From the moment she was introduced in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Padmé Amidala was a brilliant Star Wars character. At first, of course, audiences had no idea that Padmé was also the Queen, as she and Sabé, her handmaiden, were using a very effective decoy strategy that was fooling even those closest to them. Nevertheless, when her true identity was revealed, the depth of her character, along with her bravery and wisdom, was apparent.
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Already, the hints that she was going to be Anakin Skywalker’s eventual love interest and therefore the biological mother of Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa (despite Padmé and Anakin’s awkward age gap in that movie) were also there, so the implication was that she would remain quite important throughout the next two movies. While that was certainly true, the full truth is that, although she was a significant character, her prequel trilogy characterization wasn’t what it should have been—in fact, Star Wars movies and TV shows took six years to get it right.
Padmé’s Characterization Was Diminished Later In The Prequels
As mentioned, The Phantom Menace proved that Padmé was a strong and intelligent character. After all, she was only a teenager when she was dealing with the Battle of Naboo and going undercover—thereby putting her life at risk—to save her people. When Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones began and revealed that Padmé had become a senator whose life was now once again at risk, it seemed as though that characterization would more or less continue.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t exactly the case. While Padmé seemed the same at first, her romantic entanglement with Anakin throughout that movie slowly degraded her character and the traits that audiences had come to know and love. Most egregious was when Anakin confessed to killing the Tusken Raider men, women, and children, and (completely out of character, based on what viewers had seen thus far) Padmé essentially told Anakin it was human to be angry. The Padmé of The Phantom Menace would never have excused genocide so carelessly.
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith sadly only made this worse. While Padmé did have some great moments, such as her iconic line about liberty dying with thunderous applause, her story was almost entirely wrapped up in Anakin. And, as was the case with the Tusken Raider incident, Padmé continued to excuse Anakin’s bad behavior. Horrifyingly, she shows up on Mustafar well aware that Obi-Wan has accused Anakin of slaughtering younglings and begs him to leave with her anyway.
Worse still, Revenge of the Sith has left Padmé’s death somewhat open to interpretation, but none of the options are exactly good. The common thinking in the fanbase seems to be that she “died of a broken heart,” although the movie doesn’t actually say that. The medical droid simply says she’s lost the will to live. This makes absolutely no sense, as Padmé always had an incredible fight within her, and she never would have wanted to leave her babies alone in such a cruel galaxy.
One running Star Wars head canon that would at least make this slightly better is the idea that Palpatine drained Padmé’s life to save Anakin’s once he had sustained such serious injuries on Mustafar, yet even that wouldn’t explain away the fact that, rather than begging Obi-Wan to hide and save her children, she used her last breath to say Anakin still had good in him. All of this to say, Padmé’s characterization in the prequels went steadily downhill. Thankfully, one Star Wars story came along six years after Attack of the Clones that radically improved this issue.
Padmé Holds Anakin Accountable In The Clone Wars
One of the biggest issues with Padmé’s behavior in the prequels, particularly in the latter half, is her acceptance of all of Anakin’s jarring, at times very bad behavior, such as with the Tusken Raiders. In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which was released about six years after Attack of the Clones, this isn’t the same. In fact, Padmé actually holds Anakin accountable in completely new ways in that show.
As just one (but very important) example, during the story arc in which Rush Clovis is once again making moves on Padmé, Anakin beats him nearly to death with his bare hands. Rather than excusing Anakin’s anger and violence again, Padmé demands a break from him, and it is the rockiest their relationship ever becomes until the horrible end. That alone shows a very different side of Padmé, and while it’s not great that this suggests Padmé was more upset about Rush being beaten up than Tusken children being wiped out, it was still a major improvement.
Padmé Was A Political Hero In The Clone Wars
In addition to her relationship with Anakin being better in The Clone Wars—as that should not be the only measure of her character—Padmé’s role in politics is also much greater in the show. Granted, The Clone Wars had seven seasons, whereas the movies only had a few hours, but this was still a significant improvement. The show even reveals that Padmé came incredibly close to ending the war through her friendship with Separatist Mina Bonteri, until they were foiled by Palpatine and Count Dooku.
What’s especially frustrating is the fact that the deleted scenes from Revenge of the Sith captured much more of this side of Padmé, including by depicting her effectively starting the Rebellion in scenes with Bail Organa and Mon Mothma. The final cut of the movie, however, reduced this iconic character to little more than Anakin’s sad wife who gave up when things became too dark. Thankfully, The Clone Wars stepped in and made this much better.
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