Watching TPM for the umpteen millionth time, it occurred to me that, while I had noticed it before, it hadn't really bothered me before this viewing, why was Padme doing the menial task of cleaning R2D2.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love R2 as much as the next person and he did save the ship from certain destruction, but that doesn't mean that you assign a queen's handmaiden to clean him.

I understand completely, of course, why she was playing the part of the handmaiden as part of the cover for the purpose of her protection and having the "decoy queen". It made perfect sense for Padme to do many other things that she did throughout the movie, in fact, as part of her handmaiden duties, which actually allowed her to view more things as the actual queen. The other things that she did actually gave her more insight into the goings-on of events around her and allowed her to be a better queen, such as accompanying Qui-Gon into Mos Espa.

Cleaning R2, however, would serve no purpose that I can ascertain. That is a task that should be left to a more appropriate person such as a maintenanace crew person, should it not? Not any of her handmaidens.