I find it very interesting to look at how different it feels when Padme and Luke both say "There's still good in him" just based on the context and lead-up to that line for both characters and why audiences might view the characters differently because of it despite the intentional parallel.

Let's start with Padme. Yes, Padme's dying words are intended to parallel her son's line from Return of the Jedi and we know that she ultimately ends up "right" about there still being good in Anakin. But the context of Padme saying this gives a very different tone to that scene.

Because Padme is a character who actively tries to pretend that Anakin has no darkness in him at all despite repeated evidence being shown and told to her that he DOES simply because it's more convenient for her to do so.

In Attack of the Clones, Anakin straight up tells her he believes in dictatorship and Padme's response isn't to be disgusted or report him, but to just decide that he must have been making fun of her because it's a lot easier than dealing with the reality that the guy who is supposed to be taking care of her is in fact a fascist. And then just a few days after that, Anakin screams in Padme's face that he just massacred an entire village of people down to the last child because he sees them as animals and her response is to decide that this is just a totally normal response to trauma rather than, again, being disgusted by it and reporting him. And of course that movie ends with her deciding to marry him, despite knowing he's a murderer and a fascist and that this is against the rules for BOTH of them.

In Revenge of the Sith, there's an entire scene where Padme and Anakin sit there joking at each other about how love blinds you. They're joking around and you can see the scene as just a sweet little nonsense scene if you choose to, but it's also very intentionally foreshadowing a lot and has the subtext of the thing that is going to destroy both of them in a few days. When Obi-Wan comes to Padme to ask her about where Anakin is and tells her about what Anakin's done, Padme's response is to deny it. She argues that Anakin would never kill children, despite the fact that she knows he HAS killed children before. And then she lies to Obi-Wan, obstructing his ability to figure out the truth about what happened to his people or to gain justice for the genocide that was just committed against them. And her next response is to go find Anakin so that she can ensure he escapes any consequences for what he's done while still insisting that he hasn't done anything wrong at all.

So when Padme says "There's still good in him" it comes with the context of Padme spending two entire films refusing to actually see Anakin for who he actually is. It comes after MULTIPLE scenes of Padme rejecting the reality that Anakin has darkness in him that he is fully capable of acting on. Sure, she's not wrong that there's still good in him, but the line feels more like Padme just continuing to pretend that Anakin didn't just commit a genocide and bring down the Republic rather than Padme being right about Anakin. It doesn't sound like "Yes, I know that he's done a million terrible things, but I have hope that he can still make the right choice if we approach him the right way" and more like "He was probably just brainwashed or something, he didn't REALLY mean to genocide an entire people."

And this then directly foils Luke later on.

Because when LUKE says it, it comes with the context of the entire character journey Luke has been going through over the last 2.5 films. Luke's had to learn to accept his OWN darkness and face his own worst fears about his heritage and what he could become. He's had to face the reality of losing the people he cares about and seen the consequences of what happens when he lets arrogance and fear blind him. Luke has had to accept that Darth Vader is a part of who he is, he's not infallible, he could fall to darkness just like his father did if he isn't careful. But this comes with the ability to recognize that this could mean that Darth Vader might yet be able to turn around and make the opposite choice. If Luke has the ability to fall, Darth Vader has the ability to rise. Luke knows that it's always about making the right choice, and while Darth Vader has made a LOT of bad choices, it doesn't mean he can never make the right one. Choosing to believe that Darth Vader could still have goodness in him is a result of accepting that Luke has darkness in himself, too.

So when Luke says that there's still good in him, there's no attempt to pretend that Anakin hasn't done monstrous things. Luke really can't pretend that Anakin didn't do them, he's literally stood there and watched as Anakin did some of them. He's down a hand for the rest of his life because of Anakin, he'll have to live with the evidence of what Anakin is capable of forever. He CAN'T sit there and pretend that Anakin didn't do those things the way Padme could, it isn't possible for him. For Padme, Anakin will always be "that little boy from Tatooine," just like she says in Attack of the Clones. But Luke knew Darth Vader first, he's known the villain and the monster longer than he'll ever know Anakin Skywalker. Even when he figures out how to reconcile that these two people are the SAME person, he doesn't know enough about Anakin Skywalker to be able to pretend that Darth Vader didn't do the things he's done. Luke says that there is still good in him with the full awareness that Darth Vader has made a LOT of horrific choices in his life. There's never any attempt to try to convince himself or anyone else that that isn't true.

He sees Anakin in the full truth of who and what he is. He knows EXACTLY what kind of darkness Anakin has in him and is choosing to believe he can still make a better choice ANYWAY. Unlike his mother, Luke knows who Anakin is, he's never been given another choice.

That's why Padme comes off as wrong about Anakin while Luke is right even though they both say the same thing. The line doesn't MEAN the same thing to both of them and the audience can pick up on that because both of them have had several films' worth of context letting us know that.

Padme is the original delulu because if my husband killed kids not once but TWICE, openly admitted to serving under a Sith and Force choked me, I would not, in fact, say on my deathbed that there is still good in him.

Quite the opposite, I would probably beg Obi-Wan to hide my kids from that guy.

So, this is just me ranting about how much i do not like Anakin and Padme as both couple and individuals, but mostly as a couple. Long post

No hate to anyone who likes them, or for the actors who had play them, nor to George Lucas who created them. Let's start.

1. How they met

So The Phantom Menace starts. Padme is elected Queen of Naboo, and the Trade Federation is attacking the Planet, long story short cuz we all know it already, she has to run away but get stuck in a far planet. There she meets 9yo Anakin who is a slave, he's kinda smart and capable with machines. They help him win a race and the boy is set free but his mother has to stay behind. He's sad cuz he miss his mother and finds a good friend in Padme. Until there all is cool, they are both children.

2. Where their relationship really starts.

10 years had passed. Anakin is 19 and Padme is 24. He's send to protect her. They arrived in Naboo and when Padme is just trying to help with the situation Anakin starts to underestimate her and gets angry every time she shows him he needs her to be a succesful mission, I know he's a jedi and he may be the one to know better about protecting people, but if he really knew better he would know that a person that has live there for years is going to know better than him and he just seems angry and proud and can barely bring himself to admit she knows better than him. Then they get into a picnic and spend a good day just talking and playing, BUT Anakin literally started sharing VERY authoritarian and f*cist views and Padme is just like “you are so funny”. First time Padme ignores Anakin being abussive, or possesive or violent or any other toxic behavior. He kisses her and then a few hours later he literally says to her “I'm in agony for the kiss you should have never given to me” if that's not manipulative behavior i don't know what it is, she tries to tell Anakin to think clear and send him away, but then a few days later, Anakin commits his first massacre of women and children and admited to her all that and she's just like “to be angry is to be human”. She literally saw him in one of his most violent behaviors and just shoved it away. Second time Padme ignores Anakin violent behavior. They leave Tatooine, fight side by side, survived and married each other a few days later. Padme literally marry Anakin just days after he tells her he killed children.

3. The Clone Wars.

They have good moments and they had bad moments. But then a year or two had passed and Padme is helping fighting the war within the senate. Things happens and Clovis comes back to Padme's life. He lies and she believes him. Things scalate and she starts working with Clovis, at this Anakin literally tells her “as your husband I demand”, he may be right about Clovis, he was not one to trust, maybe Padme was wrong, but thinking that cuz you are married to someone you can demand something from the other is just wrong. First time Anakin despites Padme's work. Things gets even worst when Clovis tries to kiss Padme and Anakin walks in the middle of it. He was right to be angry and to get him away from her. BUT what was not right is him going full Vader mode trying to kill him, the moment he hears Padme asking him/them to stop, Anakin points at her and says “YOU DON'T HAVE A SAY IN THIS”, he doesn't care about Padme or protecting her or respecting her, it was about him and his jelousy, it was him, saying “she's mine, you are mine”. He never even asked her if she's right, he even thinks she was part of this, that she was cheating on him. Then Padme tells him a bunch of truths but it's for nothing cuz a few days she forgets everything and forgives Anakin. Third time Padme forgives Anakin toxic behavior.

3. Anakin fall.

So, Anakin is back in Coruscant after being away for a while. Padme waits for him and they reunite. Padme tells him she's pregnant and regardless of what many post says about Anakin smiling when he realizes he's going to be a father, he literally has the worst look ever, he's worried and even upset at what Padme is saying and he only pulls up a smile when he realizes she's looking at him and waiting for his reaction.

Then, they go back home, he gets nightmares about Padme dying, and he is worried about her, of course, any partner would be worried too. But what's not okay is that, he doesn't care about his child, he never thinks about the baby when he's seeing Padme die in childbirth. He only mentions their child until Padme asks him about the baby, and he only answer “I don't know” he doesn't even question himself about them, again, he just cracks a smile and sweet words when he sees Padme worry about the things they talked. Days pass by and Padme asked Anakin to speak to the Chancellor in good faith to stop the war so they can start fixing everything that is bad and Anakin snaps at her with “dont ask me to do that, do it yourself in the senate”, so, he gets to demand but she doesn't get to ask something from him? What a man Anakin Skywalker is. Second time Anakin desdain Padme's work. Sith happens and starts Order 66, he doesn't leave a single soul alive. Not even the children. He comes back fully turned and tells Padme he's leaving on a mission. Obi Wan goes and talk with Padme telling her everything, he literally tells her “Anakin killed children” and she answers “he wouldn't” when she knew he would CUZ ANAKIN LITERALLY TOLD HER HE ALREADY SLAUGHTER CHILDREN BEFORE. Fourth time Padme ignores Anakin violent behavior. She reproches Obi Wan he just wants to kill him like OF COURSE, he had literally massacre in cold blood hundreds of man, women and children, he's fully dark side mode and he's still the most powerful force sensitive being. At this point Anakin deserves to die, he needs to die cuz he could literally bring the entire galaxy down if he wanted and she knows, and still she doesn't care about anyone else but him and her (I mean of course having to accept your husband and father of your unborn children needs to face consecuences for his actions is hard but after all the inocent blood he droped i think any good soul would accept it as hard as it would be).

Then she runs to him, Padme tells Anakin everything Obi Wan told her about him, and he never denied it. So Padme starts yo realizes the true, now she knows it was all true, and even after she knows that Anakin massacre children and his fellow men and women, she stills asks a children-murderer-Sith to “run away with her and HELPS HER TO RAISE THEIR CHILD” who in their sane minds would ask a man who AGAIN, killed children to help her raise their baby? WHO? Fifth time Padme is willing to ignore Anakin's violence. Sith happens and Anakin thinks again she lies and chokes her. No matter what, a healthy couple would never end in one trying to kill the other, NO MATTER WHAT. Anakin choking Padme was just his last violent, toxic and possesive act against her.

Then to conclude everything, she goes into labor and Luke and Leia are born. But she's heart broken for Anakin, she's so heartbroken she doesn't want to live, cuz everything that happened. And for the ones who would say “you can't blame Padme for dying” the medical droid literally said she was fine but she didn't wanted to live anymore. She was more worried about Anakin “wheres Anakin?” than for her child(ren). Her last words are not even for her children, they are for Anakin, she literally believe there was still light in a man who literally had his hands wet with children blood. I do believe Padme didn't really care about her children, she barely gives them names but is never concerned about their wellbeing or anything.

And don't get me wrong, I can understand people losing every sanity they had left after Order 66

Ahsoka was attacked by her own men, men she saw as her brothers, good friends, who fought side by side with her, who help her train, she barely get out alive, and she had to see how all these good men were turned to puppets, had to see how every man died, not even as free men, and it took her 1-2 years to step back into the fight.

Obi Wan same thing, he had to see how men he trusted turned against him and try to kill him, only to come back and see one of the people behind all this crimes is the young man he had trained since he was just a little boy, even with all his pain he is willing to fight Anakin, maybe not kill him cuz he thinks leaving him burned was going to be enough to stop him, but he literally fight him, he has to see how his family was slaughter, how his home was burned down and how his brother betrays him and them all, and it took him 10 years to step back into the fight and overcome his grieve.

Bail Organa, the man saw as the Clones attacked the Jedi Temple, saw it burning, saw how they killed a child as he couldn't do anything to stop it, he saw his life work falling into pieces as he wasn't able to stop it, and he never stoped fighting, the moment he scaped the Temple, he jumps into help any jedi he can find, rescued Yoda and Obi Wan, helps Yoda scape from Darth Sidious, and helps Padme get medical treatment, he jumps in to adopt an orphan baby, and just a couple days later he offers Ahsoka help and comfort. Months pass, years pass and he never quited the fight, he always kept going, he never stoped, even when even a year after Order 66 he still dealing with trauma.

Padme saying “to be angry is to be human” immediately after hearing Anakin justify murdering babies by calling them animals is.... certainly a choice of words.

Just putting this out there.  I do think they’re too lenient with Obi-Wan’s actions (because frankly, he doesn’t take responsibility for anything but its played at here) and also mislabel Anakin to a degree. The author isn’t totally wrong but they aren’t 100% correct either.

Ok, I know I haven't been very kind about Anakin in my posts lately but like...I'm rewatching TCW while I'm writing and it's literally insane how many times Anakin just...doesn't give a shit about his men and/or fellow Jedi.

Like he consistently makes decisions that get his men killed and you can't even defend it as "he tried his best, but that's war" because nine times out of ten he's either disobeying orders or ignoring the input of someone else saying "this is a bad idea/this is gonna get people killed/we need to do something else."

Like Anakin will literally go out of his way to disobey orders, for literally no reason, and get his men killed.

Not to mention that he shows absolutely no concern for them except for very select situations, and if Padme (or sometimes Ahsoka) is involved then you can bet your ass he doesn't give a shit about his men.

Oh, Rex is also stuck in that lab and dying of some incurable disease? YOU WOULDN'T HAVE KNOWN IT FROM ANAKIN'S COMMENTARY!!!

It's just...it's very frustrating rewatching TCW because now I'm actually seeing seeing his actions and I want to hit him with a metal pipe.

Luke and Leia would have been so fucked up if Anakin and Padme actually raised them

Girls don't wanna have fun.

Girls want to have that pretty yellow-pink-purple dress Padmé wears in Attack of the Clones.

Broke: The reason Anidala is so toxic is because Anakin had PTSD that no one recognized or tried to treat.

Woke: The reason Anidala is so toxic is because Padme had PTSD that no one recognized or tried to treat.

Bespoke: Anakin had PTSD that the Jedi teachings would've helped him manage and overcome had Palpatine not interfered and poisoned Anakin against those teachings and encouraging him to lean into behaviors and habits that exacerbated his own PTSD which directly led to his behavior towards Padme and in their relationship that caused issues. In contrast, Padme had PTSD that she chose to set aside in order to keep functioning as Queen for the next three years and never dealt with or managed and cannot function without burying herself in work and in service of some kind which is why she sacrifices all of her childhood dreams of having a family to be a senator when asked after her terms end and she routinely refuses and rejects the care of people who truly care about her like her family and hides things from them in favor of playing out a fantasy with someone who cannot judge her for her own issues and isn't interested in her as a person enough to go looking or notice them anyway.

Padme Amidala. You agree.

Hey, everyone, I wrote a thread about Anidala on Twitter. Feel free to support/defend/criticize it. It's mainly about the portrayal of Anidala in CW and TCW as well as the fairytale tragedy aspect of it.

No Order 66 AU where Anakin leaves the Order after the war ends and he and Padme end up retiring to Naboo to try to raise the twins together, but neither of them ends up feeling particularly satisfied with life on Naboo (for Anakin it just doesn't give him any purpose the way he desperately needs and for Padme it's always been this perfect rosy dream and reality doesn't measure up), so they end up leaving the twins behind a lot so they can pursue other things and are pretty absentee parents in general. They mostly end up getting raised by Padme's parents instead, and while they're perfectly good guardians for the twins and raise them kindly and love them a lot, there's always an obvious elephant in the room regarding who ISN'T there.

This causes a bit of a rift between Luke and Leia because while Luke is trying to keep the peace and give their parents the benefit of the doubt as he moves on and figures out his own life with what he DOES have, Leia is less willing to just forgive and forget.

Luke ends up becoming a pilot working for the royal palace for a while, but Leia goes into politics (something she'd entered while younger because it's what her mother did and she'd been hoping it would get Padme's attention and bring the two of them closer; it didn't work out that way at all and now Leia's sticking with it at least partly to spite Padme) as an aide for her cousin Pooja who is now Senator of Naboo.

And it's here, once she finally makes it to Coruscant and starts working in the Senate, that Leia meets Bail Organa, still working as Senator of Alderaan. The two of them click IMMEDIATELY and Bail ends up becoming Leia's mentor in politics, as well as the person who actually introduces her to the Jedi themselves. Anakin and Padme had never really bothered to do so, both because they were so rarely around, but also because they had chosen not to give Luke and Leia to the Temple and decided at that point that it would be easier to keep the twins and the Jedi separate. Bail of course has no such compunctions and even if he knew about Anakin and Padme's feelings on the matter, I imagine he'd find ways to allow Leia to accidentally bump into some of the Jedi while she was on Coruscant. If he just so happens to double book himself for lunch with both Leia and Obi-Wan, it's hardly anything malicious and they may as well all eat together!

Leia finally feels like she has a parent who gives a damn about her, someone who acts like a parent to her, the parent she's always wanted. Her grandparents had always been incredibly kind and they obviously had to do a lot of parenting, but they'd always been very strict about making sure the twins saw them as GRANDPARENTS and not their actual parents, which just make the absence of their parents that much more obvious and painful. But with Bail, she's finally got someone who doesn't care that Anakin and Padme aren't there and doesn't feel the need to create a wall between them for Anakin and Padme's sake. Bail takes her under his wing, teaches her everything she knows, allows her to explore things she'd never been allowed to explore before, connects her to even more people who can help her understand herself better than she's ever been able to before. THIS is what a parent was supposed to do for her and she knows it, THIS is what selfless love looks like from a parent and she THRIVES under it for the first time in her life.

She eventually decides not to stay on as Pooja's aide because she has no real desire to become a senator for Naboo at any point, but she IS good at politics and desperately does want to help people any way she can, so she starts up some sort of organization of her own to help people around the galaxy (and connects it to the Jedi because deep down she KNOWS she was supposed to be one of them even though that path is now closed to her). But she doesn't go back to Naboo, she doesn't make her home on her mother's home planet.

She goes to Alderaan instead. And this time, she gets to stay there for the rest of her life.

Still a mystery this is

Bail Organa didn't blead his heart dry when he said “We cannot let a thousand years of democracy disappear without a fight. And we can not continue debating about this any longer. We have decided to do what we can do to stop it” for you to say that Leia's passion comes from Anakin, Idc what Obi Wan says, her bleading heart comes from Bail and her mind comes from Breha.

The infraction scale of severity according to TCW Padme:

Mass-murder of non-human bystanders and babies, motivated by revenge: babe you are valid Mass-murder of jedi babies + fascism, motive unclear: that's extremely distressing but babe if you agree to stop now we can still make this work and raise kids Beating up her ex who assaulted her: this is too much for me

#THEY WERE A GOOD MATCH #JUST THE RIGHT PEOPLE AT THE WRONG TIME #STFU