- "I made this for you. So you'd remember me. I carved it out of a japor snippet. It'll bring you good fortune."
- ―Anakin Skywalker gives the japor snippet to Padmé Amidala
Shortly before the Battle of Naboo, the young Anakin Skywalker carved a japor snippet for Padmé Amidala, whom he had become infatuated with on Tatooine. He gave it to her for good fortune, and so she would remember him once he left for the Jedi Order.[1] Seeing it as a representation of remembrance and luck, Amidala wore it as a necklace. Four years after the Battle of Naboo, when she became a senator for the Galactic Republic and passed the Jedi Temple, her hands moved to touch the necklace without even thinking to do so. When Amidala visited her family home during one of the Senate's breaks from meeting, her infant niece Ryoo Naberrie reached up the necklace, which Amidala quickly hid inside her collar to keep out of the baby's grasp.[4]
Years later, after Skywalker and Amidala had fallen in love and secretly married, Amidala still wore the japor snippet around her neck. After her death on Polis Massa, and Skywalker's fall to the dark side of the Force, the japor snippet adorned Amidala's body during her funeral on Naboo.[3] The snippet was later stored inside a glass case, outside Amidala's tomb on Naboo. When Skywalker, now Darth Vader, was investigating the cover-up behind his wife's true death, his search led him to the tomb. Upon seeing the snippet, Vader was reminded of when he first gave the snippet to Amidala. He also thought of the misery he created since, including attacking and wounding a group of Amidala's supporters moments before.[5]
Behind the scenes[]
The japor snippet first appeared in the 1999 film Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace.[1] In the illustrated screenplay of Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, Amidala was scripted to be holding the japor snippet after Anakin awakens from his first nightmare, during her time in her private apartment on Coruscant after Obi-Wan's warning about Anakin's fall to the dark side, and during her final moments at the medical facility of Polis Massa along with her funeral scene, but in the final cut, the snippet was only seen after Anakin's nightmare and during the funeral.[6]
Appearances[]
- Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace (First appearance)
- Queen's Shadow (and audiobook)
- Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith
- Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi — "Resolve"
- Leia Organa: Ordeal of the Princess (In flashback(s))
- Darth Vader (2015) 6 (In flashback(s))
- Darth Vader (2020) 4
- Darth Vader (2020) 50 (In flashback(s))
- Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge — Dok-Ondar's Den of Antiquities
Non-canon appearances[]
Sources[]
- "Anakin Skywalker" — Star Wars Encyclopedia
- Star Wars 100 Objects
- "Art Wars" — Star Wars Insider 226