It's very funny to me when people propose "and then Anakin made good choices instead and didn't murder Jedi younglings and they all lived happily ever after" AUs for the Star Wars prequels, but they put their canon divergence point... anywhere in "Revenge of the Sith". Like, I get what we're going for here, but Anakin IS unfortunately already a child murderer before the movie even starts.
Anakin's child murder during the Tusken Massacre is a prominent part of "Attack of the Clones". And Padmé KNOWS about it because he admits to taking deadly revenge for the actions of an unknown few out on an entire group of people, including children, explicitly directly afterwards. Padmé apparently wants love and a family so badly that she MARRIES HIM after that. Anakin and Padmé both put their personal desires above their morals and oaths of duty in the SECOND movie of this tragic trilogy.
It's often weirdly suggested that Luke and Leia in canon inherited their good qualities like their kindness and righteousness from the bio parents they never knew, instead of the actual people who raised them (Owen and Beru, Bail and Breha). It's interesting to me to imagine an AU in which Anakin made all the right choices in Ep3, defeated Sidious, stopped the Empire, left the Jedi Order to be with his family, raised Luke and Leia with Padmé, and THEN has the secret of the Tusken Massacre come back to haunt him.
Like, let's keep to a general outline of canon for this happy AU, and say that Anakin has trained both of his children in the Force and the ways of the Jedi despite not giving them up to the Temple. You don't need an official Republic label to have spiritual beliefs or dedicate yourself to helping people, but it's also not unheard of for people to find their way to the Jedi Temple later in life. So, Luke is either a Jedi or as good as one, and close to Obi-Wan Kenobi either way.
Let's also say that Padmé has involved her children in the political reformation and good humanitarian (SW non-human-inclusive equivalent) work that she's done with other like-minded senators, including rights and reparations for the enslaved clone troopers. So, Leia has a budding formidable political career of some kind and even has Bail Organa as a beloved mentor. Happy ending types of things.
Ideally for me, the discovery of the Tusken Massacre isn't a private family matter that could potentially be buried again, but a very public scandal in this AU.
Maybe a reporter goes to visit Tatooine because they're making a biopic on Padmé, the legendary young Queen and Senator Amidala, because they want to know more about her war hero husband's past. Digging for dirt, the reporter ends up investigating the relationship between the Lars settler farm and the local Tusken groups, and they end up uncovering journalistic GOLD.
Yes, Shmi Skywalker was kidnapped and killed, but her Jedi son then went off the rails and killed an entire encampment in revenge without any type of investigation. This potentially includes people who were abducted and/or enslaved by the Tuskens, as well as Tusken children. Setting morality aside for a moment, that is at the very least a VERY BAD look for a Republic politician's former Jedi Knight husband.
Or maybe someone like A'Sharad Hett (a Tusken Jedi to whom Anakin confessed his crime and nearly killed during the Clone Wars in the comics) comes forward. Maybe A'Sharad has been living in Tatooine in self-imposed exile in order to recover from physical and emotional injury during the Clone Wars, then he finally returns to the Coruscant Temple, sees Anakin living peacefully, and snaps.
Or maybe A'Sharad Hett is actually back on Coruscant because, after 20 long years of hard work from many parties (including Padmé!), a reforming Tatooine is finally on the verge of joining this reformed Republic and this former Jedi is now an official planetary representative of the Tusken people. He did the traumatized hermit thing for a while, then decided that he wanted to do good for his people, and started Organizing Locally. Two decades later, he finally sees Anakin and Padmé at some humanitarian charity event on Coruscant, which Leia organized (her parents are very proud), and it's awkward. A'Sharad Hett wakes up the next morning feeling a little bit Darth Krayt and goes, "I Think I Will Ruin A Man's Life Today."
And then Luke and Leia have to contend with the fact that the hands that raised them, that held them, were always stained by innocent blood.
Their father, this legendary Jedi Knight, killed children as a revenge-seeking Jedi Padawan and called his victims animals afterwards. (The family will be VERY lucky if Anakin doesn't lose his famous temper and say something HIDEOUSLY racist to the demanding press who are repeatedly bringing up his dead mother.)
And their mother, this beloved politician who famously advocates for the rights of people considered lesser and savage by others, who famously fights for due process and probably against the death penalty, covered up these murders.
Luke and Leia would probably be shattered and incandescently furious.
Obi-Wan and Ahsoka would be shocked and horrified, I hope. The Jedi Council would probably be in chaos over how to react.
People like Bail Organa and Mon Mothma would be devastated and yet still have to keep their composure while fighting off the press, because even if what Anakin did perhaps isn't technically illegal by current Republic law, Padmé's complicity in a revenge massacre has suddenly called all of their charitable projects and efforts to bring justice to the Outer Rim into question.
Really, I get what we're going for with a Happy Ending Canon Divergence AU for "Revenge of the Sith"! But even setting aside every questionable choice made during the Clone Wars itself, I just can't stop thinking about the skeletons that are STILL in Anakin and Padmé's closet in these AUs, due to the events of Ep2. The possibility of a rotting telltale heart that Anakin's been ignoring for 20+ years coming back to destroy his children's image of him? And also their image of Padmé?
Delicious drama. Get his (and her) ass.
Side note (spoilers): I was thinking about this because of episode 15 of "The Clone Wars", which is called "Trespass" and introduces the character of Pantoran Senator Riyo Chuchi. Pantoran dignitaries, Jedi representatives, and clone troopers are visiting the planet Orto Plutonia to investigate the disappearance of a clone trooper force. The Pantorans have claimed ownership of this planet because it's within their system.
It is discovered that the planet has an intelligent (C-3PO can understand them and translate for them) but not technologically developed indigenous species, called the Talz, who are admittedly responsible for the disappearances of (to them) these strange invaders. The Pantoran Chairman basically loses it, completely fails to negotiate with the Talz, calls them trespassers and animals, refuses to recognize their sovereignity, and then tries to kill them all.
A lot of Talz and more clone troopers are unfortunately killed before Senator Chuchi finds the courage to do the right thing and stand up against the Chairman. As one of the Jedi representatives present, Obi-Wan commended her courage afterwards.
(It was kind of annoying how Obi-Wan initially said their hands were tied. TCW show has its protagonists break or bend rules all the time, but Obi-Wan and Anakin couldn't put a LITTLE more effort into preventing the clone troopers from being sent to fight and kill and die against an indigenous people apparently now fighting for their own survival?)
Anyway, Anakin was lurking behind Obi-Wan during basically all of this, and I thought it was a very funny choice to have him say AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE during all of this. The Pantoran Chairman goes on an incredibly racist rant that pits him as OBVIOUSLY the Bad Guy, before he gets a whole bunch of people (including more clone troopers who really didn't deserve any of this) killed due to his seething thirst for blood, and it's like... "Hey, Anakin! Look! It's kind of you! Parallels!"
El giro de la trama es que culpo un poco más a Padme por el hecho de que Anakin no consiguiera ninguna consecuencia por la Masacre Tusken, que a él mismo por no decir nunca lo que hizo —no por lo que hizo, eso es toda culpa de Anakin. LAS ACCIONES DE ANAKIN SON SU RESPONSABILIDAD—. Y es que existe un elemento crucial que se suele ignorar, pero está perfectamente plasmado en el diálogo de Anakin y luego vuelve a abordarse en los cómics de Legends con su enfrentamiento con A'Sharad, pero vamos por partes.
En primera instancia, no es un «culpa al personaje femenino por las acciones del personaje masculino» Skywalker es su propia persona, pero eso no quita que Padme es una facilitadora de las acciones de Anakin dentro de la narrativa.
No de la misma forma que Palpatine que busca manipularlo para sus propios fines malvados, pero sí de un modo mucho más profundo que Obi-wan (que no es un narrador confiable respecto a su padawan— todas las historias diluidas y verdades a medias que le cuenta a Luke—, debido al amor que le tenía y nunca se enteró de lo que pasó en Tatooine. Sin embargo, hay que tomar en cuenta que ese amor no lo segó completamente y enfrentó a Skywalker después del genocidio Jedi) y a A'Sharad (que, a diferencia de Padme, al descubrir lo que hizo le dice que debe confesar su crimen y aceptar que lo que cometió fue justo eso. Mas, la buena intención de sus acciones no lo hace del todo libre de culpa al no delatarlo inmediatamente— culpa que lo persigue por el resto de su vida—).
No estoy colocando a estos tres personajes al mismo nivel. Porque obviamente las acciones/intenciones de los tres son completamente diferentes entre sí. A'Sharad y Obi-wan no querían hacer otra cosa que no fuera ayudarlo. Ya sea a encontrar su camino por parte de Obi-wan o hacer que se responsabilizara de sus actos de parte de A'Sharad. Palpatine... es Palpatine.
De todas formas, si la estoy responsabilizando de modo más contundente de lo que lo haría con otra persona que se encontrara con él, debido a que Padme Amidala es Padme Amidala.
Y Padme Amidala es tres cosas:
1. Ex reina y Senadora de Naboo: Un planeta no solo habitado por humanos, sino también por los Gungans; los habitantes originarios de Naboo que por mucho tiempo fueron relegados al papel de ciudadanos de segunda categoría hasta la batalla contra la Federación de Comercio.
Padme, como alguien que fue parte y ayudó a romper este sistema de segregación, debería ser consciente a un nivel objetivo de lo que significa la masacre Tusken, a diferencia de Anakin consumido por su rabia y dolor.
Anakin mató a toda una aldea, incluyendo mujeres y niños, como animales. ¿Anakin lo hizo por venganza, por lo de su madre? Sí. Aun así, Anakin no está diciendo simplemente que vengó a su madre. Él dice que los masacró como animales. Más allá de que Skywalker reconozca que lo que hizo estuvo bien o mal— desde su propia perspectiva—, fue justo o no, lo que sí reconoce es que su actuar no fue el de un jedi.
¿Qué no reconoce?
Que mató a otro ser sensible, a una aldea llena de gente. Anakin mató “animales” y Padme en lugar de abordar o asustarse por esta afirmación lo justifica y le resta el mismo valor que Anakin a los Tusken como seres sensibles, porque «enojarse es de humanos». Posiciona las acciones de Anakin como una rabieta y no como un genocidio, no solo no corrige la afirmación, sino que lo consuela casi como si estuviera infantilizándolo (lo que también se arraiga a toda la construcción de su relación).
2. Padme es una defensora de los derechos de los seres sensibles. Padme habló por los Gungans, Padme habló en contra de la guerra, Padme habló por los Clones, Padme habló por Naboo, Padme habló por los planetas de la República, Padme habló por los planetas neutros, Padme habló en favor de los jedis, Padme habló hasta por los Separatistas…
Padme nunca abrió la boca sobre lo que ocurrió en Tatooine. Nunca lo abordó, no se lo confesó a nadie, no hubo un flashback o recordatorio de que sintiera culpa por lo ocurrido. Y lo más importante; nunca se lo dijo a los jedis, nunca se lo dijo a Obi-wan.
Tatooine es un planeta fuera del núcleo que tampoco reconoce a los Tusken como personas, no es un planeta de la República; así que tampoco hay justicia allí. Los jedis no tienen ninguna jurisdicción política sobre nadie y sobre nada, pero uno de sus miembros era Tusken, existía la oportunidad de intentar hacer reparaciones “cuando acabara la guerra” y podrían decidir un castigo para Anakin, PARA UN MIEMBRO DE SU ORDEN.
3. Y, para la narrativa, la brújula moral de Anakin (junto con Obi-wan y posteriormente Luke) es Padme. Se presenta como este recuerdo de humanidad de Dark Vader, su luz, su ideal, el ejemplo de la galaxia y la inspiración para la Rebelión. Padme Amidala siempre será recordada como una mujer integra y pura cuyo único defecto fue enamorarse.
Ella es quien intenta traer a la luz a Anakin y le recrimina por acabar con los niños del Templo, pero sinceramente, desde la perspectiva de Anakin; ¿no es algo que Padme ya perdonó y puede perdonar?, ¿no es que estén juntos lo único que importa?
Esto no le quita agencia a Anakin de ninguna forma, solo le dice que será perdonado al final, que tiene razón, que valió la pena. Por eso es una gran sorpresa cuando ella no quiere lo que él le ofrece y toma su vida por ello.
Su trágica historia de amor solo fue una reacción en cadena.
¿Por qué la culpo a ella de que Anakin no recibiera consecuencias?
Porque él nunca confesaría— Skywalker ni siquiera siente un apice de remordimiento al respecto—, porque la guerra aún no había empezado y él no era un general de suma importancia para la República, porque aún era un padawan (esto no lo infantiliza, solo dice que tiene que responder ante su maestro también), porque él no veía a los Tusken como personas.
Padme Amidala, por todo lo que fue, por todo lo que hizo, por como está construido su personaje, tuvo que haber denunciado a Anakin y eligió, en cambio, casarse con él.
