I was Padmé for a long, long time. My ex was military; once on an exercise, he led a group of soldiers in a Middle East scenario supervising a civilian demonstration, and one of the "protesters" pulled a gun and fired into the air. He told me later he didn't even think, he just ordered his soldiers to fire on everyone. He laughed about it after like it was a great joke, but if it hadn't been an exercise he'd have killed fifty civilians. This was just one of many, many symptoms of his issues, but in hindsight it was one of the most chilling; I'm relieved he was never sent abroad. And even scarier, I still stayed with him for several years after; to this day I'm not entirely sure how I managed to leave in the end.
There's an episode of the animated Clone Wars series, "Hostage Crisis," which has a scene with Anakin emotionally manipulating Padmé, and I was dumbfounded when I watched it. There on the screen was I, trying to do my job knowing people's lives literally depended on me, and there was my ex, trying to guilt me into spending more time entertaining him despite knowing it'd affect my job and the people depending on me, and despite him never hesitating a moment to leave me hanging when his job called. That episode really made me think, because Anakin is just like my ex and Anakin has good sides too, just like my ex was charming and funny and intellectually engaging. But Anakin ended up murdering Padmé for not doing what he wanted her to. I watched that episode and made the connection between Anakin and my ex, and then I realised what a bullet I'd dodged...
Anyway, sorry about the rambling. I guess I just wanted to say that intelligent, well-educated women from good homes end up in relationships with abusive killers in the real world too. I don't know what was wrong with me either.
Re: WTF Amidala!
I was Padmé for a long, long time. My ex was military; once on an exercise, he led a group of soldiers in a Middle East scenario supervising a civilian demonstration, and one of the "protesters" pulled a gun and fired into the air. He told me later he didn't even think, he just ordered his soldiers to fire on everyone. He laughed about it after like it was a great joke, but if it hadn't been an exercise he'd have killed fifty civilians. This was just one of many, many symptoms of his issues, but in hindsight it was one of the most chilling; I'm relieved he was never sent abroad. And even scarier, I still stayed with him for several years after; to this day I'm not entirely sure how I managed to leave in the end.
There's an episode of the animated Clone Wars series, "Hostage Crisis," which has a scene with Anakin emotionally manipulating Padmé, and I was dumbfounded when I watched it. There on the screen was I, trying to do my job knowing people's lives literally depended on me, and there was my ex, trying to guilt me into spending more time entertaining him despite knowing it'd affect my job and the people depending on me, and despite him never hesitating a moment to leave me hanging when his job called. That episode really made me think, because Anakin is just like my ex and Anakin has good sides too, just like my ex was charming and funny and intellectually engaging. But Anakin ended up murdering Padmé for not doing what he wanted her to. I watched that episode and made the connection between Anakin and my ex, and then I realised what a bullet I'd dodged...
Anyway, sorry about the rambling. I guess I just wanted to say that intelligent, well-educated women from good homes end up in relationships with abusive killers in the real world too. I don't know what was wrong with me either.