swiftsnowmane | 'Mother of the Rebellion' (Reply)

Padme's deleted scenes in Revenge of the Sith

Scene 1 - ‘A Stirring in the Senate’

Scene 2 - ‘Seeds of Rebellion’

In these two scenes, we see members of the Galactic Senate meeting privately to express their deepening concerns about Chancellor Palpatine’s ever-increasing stranglehold on the Republic’s political and military power. At this point, they still view themselves as ‘loyalists’, and their aim is to preserve the threatened democratic ideals of the Republic. But all-too soon this aim will change… to restoring democracy to the galaxy. Some of them will even go on to form the political heart of what will eventually become the Rebel Alliance.

Of all the deleted scenes from RotS, these are the ones that I most wish had been kept in the film. Not only do they provide important continuity between the Prequels and the Original Trilogy (and now, also, with Rogue One) due to the presence and involvement of two key players, aka Bail Organa and Mon Mothma, but they also clearly show Padme’s role as both the literal and ideological ‘Mother of the Rebellion’. And while certain aspects of Padme’s political influence have since been explored in more detail in The Clone Wars series, these particular scenes—-set as they are right at the brink of the Republic’s fall—-are important to highlight. After all, Padme is pregnant with the twins here, and this adds an extra layer of significance to her already extremely pivotal role—not just in these scenes, but in the saga as a whole.

Padme, who starts out as the naïve young queen and unwitting Kingmaker for Palpatine at the beginning of the story, is here directly involved in laying the foundations of what will eventually lead to the greatest acts of defiance (and, ultimately, victory) against him. For though she will not live to see the Alliance itself take shape, her faith, hope, and belief in the Truth will live on through hers and Anakin’s children—their children, who are in fact ‘present’ in this scene, and who will eventually become two of the most inspirational and heroic leaders of the coming Rebellion.

ETA: While of course it is unfortunate that these scenes were not included in the film’s theatrical release, my intention in highlighting their existence and explaining their great importance was not to condemn Lucas or the film over this fact. On the contrary, I was trying to draw attention to the very positive and wonderful fact that even though these scenes were ‘deleted’, they weren’t actually removed from the story. They are are still CANON.

**Original post HERE