A Thousand Stars: Episode I, Part 28

[matril]

The scene starts quiet, with the queen looking silently at the evening cityscape. Hesitantly Jar Jar approaches her.



As Jar Jar mourns the possible destruction of their peoples, he reveals a vital secret -- the Gungan army. The queen's reaction is very subtle. At first, you wonder if she's even listening.



But she is not unfeeling. I doubt it's a coincidence that the ritualistic makeup is reminiscent of a tear on her face - a bloody tear. She feels deeply. And she is certainly listening.

When Palpatine enters, flushed with triumph, Amidala surges into motion. Something has changed in her mindset. Now she is the one circling the room while the Senator is mostly stationary.




He sits, looking up at her. She has taken charge. She is doing something he never anticipated. She is going back to reclaim her planet and save her people, or die trying.



The Senator hovers in the background, his pleas for her to stay going unheeded. She is no longer positioned as an impressionable, near-helpless figurehead. The tables have turned at last.

(Of course, since these are the prequels and nothing is quite what it seems, we do get a teensy glimpse on Palpatine's face that might be a smile of triumph...but the point still stands.)

Next time, if looks could kill...

Comments

[krpalmer]

I recall comments about "tears" in connection to Amidala's makeup, although I am conscious the red dots were there at the very beginning of the movie; the suggestion this moment might be one emphasizing them does work for me even so. The change to who's in motion was something I hadn't quite considered before. I had heard about "you can glimpse Palpatine beginning to smile," but had always tried looking for it in the moment of the wipe to the next scene only to find it forever elusive. (Then, of course, I get to that personal tension between "he could know everything that's coming" and "but if this diabolical foresight only slips in Return of the Jedi, that lapse threatens to feel arbitrary, or 'just due to advancing age...'")

[matril]

Palaptine is clearly surprised by the queen's decision; he's definitely not omniscient whatever his foresight. But he's created a plan that will succeed whether Amidala lives or dies, and if she conveniently gets killed trying to reclaim her planet, he won't complain.