One thing that I feel like gets overlooked a touch when talking about the errors of the Prequel Trilogy is how poorly Padme Amidala is handled over the course of the trilogy. She's introduced as an interesting and fairly independent female character, and that character is then basically dismantled in the follow up films. The Phantom Menace introduces Padme as an unproven Queen who ultimately just wants to protect her planet and people. She'll go as far as throwing General Zod under the bus in front of The Senate, make peace with another Naboo race that they've had poor relations with for ages, go against the wishes and suggestions of the Jedi, and put herself directly in the line of fire in order to save planet Naboo. This is a character I look at and think "Yeah, this is someone I could believe would be the mother of Princess Leia".
Then Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith happen, and Padme for the most part goes from being a pretty independent and strong woman to a cheap plot device in order to make Anakin Skywalker turn to the Dark Side. In Episode 2, the same Padme who would rather stare down her attackers face to face now runs and hides on Naboo with Anakin and engages in a love story that makes absolutely zero sense whatsoever. Her seemingly on-point sense of right and wrong from Episode 1 apparently goes to the wayside when Anakin is near her, because Padme handwaves away Anakin's continuously creepy advances towards her, him basically stating that he openly supports fascism, and his murder of women and children in order to marry him at the end of the movie.
Then in Revenge of the Sith, Padme feels like a borderline non-entity who spends a little too much time sitting around acting like a plot device to create a rift between Kenobi and Skywalker. Oh, and then she gets to utter this line...
... which, while it's a great line on its own, feels pretty unearned for her character considering she married a fascist child murderer with more caution flags than your average NASCAR race and she is technically the catalyst that led to Palpatine's rise to power. Then we have the inconsistency of Padme refusing to believe that Anakin could murder children after Kenobi tells her that Anakin has fallen to the Dark Side, yet she literally heard Anakin years prior confess to child murder right to her face in Clones. And then, as the cherry on top of it all, after seemingly (re)remembering that her husband is a psychopath, she decides to say "fuck them kids" and let herself die rather than become a single mother.
Padme's devolution as a character is maybe the biggest issue with the prequels that doesn't get enough attention, and the treatment of the character post-Phantom Menace deserves to get called out.
Then Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith happen, and Padme for the most part goes from being a pretty independent and strong woman to a cheap plot device in order to make Anakin Skywalker turn to the Dark Side. In Episode 2, the same Padme who would rather stare down her attackers face to face now runs and hides on Naboo with Anakin and engages in a love story that makes absolutely zero sense whatsoever. Her seemingly on-point sense of right and wrong from Episode 1 apparently goes to the wayside when Anakin is near her, because Padme handwaves away Anakin's continuously creepy advances towards her, him basically stating that he openly supports fascism, and his murder of women and children in order to marry him at the end of the movie.
Then in Revenge of the Sith, Padme feels like a borderline non-entity who spends a little too much time sitting around acting like a plot device to create a rift between Kenobi and Skywalker. Oh, and then she gets to utter this line...
... which, while it's a great line on its own, feels pretty unearned for her character considering she married a fascist child murderer with more caution flags than your average NASCAR race and she is technically the catalyst that led to Palpatine's rise to power. Then we have the inconsistency of Padme refusing to believe that Anakin could murder children after Kenobi tells her that Anakin has fallen to the Dark Side, yet she literally heard Anakin years prior confess to child murder right to her face in Clones. And then, as the cherry on top of it all, after seemingly (re)remembering that her husband is a psychopath, she decides to say "fuck them kids" and let herself die rather than become a single mother.
Padme's devolution as a character is maybe the biggest issue with the prequels that doesn't get enough attention, and the treatment of the character post-Phantom Menace deserves to get called out.
