A Thousand Stars: Episode I, Part 25

In light of his summons to the Jedi Council, Anakin goes to say goodbye to Padmé. Back in my days in the Royal Handmaiden Society, we used to call this the "Ani can't count" scene, because there's clearly three handmaidens and a queen in the room, and she only ever had three handmaidens, so one of them must be Padmé, right? But let's not be too hard on the kid. He's totally without guile; he would never imagine that sort of deception even for benevolent purposes like protecting the queen's identity. If he thinks about it at all, he might assume she had an extra handmaiden hanging around waiting for her on Coruscant.

Now let's look at the imagery.

The difference between Anakin and Padmé's dynamic and Anakin and Amidala's dynamic is quite pronounced, if you contrast this with their last encounter on the ship. Have I mentioned the role of contrasts in the saga as a whole and particularly in Episode I? If so, I'll mention it once more and always. Study the contrasts. They show up again and again, and reveal so much if you're looking for it.


They are literally at a distance. She towers over him in full regalia while he, still in humble slave garb, bows and keeps back in the corner. Amidala rules a planet; Anakin is a nobody from the Outer Rim. And even if he attains Jedi status, he'll still be in a completely different sphere than royalty.

Yet Padmé is still there beneath the queen's trappings, even if Anakin doesn't know it yet. The distance between their two spheres will provide considerable obstacles in the next film, but they are drawn together nonetheless.

Next time, a whispering snake...

A Thousand Stars: Episode I, Part 26

It still baffles me that people complain about "all those political scenes that go on forever" in Episode I. Um...there are two, maybe three, I guess? Which scenes are they talking about? The one that's actually in the Senate? It's a couple of minutes. And it's fascinating.

Just imagine a Senate that governs an entire galaxy. What would it look like?



As if that's not eye-boggling enough, the view changes and shows us how deep it goes.



Is this what they mean about going on forever? It's dizzying, mind-blowing. Boring? I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

Some more striking images: look how Palpatine shifts position right at the end of his introductory words, just before the Federation representative interrupts.


As if he's is fully expecting the interruption - perhaps even engineering it.

And then he whispers in the queen's ear, snake-like and subtle.

Influencing her perceptions and reactions so that she will, inevitably, call for the Chancellor to step down and thus pave the way for Palpatine. A very skilled tempter indeed.

Next, a child on trial...