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Padmé
Amidala was born Padmé Naberrie to parents in a small Naboo mountain
village, the youngest of two daughters. When Padmé and her
sister Sola were young the Naberries moved to Theed to offer a better
education for their children, Ruwee taking a teaching position at a
local university. Once in school Padmé excelled rapidly,
becoming a member of Naboo's Refugee Relief Movement by age seven,
among other things relocating (though unsuccessfully) refugees from
the doomed world of Shadda-Bi-Boran. By age eight Padmé was a
member of the Legislative Youth Program, and was an Apprentice
Legislator by age 11. It was there she met her first crush, a
slightly older fellow Apprentice Legislator named Palo, at age 12. |
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Shortly after, Padmé was
elected to the position of Princess of Theed, where she
assumed her office name of Amidala. At age 14 she was
elected Queen in a landslide election, ending the long
corrupt reign of Naboo's former ruler. A few months
into her reign Naboo was blockaded by the Trade Federation,
in what was on the surface a move against newly levied
taxations against trade routes, but was (unknown to most)
actually an elaborate play on Naboo Senator Palpatine's part
to gain the sympathy vote he needed to be elected Chancellor
of the Republic. Amidala was soon taken captive by the
Federation, who had the intent of forcing her to legitimize
their occupation by signing a treaty. |
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With the unexpected aid of
Jedi Knights Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi,
she fled the planet to plead her situation to the Republic
Senate on Coruscant. However, damages from a Federation attack
forced her ship to land on Tatooine, where in the disguise of
the handmaiden Padmé Naberrie, she and Qui-Gon met the young
slave boy Anakin Skywalker. The two developed an almost
immediate bond of friendship, and Anakin himself was instantly
in love with her. With the help of Anakin she and her
retinue got the repairs they needed and made it to Coruscant.
There, no help for Naboo was forthcoming from the Senate;
frustrated with their inaction, Amidala called for a vote of
no confidence in the current Chancellor (making room for
Palpatine to rise in his place) in the hopes of getting some
sort of help for her world. Undeterred, she returned to
Naboo, with the Jedi, Anakin, and other allies staging a
successful rebellion against the Federation, capturing its
viceroy and ousting the army from her planet. |
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After
several years her two terms as Queen ended, obligating her to
step down (to her relief), although her people would gladly
have made an amendment for her to continue. Despite her
being the age when many Naboo settle down for a family life,
Padmé then became Senator at the request of Naboo's new
Queen, Jamillia. She became a powerful voice in the
Senate, speaking out for Republic unity and against the
creation of an army for the Republic, believing such a move
would push the Republic into a civil war. She earned a number
of enemies, becoming the target of an assassination attempt,
which led her again to the protection of the Jedi. This
protection came in the form of two long-absent friends,
Obi-Wan Kenobi, and his Padawan, Anakin, who was now 20.
Anakin (who'd thought about her quite steadily over the past
decade) fell for Padmé more deeply than ever upon their
reunion. Padmé herself, taken aback at how much Anakin
had grown since she'd last known him, came under the wash of a
number of new and uncertain feelings in addition to the
childhood affection they still shared.
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The Jedi Council assigned Obi-Wan to find the
assassins, and Anakin as her personal protector, sending him and
Padmé into hiding on her homeworld of Naboo. There Padmé
continued to deny her growing feelings for her protector (and
his own obvious feelings for her), even after the two shared a
kiss at her lake retreat-- but soon found she could deny it no
longer. She still resisted a romance, claiming to Anakin
that a relationship between them would threaten his future as a
Jedi-- it didn't matter what they felt for each other-- and
Anakin reluctantly conceded. Afterward Anakin experienced
recurring nightmares about his mother, prompting him to go to
Tatooine, Padmé accompanying him. On Tatooine Anakin was
faced with the cold reality of his mother's fate, causing him to
go on a vicious crusade of revenge against her murderers,
confessing the act to Padmé later in an emotional breakdown.
Padmé, through her deepening compassion and love for him,
remained with him and comforted him, forgiving him.
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It was when the two were at
last facing certain death on the planet Geonosis (having been
captured in attempt to rescue Obi-Wan there) by way of
execution, with Padmé not wanting them to die without Anakin
knowing how she truly felt about him, that she finally freely
declared her love for him. After a vicious battle on the
planet and a duel where Anakin was grievously injured, the two
married secretly on Naboo in the same spot they shared their
first kiss, their only witnesses a holy man and their droids
R2-D2 and C-3P0. She and Anakin
were separated often, stealing moments in secret together
whenever they could between his fighting in the Clone Wars and
his Jedi training.
Near the end of the Wars,
Padmé welcomed home Anakin from a long separation with the
news that she was pregnant. Though initially elated by
the news, Anakin soon became haunted by visions of her dying
in childbirth. The visions, in addition to Anakin's
increasing frustration over being mistrusted and used by the
Jedi Council, spiraled him into increasing moodiness.
She tried to assure him his visions wouldn't come true, but
her assurances seemed to be of little use. In his
desperate desire to avert his visions, Anakin fell even more
under the sway of Palpatine - Darth Sidious, who lured Anakin
with the promise of learning the ability to stop loved ones'
deaths. The threat to Padmé was the final clincher in
Anakin's decision to turn on the Jedi and become Palpatine's
apprentice, Darth Vader.
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Padmé watched dejectedly in
the Senate as Palpatine openly declared the Republic's
transformation into the Empire. It was shortly after that
Obi-Wan came to her with the horrifying news that Anakin had
turned to the dark side, which she refused to believe.
Obi-Wan tried to convince Padmé to give up Anakin's location,
but she refused, realizing Obi-Wan intended to kill him; Obi-Wan
put the pieces together and realized Anakin was her child's
father. Padmé decided to travel to Mustafar on her own, to
warn Anakin and try to save him - unaware that Obi-Wan had
stowed away secretly on her ship.
Anakin eagerly greeted Padmé
on her arrival, but she soon realized Obi-Wan's stories were
true. She begged Anakin to come away with her to raise
their child, that she only wanted his love - but he continued to
rant wildly, telling her thanks to his new powers they wouldn't
have to run away anymore, that they could rule his Empire
together. Heart broken, she told Anakin he was on a path
she couldn't follow - at the same time Obi-Wan emerged from her
ship. In his anger over her rejection, Anakin believed her
to have betrayed him so Obi-Wan could kill him, and lashed out,
choking her into unconsciousness, and beginning a duel with
Obi-Wan.
After Obi-Wan defeated Anakin,
leaving his maimed form on Mustafar, he returned to Padmé, whose
sole concern was still Anakin. Obi-Wan took her to the
distant alien outpost of Polis Massa, where at the medical facility it
was not only revealed that she was carrying twins, but that for
unknown reasons - she was medically completely healthy - she was
dying. As Anakin, light years away, was being rebuilt as
Darth Vader, Padmé gave birth first to Luke, then Leia.
Shakingly caressing her infant son's face, she struggled to tell
Obi-Wan that she knew there was still good in Anakin. She
then died, at the same moment the Vader mask was sealed onto
Anakin's face. When Vader awoke, asking for her, Sidious
told him that his anger had killed her, prompting Vader to lash
out in anguish.
Padmé's body was delivered to
Naboo, still appearing pregnant to fulfill the illusion that her
children - having been whisked away to separate families - had
died unborn. The public story was that she had been killed
by the Jedi, along with several other senators. She was
given a massive state funeral, her open coffin pulled through
the streets of her homeworld, her family walking behind, her own
hands forever clasping the pendant Anakin had given her as a
young boy.
Years later, Padmé's final
words would prove to be true, as a grown Luke finally succeeded
- through the unwavering faith in Anakin that was so much like
hers - in bringing back Anakin to the light.
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