Hi, I hope you are well, can you talk about the relationship between Padmé and her handmaidens? How is it different from her other relationships?
hello ! thank you so much for asking this question.
short story, padmé’s handmaidens are her most trusted advisers and confidants, as well as her closest friends. she trusts them with her life, and they would stop at nothing to cheep her safe.
long story ?? padmé’s handmaidens ( sabé, rabé, eritaé, dormé, and saché ), were initially part of a school on naboo that trains the chykarié ( lit. ‘moon warrior’ in xin’de). here, they learn everything from politics to training as highly skilled assassins that either join the queen’s guard upon graduation, or are free to choose different career paths for themselves. now, padmé came to the throne when she was twelve after a short but bloody war that killed her parents, the previous monarchs, so her handmaidens too were chosen in that same age range, twelve to fourteen, with sabé being the youngest and eritaé being the eldest. they essentially grew up together, and the fraught political climate only forced them to rely on each other even more.
at fourteen, when padmé and her chykarié uncovered that heku’u, the court mage and padmé’s remaining parental figure, was behind the coup, and after his subsequent banishment, they were the ones to help her weed out any people whose alliance might still be with him, and secure padmé’s rule. similarly, when padmé’s fiancé turned out to be plotting to overthrow her, they were the ones who would help her burn the body in the woods. when padmé does leave naboo to travel the world, they are her sole link to her kingdom, and they often pass messages between her and her council.
in short, padmé loves and trusts them above any other, and their bound runs incredibly deep.