The Moons of Iego: The Padmé Amidala & Anakin Skywalker Website

WHY PADMÉ/ANAKIN?

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I can't speak for all P/A shippers here, and I'm certainly not out to convince anyone - but here's part of why this pairing first drew me, and continues to draw me even ten years later.

To make it short and incredibly simplistic: they're pretty and angsty as heck and make for hot smut, since they're separated for long periods of time and have a lot of pent-up frustration. Whee!

To be more serious and much more long-winded: I've been intrigued by this pairing since before we even had a name for Padmé, when all we knew about this pairing was that it had resulted in Luke and Leia and that it had ended badly. Knowing about it before it actually happened on-screen gave it an air of predestination, which made knowing it would end badly even more compelling. When I saw their scenes together in TPM, I was irrevocably hooked. Them meeting as children and forming an instant bond of friendship; exchanging tokens of affection; Anakin falling in love (in his own childlike way) at first sight, entering a tournament and later slaying the figurative dragon for her. Even at this early state, P/A was clearly being set up to be an epic, mythic courtly romance, one full of destiny, and I'm all over those.

People knocked the romantic dialogue in AotC, but it was basically fine with me - Anakin's been head-over-heels for this girl half of his life, but you know he's not had one second of schooling in how to deal with it - shoot, I remember writing like that when I was head-over-heels for a guy. He tries to project a brash confident air so much of the time, but around her he stumbles incredibly with his words -- though more than makes up for it in actions and body language. Every move of his in his scenes with her speaks of the depth of his devotion and passion. And though it's more subtle, the signs of her own feelings are there, almost overwhelmed by the elaborate scope and detail of the film - the way she never takes her eyes off him, the surreptitious glances up and down his body, the staring at his lips, and (my favorite) the little gasp she lets out when he's Force-floating the fruit to her in their dinner scene. She's completely entranced with him, and it shows - she's fallen just as badly as he has. This man was a boy Padmé shared a deep friendship with, who saved her world, who's grown up into not only a gorgeous man, but one who's completely devoted to her and would give his life for her without a second thought. You see her at her happiest, her most emotionally open, when she's with Anakin (and vice versa for him) - no other person in the universe is that effective in melting the Queen/Senator exterior she hides behind. I'm frankly amazed Padmé resisted as long as she did! I'd love for a guy to be that devoted to me. ;)

That she also chooses to marry him was a big point - she could very easily have chosen to have an affair (though I'm not sure if Anakin, Mr. Never Do Things Halfway, would stand for 'sullying' her that way), being with him but not being remotely the risk a deeper commitment would be. But she chooses the deeper commitment - and if nothing else seals the truth of her love, her taking his mechanical hand at the ceremony does. She accepts both the machine and the man, which was very telling of what was in store for them in RotS. It's the two of them choosing to stand against the universe, and we know that the universe is - for a long time - going to win.

RotS I thought was even more effective at conveying the mutual, desperate passion they have for one another, just in their first scene - the way Anakin bounds like a giddy little boy to her and swings her around in his arms when he sees her again; the way they literally sink into one another's embrace, her kissing him and running her fingers through his hair, him burying his face in her neck. Then the beaming joy on their faces as they contemplate their child. (Plus that scene's just straight up hot, with Anakin wanting to take her right there. If it hadn't been quite as public a place, or if it weren't for the baby, I think she would have let him, too.) Their next scene still gets knocked for the dialogue, but again it doesn't particularly bother me - when a couple is that giddily in love, they don't care how they sound. (My newlywed dad and stepmom were and still are that sappy with one another.) Though what gets me more in that scene is the way Anakin's looking at her - nothing really primal or lustful, but simply content to just stand there and look at her brushing her hair. She is his entire universe, which makes the subsequent nightmare even more heartbreaking to watch. The thought of losing her - and possibly the child - terrifies him to the point where logic seems to fly out of his brain - otherwise I don't think he would have fallen for Palpy's sales pitches near as easily.

Then there's possibly my favorite P/A scene of all time, the "Padmé's Ruminations" scene. There's no way you can doubt the depth and intensity of their connection after this scene - the way she suddenly looks up and goes to the window looking out with worry at the Jedi Temple, at the same moment he's looking back at their apartment from the Temple miles away, heart obviously breaking as he considers what he thinks he has to do. The decision to join Palpatine is not an easy one for him, and he knows it'll cost him his soul, but it's a price he knows he's willing to pay if there's any chance of saving her. I always knew that after the Ani/Obi scene in AotC where Padmé falls from the gunship, if Anakin was faced with choosing between the Jedi and Padmé ever again, who he'd choose that second time. What's most heartbreaking is in that desire to save her, in what he does to accomplish it, he actually loses sight of her - until it's far too late.

It's passionate, tragic, mythic - you can find countless mythic or classical couples that mirror P/A, and their relationship has enough mythic symbolism in it to span a hundred essays. The relationship runs the entire gamut of human emotion (and painfully), from pure innocence to intense passion to heartbreaking betrayal, yet is still a tale of unending compassion. It's a love that literally destroys the galaxy - and brings it back together again, because the love's never completely destroyed. Even after all the physical and emotional madness Vader experiences on/after Mustafar, his first thoughts after he wakes up are for her well-being. (This was surreal as crazy for me, hearing James Earl Jones' Vader voice say "Padmé" - knowing I'd watch his scenes in the OT later on and remember his first words in this incarnation were about his wife.) Some part of him still does love her even in the suit, and that's the same part of him - the part that can still love - that Luke reaches in RotJ. And both in AotC after the Tusken massacre, and even after he fatally breaks her heart, Padmé believes in the good in Anakin. (I think it likely Anakin would have self-destructed long before he did if not for her compassion after he confesses the Tusken slaughter.) In RotS, her dying words are to affirm Anakin's goodness, imprinting that belief on their son - through Luke, her love and faith still save her husband more than 20 years after her own death.

One footnote? If I see one more person call this relationship 'codependent' or 'enabling' -- grrr. If you try to completely analyze a myth - which is what P/A clearly is - purely with pop psychology, I think you lose the story's point. Compassion is not willingly blinding yourself to what a person does, denying what they did - but looking at those acts, processing them, and deciding you can still accept this person anyway. I think it actually makes Padmé an even more fascinating character, that she's so drawn and devoted to such a deeply flawed/tormented man. It makes her more human.

To sum up, this relationship has every story element I ever wanted in a ship (except the happy ending, which I'm convinced they got after the cameras stopped rolling on RotJ anyway). If I had to choose only one ship out of all the ships out there to keep, casting all the others aside - this would be the one, unquestionably.

-- Aeryn

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Want to share your own reasons for loving Padmé/Anakin? Check out the "Beginnings: P/A Fan Stories" page.