7 Questions We Want Answered In ‘Queen’s Shadow’

With the Star Wars novel Queen’s Shadow out in 2019, there are unanswered questions fans want answered about Padmé’s life after her queenship.

When it was announced Ahsoka novelist E.K. Johnston would be writing a book about Padmé’s transition from the Queen of Naboo to Senator, fans became excited with the anticipation.

The novel, Queen’s Shadow will be set between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones and will explain what Padmé was up to before she reunited with Anakin and Obi-Wan in Attack of the Clones.

Since the deletion of the Legends continuity, Star Wars canon hasn’t provided much backstory for Padmé other than what was explored in the prequel films and The Clone Wars television series, which didn’t provide much information at all. Without further ado, let’s examine seven questions we want to be answered in Queen’s Shadow.

7. How does the monarchy on Naboo work?

Photo Credit: [Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith] Lucasfilm

We’ve seen four queens over the course of The Clone Wars and the prequel films. However, we’ve only ever seen Padmé and Neeyutnee in action. We were briefly acquainted with Jamillia in Attack of the Clones and Apailana in Revenge of the Sith.

Padmé is the only queen we know of that has a proper background with a family that goes rarely mentioned. Her father, Ruwee was mentioned in The Clone Wars episode ‘Bombad Jedi’ when Padmé mentions that Senator Onoconda Farr was a close friend of her father, though he wasn’t referenced by name.

Should the monarchy be referenced in Queen’s Shadow, there could be an explanation as to how it worked and how the election process worked in the favor of the up-and-coming monarch. It could also provide insight as to what high profile politicians thought of the monarchy.

6. What became of Padmé’s decoy, Sabé?

Padme confronts Anakin

Everybody remembers Keira Knightley’s character, Sabé, don’t they? Sabé has often been paired with either Qui-Gon or Obi-Wan in various fan fiction stories. However, what actually happened to her after the events of The Phantom Menace?

According to the Queen’s Shadow Wookieepedia page, Sabé will make an appearance so she may have a role in at least the early events of the book when Padmé is still queen. We could see her in a position where she continues to serve Padmé, even after the senator’s term as queen ended.

Sabé could have remained friends with Padmé over that time and she helped the senator whenever she required an extra set of hands.

5. What was R2-D2 up to before he reunited with Anakin?

Photo Credit: LucasFilm

While Queen’s Shadow will be about Padmé and her transition from queen to senator, there is one question nobody will have thought of: what happened to R2 in the ten years between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones?

We know R2 was the only service astromech to have survived the passing through of the Invasion of Naboo during The Phantom Menace and that he remains on Naboo for those ten years, but what was he doing exactly?

For all we know, R2 could’ve remained with Padmé for those ten years and served her like he did when she was queen. He might even have served Jamillia for a small time before he joined Padmé once again.

4. What happened to Captain Panaka?

Photo Credit: Lucasfilm

Canon has reinstated Padmé’s former chief of security Captain Quarsh Panaka as becoming a Moff under Palpatine’s Empire, but what happened to him after he served Padmé when she was queen?

Did he end up serving Queen Jamillia as her chief of security? We know Gregar Typho replaced him when Padmé became Naboo’s senator. Panaka couldn’t have just sat back and twiddled his thumbs for 13 years, could he?

3. How did Captain Typho become head of security?

Photo Credit: [Star Was: The Phantom Menace] Lucasfilm

Continuing on from the previous question, how did Quarsh Panaka’s nephew, Gregar Typho become Padmé’s chief of security during her time as Naboo’s senator?

We know Typho’s uncle served as Padmé’s chief of security when she was queen. Perhaps he wanted someone he trusted to guard Padmé and had Typho come in to fill his place? Maybe Panaka wanted his nephew to feed him information to give to Palpatine about Padmé and her plans.

There are a million possibilities as to how Typho became head of security to Padmé, so these were just a couple ideas as to how this happened.

2. How did Padmé’s family feel about her career?

Photo Credit: Lucasfilm

We’ve never met Padmé’s family for more than a split second. They had a large role in now legends deleted scenes on the Attack of the Clones DVD. We got a closer look at Padmé’s family dynamic and how they felt about her career in these scenes. They also dove into how they could see how Padmé felt about Anakin.

Since then, the scenes are no longer canon and the only canon appearance of them was at Padmé’s funeral in Revenge of the Sith and an indirect reference to Padmé’s father in The Clone Wars episode ‘Bombad Jedi’.

If the Naberrie family are referenced throughout the book, it could examine their feelings towards Padmé constantly putting herself on the line. They could also bring the characters in or at least a couple of them to try and talk Padmé out of becoming a senator and to settle down and begin her own family as her sister, Sola did before her.

1. Who was Naboo’s senator before Padmé?

Photo Credit: Lucasfilm

During The Phantom Menace, we see Palpatine go from being a senator to the Supreme Chancellor. However, we don’t know who took the role after the events of The Phantom Menace. We can assume the role was vacant but seeing as Naboo is a major player in the Senate, someone would have had to be the senator.

In Legends, there were two senators that came before Padmé. The first was Janus Greejatus while the second was Horace Vancil. Neither of these senators exists in canon, so the position is left open during the duration of Padmé’s reign as queen.

The easiest thing for Lucasfilm to do here would be to reintroduce one or both of these characters and just create similar or new backstories and plots for them. It would be better than creating an all-new character to fill the gap.

While it’s exciting to finally be getting some more insight into Padmé’s life between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, the character is finally getting more information about her past in canon. E.K. Johnston did a brilliant job with the Ahsoka novel and there’s no doubt she’ll do an excellent job with Queen’s Shadow.