It feels weird to call an elected (and mostly figurehead) teenage head of state a "Queen."
I like the idea of young people getting into politics but being the leader of a whole planet at 14 seems awfully...unconventional
Spoilers Andor - Season 2
- Thread starter Fuddles
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I like the idea of young people getting into politics but being the leader of a whole planet at 14 seems awfully...unconventional
Vader: All right Syril, I know you. You started it, didn't you?
Syril: No Lord Vader, I didn't.
Vader: Who did?
Syril (glances nervously at Dedra): I don't know Lord Vader.
(door opens, Eedy appears, and Syril Karn is dragged off for further questioning by stormtroopers kicking and screaming towards her. Other Imperial officers gulp as they were unaware that Darth Vader was capable of even this level of cruelty)
Cross post from the Contro Op thread
Young queens and Jedi fits in with George thinking of Star Wars as being for kids. Young Adult fiction is full teen and preteen protagonists: Narnia, Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, the Hunger Games, The Dark Is Rising and so forth. Some of whom are "Chosen Ones" and royalty. One can also draw parallels between Hogwarts and the Jedi Academy, where young people are taught to manipulate powerful forces, some of which may lead down a dark path. And of course in HP you have kids leading the fight against the forces of darkness.
Young queens and Jedi fits in with George thinking of Star Wars as being for kids. Young Adult fiction is full teen and preteen protagonists: Narnia, Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, the Hunger Games, The Dark Is Rising and so forth. Some of whom are "Chosen Ones" and royalty. One can also draw parallels between Hogwarts and the Jedi Academy, where young people are taught to manipulate powerful forces, some of which may lead down a dark path. And of course in HP you have kids leading the fight against the forces of darkness.
She wasn't a figurehead, she was the planet's chief executive.
Yes, electing someone at 14 to that position is weird, to say the least. Calling it a "queen" is not.
That sounds like a recipe for some terribly boring stories.
And I use a screen reader here. Can't use it while watching TV. That's why I stopped watching Discovery's first season. Can read fast enough.
If that’s the only story one is telling. Lucas’ universe is vast. Plenty of stories can fit well within those parameters.
I'm sorry, as someone with a hearing loss I do sympathize with having to struggle to enjoy things with a disability.
The Naboo Queen seems anything but a figurehead. For one thing, they couldn't force a settlement without her. We saw her command troops into battle, speak on behalf of her world in the Galactic Senate, forge an alliance with an until then belligerent neighbour, and had enough sway over her security detail that they let her tag along with a Jedi on a Hutt controlled outer rim cess pit of a spaceport.
The remarkable thing is what it says about the state of the educational systems in the Star Wars galaxy when it's even possible for a human to be considered fit for high office while still a teen. Not just Padme, but Leia was also a teenager when she took over as Senator, and I'm pretty sure Senator Chuchi is meant to be not too far off Ahsoka's age in TCW (though it's hard to be sure.) I think Lucas said at some point that Leia had the equivalent of a PHD before she was a Senator.
For those hung up on the idea of voting for a Queen; believe it or not elective monarchies are indeed a thing. They usually end up becoming hereditary ones, which may or may not have happened with the Naboo at some point in the past. Or maybe they've gotten lucky and have been electing their Queens since they settled there.
I disagree with the idea that more or better education would prepare a teen, boy or girl, to rule a small village, let alone an entire planet.
The human brain isn’t fully developed until 25 or 26 years of age.
18 may be the “legal” age of ‘reason”, but legal seldom has any basis in reality.
Yeah. I hated STAR WARS.
I'm fine with the kid rulers considering we all know without naming names that some decent teens would be better than some real world leaders.
That being said, a galactic senator requires having an image and respect along with common sense and knowhow. We literally just saw in this week's episodes that a politician of Mothma's status can't even get the support she needs in the Senate. How would a teen like Leia even have a chance?
That being said, a galactic senator requires having an image and respect along with common sense and knowhow. We literally just saw in this week's episodes that a politician of Mothma's status can't even get the support she needs in the Senate. How would a teen like Leia even have a chance?
I agree that some teens have higher levels of intelligence than some adults. It doesn’t follow that they are ready to lead billions or trillions while ensuring they are all ensured of security and liberty
That is exactly the issue. Politics is about making alliances and balancing their interests with your interests. Teens, especially later teens, are programmed to think in black and white. At least, teen humans. I just don’t see how anyone would think a 14 year old old would have the life experience to make decisions that would benefit people of all walks of life.
The whole 14-year old queen thing was just a bit of bad storytelling. I get that GL wanted to show Anakin from a young age; the prequels would have worked a lot better (IMHO) if Anakin had started older, about the age he was in EP II, and Padme could have been a full-on adult as well.
It depends. There are a few dumb decisions I made as an adult, the effects of which last to this day, that, thinking back on how I thought when I was younger I NEVER would have made if I had my teen mindset. Sometimes the experiences and hardships of adulthood break you, in some ways regress you, and you make much dumber decisions than you would have if you hadn't endured that trauma. Not all experience is necessarily good experience, and not all experiences make you wiser (and in my case caused me to make decisions that afterwards were clearly mistakes, and which I NEVER would've made as a teen if I hadn't endured some horrific incidents as a young adult)
I agree. But, best vs best and worst vs worst are arbitrary when it comes to brain physiology. A teen brain isn’t fully developed. So even the best decisions made with the best of intentions with all the best data available is still subject to failure. Yes, the same can be said of adults, but at least, the adult (over 26 years of age) is working with a fully developed brain and not because hormones are telling them that ‘this’ is absolutely, black and white, the best decision.
????
My hormones over 26 were WAAAAYYY worse than anything in my teens (let's not even get into my 30s). In my teens, I always had hope that I would meet dates "in the future", "in the working world", "when I grow up" etc. When I was an adult in a "successful", high-paying job in the cold working world, everywhere I went was "I don't know you, why are you talking to me", the "hopes" I had as a teenager were dashed by brutal adult reality, and suddenly there was no coping mechanism for hormones that I had in my teens with my false hopes that things would improve in adulthood...
There was a desperation that affected my adult decisions that NEVER came into my thinking as a teenager... I was trying to live in the perfect big city to attract potential dates, be in just the right place at the right time with the right friends for oppotunities to meet them (or be labeled a stalker otherwise if you get labeled as not belonging there), get the perfect physique, and so on, as an adult that I just didn't feel the need for such superficial demands as a teen. The hearing loss I mentioned passingly earlier in this thread was devastating to me as an adult in a way that it never was as a teen.
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The Jedi are never "all good" and the Sith are never "all bad." Even in the original trilogy, the main, "evil" Sith became good. And the all-good hero flirted with darkness.
All good/all bad all the time isn't a story. It's crap.
And, guess what, Star Wars isn't just three movies anymore. So shackling yourself to the same Manichean binary is going to get even more boring and more predictable right quick.
100% agree. There was literally no need to show us Anakin as a lil' tyke. It was a complete waste of a movie. You could jump into AOTC and skip TPM almost completely and miss nothing of consequence.
Even Obi-Wan lied to Luke about his own father out of some selfish need to salve his own wounded pride over his failure to successfully guide and mentor Anakin. Sure, part of it can always be stated as "protecting Luke from the horror of his father's downfall into evil," but there were better ways than leading Luke to believe Vader and his father were two completely different people, one being the victim of murder.
