What if Padme Amidala didn't die? In a tale that's Star Wars meets the Handmaid's Tale, Padme fakes her death to escape her abusive husband but accidentally is separated from her children in the process.

SYNOPSIS:

Padme Amidala is one of the women of Star Wars that I related the most to as a young girl. She’s a woman without the powers of a Jedi who still wanted to use her intelligence and compassion to save the galaxy. I have always been frustrated by her death, both how it didn’t make sense and was not a satisfying end to her story. This story would both right a wrong and fix inconsistencies in Star Wars without undoing any of the canon, as well as just giving us more of a beloved character and a view into a time period we haven’t seen yet – the early days of the Empire.

Beginning with PADME’S perspective on the events of the end of REVENGE OF THE SITH, we reveal that she has actually taken a poison to appear dead after failing to convince her husband to abandon his quest for power. The unintended consequence of this is that she goes into labor. The only people who know she’s alive are her two loyal droids, R2D2 and C3PO, who need to get her off her home planet after her funeral procession but before her body is burned without anyone knowing she is alive.

She awakes to find herself no longer pregnant, with her twins taken into hiding. She cannot reach them without endangering them and cannot reveal herself without Anakin (now Vader) finding her. With the help of her droids, she is able to find her children but can’t get close to Luke without being exposed. Using her skill at deception from her time as queen, where she would pretend to be one of her handmaids in order to gain information, Padme is able to embed herself in the Organa household as Leia’s nurse, ultimately revealing herself only to her young daughter who in RETURN OF THE JEDI we learned remembered her mother.

The story would pick up immediately following Palpatine’s takeover of the Galactic Senate and the massacre of the Jedi and would follow the Empire’s crack down on the rest of the galaxy and the rise of fascism. Early attempts to resist the Empire are brutally and violently crushed, with the Senate either unwilling or unable to stop it. Incapable of simply standing by and watching, Padme disguises herself as a bounty hunter to travel (think Leia in RETURN OF THE JEDI) and to organize attacks on the Empire.

Throughout we will have flashbacks to Padme’s youth on the beautiful ocean planet of Naboo and her time as Queen, and what it taught her, as well as flashbacks to her romance with Anakin (both what makes her fall for him and her growing fear of his darkness and controlling nature). She starts a coded radio broadcast and with her resilience and heartfelt belief in democracy she inspires others to join the cause in the face of overwhelming odds. Her missions will involve sabotage of Imperial stores/armory, protests, breaking political prisoners free, providing aid to struggling planets and helping Jedi go into hiding.

Her efforts to resist draw the wrath of the Emperor who sends Vader to track her down and eliminate her. Ultimately the story ends in a confrontation between Padme and Vader where he kills her, unaware that she is actually his wife, leading him further into darkness. Padme

PADME