to say i think she didn't know anakin cause a lot of their relationship is based on just that). a part of her might have even thought they would be better off without her, no matter if it was true or not. maybe her death is not the most girlboss feminism moment, maybe it's not the height of motherhood (which by the way doesn't have to be the peak of a female character's life), but why should it be? it's a tragedy. saying it doesn't make sense for her to die because she wanted kids makes you sound like a misogynist who didn't understand the different circumnstances all of the chracters were in at the beginning/end of the movie.

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going THERE again just to say once again that "padmé had kids to live for" is not the feminist girlboss empowering take you think it is (twitter in particular needs to hear this but i'm too much of a coward to post there). and before you come at me, yes she did want those children, but you also have to consider the circumnstances in which she made that choice. when she got pregnant she could still look forward to her life in the dream house on naboo with anakin, she could still look forward to the war being over and to the republic being set on the right path, she could still look forward to raising her children with the love of her life in a peaceful galaxy. at the time of her death all of those dreams were gone. i'm not saying she didn't love luke and leia, but imo having a family for her was always connected to having her perfect life. is it terribly idealistic? yes, but idealism is one of padmé's core traits, it always was (that's not to say i think she didn't know anakin cause a lot of their relationship is based on just that). a part of her might have even thought they would be better off without her, no matter if it was true or not. maybe her death is not the most girlboss feminism moment, maybe it's not the height of motherhood (which by the way doesn't have to be the peak of a female character's life), but why should it be? it's a tragedy. saying it doesn't make sense for her to die because she wanted kids makes you sound like a misogynist who didn't understand the different circumnstances all of the chracters were in at the beginning/end of the movie.

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insane family lore drop that i will probably never do again but i just found out my grandma went into labor without knowing she was having twins. and found out during. my grandmother is padmé amidala confirmed.

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The Young Martyr (1855) by Paul Delaroche//Revenge of the Sith (2005) dir. George Lucas

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imagine being padmé and your weird uncle/mentor of thirteen years who is quickly spiraling into a dictator turns your secret monk husband into his rabid killing lapdog who fetches you authocratic power like it's a bone. in the span of less then a week. and you're in your third trimester with twins.

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ghazzah has no food. this is the most important thing you can say today. the israeli occupation has gotten away with starving 1.8 million+ ppl for long enough to where tht ppl are dying everyday from it now.

protests are no longer effective. there must be a loud, consistent, and coordinated response to the continued policy of collective punishment. because 85% of Gazzans are malnourished. these people will die if we don’t take real action NOW.

what is also important is to keep assisting palestinians in gaza via donating to their campaign. the $ is still used in various ways whether that be for sourcing scarce medical supplies, water, future evacuation, etc. support @blackeagleplog’s, my dear friend mohammed who’s become his family’s sole provider at 23 years old, campaign here. he’s been severely weakened by hunger & told me today he’s only ate lentils once.

how many times did you eat today?

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anakin skywalker/darth vader "wound"

joë bousquet//darth vader (2017) by charles soule//jorge luis borges "a new refutation of time"//janet fitch from white oleander/revenge of the sith (2005) dir. george lucas

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I feel like a lot of Anakin-centric discourse is odd to me because I think both excusing his actions or demonizing him both miss the mark because sort of his whole thing is that he's a complicated person whose festering darkness pulled him down for a long time and whose light eventually pulled him out for a brief moment.

He was groomed, he's killed a lot of children and innocent people, he very earnestly loves his wife, he also strangles her, he's super repressed, the Jedi are not an inherently repressive order, he probably would have benefited from having a consistent parental guardian, he became a fascist boogeyman for twenty years, he grew up in slavery, etc etc.

He's got a lot going on and trying to get a simple answer out of all of that will involve flattening him and everyone around him as characters.

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'I know that it wouldn't end pretty because I've met men like him and-' no, you haven't, because he's enterely Fictional, he's a Warrior with Magic Powers in the Space, in a Space Fantasy Soap Opera Tragedy inspired by Greek Myth and he's very very Fake and Not Real and you're reading this like if this were something grounded in reality but it isn't because He's Fictional<3

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Thou Rose of all the Roses (c.1883) by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema// Padmé Amidala in Attack of the Clones (2002) art by. Tara Phillips

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ALSO it's just such a tired topic (i say, while actively adding to the discourse), and many people have probably already expressed this better than i did, but people will bring up the life force thing like it's pure gold or just say it's bad writing and the choking killed her (to believe this you literally have to ignore stuff said OUT LOUD in the movie), instead of trying to engage with her character in any meaningful way. and it probably won't change ever. but seeing people just accept something as weird and unsupported as the life force theory as the canon intention while there is a perfectly good explanation that just requires a little more thought really pisses me off.

all discourse surrounding padmé's death should focus less on what "is easier to understand" or "makes more sense" and more on what's actually thematically impactful in the mythological space story.

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also i don't mean to say that the way padmé's death and in general her character in rots was written were absolutely perfect and can't leave a watcher unsatisfied, but if you keep talking about how padmé doesn't make any choices and does nothing the whole movie just to end up making up some crazy theory to explain why she died instead of trying to analyze the text in which her death is in fact a choice, albeit a less overt one, then maybe you are kind of an hypocrite.

all discourse surrounding padmé's death should focus less on what "is easier to understand" or "makes more sense" and more on what's actually thematically impactful in the mythological space story.

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"lost the will to live" is a (imo) purposefully ambiguous statement. but it doesn't take a genius to realize that it means SHE DIDN'T WANT TO LIVE. her losing all hope and being denied of the future and the life she wanted because of her husband still places anakin as her murderer but allows her a level of choice and agency in her own story and her own death that her just dying because of the choking (which the medical droids literally stated wasn't the cause of her death) strips away from her. there's a reason lucas had the med-droids specify she was completly healthy, to take away any doubt that the choking could have directly killed her (still doesn't excuse anakin doing it at all of course). he wanted to express and symbolize something more with her death, it's the death of hope and the birth of (literally) a new one. the places padmé occupied in the story, the fierce leader of her planet and the sole believer in anakin's goodness, will be taken respectively by her daughter and son in the next trilogy, they, along with all of the good she brought unto the galxy through her work, are her legacy. many stories, especially classical ones, have heroines commit suicide as the last way to impose their will and agency, i would consider padmé to be one of them. coming up with some theory about the droids not knowing anything (i beg you to be so fucking for real right now) or sidious taking her life force through powers that we don't even know if he has just deny her the last choice she ever made in a movie where she already has an extremely limited set of active actions (SUICIDE DOESN'T EMPOWER WOMEN!!!!!)

sometimes what is easier to understand is not the best choice for the story!!! sometimes you need to go deeper and suspend your disbelief!!!!

all discourse surrounding padmé's death should focus less on what "is easier to understand" or "makes more sense" and more on what's actually thematically impactful in the mythological space story.