Sith Padme

I have this vague idea of Palpatine discovering Force-sensitive Padmé when she’s a young girl. He was a Senator of Naboo and Padmé was involved in politics from a very young age (Wookipedia informs me that she joined the Apprentice Legislators at age eight and eventually became a junior senatorial adviser, joining the Legislative Youth Program at age twelve) so it’s not unlikely that they might have met when she was young. Perhaps he struck up a friendship with her under the guise of mentoring a bright young future-politician, and he quietly groomed her to be his future apprentice. He doesn’t tell her about her Force-sensitivity, and Padmé doesn’t realize it herself. She’s probably never met a Jedi, so she doesn’t really know a lot about the Force and would have no way to know that her talents might be more than just ordinary skill. So Palpatine influences her emotional and intellectual development to make it easier to sway her to the Dark Side in the future. Padmé still becomes Queen of Naboo. The events of Phantom Menace play out similarly to the film (I’m not sure why the Jedi wouldn’t realize Padmé is Force-sensitive, maybe Palpatine did something to hide her in the Force), with Palpatine becoming Chancellor. He uses the situation to subtly turn Padmé against the Republic that did so little to help her planet when they were in need.

After Padmé is no longer Queen, when she becomes a Senator and Palpatine is Chancellor and they are working much more closely and are further from the scrutiny of handmaidens and bodyguards, that’s when Palpatine reveals his identity as Sidious and convinces Padmé to become his apprentice (well, one of them, Dooku is still around). He promises that together they will protect the galaxy, the way the Republic and the Jedi no longer can. She wants to protect people and watching the Republic fail time and again tears at her. Padmé’s knowledge that the galaxy is full of people suffering and dying (the slaves on Tattooine are frequently in her thoughts), her belief that the politicians in charge are not doing nearly enough to help, that’s how Palpatine hooks her. Once she actually starts receiving training, Padmé become very powerful, very quickly. Her anger, and her righteousness, and her absolute certainty that she can make the galaxy a better place if she just becomes strong enough, make her a very powerful Sith. She never gets lost in the Dark Side, never lets it consume her. To her, it’s a means to an end. And honestly, that makes her a lot more dangerous.

So in the years between Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, Padmé trains as Palpatine’s apprentice, growing stronger in the Dark Side and more and more certain that the Republic is broken. Palpatine never completely reveals his whole plan to her, because obviously Padmé would not be on board with tearing the galaxy apart with the Clone Wars and then killing all the Jedi. He still moves around in the shadows, orchestrating the separatist movement and training Dooku. By the time Attack of the Clones happens (which I again see playing out similarly), Padmé is a very powerful Sith, and starting to grow suspicious of Palpatine. She knows he isn’t telling her everything, perhaps she even suspects he has broken the rule of two and taken another apprentice (that doesn’t necessarily bother her. Padmé is infinitely practical, and she thinks the rule of two is kind of dumb anyway, how are two people supposed to protect/control a whole galaxy?). She still opposes the Military Creation Act. Remember, even as a Sith, she doesn’t want the galaxy torn apart by war, she still wants to solve the Separatist situation (which she does not know is Palpatine’s doing) with diplomacy. Dooku, however, knows for sure that Palpatine has taken Padmé as an apprentice – it’s a large part of the reason he tries to have her killed (I can’t remember if Palpatine knew about the plot to assassinate Padmé in the movie, but in this scenario he doesn’t. It’s all on Dooku, and at least 50% out of jealousy).

After the attempt on Padmé’s life, Palpatine suggests Obi-Wan and Anakin be the ones to protect Padmé. In my head, his motivation here is partially to get Padmé out of the way while he works behind the scenes to get Dooku back under control (if she’s constantly being monitored by Jedi, she’ll have to play nice little Senator who is totally not a Sith guys promise) and partially because Palpatine still senses great potential in Anakin and wants to lure him to the Dark Side, and is hoping to use Anakin’s 100% obvious infatuation with Padmé to do it. Attack of the Clones plays out more or less the same (although, just think how pissed Padmé must have been during that battle at the end, surrounded by Jedi and unable to use any of her powers, reduced to defending herself with a blaster like the ordinary Senator she pretends to be when she’s completely capable of frying every droid on the battle field with a nice blast of Force lightning). Anyway, Padmé and Anakin still fall in love. Maybe that goes even easier because Padmé’s exposure to the Dark Side has taught her to embrace her passions, not resist them? And maybe everything that happens on Tattooine clues Padmé into Anakin’s Dark Side potential. I feel like this is where the seeds of a plan to overthrown Palpatine and take Anakin as her own apprentice start hatching in Padmé’s mind. And after everything that happens on Geonosis is over, Padmé knows that Palpatine has broken the rule of two and taken Dooku as an apprentice (which, again, wouldn’t bother her, if only Palpatine had been upfront about it, and Dooku hadn’t tried to kill her several times), and that Sidious is most likely behind everything going on with the Separatists (which does bother her, quite a lot, obviously). Dooku doesn’t expose Padmé as a Sith for the same reason he doesn’t just straight up tell everyone that Palpatine is Sidious – because he’s not quite that stupid. Later, Palpatine would probably try to convince Padmé that Dooku had gone rouge and that he himself was not involved in the Separatist movement, but Padmé’s not buying it. She pretends that she believes him, but secretly starts working on a plan to overthrown Sidious, a plan that becomes all the more urgent when she finds out she’s pregnant. She won’t have her child born into a world under the rule of a lunatic like her soon-to-be former Master.

I have no idea where it would go from there, other than it would end with Palpatine dead, Padmé in charge of the galaxy, Anakin at her side as her consort and apprentice in the Dark Side, and Luke and Leia as her heirs. The Jedi massacre might still happen. Perhaps the Clone Wars have convinced Padmé that the Jedi cannot protect the galaxy, and she knows that if they live, they will never stop trying to destroy her and her family, and the galaxy will suffer for it. She doesn’t like that she has to kill them, she never believed that the Jedi and the Sith should continue fighting each other just because they always had. Ideally, she’d like for them to work together for the good of the galaxy. She’s not evil, after all, she’s doing this to save the galaxy, not just to dominate it. But Padmé is practical and she knows that the Jedi’s prejudices against the Sith and their fear of the Dark Side are too engrained to be overcome. So, sadly, the Jedi Order will have to end.

Not what happens to Obi-Wan after all this. The OT3 shipper in me wants to say he joins Padmé and Anakin in ruling the galaxy, because of his love for Anakin and his friendship with Padmé, and because he thinks someone has to be there to make sure they don’t completely slip into the Dark and forget about why they took over the galaxy in the first place. But that doesn’t seem likely. I’m thinking there would still be a battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin, which would hopefully not end with severed limbs or third degree burns, and Obi-Wan would go into exile (with Ahsoka, as a sort of Luke substitute maybe?) .

The rebellion would probably happen differently too, without Leia and Luke and because a lot of the main figures in the original rebellion were Padmé’s friends, her colleagues. She would also be a much better ruler than the Emperor.  Harsh yes, unyielding and ruthless, but her ultimate motivation has always been to care for the galaxy. There would be no Death Stars and blowing up planets with Empress Amidala, and so, fewer reasons for people to join a rebellion. Of course, there would still be a rebellion because freedom and democracy.