Star Wars Inside Intel is a StarWars.com feature where Lucasfilm Story Group member Emily Shkoukani explores obscure facts about Star Wars lore and continuity. In this inaugural installment, she brings to light some details about Padmé Amidala.
Padmé Amidala is most notably known, of course, as the queen of Naboo. Throughout the prequel trilogy and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, we learn a lot about this fierce, young leader. When we first meet her, Padmé is the young queen of her planet and is faced with handling a terrible crisis, as the Trade Federation forms a blockade around her homeworld. Padmé risks everything to get her people the aid they need, and this determination is what characterizes Padmé in her life; she will never give up no matter who or what tries to stop her. But although fans know Padmé quite well, there’s always more to learn.
Starting with her name, Amidala is not Padmé’s true surname — rather, it was a name she used during her time as queen of Naboo. This was to protect her true identity, and the identity of her family. Being a young queen at only 14 years old, it was prudent to keep her surname secret for safety concerns, however, this was also a Naboo tradition. This name would live on with her as she closed out her final year as queen and later moved on to become Naboo’s senator, as detailed in E.K. Johnston’s novel, Star Wars: Queen’s Peril, and seen in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Even after death, the name “Amidala” was one that inspired the same tenacity Padmé had. Her former handmaidens, security detail, and others loyal to her in life formed a resistance group in her name called the Amidalans. Featured in Greg Pak’s Star Wars: Darth Vader: Dark Heart of the Sith, the Amidalans believed that their former queen was murdered and they pledged to find the one responsible for her death.
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