Padmé.2008’s Tumblr!

happy star wars day! redraw of one of my old sw comics bc i am STILL obsessed with the idea of the twins meeting padmé's family

TCW Anakin is not Anakin Skywalker

TCW Anidala is not Anidala.

And honestly, the 2003 Clone Wars micro-series understood Anakin and Padmé better in just a few scenes than TCW did across entire arcs.

I do not understand why so many people write female characters in leadership roles as if they cannot be deeply, utterly in love without becoming weaker for it. As if love makes them less competent. Less political. Less important. Less themselves.

Padmé Amidala loved Anakin Skywalker with her whole soul. That love is a major part of her character. Not her entire character, no. But a major part of it. And being in love does not make her role in the war, her ideals, her courage, her political impact, or everything she fought to protect any less significant.

The Queen trilogy understands this beautifully. Padmé is a queen, a senator, a strategist, a symbol, a friend, a leader, and a girl carrying impossible responsibility far too young. She is impactful because of her choices, her convictions, her intelligence, and her compassion. Loving someone does not erase any of that. It humanizes her.

With Anakin, Padmé did not need to be Senator Amidala. She did not need to be Queen Amidala. She could simply be Padmé. And with Padmé, Anakin did not need to be the Hero With No Fear, the Jedi General, or the Chosen One. They were each other’s safe place. The one space where neither of them had to perform strength, duty, perfection, or control.

That is why they loved each other so deeply.

Their story was always meant to be a tragedy, but not because their love was doomed from the start. The end of Anakin and Padmé’s relationship in ROTS happens because the dark side corrupts Anakin, because Palpatine destroys him from the inside, and because fear, grief, and manipulation twist love into something monstrous. It was not always meant to become that.

TCW often made it look like Padmé was not that invested, even distant, while Anakin was the only one desperately attached. It framed him too often as possessive, aggressive, and controlling, while making their breakup feel inevitable from the beginning of the war. And I don’t even need to get into how awful the Clovis arc was.

But that is not the heart of Anidala.

Padmé loved Anakin. Anakin loved Padmé. Their love was tender, flawed, secret, reckless, and doomed by the machinery around them — not because Padmé was too strong to love, and not because love made her weak.

A female lead does not stop being powerful because she loves someone.

TCW Anakin is not Anakin Skywalker

TCW Anidala is not Anidala.

And honestly, the 2003 Clone Wars micro-series understood Anakin and Padmé better in just a few scenes than TCW did across entire arcs.

I do not understand why so many people write female characters in leadership roles as if they cannot be deeply, utterly in love without becoming weaker for it. As if love makes them less competent. Less political. Less important. Less themselves.

Padmé Amidala loved Anakin Skywalker with her whole soul. That love is a major part of her character. Not her entire character, no. But a major part of it. And being in love does not make her role in the war, her ideals, her courage, her political impact, or everything she fought to protect any less significant.

The Queen trilogy understands this beautifully. Padmé is a queen, a senator, a strategist, a symbol, a friend, a leader, and a girl carrying impossible responsibility far too young. She is impactful because of her choices, her convictions, her intelligence, and her compassion. Loving someone does not erase any of that. It humanizes her.

With Anakin, Padmé did not need to be Senator Amidala. She did not need to be Queen Amidala. She could simply be Padmé. And with Padmé, Anakin did not need to be the Hero With No Fear, the Jedi General, or the Chosen One. They were each other’s safe place. The one space where neither of them had to perform strength, duty, perfection, or control.

That is why they loved each other so deeply.

Their story was always meant to be a tragedy, but not because their love was doomed from the start. The end of Anakin and Padmé’s relationship in ROTS happens because the dark side corrupts Anakin, because Palpatine destroys him from the inside, and because fear, grief, and manipulation twist love into something monstrous. It was not always meant to become that.

TCW often made it look like Padmé was not that invested, even distant, while Anakin was the only one desperately attached. It framed him too often as possessive, aggressive, and controlling, while making their breakup feel inevitable from the beginning of the war. And I don’t even need to get into how awful the Clovis arc was.

But that is not the heart of Anidala.

Padmé loved Anakin. Anakin loved Padmé. Their love was tender, flawed, secret, reckless, and doomed by the machinery around them — not because Padmé was too strong to love, and not because love made her weak.

A female lead does not stop being powerful because she loves someone.

do not continue if you don’t want to be spoiled!

Did it come together exactly like I thought? No. Was I right about the betrayal-sequence theory? Also no. Am I at all complaining about how it came together? NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST HOT FUCKING DAMN. Is Devon Izara that girl? FOREVER.

Was I skeptical of Daki's death being enough to land her turn and be satisfying? Yes. Did they blow past my skepticism entirely? ALSO YES. There's going apeshit when your master is killed in front of you and then there's what Devon just did holy fucking shit. What the hell was Gideon Adlon doing with her voice that shit was fucking crazy. The end of the episode where she's just been sitting there for hours quietly stewing in hatred rocking her new lightsaber in her hand while her eyes start to turn dark-side-corrupted is going to stick with me all hiatus. On that note the lightsaber symbolism of that being her lightsaber now is so good I'm chewing on the walls. Devon losing her Jedi lightsaber as her grief immediately sublimates into hatred and Maul literally putting a weapon in her hand about it. Offering her half of his own weapon for her to take reflecting their imminent codependence. Devon the padawan who fell from the TPM Obi-Wan scenario literally wielding The Blade That Killed Qui-Gon Jinn as her own. This season was never a question of "will Devon become Maul's apprentice" it was a question of "HOW will Devon become Maul's apprentice?"

Do I still think Rylee is going Imp long-term? Oh yeah between "get him to his mother" and how terrified he's becoming of the Force that boy is about to be full-on Padme-and-Anakin-on-Mustafar-level terrified of her and I do not think "these crazy fucking Jedi kidnapped me" is going to be a hard sell. Look at that girl. In no fucking universe is he pulling that girl out of this shit, basic shippers I'm looking at you I know what you're thinking, but be serious. Look at her. I'm very happy to draw what's going on with Devon and Rylee out a little longer because it's got the juice and I never thought I'd say that but it turns out The Juice in question is "no the Jedi girl is like actually for real darksiding and it's scary." Also I will be making fun of Brander Lawson forever for doing the classic dad move of trying to make up for being a mediocre parent by killing himself.

It is SO fun how genuinely terrified Maul is throughout the finale and how fucking desperate the whole thing is and also FASCINATING how when he leaves Daki to die it's not actually overtly a "dispose of the Jedi master so I can replace him" thing it's that he realized Devon was about to get killed by Eleventh and actually looked conflicted for a second before he ran for her. Between that and Maul's whole team getting Rogue One'd they're about to become a horrifying fucked up codependent nightmare of a relationship I can't wait to see how badly it goes for them.

And as my final reaction phrased as a question:

i figure it will get messy and complex in ways i can't even imagine, but there is a good hint of contempt toward maul.

By now, Janix is completely over as the Empire fully locks down the planet.

Dryden Vos, as the messenger of Crimson Dawn, is fascinating. S2 will see how he came to power, and that'll be great to see. The models of his grunts, ship, and himself are amazing.

Maul is showcasing his inner Starkiller with how he took out the AT-AC and dual-wielding his Lightsabers.

RIP Maul's crew, it shows how the Dark Side leads to suffering and death compared to the Light Side, where most of the cast survived.

The screams Rook Kast gave out, and then the disturbing sound effect, dear God, that's more terrifying than Icarus' death. After reading Vanessa's description of how she voiced her final moments, it makes me even more disturbed.

I'm really glad they didn't use AI Vader voice instead of having him be silent. If anything, that made Vader even more terrifying, seeing him locked in and utterly focused.

I like the detail of Vader using the fast furious strike attacks Luke did on the Second Death Star.

Vario being an MVP of the show is unexpected, but I really like his character.

Brander has to be alive. We didn't see the body. He has to be alive. I'm coping, but he can't die. He's also the only one who saw Maul indirectly cause Daki's death. By extension, I hope Rheena survives.

I really hope Two-Boots ignores Brander's orders to take Rylee to his mother.

The Inquisitors live up to their aura and reputation. I really hope Marrok returns in S2 as the main Inquisitor villain. This show also makes the Crow's death even more pathetic and baffling.

Devon's dark descent into the Dark Side begins. If she leaves Maul in a future season, Maul will not take it so well.

This show has been amazing. Kudos to the Kiners for making an amazing score. The animation for the show has been breathtaking. I cannot wait for Season 2.

We are encouraged to love ♡