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

ESSAYS & DISCUSSION

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Distressing Damsel:
Padmé Amidala as Fairy Tale Heroine

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Star Wars, with its elements of royalty, supernaturally powerful beings, star-crossed romance, and battles against evil, has been labeled by many over the years as a modern-day myth, and modern-day fairy tale. One of its more openly fairy tale-like threads is in the life of prequel heroine and Skywalker matriarch Padmé Amidala.

The term "fairy tale" is often used interchangeably with "myth," and the two do share similarities. Fairy tale and myth both involve a person thrust outside their normal realm of experience on a journey to fulfill a greater goal, and both illustrate important stages or lessons in a human's life.₁ However, myth and fairy tale do have significant differences. Fairy tale scholar Marcia Lane describes one thus: "A fairy tale... happens in the past tense, and... is not tied to any specifics. If it happens 'at the beginning of the world,' then it is a myth."₂ The title card "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" alone fits Lane's stipulations: Star Wars is set in the past, but not a specific period. Secondly, events affecting the characters of myths are portrayed as highly out of the ordinary in the context of the story, whereas in fairy tales magical events could happen to anyone.₃ In several ways, this is the case with Star Wars. Things like duels with light swords, beings manipulating objects without touching them, a child as queen of an entire world - while not exactly everyday occurrences - are certainly not unheard of. Third, unlike myths, the hero/heroine of a fairy tale has no magic powers, and is a "mere" mortal who at some point in her journey receives help from figures who do possess "magical" abilities.₄

Such is the case for Padmé, who, unlike the majority of prequel characters, is not a Jedi and has no significant aptitude for the Force, the source of the "magic" in the Star Wars galaxy. She does meet a number of Jedi in her journey, who will provide her aid and - in the case of Anakin Skywalker - romance. Though Star Wars is ultimately Anakin's tale, her own thread is still key in it and a very serviceable rendering of a fairy tale heroine's story, particularly in the transformation Padmé undergoes.

Many traditional feminine-centric fairy tales have a girl on the verge of puberty as their heroine. These tales typically follow/represent the girl's transformation to womanhood through the stages of her conflict with an evil figure, often a witch or other hideous creature, who has thrust her on that very journey in an attempt to destroy her.₅

When describing Padmé as a "fairy tale heroine," this does not mean the swooning, passive ones shown in early Disney films, where Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Snow White do little but wait for a prince to save them. These are not the original tales, but a continuation of a trend from 19th century Victorian England, when fairy tales were rewritten to domesticate feisty heroines to demure personas considered more socially acceptable for women in that era. The original versions' heroines were frequently active agents in escaping her own predicament.₆ The Queen in "Rumpelstiltskin" uses her wit to escape losing her new baby to the dwarf who demands it in payment for saving her life₇; Beauty sacrifices herself to the Beast's captivity to ensure her father's safety and is the agent of the Beast's redemption₈; the German Cinderella ("Aschenputtel") does not simply mope when not allowed to go to the ball, but finds a way to go anyway.₉ The role of the prince in these tales is not to swoop in and save the heroine from evil, but to provide the means - if the heroine chooses - to a secure future for her after she faces that evil herself, usually through marriage (and/or the possibility of motherhood).₁₀

Padmé fits many basic personal traits found in the typical fairy tale heroine. In The Phantom Menace, she is queen, handmaid, and peasant, all archetypes of fairy tale heroines. Fairy tale heroines are always ascribed with astounding beauty₁₁, and even in her peasant garb Anakin describes Padmé as one of the "most beautiful creatures in the universe." She is young, virginal, hard working, and good-hearted. Like pre-Victorian heroines, she is proactive in working against her crises in all three of her films. In Menace she initiates the replacement of a Chancellor she believes is not assertive enough in helping her besieged world, and leaves the safety of Coruscant to lead a bold rebellion to free Naboo. In Attack of the Clones, she disregards Obi-Wan Kenobi's plans for finding her would-be assassin as passive and forms another plan to directly draw out her attacker; later she refuses to sit on comparatively safe Tatooine when she realizes Obi-Wan is in danger on Geonosis. Finally in Revenge of the Sith, when she recognizes Obi-Wan is going to kill her husband (who has turned to the Dark Side), she again leaves safety to try to warn Anakin and pull him from the Dark Side, in a desperate attempt to preserve the family she knows is slipping away from her. She even rebuffs Anakin's claims about "saving" her from his nightmares - Padmé is not a damsel who needs her prince to "save" her; all she wants or needs is his love.

The aforementioned evil "witch" figure in Star Wars is, of course, Palpatine/Darth Sidious. He is the saga's ultimate embodiment of wickedness, who orchestrates the events that endanger everyone and forcibly and unintentionally spurs the heroine to her transformation. Which, ultimately (and also unintentionally), will lead to the witch's demise.₁₂ The "witch" is often an authority figure in the heroine's life: stepmother, wicked parent, etc. Either one or both of the heroine's birth parents are already largely absent in the tale; Padmé has long since separated from hers by the time of Menace. Palpatine is the closest to a mentor figure shown for Padmé, whose counsel she seeks to help free Naboo from the Trade Federation, and who shows a (dubiously genuine) paternal concern towards her. In truth, her life serves him no further purpose than helping fulfill his own endgame (becoming Chancellor and, later on, seducing Anakin away from the Jedi). That he is the one responsible for deliberately using and endangering her echoes the common fairy tale theme of a father being complicit in, even directly responsible for, the betrayal of his daughter to a dangerous figure/situation - three of the most prominent being "Beauty and the Beast," "Rapunzel," and "Rumpelstiltskin," all of which had fathers who gave up their daughters to preserve their own lives.₁₃

There appears to be no universally defined cycle of steps for a fairy tale's plot, though the basic plot does seem to share some similarities with the Campbellian Hero's Journey. The first step in a fairy tale plot is the hero/heroine's threshold crossing, a thrust from the known into the unknown by the story's villain. Snow White's stepmother is murderously jealous of her beauty and forces the girl into the woods; Cinderella loses her wealth when her greedy stepmother forces her into slavery. In this venture the heroine is forced to fend for herself in an unknown realm, until she is able to confront and defeat the villain. In romantic fairy tales, which Padmé's story would certainly count as, this is usually the stage where the central character meets their love interest as well. This crossing is believed to represent the first major step of leaving childhood and entering the path to adulthood and sexual maturity.₁₄ The remaining basic steps include confronting the evil, defeating the evil, and - at least in more modern fairy tales - the happy resolution (which is definitely not required of myths, most of which end tragically), at which point the heroine's role as adult (be it queen, mother, or both) is firmly cemented.

Padmé's first shown threshold crossing is spurred by the invasion of Naboo. Knowing she cannot save her world if she is captured, she flees to Coruscant, and, when she realizes no help is coming from the Senate, stages a rebellion to retake her home. Along the way, she finds critical help from "magical" allies, in the form of the Jedi and, of course, Anakin - the one she will eventually marry. Anakin is a slave, not a literal prince, but in proper fairy tale tradition does fall in love with her on first sight (like Cinderella's prince, he recognizes her beauty even though she wears peasant garb). He also proves himself of worthy character to one day be a partner for her (as all good princes must do for the heroine to accept them₁₅) by risking his life to help repair her ship and then helping save her world by defeating the "dragon" holding it captive, the Federation droid control ship. By the end of Menace, Padmé is not yet a woman, but is one step closer, having defeated the Federation and reclaimed her rightful throne, the smile she and Anakin share at the parade a reminder of the changes to come for them. Menace on its own actually has all the aforementioned basic elements of a fairy tale plot in some form or another and can be seen as an intact tale, a microcosm of the true transformation journey that lies ahead for Padmé - one whose resolution she won't live to see.

At the start of Clones, Padmé seems to have changed little in the ten years since Menace. In many ways she is still the same girl, submerging her personal life under that of her career of serving others. It's not unreasonable to guess she would've continued to if not for the intervention - again - of Palpatine, who initiates another threshold crossing for her where she will, again, be thrust from her normal life and cross paths with her "prince." He does so in a means to again further his own ends, in this case getting Padmé out of the way as his dominant opposition to creating a Republic army. He orders her to go into hiding from her would-be assassins on Naboo, with Anakin as her guard (perhaps Palpatine has a second agenda of testing Anakin's loyalties to the Jedi as well, sending him off alone with the woman he loves). Naboo, with its sparkling lakes, deep forests, and rolling green hills, is the opposite of Coruscant, teeming with life and beauty and seems itself right out of a fairy tale. Here, Padmé has already been stripped of her career persona, and what remains is the woman who has been submerged - sleeping - for so long under it, and who now does fall in love with Anakin. Over time she becomes more willing to express her femininity through increasingly revealing hairstyles and attire, eschewing her severe Senatorial style, which concealed her beauty. She wants Anakin to see her as a woman, not a formal Queen or Senator.

Padmé's union with Anakin, like with many fairy tale heroines, is not sealed until she herself is ready to accept him - accept her adulthood.₁₆ The figure of the prince represents the heroine arriving at sexual maturity; in joining him, the heroine leaves childhood forever and enters a life where she has the possibility to have children of her own. (Their union, of course, results in the birth of Luke and Leia. By arranging the reunion of Padmé and Anakin for his own ends, Palpatine has - again, like many fairy tale villains - unwittingly already set in motion the cycle that will lead to his destruction.) Sometimes this transition is marked in fairy tales by the heroine experiencing a literal death and reawakening before they can meet their prince: this is said to represent the "death" of the virginal maiden the heroine once was, and the awakening of the new woman she has become.17 Padmé's own words in her love pledge state outright she has been "dying a little each day" since Anakin returned to her: it is no coincidence that when Padmé does freely declare her love, she and Anakin subsequently cross another threshold from a dark chamber into an area full of light shining on them. Nor is it coincidence this occurs on a world whose name is a variation of the word genesis: beginning, birth. The old Padmé has fallen away, and the new one that emerges into the arena after her declaration is a vibrant woman, suffused with life and spark. Like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, Padmé had been asleep - not due to any outwardly inflicted "curse," but one she had inflicted herself and that only she could choose to cure.

In Revenge, Padmé has reached the height of the feminine cycle, happily married and pregnant, certainly much transformed from the girl she started the prequels as. Though marriage and arriving at sexual maturity is a goal of the fairy tale, it is not itself the resolution. Before its heroine can have any truly happy resolution, it is still necessary for the great evil in a fairy tale to be confronted and overcome.₁₈ The trials of the Queen in "Rumpelstiltskin" did not end when she gave birth to her child, but when she saved that child from forces who threatened to take him from her. Rapunzel had to raise her twins for years alone in the wilderness before she got a happily-ever-after with her prince. To complete her journey, the heroine must face and overcome the evil threatening her and her family, thereby asserting and cementing her position as rightful queen/wife or mother. Likewise, marriage and motherhood alone do not guarantee Padmé a happy resolution. Unfortunately for her, confronting the great evil face-on is where she stumbles. Upon learning her husband has turned to the Dark Side, she does confront Anakin/Darth Vader, seeking to save him both from death at Obi-Wan's hands and Sidious's grip. She is not successful, but nor is her attempt completely in vain - though she dies and Anakin remains a slave to Sidious, she survives long enough to complete the ultimate feminine act, one that ensures the continuation of her journey regardless of her death: giving birth to their children.

The fairy tale journey of Padmé's story continues after her death, which follows a common fairy tale convention: a mother dying in childbirth. Snow White's mother dies in childbirth; Cinderella's dies early in her childhood.₁₉ Padmé likewise dies after giving birth and her twins are then hidden from the "witch," who would turn them to darkness or kill them. (Palpatine, in classic fairy tale villain tradition, at one point does seek to claim the heroine's child for himself₂₀, like the dwarf in "Rumpelstiltskin" - which in both cases leads to the villain's undoing.) In these cases of the mother dying early it often happens that the mother has left a gift from beyond the grave, which protects her child and can even be the means to defeat the villain. The German "Cinderella," for example, did not receive the dress and shoes that enabled her to go to the Prince's ball and escape her wicked stepmother from a fairy godmother, but from a gift-giving tree growing over her mother's grave₂₁; as protection when she leaves home the princess in "The Goose Girl" carries a napkin holding three drops of her mother's blood.₂₂ When Padmé speaks her final words about the good she believes is still in Anakin, a newborn Luke is by her side, and he unconsciously echoes those words more than twenty years later. Padmé passes her gifts of compassion and faith on to her son, the gifts that above all else enable Luke, as Padmé's avatar in Episodes IV through VI, to save Anakin and help destroy Palpatine in her stead. (Fairy tales are sometimes said to be stories about the bond between a mother and child₂₃, which does have truth in this case - while the relationship that directly brings about the "happy ending" of Anakin's redemption is the one between father and child, it is the connection between mother and child that sets the stage for the other relationship.)

Padmé succeeds at last in defeating the evil and completing her journey as woman, wife and mother, even if she is not there to see it. Then again, modern fairy tales all but demand a happy ending for their hero/heroine₂₄, and Anakin himself in his death was restored to his youth, so perhaps it's not outside the realm of speculation that Padmé did find her prince again in some hereafter.

Padmé is the walking Sleeping Beauty, her femininity asleep beneath a bristling, thorny wall until she is ready to awaken and meet her Prince. Even in her death she recalls a brutal inverse of the tale - in her casket surrounded by flowers she appears asleep, but now nothing can wake her, and it was her prince who put her that way (though her clasping of Anakin's japor seems to hint she is somehow still waiting for him). She is Rapunzel, whose secret meetings with her Prince lead to suffering for them both - each cast out by the Witch into the wild to wander for years alone, until they are reunited and her love heals his grief-induced blindness. She is Beauty/Belle, whose sacrifice and unconditional love lead - indirectly - to a Beast redeeming himself from years of self-imposed torment.

Works Cited:

1. Wikipedia, "Fairy Tale."
2. Marcia Lane, Picturing a Rose: A Way of Looking at Fairy Tales. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1993. Quoted via SurLaLune Fairy Tales, "What is a Fairy Tale?"
3. "How to Write a Fairy Tale."
4. "How to Write a Fairy Tale."
5. Gould, Joan. Spinning Straw into Gold: What Fairy Tales Reveal About the Transformations in a Woman's Life. Random House, New York, 2005.
6. Endicott Studio, "Old Wives' Tales: An Exhibition of Women's Fairy Tale Art, Old and New."
7. Gould.
8. SurLaLune Fairy Tales, "Beauty and the Beast."
9. SurLaLune Fairy Tales, "Aschenputtel."
10. Gould.
11. SurLaLune Fairy Tales: Annotations for "Rapunzel."
12. SurLaLune Fairy Tales: Annotations for "Cinderella."
13. SurLaLune Fairy Tales: Annotations for "Rapunzel."
14. Gould.
15. Gould.
16. Gould.
17. SurLaLune Fairy Tales: Annotations for "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves."
18. SurLaLune Fairy Tales: Annotations for "The Goose Girl."
19. Gould.
20. SurLaLune Fairy Tales: Annotations for "Rapunzel."
21. SurLaLune Fairy Tales, "Aschenputtel."
22. SurLaLune Fairy Tales, "The Goose Girl."
23. Gould.
24. Wikipedia, "Fairy Tale."

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