Fanclub The Royal Handmaiden Society: Episode 9: Revenge of the Handmaidens

when did that come out? *thought she had all the releases written, underlined, and highlighted on her calendar* i highly doubt they'd name her Sarah. now maybe Sarè or Saraè or something, but Sarah is my sister's name, so that'd be to weird. i might be scarred for life!

-Roanè <><

 

lol @ Roané. I have to agree with you there, they wouldn't name her Sarah, I just chose the first common girl's name I could think of.

ObiAnne, is it just me or are those pics microscopic?

 

Ooo, I just saw V for Vendetta yesterday. I really liked it! It was very entertaining and I thought Natalie did a good job, too. I must say though, Natalie really needs to eat a sandwich! She was quite ridiculously skinny, I thought! But a good flick overall!

As for my favorite character, I've always loved Han. Queen Amidala is one of my favorites too. And I say Queen Amidala because I loved how she was such a strong, determined character in TPM. She was like that a bit in AotC but not at all in RotS. Once they turned her into just Anakin's love interest, they destroyed her character. I'm still rather peeved about that, Mr. Lucas... And I love the handmaidens, of course! Rabé has always been one of my favorites, as has Dormé.

 

Maggie, the incredibly wonderful and sweet woman who runs the Padawan's Guide has her site enabled so that directly linking to pictures is not possible. So no matter what you do, Obi Anne, the links won't work. She has a huge site and bandwidth I know is a concern.

I have those same pictures on my site though, and mine isn't big enough/popular enough for me to need anti-hotlinking!
So here they are:
Corde 1
Corde 2

Though for the record those are not Veronica Segura, but Holly Stringer, as Andé so helpfully told me!

Hope that helps!

 

Ok V for Vendetta was good. Really...wow. Powerful film!

Next, I hope I am not spoiling it to say that the Queen (to my knowledge and I have read #4) have a common name. However, you do learn what Typho's first name is.

 

She does or doesn't have a common name?

 

Okay so what book are we talking about?

Oh I have a vignette series that Padme's handmaidens are thinking...if you want to red it, part one is up in the saga, or you can look in my bio. Sorry no link.

 

Death on Naboo sounds very interesting. I'm inclined not to buy this one, as my opinions towards Jude Watson started not going so pleasant when she had Obi-Wan leave the Jedi Order and Qui-Gon fall in love with a Jedi Master whom I'm convinced was Watson in disguise... anyway.

Lady_Eirtae, now you've got me curious! What's Typho's first name? A while ago, I decided in my own universe that is was Voren, but if that was what Watson decided on, I'd be surprised!

So I have a question for everyone:

Concerning the Handmaiden's Names

So, throughout the movies, we have: Padmé, Sabé, Rabé, Eirtaé, Saché, Yané, Dormé, Cordé, Versé, Ellé, and Moteé.

All the other women on Naboo that we have names for not counting Queens: Jobal, Sola, Pooja and Ryoo.

Why do all the Handmaidens (and Padmé) have 'é' at the end of their name and the "Common Naboo" don't? I've heard a bunch of theories, ranging from coincidence to the handmaidens picking new names when they join the Queen's retinue. Is it just the noble class that uses the 'é'? And if so, how did Padmé, but not Sola get it?

The theory I came up with post-TPM, pre-AotC was that this is just how the Naboo name their female children, it's a cultural thing, but then AotC sort of ruined that for me. What does everyone else think?

~Obischick~

 

About the handmaidens' names:

Really, we don't know anything about why their names all have that special é. I don't think he of the flannel had any deep meaning behind it: In fact, I suspect that it was just a way to name and specify a group of minor characters. The é is just to show they are handmaidens, and to let Padmé blend in with them in TPM. But of course, this is Star Wars, and people are going to notice even a detail this small.

So: I do think there is no official explanation behind their names, nor will there be one. (And I should note that we don't know if the é applies to all handmaidens, or just Padmé's. After all, Jamillia and Apailana's handmaidens don't have names.)

In one of my recent fanfics (not named because I would get embarrassed), I had at least a few of the handmaidens choosing their names. MistressRenata also does this, though slightly differently, in her fanfic "A Force to Be Reckoned With." Personally, I think of this as a possiblity, not a theory. That is, it's possible, and makes some sense, that the handmaidens take a name with an é as part of their service, but it's not real. If you don't like it, you can dismiss it, just like that. It's not even fanon.

My reasoning is, and I've mentioned this elsewhere: I do think that it's too neat, too easy, for them to all have matching names like that. Possible? Yes. But not likely. Especially as we have, in the prequels, eight handmaidens with the é. The é might be a common qualifier, but even if I hadn't seen Padmé's female relatives in AOTC, I can't believe that *every female* on an entire planet has that in her name.

And it's clearly not so common that eight women would all, that conveniently, have it. Otherwise, characters other than Padmé and the handmaidens would have the é--and that is clearly not the case. Not a single other female character has it.

Yes, I'm rambling, but I hope my point was in there somewhere.

 

Maybe the Naboo girls are given two names; other with è, other without. If they choose an official career they use the é-name, otherwise the è-less one.

Just a thought...

 

I guess I've always just assumed the special e was more about what someone else said: an easy way to group the handmaidens for the movies. For some reason (laziness or maybe the hope there would ever be a canon note on it), I've never bothered to explain it in past fics. I just had them all coming in with those names. Now I'm wishing I'd actually gone into it maybe, because, yeah, AotC ruins the notion of it being a cultural thing.

Personally, I like the idea of the handmaidens choosing new names. Maybe they adopt the e because Padme has it in her name, and it's sort of like they're adopting a part of her. And it also just makes it slightly easier to go incognito, I guess (as long as you have slave boys who can't count tramping around).

 

Maybe they adopt the e because Padme has it in her name, and it's sort of like they're adopting a part of her.

I've considered this as a possibility before.

This would mean, I assume, that Pooja Naberrie's handmaidens, for example, would not have the é, but instead, their names would match hers, so you would have Saba instead of Sabé.

Just a thought, and I haven't actually put it to use in anything I've put out in public. Somehow, I just don't know how it will go over.

As in, someone might think, if not say, that's a handmaiden? Then where's the é in her name?

We really do associate the é with the handmaidens. Even though I just remembered that Ric Olié has it too...




ETA:

And there are ten named handmaidens in the prequels (not counting Padmé), not eight. For some reason I don't know, I remembered it that way. Apparently Ani isn't the only one who can't count.

 

I know the spelling is off, but it was Gregore (I think). I will have to check.

 

Gregore? Really?

HA!! I bet the handmaidens have fun with that and call him Gregoré. Wow, the wierd things your brain comes up with when you've only just woken up...

Lol, very true! Part of me almost wished I had their names like that too now, but part of me also still feels that I really want it to be a cultural thing, to set apart the Naboo from everyone else in the galaxy. I mean, they seem so isolated and against wanting to be part of a large community, especially in TPM (I mean, isn't that what Veruna was forced to abdicate because of? paying too much attention to the galaxy and not Naboo?). This would be a good way for the Naboo to distinguish themselves from everyone else.

Ha, I was just thinking about Padmé's parents, and I remember, for the longest time I kept getting confused about their names. I was consitantly thinking that Jobal was her dad and Ruweé was her mom.

As far as Ric Olié goes, I always thought that perhaps his mother or sister was a handmaiden to a Queen before Veruna, and this was his way of honoring her... but that's about as much attention I ever gave Ric. I never liked him very much. Captain Obvious indeed, more like Captain Oblivious.

And the Number of Handmaidens... well, there are eight that survived as far as we know. Five from TPM, one from AotC and two from RotS, and two that died, Cordé and Versé, so that would make ten. Unless you're talking about the ten that are in the Funeral Scene, which I like to think are the eight that survived and two of Apailana's that are trailing her.

Well, that's all I got folks... back to procrastinating my homework!

~Obischick~

 

I have a question. How do you type the é character? I have to use copy/paste.

 

é [alt 0233]

 

On your keypad, not on the numbers at the top of your keyboard.

 

I know there were kings...do you think they ever did anything with a decoy king? I don't see that being as easy due to make up and everything.

 

I think the Phantom Menace Visual Dictionary (or some sort of SW reference book like that) stated that the decoy plan was an old idea Captain Panaka reinstated when Queen Amidala took office.

 

there's also alt 138

have i missed anything? i have been lost in the Wardrobe for some time now.

-Roanè <><

 

Which is the accent the other way, which is not typical of handmaiden names.

The "é" is pronounced like "-ay", how is the è pronounced?

 

I know there were kings...do you think they ever did anything with a decoy king?

That's a good question.

KnightAnder mentioned that the decoy plan was apparently an old idea that Panaka decided to reuse when Amidala was elected, and I've seen that around before. This indicates that the decoy plan has been used before, though perhaps not for a long time. I wonder if perhaps it was a relic from the time before what I think is called the Great Time of Peace--before Naboo took on its pacifist ways.

In my opinion, why Panaka decided to use the decoy plan, before he could have ever guessed it would be needed, is another question.

So-- I guess I'm moving up to thinking about whether a King of long ago Naboo might have had a decoy king. I'm not sure. I agree that the makeup is mainly what makes it work. Even though Padmé uses decoys in Episode II, it could really only be in situations where no one would see the decoy up close. Because I don't think that, without the makeup, the decoy plan could fool anyone who had met Padmé (or seen her holo picture) up close.

Yes, people see what they want to see, and that is the other part of what makes the decoy plan work. They expect to see the Queen, and so they don't look closely enough to see minor differences in facial features. But people can only be so blind. (And those politicans are like hawks with their lean and hungry looks.)

obischick:

Does anyone like Ric Olié? Personally, I've always been indifferent about him. I did always think he was playing Captain Obvious because he thought that Anakin, being a lil sand rat from Tatooine, didn't know nothing about the galaxy, and needed to have everything explained to him. And I do think that most of his obvious lines are spoken to Anakin. Hey, it's not like anyone else on board needs to be told that Coruscant is all one big city.

And I meant to count all ten of the handmaidens who are named in the prequels--which would be the eight presumably surviving ones, and the two who died. I know there are ten handmaidens in the funeral scene, and after watching it maybe about eight or so times, I think I've actually found most of them. It's the dim lighting, I tell you.

Oh:

And the alt0233 for the é doesn't work on laptops. There is a way to get it in microsoft word (ctrle') but it only works in word. So I just have to copy & paste--which is what I've just been doing in this post.