The Royal Handmaiden Society: Episode 8: A New Hope

Obi Anne that is sad that she died! It was for a good cause though.

Happy Halloween everyone!

 

I intend on buying that game that that information comes from tomorrow, so I'll gather more details about Apailana's fate as soon as I can.

 

I hate to sound foolish, but what game is that?

 

You don't sound foolish. I second the question: What game?

My initial reaction to the Apailana bio was that it was a fan submission, one of those contest winners.

I'm intrigued!

Also, Target ROTS price is $14.99, with a Vader coin on the front.

 

I think the game is Battlefront II (I saw something in the newspaper about it). I know I asked the question but I just saw it. I thought the picture was a fan submission too.

Did anyone go to a place for an Ep 3 DVD release? I won second place for a costume contest here. It was fun.

I do have one rant about the DVD. No new handmaiden clips! Other than that, all is good!

And now I might have to think about getting a second copy or something at Target. Is the coin really cool?

 

So they didn't include the cut scene with the handmaidens in the grey (but really lilac) pleated cloaks on the DVD? That would have been the one with Motee's big line, "Yes, Milady", too. I'm disappointed--but not surprised.

I'll have to see what they did include when I see the DVD, which won't be for some time yet. My brother ordered it through the mail, but I don't know when it will arrive.

About the Apailana bio:

I didn't think it was a fan thing, but it makes sense. The picture they have is hardly the best graphics I've seen. Other than that, I don't feel I can comment about her death, without knowing more about the context. Maybe the stormtroopers killed all the handmaidens before they go to the Queen. But, selfishly, I'd like to think that a few of them survived the battle.

 

Pandora26, I do agree. They might have went after all the handmaidens. However, I also like to think some survived. Who knows, maybe they helped with the Rebellion.

Oh, and on a side note, I was thumbing through some of the books at the bookstore the other day and apparently, when Padme went to Mustafar, the handmaidens were supposed to come too. However, Anakin was supposed to kill them. While I would have liked to have seen the handmaidens, it would be sad to see them die.

 

oh gosh...

 

I am as well. I mean, yes we did not see them really, but we did get to see Motee a little and I have to admit she seemed very worried about the changes occuring. Actually, I am working on a fic where they do go. After all, things might have been different if they did. It is not all figured out, but just gotta go with the flow of the story, right?

 

wow. a fic eh? Im working on one too. but its about anakin skywalker

 

Handmaiden reading update!

Handmaiden Gowns

From left to right, they are identified as: Handmaiden, Dormé, Handmaiden, Dormé, Motée, Handmaiden

I do not recognize the persons listed as "Handmaiden" at first glance, but the ones identified by name are indeed the correct actresses.

More comments to come as I have time!

 

Just from looking at this scan, I think the handmaiden in the red cloak looks like one of Apailana's handmaidens, who appears for one brief moment in the funeral scene at the end of Episode III.

I don't know. She might look different to me if I saw the book itself (which I can't do. I like studying the clothes, but not enough to justify shelling out what I hear is a very considerable price for the book).

Oh, and my quite silly thought:

You know the oh so mysterious crimson guards Palpatine has in "Return of the Jedi?" I just realized: They are his equivalent of handmaidens. They're mysterious, their physical appearances are (in this case) completely hidden, and they are utterly, utterly loyal to the Emperor. Would they die in his place? I don't doubt it.

Maybe it's a Naboo thing. It seems terribly obvious now that I've thought of it, and I can't believe someone else hasn't commented on it before. And didn't someone wonder earlier what the male equivalent of handmaidens would be?

 

Hmm, I never thought of that before. Btw, I have written a new Sabewan, titled "Lie to Me" but there's less handmaidens in this one. But it's still a very funy story.

~ aeryn

 

I never thought about that with Palpatine, but it makes sense. I doubt Palpatine is close to his guards though, very unlike how Padme was with her handmaidens.

 

AH! i exsist!
Im sorry to brign this up again, but i would like to post my comments, even though we have moved on:

the scary thing is, that is just how i have/had imagined Apailana. She was strong, and believed the turt. In fact, i had just started writting a series of Diary entries stating how she thought that the Empire telling told her the the lovely Padmé was killed by the Jedi on Coruscant was a huge Lie, and then boom, i find out this is ture.

However, and i relize that this has now been dismissed now that SW.com has told her story, but on Wikipeidia (sp?), it states that Apialana was actually killed by an local gang, trying to take over the government, and the reason no Handmaidens were present when she died was because she had goine into hiding, so that is still possible...?

but thats just my opinion. Im still trying to get a Apailana fanfic up, so keep and eye open, if you would like.

also, is it okay if i join this fine establishment?

 

Dude, I missed a ton.

Welcome, Apailana!

GAH! That's a horrible way for Apailana to die! Gee, why is she wearing Amidala's gown in that game? Be individualistic, and get a new, pretty gown! Too many people already mush the Naboo women together.

I, sadistically, would have loved to see Motee and Elle shot down by Anakin, since that would have seriously given them significance. Kind of how most people think Corde is the only handmaiden that matters (though we wiser folk know better).

Hmmm... the whole loyalty doesn't surprise me. Every cause has people willing to die for it, especially in indoctrinating empires. Caesar had quite a few loyals in his day, and I doubt it's that diff for Palpy. In that respect, it is possible for his bodyguards to be as close to him as Amidala's handmaidens were, if not moreso.

I'm being incoherent, but I always thought of the democratic-y rulers as kind of aloof since they pushed for people minding their own business. The dictator-y rulers, though, don't mind getting personal in making you act the way they want... a lot of old-time tyrants actually got their loyal guards from raising them from birth. So it's not unusual, methinks.

 

I noticed that also. Even at first glance, Apailana's Funeral dress is extremly similar to one wore by Amidala, which is okay, because they are not the exact the same. But then that clip from the game, and even the hair is the same? its kind of weird. There have been times were Amidala wore a former queens, say, robe, but no the eintre dress and hairstyle. I wonder if they just did that to save time in the grapghics and art department...?

I have also been drawing many pretty gowns for Aoailana, and i plan to draw more

 

About Palpatine's red guards:

Obviously (or not?) Palpatine wouldn't be close to his guards, his most loyal and trusted bodyguards, in the same way Padme was with her handmaidens. He's not a fourteen year old queen. I can't see them as being his confidants, as the handmaidens are said to be to Padmé.

But there are other ways of closeness.

All the EU stuff I've seen, which granted, isn't all that much, says that the red guards were so dangerous because they weren't loyal to the Empire per say--their loyalty was to Palpatine as Emperor, and him alone. So he would clearly trust them, as much as someone like Palpy could trust anyone.

I just see echoes in them of a very old Naboo tradition: a group of loyal bodyguards and companions who surround the ruler at all times. It plays off images from our own world.

However, the red guards get much more attention than the handmaidens ever do, *including* a comic series, "Crimson Empire" which came out around 1998 or so.

Other topics:

I can understand why Moteé and Ellé (and Captain Typho as well--he was also originally slated to die on Mustafar) were cut from this scene. It would have made it just too cluttered, when the scene needed to focus on Padmé confronting Anakin, & then the duel. Yet-- After that, the characters pretty much had no purpose in the movie. When I was in grad. school, my instructors used to say that if a character wasn't doing anything, you needed to ask yourself: Do I need this character?

In my opinion, the handmaidens begin to disappear even in Episode II. Once Padmé leaves Dormé (playing decoy, again) on Coruscant, it's like she leaves handmaidens out of her life for good. I think of her wedding as the sign of that.

Wouldn't you expect her to have Dormé, her trusted, and utterly loyal, companion with her? But no. The day of the handmaidens is over. The day of the protocol droid is now. After that, C3PO takes over the position that once belonged to a handmaiden.

The thing is (and I'm probably letting my disappointment in the handmaiden scene not even making the DVD extras get to me here) I keep hearing that the Episode III handmaidens are loyal, and that they tend Padmé during her secret pregnancy. Now, I don't doubt that they are loyal, but I'm just going on my interpretations of almost nothing here. As for how much they're actually involved in tending Padmé? All I have to go on is the movie (and what I glanced at in the novelizations), and I don't see that.

*And feel free to dismiss every word of this sort of rant.

 

Don't worry Pandora26, you are not the only one to feel that way. I mean, they talk about the handmaidens knowing about these things, but you never see it. Yes C-3PO is important, but would it be so terrible to even have the handmaidens there somewhere? While they don't focus on personalities of them during TPM, they were clearly there and you could see how helpful they were. In AOTC, Corde was important at the decoy and Dorme was also around helping in many ways. She would have needed the handmaidens for some things in ROTS (I highly doubt Threepio knows much about hair or clothing) but she also confided in them. I might feel different if she did not confide in them, but she did.

You know, we feel quite disappointed, but I bet so are the girls that play them.

 

I agree.

and with the Red gaurds, as you said, Pandora26 (by the way, i love your name. Im a Greek Mythology fanattic.) I highly doubt Palpatine would confide in them, as the lovely Padmé would confide in her Handmaidens. He is this crazy old man, who controls every fraction of the Republic, so do you think hes gonna have some "best friends", who know all his little secrets? All his opinions, all his ideas? I doubt it.

I also think the Handmaidens could have recieved a bigger part. I had been looking foward to (alright, i was dying to see) any clip that had lesser characters with speaking parts, such as Queen Apailana, her Handmaidens, etc., etc. But... that didnt work out. But we did get to see Chi Eekway, Fang Zar, Master Shaak Ti and a few others with speaking parts in the Deleted scenes, so that was great.
But to have um... Moteé and Ellé, did you say? go to Mustafar and have Vader murder them also, it would be just to much. It would be unessacary and confusing for those who didnt really care about the Handmaidens, -as most people dont- and then it would just be far to overwhelming for those who did, for those who were already bawling their eyes out, to watch another two or three charaters be slaughterd by the hot- er, one of the most evil people alive.

And I guess its all in time, for the movies. It already was a long movie, even with all of Loyalist scenes cut, etc. But thats no excuse for the book to exclude them... however, they did get a mention, yayy! *waves victory glag* but even then, its telling them they are dismissed or the day, which is depressing.

**i must sign off now, i will add more on this later if i can come up with anything...

 

Hello again, RHS! I've been gone for far too long.

I was a bit disappointed not to see any more of our girls in the deleted scenes but maybe we can always hope for more when Lucas does the PT special edition. (yes, that was partial sarcasm)

I'm currently working on a fic that I started back in July where the two handmaidens and Typho accompany Padme to Mustafar. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish it and not let it die.

Also, my friend Tony said that he got some good shots of the handmaiden costumes so when he sends those to me, I'll post them here.

 

Update on handmaiden reading!!!

We Are Handmaidens Hear Us ROAR
This used to be my fic, but i handed it over to my roomy, rabe_rocks.

It's funny, so save it for a bad day.

 

I guess I can see why Palpy wouldn't confide 100% in his loyal guards the way Padme confides in her handmaidens, but when push comes to shove, I have an easier time believing that Palpy's guys would die for him more than the handmaidens for Padme, mostly because Padme's relationship with her handmaidens seem more... tight, friendly, almost equal, whereas Palpy's thing w/ his guys is purely master/servant. Loyalty + fear seem a safer mix than loyalty alone.

And hey, it would be nice to see some handmaiden actions at least in them deleted scenes eh

 

I am allowed to do advertising for a story I posted? I just put up a new one, my first completed handmaiden story. It is called Farewell. Thanks!