The Surprising Character Who Once Saved Darth Vader And Lost Their Life For It
Have you ever wondered what happened to Padmé’s handmaidens and look-a-likes after she died? Did they take Padmé’s place on the council to try to make the citizens of Naboo feel safer? Did they start their own Padmé rebellion or musical group? Did one of them meet up with Darth Vader, return to Naboo, and play a part in his redemption? As much as I wish it was the musical group, it is actually the latter. Greg Pak’s Star Wars: Darth Vader - Dark Heart of the Sith is a canon comic series that follows Vader and Padmé’s former handmaiden Sabé on a trip down memory lane that actually plays a bigger part in Vader’s redemption than you might think.
The comic takes place after the events of Empire Strikes Back. Vader has been dwelling on what happened to Padmé and other events of his past. With his son turned against him, Vader craves vengeance. Vader still blames Obi-Wan for corrupting Padmé, and he likely blames Obi-Wan for his son turning against him as well. Since he believed his wife had died on Mustafar, he must have been incredibly puzzled by the birth of their son. This leads him to gather a forensic droid. Naturally, he travels to her home planet of Naboo. There he finds Sabé, Padmé’s former handmaiden who also served as a stand-in for Padmé on many occasions. They are both drawn by the haunting memory of Padmé’s death, so they journey across Naboo to put together this shared puzzle. Although, the biggest piece to that puzzle is walking right beside Sabé.
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This journey of discovery takes an emotional toll on Vader. He is constantly reminded of the pain he caused Padmé, and this fills him with guilt. It also does not help that his travel companion looks exactly like the wife he killed. They also encounter a group of people who call themselves “The Amidalans,” who were loyal followers of the former Queen. This also fills Vader with rage. However, the grief that floods him during this journey makes it clear that Padmé’s death is not a stable basis for his hatred, and thus his power and position in the dark side of the Force is unstable. Even with all his rage and doubt in the dark side, Vader is still able to show mercy toward Sabé. This does not last long, however, because even with his doubt Vader is still wrapped in the dark side. Eventually, he leads Sabé and all the Amidalans to a trap and murders them all.
All that being said, Vader did learn one final thing from Sabé. Before her death, she tells the Sith Lord of the planet where Padmé died. Vader travels there, and he learns Padmé’s last words before she died. Her final words, of course, were, “Obi-Wan… there’s still good in him… I know… I know… there’s still…” This could have been the exact moment that Vader’s heart turned. The Emperor even says that some of his power had been replaced with grief after this revelation. Vader does continuously try to fill his heart with rage and anger, but he is never quite able to reach the heights that it was at prior to this revelation.
Even though Vader killed Sabé and Padmé, their deaths were not in vain. Padmé’s death led Vader on his journey to Sabé, Sabé’s death allowed Vader to discover Padmé’s last words, and those last words planted the seed of good in his heart which Luke would use to save his father. Despite her death, Sabé’s sacrifice was one of the tipping points to Vader returning to the light side. Of course, a lot of murder had to happen to get there. Maybe Vader just got tired of killing people related to him.
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Source(s): Screen Rant