#palo

I know it's often said that Anakin was always extremely jealous and possessive, but the more I think about it, the more it seems to me that most of the examples we have occur in very specific and rather manipulated situations.

For example, in Episode II, when Padmé mentions Palo as her first love, Anakin clearly gets a little jealous. But… he also ends up laughing. A normal reaction for any 19-year-old with no romantic experience.

Then there's Clovis. Well… we all know how that ended 😅. But Clovis had a history with Padmé, he was overly friendly, and he was too persistent…

In Episode III, with Obi-Wan, things don't seem as simple as "Anakin was irrationally jealous" either. According to the novelization, he hadn't slept for WEEKS (do you know how that affects the human psyche?) nightmares about Padmé's death, Palpatine whispering in her ear… even whispering that Obi-Wan and Padmé were seeing each other in secret.

(Logistics! Obi-Wan and Anakin were the duo. Ahsoka was Anakin's Padawan. When they weren't on missions, Anakin was between Ahsoka, Obi-Wan, and Padmé. Obi-Wan had his Jedi Council meetings. And Padmé? Between politics, committees, meetings… her schedule barely had room for ONE secret relationship, much less TWO. Yes, in real life people lead double lives, have two families, and all that, but the schedules just don't add up here.)

Another detail that's almost never mentioned… Padmé had male friends. Allies. Coworkers. The main one was Bail Organa. Yes, he was married, but for someone with irrational jealousy, that wouldn't matter. Padmé and Bail got along well; they were friends and talked often.

Let's get to the extended material. As I understand it, both Sabé and Gregar Typo were in love with Padmé. Typo was Padmé's head of security, and obviously, he also spent time with her. I doubt Anakin didn't know or suspect this.

At no point do we see him lose his temper in these situations. And yes, you might say that not seeing it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

But the opposite can also be applied. We can't automatically assume that Anakin was equally irrationally jealous of everyone close to Padmé, not when we have three examples: one mentioned in passing, one where he had reasons to be upset by a man who kept overstepping boundaries, and the last where he was sleepless, starving, and being manipulated.

Her parents both offer to let her come help them in their respective jobs, but she doesn't really have the energy for that right now. She DOES like helping Sola with her nieces because their energy and innocence seems to be a balm for her heart. One day, Sola asks if Padme can take the kids to a local festival in Theed one day while she and her husband go do something else, and Padme agrees. The girls are old enough and Theed is safe enough that they can wander off on their own away from Padme as long as they know not to go TOO far and come back to her after a little while. As she peruses the different artwork on her own, one artist's work stands to her more than anyone else's, it just hits at the core of her and she's not even sure why. She stands in front of a painting of a bird in flight for what seems like hours, though it can't be more than a minute or two, before the artist himself comes over to speak to her.

He addresses her as Senator Amidala, and she quickly tells him that she's not a Senator anymore and she doesn't really want to go by the name Amidala either, she prefers just Padme these days. He agrees, and something about him, maybe his eyes, seems familiar but she can't quite put her finger on it. They talk about his art for a while and everything he says about his inspiration feels like it's speaking directly to her. Eventually, Pooja and Ryoo come up to her and start pulling at her hands, demanding that she come see something with them. Before she leaves, she finally realizes she didn't even know his name and asks him.

It's Palo. The first boy she'd ever loved. The last time she'd seen him she'd been twelve in the Legislative Youth Program. She knew he'd left politics to become an artist instead, but she'd never actually seen any of his art before or ever tried to get back in contact with him. Now she wishes she had. Pooja and Ryoo are still pulling her away so she doesn't have time to really get over her shock at this revelation before she has to leave him behind and someone else comes up to ask him a question in her place.