Apailana/Legends

Apailana was the successor to Neeyutnee as Queen of Naboo, replacing her following Neeyutnee's two-year term. In a similar fashion to the previous monarchs, she was formally styled Her Royal Highness, Queen Apailana of Naboo during her two-year reign. She was assassinated in 18 BBY by the Empire after it was revealed that she was harboring Jedi fugitives of Order 66 on Naboo.

Early life (32 BBY to 19 BBY)
While Apailana served as Princess of Theed, Queen Jamillia began to side with the Separatists. In response, Apailana called for an election to install a new monarch. Senator Padmé Amidala convinced the young princess to run for Queen herself and, although Neeyutnee won this election, Apailana became Queen subsequent to her.

Apailana was one of the youngest monarchs ever elected on Naboo, succeeding Neeyutnee at the tender age of twelve. She renewed Padmé Amidala's Senatorial appointment as Naboo's Senator. After Amidala's untimely death, Apailana was one of the chief mourners at her funeral, wearing a chersilk mourning robe, and a Shiraya fan headdress.

When Palpatine declared himself Galactic Emperor in 19 BBY, Apailana made outward pretenses of loyalty but secretly harbored doubts about the new regime. Throughout her reign, government buildings and organizations on Naboo continued to refer to the Republic, not the newly formed Empire.

At some point, Apailana accompanied Senator Jar Jar Binks on a state visit to the planet Grizmallt.

Although respectful of Naboo tradition in not ordering an investigation into Amidala's death, she privately disagreed with the official word from the Empire, which stated that Amidala had been killed at the hands of the Jedi. She then made it known to her inner council that should any Jedi who survived Order 66 be found on Naboo, they would be welcome to remain there. One such Jedi, Ferus Olin, convinced her to shut down Naboo's comm systems and team with Boss Rugor Nass in an attack on the Imperial headquarters on Naboo.

Assassination (18 BBY)
This attack would prove Apailana's undoing, for soon after, rumors began to circulate that she was indeed harboring Jedi fugitives. Darth Vader, acting on this information, and information that she had "Broke off Diplomatic ties” began exploring military options. Vader sent the 501st Legion to Naboo with orders to kill her and to bring the planet back in line. The 501st uncovered her, but her prepared palace guards were able to put up a substantial fight against the 501st stormtroopers. With support from their automated laser defense system, the small skirmish was prolonged and turned into a full scale battle.

Late in the battle after the destruction of the security laser cannons' control console and the deaths of many Palace guard, the Queen appeared, in a last attempt to make it to the hangar to escape. Also escaping with the Queen were a group of runaway Jedi who were acting as the Queen's personal body guards. Their attack would also cover the queen's escape as she quietly fled the city.



However, the 501st proved too powerful for the Queen's Jedi protectors. Sharpshooters quickly assassinated Apailana just outside the Royal Palace. To add to the tragedy, none of the Jedi she was hiding survived, some dying protecting the queen during the battle, and the rest being hunted and gunned down by Imperials after her death.

Shortly thereafter, Kylantha, who appeared&mdash;at least on the surface&mdash; more accepting of the Empire's control, was elected Queen of Naboo, a position she still held during the early years of the Galactic Civil War.

Aftermath
Queen Apailana's death remained a mystery to Naboo, as the Empire issued a false statement about her death. Because many had witnessed or heard the sounds of blasterfire, it would be hard for the Empire to cover it up. Nevertheless, they claimed a terrorist group of rebel clones had attacked the palace, and that Imperial troops had in fact come to the rescue, but too late to save Apailana's life.

When Kylantha became queen, she issued an order to investigate the mysterious death of the late Queen. The case remained unsolved, but Kylantha eventually came to believe that the assassination was related to the Empire. Because of this belief, those people who were against the Empire became empowered to join the Rebel Alliance.

Behind the scenes
Queen Apailana is played by Keisha Castle-Hughes, a young Oscar-nominated actress from New Zealand. Keisha was thirteen years old when she portrayed Apailana.

Keisha filmed all of her scenes for Revenge of the Sith in just seven hours.

Queen Apailana's name is a reference to Castle-Hughes's role as Paikea in the movie Whale Rider, based on a novel of the same name. Though it was originally spelled "Apairana," one must remember that most Austronesian languages have only one phoneme that phonetically sounds intermediate between [r] and [l] in English (compare with modern Japanese, for example, or old-fashioned Hawaiian spellings like "Honoruru" for "Honolulu"). Apairana is an ancient house of the Maori people from the island of Aotearoa, New Zealand with a strong female line.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Republic HoloNet News Special Inaugural Edition 16:5:24
 * The Last of the Jedi: Death on Naboo
 * Star Wars: Battlefront II