Star Words: XXI
Aug. 3rd, 2017 12:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrilAfter enduring the inaction and indifference of the Senate, Queen Amidala is in the midst of a moral crisis. She gazes out at the glittering cityscape of Coruscant, an entire city-planet full of people without a single one who can help her. She knows the futility of trying to take back her planet by force without any significant military power on her side, and even if she had a hope of winning, it would require a war that goes against all her pacifist principles.
And then Jar Jar mentions the Gungans' "grand army," and you can see the wheels start to turn in her head. It's a desperate hope, and it would mean fighting and violence and all the things she hates. But it's still a hope, and anything has to be better than sitting and waiting helplessly while her people die.
So when Palaptine arrives, flushed with triumph at his almost-certain appointment as the new Chancellor, the news hardly seems to register for Amidala. She is already mentally plotting out what must be done to set her plan into action. She moves, striding from one end of the room to the other, full of energy and determination, so different from the queen quietly sitting on the couch during the pre-Senate scene in this apartment. Palpatine's words hardly seem to have any effect on her, except to further strengthen her resolve. She tells him she has decided to go back to Naboo.
He protests; he reminds her of the dangers. She does not waver. She will sign no treaty.
"My fate will be no different than that of our people."
A perfectly-phrased rejoinder. It shows her solidarity with the people who call her queen, characteristic of the self-sacrificing kind of leadership she espouses. It also contains a subtle jab against Palpatine -- remember, these are your people too, Senator! -- that would probably prick the conscience of anyone who actually had a conscience. It doesn't change Palpatine's evil designs in the slightest, but Amidala could not be aware of that. Nor does she notice the very slight smile emerging on his face once she turns to leave.
If she stays on Coruscant, he'll become Chancellor and put on a show of helping the poor beleaguered people of their home planet. If she goes and inevitably gets herself killed, her martyrdom will only increase the power of the sympathy vote (which he refers to with a rather smarmy complacency, followed up with a "I will be Chancellor" line that always makes my skin crawl). And if she somehow manages to pull off her one-in-a-million gambit, her victory will make it all the more natural for the Senate to give Palpatine a victory as well. At this point, he can't lose.
This line is poignant as well in how it will be echoed throughout the trilogy. We see Amidala evoking a similar sentiment later on in Episode I when she reveals her true identity to Boss Nass, kneels before him and declares, "Our fate is in your hands," which is enough to convince him that the Naboo might not be so unforgivably arrogant after all. The fate of Gungan and Naboo is entwined, and they have finally acknowledged it and can use to reclaim their planet.
Then, in Episode III, Anakin refuses to leave a wounded Obi-Wan, informing Palpatine, "His fate will be the same as ours." In this regard, he and his secret wife are very similar. Devotion, self-sacrifice, a refusal to abandon those they care about. Only someone as skilled as Palpatine is able to corrupt such a trait into obsession, jealousy, and a lust for power.
It's a different kind of tragedy for his wife. This devotion to people is both her most admirable strength and her greatest vulnerability. She could have easily died in her quest to take back Naboo. Her life is imperiled repeatedly through the trilogy as she ties her fate to those around her, devoted to a cause greater than her own self-preservation. And when her people fall -- her Republic, her colleagues in the Senate, and most of all her beloved husband -- she falls with them. All that they used to be has died, and so she dies as well. Her fate is the same as theirs.
Next, some more wisdom (a little biology lesson) from Qui-Gon...
And then Jar Jar mentions the Gungans' "grand army," and you can see the wheels start to turn in her head. It's a desperate hope, and it would mean fighting and violence and all the things she hates. But it's still a hope, and anything has to be better than sitting and waiting helplessly while her people die.
So when Palaptine arrives, flushed with triumph at his almost-certain appointment as the new Chancellor, the news hardly seems to register for Amidala. She is already mentally plotting out what must be done to set her plan into action. She moves, striding from one end of the room to the other, full of energy and determination, so different from the queen quietly sitting on the couch during the pre-Senate scene in this apartment. Palpatine's words hardly seem to have any effect on her, except to further strengthen her resolve. She tells him she has decided to go back to Naboo.
He protests; he reminds her of the dangers. She does not waver. She will sign no treaty.
"My fate will be no different than that of our people."
A perfectly-phrased rejoinder. It shows her solidarity with the people who call her queen, characteristic of the self-sacrificing kind of leadership she espouses. It also contains a subtle jab against Palpatine -- remember, these are your people too, Senator! -- that would probably prick the conscience of anyone who actually had a conscience. It doesn't change Palpatine's evil designs in the slightest, but Amidala could not be aware of that. Nor does she notice the very slight smile emerging on his face once she turns to leave.
If she stays on Coruscant, he'll become Chancellor and put on a show of helping the poor beleaguered people of their home planet. If she goes and inevitably gets herself killed, her martyrdom will only increase the power of the sympathy vote (which he refers to with a rather smarmy complacency, followed up with a "I will be Chancellor" line that always makes my skin crawl). And if she somehow manages to pull off her one-in-a-million gambit, her victory will make it all the more natural for the Senate to give Palpatine a victory as well. At this point, he can't lose.
This line is poignant as well in how it will be echoed throughout the trilogy. We see Amidala evoking a similar sentiment later on in Episode I when she reveals her true identity to Boss Nass, kneels before him and declares, "Our fate is in your hands," which is enough to convince him that the Naboo might not be so unforgivably arrogant after all. The fate of Gungan and Naboo is entwined, and they have finally acknowledged it and can use to reclaim their planet.
Then, in Episode III, Anakin refuses to leave a wounded Obi-Wan, informing Palpatine, "His fate will be the same as ours." In this regard, he and his secret wife are very similar. Devotion, self-sacrifice, a refusal to abandon those they care about. Only someone as skilled as Palpatine is able to corrupt such a trait into obsession, jealousy, and a lust for power.
It's a different kind of tragedy for his wife. This devotion to people is both her most admirable strength and her greatest vulnerability. She could have easily died in her quest to take back Naboo. Her life is imperiled repeatedly through the trilogy as she ties her fate to those around her, devoted to a cause greater than her own self-preservation. And when her people fall -- her Republic, her colleagues in the Senate, and most of all her beloved husband -- she falls with them. All that they used to be has died, and so she dies as well. Her fate is the same as theirs.
Next, some more wisdom (a little biology lesson) from Qui-Gon...
