Padme's a Bitch!

Listen Tex ! I know you get some kind of sadistic pleasure from provoking and irritating people by calling Padme a b!@#$ ! 🙄 It's cool ... whatever floats your boat, man.

I agree with your points, but I'm looking at it as an inconsistency in the storyline, with regard to the way Padme's character has been written. She's NOT a " cheapo penny pincher " etc.etc. whatever it is that u said ... her character is one of a fine upstanding young woman, whose a very good and kindhearted person too ... and an inconsistency in the general plot / storyline
doesn't change that !

I still massively disagree on that point; I see no inconsistencies.

all I see is a thread with alot of bs in it.

So I guess it fits in really nicely around here! 😛

No ones going to 'dim' the fact that poor Shimi suffered unnecessarly! and that GL has a major flaw in his story! To just forget about Shimi for 10 years, and go back to her cause Anakin has nightmares is really crappy!! Bad writing!!! 🙄

Maybe they show make an Attack of the Clones Episode II.I version to go with The Phantom Edit to satisfy Texas. 🙄

texas, you sure are one kinky bastard! 🙂

Nah, that would make it much harder for me to bitch and complain! 😛

Ush you really need to get off your slave trade high horse, Padme and her Jedi companion interferred in the slave trade when they bet Anakins freedom with a roll of the dice (literally)! Which was altered with the force by Qui-Gon no less!

Posted by Ush:

. It could NOT have been done, and it if she had it could have cost her her job as Senator and then who the hell would she have been able to help then?

So arraning for the release of 1 slave is by far worse than marrying a Jedi padawan in secret, letting him get away with murder in your book? So you dont think she should loose her job for the later two?

She would not have been fired if she did free Padme anyways! The people of Naboo and the republic are in Shimi's debt! They would have been more than happy to free Shimi!

That's why it comes down to bad writing! Forgeting about Shimi for 10 years is not logical! GL only did it, cause he needed her to die there! 🙄

it wouldn't be right to go back to tatooine just to save one slave, and not take all the other slaves too, and if she would've saved all that would certainly secure the end of her career.

shmi had not stated that she wanted to be 'saved' either

It was a rumor I read that in the AOTC draft that Anakin got pissed and after his mother died he attacks the Tuskens and then takes the speeder to a slave compound and frees a bunch of slaves and kills the slave traders and owners.

Yeah Mah, your probably right, I'm sure Shimi must of loved slaving all day in the desert under 2 hot suns! What's to be saved from? 🙄 😛

Yeah, it would be nice to free all the slaves, but screw them, Shimi went out of her way to help, I think it's appalling that Padme, given her enormous resources, did not!

Rex, I guess we'll have to wait till the DVD to see the rumored missing scenes.

it wouldn't be right to go back to tatooine just to save one slave, and not take all the other slaves too, and if she would've saved all that would certainly secure the end of her career.

The point is, why do you equate Shmi with the rest of the slaves ? Why the logic that either you free all the slaves or none at all, and if you secure the freedom of only one slave, instead of all, that would be wrong ? Shmi's a special case ... it's as simple as that ... she allowed her son ( who happened to specially gifted ) to risk his life because three people were in need ... and the only avenue of help they had, lay in her son. And because of what her son did ( and risked his life in doing so, with her permission and encouragement ) saved not only their lives, but saved the people of a WHOLE planet from slavery ... if the two jedi masters and Padme did not manage to leave Tattoine in time ( just about evading Darth Maul ), and reach Coruscant when they did ... let's face it ... the Trade Federation would never have been defeated, the plans of Darth Sidious would not have been frustrated and the people of Naboo would have been under subjugation.

Furthermore, the Gungans were defeated by the droid armies of the trade federation ... again at that point, if it wasn't for Anakin, blowing up the droid control ship, the Gungans would have been defeated, and Padme's guerilla type assault on the Trade Federation Neimodians, would have probably failed as well.

Now ... what value do you ascribe, to help of this level rendered by Shmi and by her son ? It saved lives ? Yes !! Many lives, including that of the queen of Naboo. It saved a whole planet from conquest and slavery ? Yup !!

Therefore ... it would be very wrong to treat Shmi as just another slave ... and say that if she alone was freed, instead of all the slaves being freed, that would be wrong.

Shmi is a special case, and should have been treated like one.
And would have too ... if it was real life, and Padme was a real life character, because that's exactly the kind of person she is ... she is NOT a b!@#$ !! she's exactly the opposite.

But this is fiction, and as far as I'm concerned, this is definitely a lose point in the whole arc of the story ...

For me both Phantom Menance and AOTC are great movies, and I like them both ... BUT ... this is a lose point in the story.

May I remind you, Tex, that Padme was entirely opposed to using Anakin in that way. It was the RENEGADE Qui-Gon whod id that and even he only did it because he thought Anakin was vital to the future of the Galaxy.

There is NO high horse here. Padme could NOT interfere in the slave trade and that is all there is to it and if you believe otherwise you are utterly naive. No matter how grateful the people mauy have been to Shmi, it still dos not give Padme the right to break the law and free her, and if she did she would be rightly taken to court over it. You cannot just ignore laws because it suits you.

And YES, Texas, Padme has not done a good thing in marrying Anakin and excusing his actions. The whole point is that is very definitely an error on her part. But she didn't do it because she is a bitch, she did it because she is in love and that has clouded her judgment. Like I say, positive motivations.

And whatever you say about Shmi, Tex, it remains canonical that she made it perfectly clear that she was happy to stay on Tatooine. She also later married the love of her life there. Ooh, horrible!

Meanwhile, Harmax, Mah's point about the slaves is entirely right. Just because Shmi did a good turn, that means nothing. You cannot give her freedom higher priority than anyone else's; it is morally wrong. Every slave deserves to be freed just as much as she does and playing favourites is the wrong thing to do. That whole argument is completely flawed.

And so is the consistency argument, I find NO inconsistency in what Padme did and I would have done the same in her shoes. In fact I find this whole aspect of characters who behave like real people (no matter what odd ideas on the matter you have) and not fairy tale people a very satisfying part of the whole Prequel Trilogy.

As Dim pointed out (though rather more harshly), this whole thread is nonsense. Over analytical nonsense.

in order to face my fear of long and boring replies... here I go...

Padme is not:

by design: for what? because she gets children???

error: so why would she return in the story then?

there you go, nioce and SHORT

Indeed. Padme has never been portrayed, intentionally or otherwise, as a bitch.

if she was a bitch she would have yelled at Anakin from the start of TPM!

"Are you an angel?"
"WTF are you talking about? I'm much more older then you! You just stay away from me!"

Meanwhile, Harmax, Mah's point about the slaves is entirely right. Just because Shmi did a good turn, that means nothing. You cannot give her freedom higher priority than anyone else's; it is morally wrong. Every slave deserbes to be freed just as much as she does and playing favourites is the wrong thing to do. That whole argument is completely flawed.

Shmi's good turn means nothing ?? So lemme get this ... firstly she has ONE son, who is her ONLY family, and who is uniquely gifted ... allowing him to risk his life in a pod race, which could have killed him, and left her totally alone, in order to help three people, who are total strangers to her, whom she's never met before in her life, means nothing.

The fact that her son did win the race, because of which those three people got hold of a part which they needed, and got their ship repaired just in time so that they could leave just in time before Darth Maul came along and probably finished them off, starting with the Queen of Naboo, means nothing.

The same son destroys a droid control ship, which saves an entire race of living beings from total destruction by a droid army, means nothing.

Now that her son's left at the age of 9 to train as a jedi padawan, leaving her again totally alone, and left to fend for herself, on a desert island planet in the middle of nowhere, living in the " worst hive of scum and villainy ", means nothing.

Of course ... inspite of all this, Shmi's no different from any other slave ... all the other slaves on Tattoine were also similarly queing up to make similar great sacrifices, ( a few of them even offered Master Qui-Gon the use of THEIR sons to battle the approaching Darth Maul ) ... so why should we give Shmi any special treatment ? That would be playing favourites, and would be a moral travesty ... she can jolly well rot away on that desert planet into her old age, like the rest of those slaves, paying for her own food and water and clothes, meagre as they are ( because her son's nowhere around ) ... even though all the living beings on a whole planet, including the Gungans, indirectly owe their very freedom to her ?
That means NOTHING !!! So what if Padme, their queen, owes Shmi, indirectly, for her freedom and probably her life ... that means NOTHING !! Nope. A SLAVE SHE IS AND A SLAVE SHALL SHE REMAIN !! It's not for anyone to pay for her freedom .... because LIFE SAVING, AND SLAVERY SAVING HELP TO A WHOLE PLANET, BY PLEDGING THE LIFE OF HER ONLY SON COUNT FOR ........... NOTHING !!!!

Padme could NOT interfere in the slave trade and that is all there is to it and if you believe otherwise you are utterly naive. No matter how grateful the people mauy have been to Shmi, it still dos not give Padme the right to break the law and free her, and if she did she would be rightly taken to court over it. You cannot just ignore laws because it suits you.

How lucky for you, that you are in possession of the SLAVE TRADE LAWS ACT REFERENCE GUIDE, for whatever galaxy that this story takes place, in whatever year ... that's right ... it has been specifically layed down in article 341, subsection 19a, that freeing of slaves, by paying for their freedom to their slave masters, is QUITE ILLEGAL, and you can be incarcerated for doing that.
Those poor people on Naboo ... those helpless Gungans ... they SOOOOOO wanted Queen Padme ( their representative ) to pay off Watto whatever paltry sum of money he wanted to secure the release of Shmi .... if only it wasn't for that stupid law. By the way ... it's a good thing you pointed it out to me, because though I've seen TPM about two dozen times and AOTC twice ... I simply cannot recall anyone referring to the SLAVE TRADE ACT laws for that decade of time for that galaxy, that those movies encompass ... had you not told me, I would have never known Lucas had actually come up with a whole system of edicts specifically aimed at systemizing the slave trade for his fictional galaxy. I wish he had atleast thought of mentioning it in passing in either of those two movies ... and also put it up on starwars.com, for the sake of NAIVE folks like myself, who are rather mystified as to what the HELL could possibly be illegal, in one person paying another person who owns a slave, and does not mind setting that slave free, for a certain price.

Padme Amidala .... according to the man she loves, Anakin Skywalker ... if he, Anakin, were to accidentally fall out of a ship and break his spine in the process, and Padme was Obi Wan's jedi padawan, and they were chasing Count Dooku ... she would not stop to go back for him ... or even to check if he's ok ... she " truly deeply " loves him .... but duty stands forth before everything else, especially personal emotions. We know the young senator to be a person of large heart and kindness, especially to people who have rendered help to her people or her.
Which is the reason why she accepted bumbling stumbing and entirely foolish Mr. Jar Jar Binks, representative of the Gungan population of the planet of Naboo to the galactic senate ... which is why she took so much care to look after a certain droid, R2-D2, because, when being chased in an attempt to escape from killerships belonging to the trade federation, saved her ship from destruction.
What a lady ! What high character, and what great heart and compassion. Unfortunately ... she also suffers from migraine headaches ... which cause recurrent bouts of amnesia. That's the reason she forgot about old Shmi Skywalker on planet Tatooine ... because of whom she's alive and free and well.
Oh yeah ! By the way !! guess what happened ... she had this bad virus flu for a couple of weeks ... and that clouded her emotions so much, that she went and married Anakin though he had slaughtered a whole race of Tusken's and thrown a violent fit of anger afterwards, and .... hehehe .... she didn't even bother informing the jedi council about any of this ! Of course ... this is the same Anakin, who she wouldn't bother stopping for, even if he might be dead, if it came in the way of her duty ... but, those Naboo virus flu's have been known to have a strangely deleterious effect on one's sense of duty, no matter how strong.

You are right !! The story is fine ! there's no inconsistency or flaw in any of this !

Now let's stop over analysing this .... there are all these other threads, where we haven't been nitpicking and analysing enough .... like whether it was red milk or blue milk that was served at lunch in the Lars homestead ... and does the emperor have a lightsabre ? and if so, what colour ? and let's not forget the episode 3 countdown thread ... is it 1080 days, or 1079 days ??? We really need to concentrate on those underanalysed threads, and drop this dead donkey.

Originally posted by master harmax

Shmi's good turn means nothing ?? So lemme get this ... firstly she has ONE son, who is her ONLY family, and who is uniquely gifted ... allowing him to risk his life in a pod race, which could have killed him, and left her totallu alone, in order to help three people means nothing.

The fact that her son did win the race, because of which those three people got hold of a part which they needed, and got their ship repaired just in time so that they could leave just in time before Darth Maul came along and probably finished them off, starting with the Queen of Naboo, means nothing.

The same son destroys a droid control ship, which saves an entire race of living beings from total destruction by a droid army, means nothing.

Now that her son's left at the age of 9 to train as a jedi padawan, leaving her again totally alone, and left to fend for herself, on a desert island planet in the middle of nowhere, living in the " worst hive of scum and villainy ", means nothing.

Of course ... inspite of all this, Shmi's no different from any other slave ... all the other slaves on Tattoine were also similarly queing up to make similar great sacrifices, ( a few of them even offered Master Qui-Gon the use of THEIR sons to battle the approaching Darth Maul ) ... so why should we give Shmi any special treatment ? That would be playing favourites, and would be a moral travesty ... she can jolly well rot away on that desert planet into her old age, like the rest of those slaves, paying for her own food and water and clothes, meagre as they are ( because her son's nowhere around ) ...

Pfft! The exact same arguments again and just as feeble as before. You can stop over analyzing any time you like; I'll keep pointing out the flaws in what you say.

First of all, no. It matters not a jot what Shmi has done. Not at all. Not because it does not mean she is a good and noble person. But because doing good turns, no matter how large, does not give her any extra privileges when it comes to being freed. ALL the slaves deserve to be freed because slavery is wrong. You cannot improve upon that. And it is very very wrong indeed to free just onle of those many slaves because she was helpful.

As to your throughly feeble comment abouut me knowing the laws... this is not at all complex, Harmax. It is clearly stated that slavery is outlawed in the Republic,. Paying money for a slave is participating in slavery. That is illegal. Now, is that too complex for you? Because I will happily explain it again if you wish!

And you completely misread the situation when Padme fell from the ship. The truth, of course, is that Padme WOULD have gone back for Anakin. Obi-Wan does not know this because he does not know that those two have fallen head over heels in love. Anakin does not do it ONLY because Obi-Wan, a man he loves nearly as much as her, is yelling at him about it and yelling the exact right thing- the thing that Padme should have done in the same situation, which Anakin knows is the right thing to do. But the fact is, she would not. Lovr has compromised her judgment. That is why she does not tell the Council and that is why she marries Anakin. Absolutely not the slightest bit of inconsistency at all.

Harmax, shouting your sentences in capitals and your extremely clumsy sarcasm will not help your argument at all. Fact is, only you and Texas even vaguely believe this ludicrous idea and that only because you have completely mis-interpreted what has been laid out in front of you. You are the one who created this donkey. If you think its dead thrn you should stay away.

Also, yerss, her lines ""My life is here, my heart is here" show how perfectly happy Shmi was to stay on Tatooine. It WAS her home, after all.

yeah well, those were the first to pop in my mind...