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masterkeynobi · 2 years

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god i can't stop thinking about padmé & sabé & anakin they've consumed my fucking brain like. (partially under a cut bc this gets Long)

queen's shadow establishes several things: first, that sabé is padmé's hands and that padmé is sabé's heart. every other handmaiden has a life planned out after amidala's reign; sabé doesn't, sabé who was the first to be chosen and who will be the last to leave. sabé's own parents don't call her tsabin anymore. sabé, in short, is sabé before she is anything else.

second: padmé is invested in the freeing of slaves. padmé is a pacifist. padmé broke ties with captain panaka because she only ever advocates for violence in self-defense. padmé naberrie would have gone to tatooine herself — but she is padmé amidala, and she must be senator, and so she sends sabé in her stead.

on tatooine sabé goes by tsabin and it doesn't feel right. she & tonra go about things the wrong way, lose the trust of the locals, cannot find shmi skywalker. twenty-five people isn't nothing, but it's not nearly enough, either. she doesn't find shmi skywalker. she's unhappy; tonra's unhappy; it's a failure. but padmé calls from coruscant — padmé has other priorities — and sabé goes.

senator amidala is not the queen. the voice is different; the clothing is different; it's taking down the walls built up over four years of a reign and rearranging them to form something new. worth noting, too, that amidala's voice as queen was formed from all herself & her girls, was formed from sabé more than anything. senator amidala is imitable, still, but is padmé. padmé can remake herself, did it once at fourteen and lived by it, but — coruscant is hard. her peers discuss politics as though they are philosophies and not people impacted. she thinks: this is not me.

for the first time since all those years ago, giggling children in a shared bedroom, sabé and padmé aren't attached at the hip. sabé is padmé's eyes and ears on coruscant; she isn't there to watch the senator's day-to-day growth, but still. they are familiar. padmé is herself and amidala; sabé is herself and tsabin. they are each other's peace, each other's steadiness, and they navigate the upper and lower levels of coruscant together with each other as their anchors.

time passes. the galaxy goes to war. padmé meets anakin.

here's the thing about anakin skywalker: the way he sees the world is inextricable from the fact that he spent his most formative years couched in horrific exploitation. anakin grows up wanting more than anything to have full control over himself and his surroundings. anakin curls around those he loves like a dragon, possessive, protective. service, to anakin who was born a slave, will never not feel like violence. possession is all he understands. anakin skywalker is in love with padmé.

& sabé, too, is in love with padmé. but sabé's devotion is boundless and without expectation. she says my hands are yours — my life is yours, should you ask for it — and knows down to her bones the implications of her fealty. she would die for padmé and padmé would let her and that's a choice she would make a hundred times over. she doesn't want pity for it. she kisses tonra and loves padmé and has no trouble reconciling these two things.

the galaxy is at war; padmé marries anakin and tells no one.

sabé isn't around for geonosis or its aftermath. sabé is on tatooine, doing things the right way this time around, settling in and gaining the trust of the people who live there. she sets herself and tonra (a couple. partners. equals, truly, in a way she and padmé have never been) up as a pair to be trusted to get slaves offplanet. not because they've been ordered to, this time, or because they're looking for shmi, but because it's simply the right thing to do. their quality of life suffers — they are naboo — but it's so fulfilling for both of them, a task they want to dedicate time and effort to.

padmé calls sabé and sabé knows before she picks up that she'll be asked back to coruscant. her hands have always been padmé's. she goes.

padmé is different now, though. is hiding something. sabé catalogs her fake smiles and doesn't know why she's wearing the mask of amidala, doesn't quite understand her anymore, and though both of them speak of things being just like old times — sabé, playing decoy while padmé gallivants off to be brilliant — it rings false. padmé has changed. sabé doesn't know senator amidala. there's something padmé isn't telling her, padmé who kept no secrets, whom sabé knew better than she knows herself.

sabé hates coruscant, she realizes. hates playing senator and stumbles around the chancellor and desperately doesn't want to lose herself in politics the way padmé almost has. (it is easier now, padmé says, to think of politics as ideas and not people. is that bad?)

your husband says hello, says sabé, brushing through padmé's hair. sabé's love for padmé has never been possessive, has never needed reciprocation, has only ever been loyalty and devotion and time spent so close together they might as well be the same person. but padmé didn't tell her. she only found out because the man himself barged into her bedroom and almost choked her out. the issue isn't that padmé's in love with someone else, it's that she didn't even tell her. the padmé she knew (the padmé who was hers, more or less! shared faces and shared goals for years on end) isn't the padmé of the present. the padmé of the present is anakin skywalker's wife.

still, for sabé, unrequitedness doesn't have to mean heartbreak. she talks to padmé, says anakin — scares her a little, honestly. padmé mentions an incident with the tuskens. sabé goes still, because they're talking about that massacre on the other side of the planet.

isn't that the funny thing, though? that sabé knows tatooine, now, better than the prodigal son of its suns? padmé sent her there, dear pacifist senator amidala, padmé who wanted post-election to free slaves, but it is sabé in the end who's doing the freeing. sabé has been padmé's hands for years; sabé does her dirty work and finds personal fulfillment in it. sabé frees slaves because she wants to do it. because it's right.

sabé leaves padmé's service that very night — my hands are yours. please don't ask me for them again. — and goes back to tatooine. & when she returns there she finds that the white suns have reached out; she greets tonra and she smiles. there is work to be done and she will do it as herself, casting her own shadow.

padmé amidala is married to anakin skywalker — who, it has to be said, never freed anyone who wasn't himself. anakin who doesn't even really know tatooine at all, anakin whose genius could have dismantled the slave chips the white suns come to tonra about in the blink of an eye, anakin, born in the desert, who lands on tatooine and ignites his lightsaber and leaves with blood on his hands and darkness in his heart. and padmé marries him. and padmé pulls sabé off tatooine and asks her to stay on coruscant and sabé says no.

#sree.txt #star wars #sabé #handmaiden sabé #padmé amidala #anakin skywalker #anidala #sabédala #queen's shadow #queen's hope #jesus this is long but i needed to get it out of my head #as always major major chunks of this are from my dms with gabe #things i couldn't figure out how to talk about:#sabédala & how their reliance on e/o parallels obi-wan and anakin #the idea that (at the risk of oversimplication)#anakin thinks in terms of ''she's mine''#& sabé thinks in terms of ''i'm hers''#again it's possessiveness born of trauma vs service as a choice #also to be clear while this is i suppose quote-unquote anakin critical #i adore anakin i think his relationship w padmé is so compelling #and makes for SUCH a narrative #he's my baby girl also btw.#but in general it's fascinating to observe how he fails himself bc that's where the tragedy lies #anyway yeah thank you for coming to my ted talk i love sabé so much

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battlekilt · 11 months

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What are your thoughts on Padme? I'm so curious about your take

I love Padme!

By herself.

Queen/Senator Amidala was a formative character in my early life, and definitely was a hyperfocus that ignited a life-long interest in fashion. She was an introduction of high-end couture and costume design.

(I have a lot of life-long interests, but such is the way of having ADHD).

That isn't to say that she is without points of criticism on my part, though they aren't criticism of her as a person or as a character, merely critical analysis of her choices and her actions. A lot of them revolve around her conflict of interest with her position as a politician, and her personal life. There are certainly plenty of parallels between her and Anakin, which is probably one reason why they worked for the canon narrative.

But, I can criticize my favorite characters until the sea cows come home because that's part of analyzing the characters. It is similar to how I show my life: I'll pick on them.

Though, it is for that reason why I have been much more critical of AnidaIa as a relationship, though my dislike of the relationship is nothing new. I have never liked Anakin and Padmé together, and their relationship is the core criticism I'd have to levy towards her. This is a case of, 'Not a good long-term fit for each other, and that is okay.' Which is why I put her in the same column as the Jedi Order when it comes to Anakin's life. Mostly, it would have been better for everyone involved if he just departed on amicable terms.

I'm Pro-Jedi and Pro-Padmé, along with my pro-Anakin stance. There is good, there is bad, there are things to be critical about, and there are things to be defensive about.

From the ROTS novel, which is now considered Legends, however I believe that it is entirely relevant as it was line-edited by Lucas:

Fundamentally, she was compelled from within to be a politician, though she had spent her early life dreaming of being a mother. Naboo tradition excludes these two ways of life. I believe that Anakin's life in the Order made him a safe bet for her to live out a secret fantasy life started in the sweep of excitement when the war started. However, as time went on and consequences began to be more tangible, I do believe that Padmé was forced at times to realize that her fantasy wouldn't be allowed to carry on forever. Sadly, it was inevitable that the bubble would burst, and there would be consequences for the actions both parties made.

Read more on my opinion and analysis of their relationship here.

There is no doubt that she is a bold and strong character, with enough conflicts within her to be interesting. However, she was handed a short string when it comes to the quality of her narrative. As a character, she is probably at her strongest the furthest away she is pulled away from Anakin.

From within the comics, all the positive and interesting traits of her seem to have been transferred over to her former handmaiden, Sabé. Which, good for her, I guess? But, would have preferred for Padmé to have tried to kill Anakin in ROTS, survived, and become the rebel leader she should have been—as originally conceived for her.

Padmé Amidala is a character that suffered more from time constraints cutting short a character's potential and letting it fall away onto the cutting room floor. I do think that if at the time of ROTS there was a stronger guarantee that more exploration would be had between EP3 and EP4, I do think that Padmé's story wouldn't have ended so anticlimactically as it had.

My apologies that I don't write as much for this kind of meta analysis as others might. But, I hope that these succinct thoughts are sufficient?

I invite more detailed and pointed questions for where more elaboration is desired, but insufficiently addressed here.

#bucket's answers #citizen: padme amidala #anidala critical #gffa meta #// i am 200 words away from my goal for the day #// though i do need to reach a certain stopping point #// so word count isn't everything #// man this med shortage is killin' me here

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labyrinth-runner · 2 years

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In the rain relief- young obidala au 👀

I had to put the Come What May Playlist on for this and it has me in my feels.

Summary: Young!Obidala TPM AU? Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are sent to negotiate a treaty with the trade federation when they start to send threats to Naboo. After months of negotiations, the Trade Federation sends a warship to intimidate the Naboo into surrender. The Jedi go to negotiate the current treaty, leaving Padmé to worry for their return.

Word Count: ~1200

Pairing: Young!Obidala

Warnings: None

Padmé paced the patio of the lake house. She hated waiting. She wanted to be in the action. Be in the midst of it all. She wanted to protect him, but she knew she couldn't.

Wait here.

He had told her to wait here for him while he and his Master sped off world to deal with an issue. He'd come back for her. He promised. What would happen after that... she didn't know. All she knew was that she and Obi-Wan would figure it out together. She hadn't even told him that she loved him before he left. He'd stopped her, telling her that there would be time enough for that when he came back.

The Trade Federation loomed in the distance. Their ship was a shadow amongst her stars. The Jedi had been on Naboo for months now, helping her negotiate a treaty with the Federation. Negotiations had taken a turn for the worse when a warship suddenly came out of hyperspace earlier that week. Troops landed on world in the jungle and steadily crept towards Theed. She wanted to go back to her people, to return from the lake country where she'd been for negotiations. Qui-Gon had told her that they would take care of it.

Rain spattered the concrete.

"You should come inside before you catch a cold," Sabé called from the open doorway.

"They should have been back by now."

"You of all people should know that negotiations may take time."

"They left three days ago, Sabé. Either the Trade Federation has accepted my terms or they have rejected them. Either way, we should have had an answer by now." She turned to face her friend, feeling as if she were looking into a mirror. "We need to return to Theed."

"The Jedi said-"

"Since when do we allow the Jedi to rule Naboo? I am the Queen. My people need me there."

"Your people need a Queen who has not been captured by the enemy."

"The Trade Federation isn't our enemy."

"Friends don't land troops on your planet."

Padmé looked down.

"The Jedi can handle themselves, even Padawans," Sabé said, always knowing the right thing to say.

"You must think me silly," Padmé said with a sigh, stepping inside her room, leaving the door open to let the breeze in. She wrapped her robe around herself and sat in the seat facing the patio.

"Nonsense," Sabé replied with a small smirk, "He's very handsome. It's hard not to fall for such a man."

"But he's a Jedi."

"And you are a Queen. Soon to be Senator if you play your cards right."

"The galaxy is his for the commanding, what could I possibly offer someone like that?"

"The one thing no one else commands but you," Sabé said, taking her hand, "your heart. Now, head to bed. You need to rest."

Padmé shook her head. "I'm too worried to sleep. I think I'd like to stay up and watch the rain a bit. It's always calmed me."

Sabé nodded, leaving her to her thoughts.

Padmé played with the royal ring on her finger, twisting it this way and that as she looked out the window. They each had their own duties, and neither were the type to shirk them for selfish matters. But, would loving each other, choosing another person, be selfish? Oh, Padmé didn't know. She wasn't even sure that a Jedi could love. They had always been described as stoic creatures, and then she had met two of them that turned that notion on the head. Master Qui-Gon certainly felt more than the average Jedi should, and his Padawan was just like him. They had a regard for all life, as Jedi ought to, but they also had the urge to live it fully. To experience it all. She had sensed a kindred spirit in Qui-Gon. He was a man of the galaxy, and he wanted what was best for it, even if it wasn't the easy route. His Padawan on the other hand had thoroughly charmed her young heart. He was boyish in his looks, but beneath it all was the heart of a warrior. Not in the sense that he was violent. But rather he fought for what was right, honoring promises, and protecting those he loved.

She took her ring off and placed it on the side table, wanting to feel like just Padmé for a moment as opposed to Queen Amidala. Queen Amidala should be sleeping so that she could wake up early and formulate a plan to save her people. Padmé wanted to ponder the secrets of her heart for a moment longer.

Suddenly, the sky lit up. Streaks of light flashed through the sky. At first she thought they were meteors or shooting stars. After staring at it for a moment, though, she realized that it was a starship, on fire, and breaking up as it broke through the atmosphere. Her eyes widened as she watched the ship crash onto the surface a little ways off.

"Obi-Wan," she whispered in horror.

Her feet moved on their own accord, running through the doorway and down the steps towards the meadow. Rain pelted her back, sticking her hair to her skin. Her robe whipped behind her, having opened in her sprint. Her white nightgown billowed in the wind as she made her way towards the crash.

Tears mixed with rain as she crested the hill above the crash site. Flames hissed as rain fell on the crash. She clutched her chest, doubling over in grief as she recognized the remnants as the ship the Jedi had left in. The metal was so mangled and broken open that she was doubtful that anyone had survived.

Then she saw him. Obi-Wan staggered out from behind the wreck.

She ran to him, burying her face in his chest. "Oh, I thought.... Oh I thought you were dead," she cried.

He rested his chin against her head as he held her tight, using his cloak to shield her from the rain. "I told you I would come back."

She sniffed, pulling back to look up at him. He was smirking at her, but as he took in the total disarray of her appearance, his smile faltered. "Oh, Darling, I apologize for making you worry." He swiped his thumbs under her eyes, "Please don't cry."

He cupped her face in his hands, her sweet, sweet face. In a moment, it struck him that he had almost lost the opportunity of ever holding this face again. He and Qui-Gon had been fortunate enough to escape long before the ship hit the surface, but after the ordeal of escaping the Trade Federation and the burning ship, they had had many close calls. He swallowed the lump in his throat and pulled her face towards his, kissing her fiercely.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you, too."

#Young!Obidala #Obidala #March Kiss List

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smallblueandloud · 2 years

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10 and 39 for star wars asks?

star wars asks!

10. Which character do you feel is most like you?

i project WAY too much on leia organa to answer anyone else for this question. i do tend to switch between luke and leia for which character i'm projecting on that day, which is why i love the twins so much, but i definitely clock more time crying about leia's relatability than i do about luke's, lmao.

39. If you wrote a 'fix-it fic', what would you write about?

oh. uh. yeah, there are so many options for this lmao. i guess it depends on what you categorize as "fix-it fics" -- are we changing major plot points, or do i just get to mess with minor details that i take issue with? because if we're changing entire movies, i'm definitely rewriting the entire sequel trilogy. but if we're keeping canon with only a few minor adjustments, here are some fics i'd write:

sabé (and the rest of padmé's handmaidens, if we're really getting self-indulgent) got involved in the rebellion in various ways. one of them was leia's childhood nurse and that's actually the face leia remembers as her [birth] mother's

anakin was 14 when the jedi first came to tatooine (i have a whole post about this but basically i think it makes the whole "being afraid of his anger" make more sense and really establishes his lifelong feeling of not belonging with the jedi)

yodito's name is something that isn't grogu. this is just me being picky but i think it should be something cuter, lmao

beru was the most influential force in luke's life, and instead of owen being shmi's stepson, beru was her adoptive daughter and owen was the random guy she married. in terms of names, luke grapples with what he wants "skywalker" to mean, dreams in scattered flashes of being called organa, and wears "whitesun" comfortably when he wants to be seen as his aunt's nephew and nothing else

(i don't have any minor changes to the sequel trilogy listed here because as soon as i started thinking about potential ones, i started getting angry about the whole thing. i probably wouldn't change any minor details of the sequel trilogy without changing the whole thing, honestly -- the canon form of those three movies just plain doesn't really interest me as something to edit.)

#sadbi-hours #star wars #luke skywalker (space hobo)#beru whitesun #sw ideas #sb and l rambles #sb and l answers #sb and l watches sw #i did not intend for this to turn into me talking about beru but i don't regret it lol

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naberiie · 7 years

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I am loving the arcmaiden so far. :) I know you have plans for different endings to this story (I'm particularly intrigued by the Fix-It au) but I want to know whether these are going to be written or are just ideas at the moment.

Oh my gosh, I’m so glad to hear that, nonnie!! Everyone’s being so wonderful lately ;-;

I, uh, never actually expected any interest in the Fix-It AU or any other endings, tbqh; it was just a fun story to imagine… But @evaceratops and I have actually fleshed out that timeline quite a bit - I’d say that it’s actually almost completely plotted out (roughly, but we’ve played around with some of the more intense/angsty scenes) - because it’s an extremely fun AU to dabble in. And also because I hate being reminded that Fives dies and then everything goes to shit, lmao. Eva has even plotted out the various arcmaiden timelines in a handy convenient chart!

As for writing it in fully-finished fic form (!!): maybe? I already know I’m going down with this ship, and I’d love to continue writing for them, so err on the side of ‘possible.’ First things first, I have to finish From Which Stars, which is a serious long-term project, but who knows? I’d really love to write the Fix-It ‘verse! As for right now, it’s future hopeful possibility :D

(I do have an ask sitting in my inbox asking about Rabé reacting to news of Fives’ death, so… that one-shot is definitely gonna come, and I’m definitely gonna make myself cry when I write it.) (Disaster AU stuff is much more on-the-fence, but man that universe is EXCELLENT for angst.) …Now that I’m thinking about it, I do actually have a page with some skeletal endings written out! Very bare bones, but definitely feel free to ask about any of them :D

For the moment, though, have a few Great Scenes/Tidbits/Scenarios Eva and I have discussed for the Fix-It AU:

Fives and Rabé escape Coruscant/Commander Fox by the skin of their teeth; Sabé and Eirtaé remain excruciatingly unhelpful to poor Fox as he’s just trying to do his job.

Rabé cuts her hair, which is a terribly massive deal to her (as… will come up in From Which Stars), but she does it to show Fives she’s with him; she’s with him for the long haul.

Oh! Did I mention they’re engaged before this whole thing takes place? Yeah, that’s a thing!

Palpatine is slowly losing his mind and starts making tiny, tiny slip-ups that would hardly be noticeable… unless a handmaiden, trained to catch those slip-ups, was watching him very carefully…

Couples colosseum fight to replenish dwindling funds and/or get a ride out of a dangerous system! Romantic, no?

Possibly breaking into Kamino to rescue Tup (in a coma, not dead, because this is a fix-it, damnit) and Dogma, because what’s a fic without a little bit of a heist to rescue equally-mistreated brothers :’D

Echo.

…Wow, this uhh got super long! Thank you so much nonnie!! I hope this was at least somewhat interesting and/or illuminating ❤

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