Star Words: Episode III, Part 26

[matril]

While Bail, Yoda and Obi-Wan are doing what they can to save the remaining Jedi, Anakin/Vader is descending deeper into darkness. His visit to Padmé in between the massacre at the Temple and the journey to Mustafar is truly chilling, as we see the effect the Dark Side has already begun to have upon him. He lies to her, mostly in the form of partial truths (yes, the Jedi tried to take down the Chancellor, but only because he's a SITH LORD; yes, he witnessed Master Windu attempting to kill Palpatine, but he was hardly a passive observer as helped Palpatine DESTROY HIM) and remains disturbingly cold and calm about the whole thing. He answers her questions evasively, leaving out everything that would explain what's really go on.

It's no wonder that Padmé is unsettled. She can see something's not right. She has gone from assuming Anakin was killed at the burning Temple to hearing that he is the only loyal Jedi among thousands of traitors; that all the other Jedi she knows have become criminals. She says she can't believe it (a sentiment that will show up again when Obi-Wan tells her the truth about Anakin...though spoken in very different tones). Then, after her beloved husband insists that it's all true, that everything she believed is crumbling, she lays bare her emotions.

"Anakin, I'm afraid."

Female characters with little depth tend to say this kind of thing a lot when their entire existence is basically just a means for the heroes to manfully hold them close and comfort them, providing wish fulfillment for males in the audience. That's not what's happening here. After all, it's Anakin's over-protectiveness of his wife, the distorted notion of seeing her as a thing to be possessed and protected, that has brought him to this awful place.

Padmé has proven herself one of the most fearless characters in the trilogy, willing to rush into battle in a desperate gambit to save her people; to stare into the face of the Federation Viceroy without flinching; to charge off to a Separatist planet when Obi-Wan is in peril -- basically, when Padmé says she's afraid, things have gotten really serious.

The only other time she expresses her fear is as she's about to go into hiding with Anakin. She voices this feeling with some surprise, like she doesn't fully know why it's overtaking her. Almost as if she's having a little bit of Force-inspired foreboding that this journey will not ultimately end well.

And here she is, married to a man whose warmth and kindness have transformed into something strange and chilling. She doesn't know the full truth. But she knows something is wrong. And Anakin/Vader's attempt to comfort her comes across almost like a mockery of gentleness. Knowing what he did at the Temple, what he did to the Younglings, we can only flinch as he caresses her cheek and assures her that everything will be fine.

As she watches him leave, it's clear that his assurances did nothing for her. Bleakness and dread fill her face. The bravest women in the galaxy is afraid, and we are all trembling.

Next, another chilling line from the soon-to-be Emperor....

Comments

[krpalmer]

I have to admit I found "the bravest women in the galaxy is afraid, and we are all trembling" a bracing contrast to all those comments over the years how "she was presented as tough as nails, but now, for the apparent sake of the story"... Thinking ahead (and aware this might yet be addressed in this series), I've been pondering for a while how the rest of the Senate reacts to the fall of the Jedi. However, I also have to admit to wondering if we might have to ponder Bail Organa's reactions to her when he sees her, or even go so far as to imagine an "alternative universe" story where he tries to recruit her to the nascent Rebellion.

[matril]

Padmé would definitely have been part of the Rebellion, I think, if not for the fact that one of the Empire's most prominent leaders was her estranged husband. And also that she died, obviously.