Anakin & Padme Skywalker

hayden christensen ✰ anakin skywalker

I love this shot so much <3

And *I* absolutely hate it when people misunderstand or unfairly hate on Padme Amidala as she is canonically characterised.

God forbid a woman view her love for her husband and the moment she met him again as a more significant life event (personally, emotionally) than her ‘career’. (A career, mind you, she’d been involved in since she was a child and had been wanting to retire from for years, in order to start a family of her own).

Okay, so this right here is what is considered “so vile” in this day and age. Oh, the horror! Girl has accomplished so much there’s pretty much nothing left for her to do professionally except become Empress? Which is something she rejects canonically even when suggested by her own husband because she doesn’t want power despite being in a perfect position to take it. Of course she is gonna focus on other things? She can multitask? No? Aren’t women allowed to do that?

Joking aside, I stay as far away from the miasma that passes for a SW fandom as possible, but I just *knew* this kind of take existed. As evident above, by their own admission these people hate that Padme is not like the one-dimensional, power-hungry, fake-ass girlbosses “who don’t need no man because men bad!!!” put on pedestal these days, but a legit hero in her own right and one of the most important characters in the saga. AND a hopeless romantic, who embraces her femininity and who fell deeply in love with the actual super hot Jedi of this story. If not done already, soon enough she will straight up be accused of committing the greatest crime imaginable because she actually wants to be a mother.

A multilayered female character like Padme, a character who refuses to compromise her morals even for the person she loves the most, simply can’t and won’t be written in 2025. Current-day storytelling (and I use the term very loosely) is all about prioritizing power at the cost of personal integrity.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Anakin definitely mythicizes her, but he mythicizes her as Padmé in direct contrast to other characters in-universe who mythicize her as the Queen or the Senator.

The girl Anakin Skywalker calls Angel, the girl he falls in love with isn’t a Queen (to his knowledge) isn’t a Senator, she’s just a handmaiden who’s a little extra kinder than she had to be.

He falls in love again later with a Senator who wants to leave the Senate.

And he would have laid the universe at Padmé Naberrie’s feet just as would have Padmé Amidala if she had asked.

In being Anakin’s wife, Padmé is more human than either Queenhood or Senatorship ever allowed her to be.

He loves her for her, for Padmé, when nearly everyone else in her life loves her for Padmé Amidala, Senator Padmé, Padmé Naberrie (they love her, her family, but don’t know her, not anymore). No one loves Padmé, except Anakin.

He loves her as a person instead of an ideal or a symbol or a political leader.

Ahsoka | S0105:

Not only is Hayden a brilliant actor, he’s one of the most skilled athletes I’ve ever seen. He learned fast and is now leagues ahead of everybody. He is terrifying. — Nick Gillard