A Thousand Stars: Episode I, Part 25

[matril]

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...