Look, I’ve never seen the prequels.

I do not love the original Star Wars movies on their own merits, I love them because they have a beautiful story hidden under the stilted dialogue and plot issues.  I have been informed that I shouldn’t see the prequels if I don’t love the originals on their own merits.  I plan to take that advice.

This line was the first thing I ever knew of Padme Amidala, and I have taken the Death of the Author to heart and built Padme into a character in my mind, the kind of character who could stand in a room full of her enemies and look around and have the courage to say out loud “look at what this has become” without a trace of surprise or shock.  The kind of character who could be a conniving queen as a teenager and a revolutionary senator as an adult and have Anakin Skywalker–Darth Vader–fall in love with the fire in her eyes.  The kind of character who loves with everything she has…but would still die or kill for her beliefs, and not bat an eye.  The kind of character I would want to watch in a movie.

The kind of character who watches liberty die and cracks her knuckles and says “not fucking today,” okay?

I’ve never seen the prequels.  I don’t plan to.  

But that Padme?  I like her a lot.