Queen's Shadow Quotes

“They'll stall you," Organa said. "I know it's a horrifying situation, but you can't fight every evil in the galaxy."
"Evil? " Padmé said. "I've fought evil and it was easy: I shot it. It's apathy I can't stand.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“We are brave, your highness.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“I've fought evil, and it was easy: I shot it. It's apathy I can't stand.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“You are an idealist," Bonteri said. "That's not a bad thing."
"I know," Padmé said. "I have worked very hard at it.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“Padmé Amidala was completely still. The brown halo of her hair spread out around her, softened here and there by white blossoms that had blown through the air to find their rest amongst her curls. Her skin was pale and perfect. Her face was peaceful. Her eyes were closed and her hands were clasped across her stomach as she floated. Naboo carried on without her.

Even now, at the end, she was watched.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“Any path can be a poor one if it goes blindly in one direction.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“Cordé was dead. Versé was dead. Obi-Wan was dead. Master Billaba was dead. Anakin Skywalker was dead. Padmé Amidala Naberrie was dead, her dreams with her.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“My hands are yours for as long as you need them.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“I don’t know what I’d do,” Padmé said. “I’ve guarded my heart against everything for so long, always aware of the dynamics and the flow of power. I’ve been lucky to find so many people who understand that and give me that space. I’m afraid that if someone breaks through, I’ll let them, and it would be catastrophic.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“Padmé resolved to pay attention, not just listen, and not just look but see.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“People are listening,” Bonteri said. “They’re just not paying attention.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“Now Padmé wore a different token, one that was personal and had nothing to do with the people of Naboo. It was handmade, like all the best treasures were, and stood for luck and remembrance. Padmé didn’t like to rely on luck and she rarely needed help remembering anything, but it helped to have something on which to focus her thoughts.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“Evil?” Padmé said. “I’ve fought evil and it was easy: I shot it. It’s apathy I can’t stand.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“Longtime political followers will recall young Queen Amidala of Naboo. Four years ago she came to Coruscant and deposed the Chancellor to questionably hasten along aid for her home planet. Though no hard evidence of the Trade Federation’s misdeeds was ever produced, Amidala swayed the opinion of the Senate. Her speech, which was most likely written for her, given her age at the time, was stirring…and we can’t help wondering what she’ll stir up this time. Now a senator for the Galactic Republic, Amidala has returned. A puppet queen no longer, surely, but the question remains: who is pulling her strings now? —TriNebulon News”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“I fear that there are those among us who are starting to doubt the effectiveness of the Republic, and I am doubly afraid that unless I take great care with my actions, I will be labeled as one of them.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“A legacy that would go largely unrealized, and Sabé burned with the need to know why.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“A courtroom could mean only one thing. The Occupation of Naboo had ended, but it was going to follow her forever. She couldn’t regret it. She had done what she needed to do. But she was just so tired. Sabé knelt in front of her and took her hands. Padmé knew that her dearest friend would see her weariness no matter how she tried to hide it, so she didn’t. Sabé looked her straight in the face, as she had always done, and the message in her eyes was clear as crystal. We are brave, Your Highness.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“So many things could go wrong; they could betray themselves a thousand ways, and the damage would be irreparable. And she loved it. She loved the thrill that accompanied watching someone talk to Sabé thinking it was Amidala whose attention they held. She loved the way people looked right through her, Padmé Naberrie, as though she were nothing. She loved taking that nothingness and using it to her own ends. And yes, it was for safety, and yes, her intentions were as noble as they had been on Naboo. She still remembered how she had looked at Captain Panaka over Sio Bibble’s head and he had nodded that it was time. We are brave, Your Highness. They were all brave.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“Throughout Naboo, the people mourned a queen, a senator. She had served well. She had grown in wisdom and experience, and had done both rapidly. She had faced the trials of her position unflinching and unafraid. And now, her time was ended.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“They were Padmé's writings, the work she had hoped would be her senatorial legacy. A call to reinstate term limits on the chancellorship. Multiple bills advocating Clone personhood, both during the war and hypothetically for when the war was done. A motion to bring all hyperspace lanes under the purview of the Republic, to avoid territorial taxation and squabbling. Years and years' worth of drafts of antislavery bills. A legacy that would go largely unrealized, and Sabé burned with the need to know why.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“It doesn’t make any sense!” Sabé’s rage and bewilderment—held at bay by sheer force of will throughout the public response to tragedy—finally crept into her tone. “She wouldn’t just die. And an empire? Headed by Sheev Palpatine? Nothing about this makes sense!”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“Padmé Amidala was completely still. The brown halo of her hair spread out around her, softened here and there by white blossoms that had blown through the air to find their rest amongst her curls. Her skin was pale and perfect. Her face was peaceful. Her eyes were closed and her hands were clasped across her stomach as she floated. Naboo carried on without her. Even now, at the end, she was watched.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“It will not always be this easy to unite the Senate,” Mon Mothma said. “We respond to fear, of course, but anything drastic enough to cause that sort of unification will only lead to ruin.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“Padmé hoped she would never need to confront something herself to believe it, even if it meant she would face an increase in personal moral discomfort.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“How dare he presume what their relationship was without asking her consent? She’d been warming up to him, that much was true, and she’d thought that their newfound friendship had potential to develop beyond what they had built over the past three days, but he had no right.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“no one could land as smoothly as she did, and Padmé felt the jolt as they made contact with the ground. R2-D2 whirred dismissively. “I know,” Padmé said. “But they did fly us all the way here, so maybe be polite?”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“R2-D2 had accessed the ship’s blueprints almost as soon as they came on board, and Padmé didn’t need to understand binary to understand his low opinion of the layout. It was nice not to be crammed in on top of one another—even the Naboo ship felt that way sometimes—but the ship presented itself as a target to anyone who got close enough to scan them.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“The pins—designed and made by Cordé’s jeweler sister—could, in a pinch, double as weapons or tools, yet they were small enough to make it through most security scans. Versé and Sabé had worked together on outfits for even more mobility: jumpsuits and the like that could be combined with dramatic capes to remind everyone of Amidala’s status without getting in her way.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“You’re always going to go back,” he said. “Yes.” Padmé felt oddly energized. “I know it’s not the life you wanted for me, and I know it’s not the life I want for myself—at least not forever—but it’s still good, and I still need to do it.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow

“Artoo is a hero of Naboo,” Padmé said. “He repaired our hyperdrive when we were running the Trade Federation blockade, and he was an important part of the battle to retake the planet. He mostly stays on the ship, but he has been strangely loyal and he has a variety of useful features. Also, sometimes he just makes me smile.”
― E.K. Johnston, Queen's Shadow