Expanding a bit...ok, a lot, because it's me... on my previous post... (was it really that long ago?)

I have knocked teenagers a bit in previous blogs, and am about to do it again, so first the disclaimer: I don't think all teenagers are hopelessly naive, incompetent, and incapable of caring for so much as a hamster. I've known plenty of teenagers who put supposed adults to shame. There are also historical precedents. Richard III was a competent fighter and leader in battle by age fourteen or fifteen (which he worked into his busy schedule running a big chunk of northern England for his brother, Edward IV), to take just one example. So I'm okay with the occasional Amidala or Leia getting positions of power at a young age and doing a decent job. Part of teens' problem is probably that they don't get enough responsibility.

But having a system where teenagers are regularly put in charge is something else entirely. There is a reason for Ecclesiastes 10:16, "Woe to thee, O land, when thy child is a king." Child-monarchs usually are more easily easily dominated and manipulated than adults. They don't have as much experience, and sometimes there really is no substitute for experience. Their brains are still developing, and the part doing the most developing is the part involved in abstract reasoning and impulse control--things you really want your leader to have fully developed. And Naboo didn't just elect one exceptional child-monarch. Just in the thirteen years of the PT, they elected two: Amidala and Apailania. That means a teenager won the election three out of four times. Amidala "wasn't the youngest queen ever elected," either. The way all the characters talk, it sounds like it's more common than not that a teenager is queen (or king) of Naboo.

Even if the office were completely ceremonial, that's a little odd (ceremonial work is still hard!), and it isn't quite. Treaties have to be signed by the monarch, and to Nute Gunray, getting to speak to Amidala (instead of whom? Governor Sio Bibble? random underling?) is "getting results." It's hard to say, but I think the queen has to clear all major policy decisions and is in charge of interplanetary relations, or something like that. It isn't clear whether Amidala can organize the battle of Naboo because she has a good plan so everyone listens or because she's the commander-in-chief, either. Anyway, regardless of the details, it seems the Nubian monarch has a fair amount of power. Maybe not all monarchs exercise it much, preferring to stick with the ceremonial idea, but they have it.

We know Nubian officials don't always work for the good of Naboo. Palpatine sure didn't, and King Veruna wasn't squeaky-clean either. I see no reason to suppose it never occurred to a Nubian politician or a dozen that child-monarchs could be great tools. Who knows what some of those children were tricked or frightened into doing? Or into not doing? Probably nothing so scandalous that people took time out of their day-to-day lives to worry about it, but it isn't hard to imagine that corrupt officials would get away with more under a well-intentioned child monarch than under a well-intentioned adult monarch.

There's plenty of historical precedent for this sort of thing, too. Not just the occasional Henry VI or Princes in the Tower, either. In Japan, dominating child-emperors was the Fujiwara family business for a millenium. For a while, the Hojo family manipulated child-shoguns in the same manner. Why couldn't Naboo be (maybe slightly nicer, because it's a Star Wars movie) essentially the same way? Doesn't this sound like Palpatine's dream setup? After all, he does tell Nute Gunray, "Queen Amidala is young and naive. You will find controlling her will not be difficult." Crafty as he is, he probably would have managed to snag the Supreme Chancellorship no matter who was queen of Naboo, but having an inexperienced, easy-to-fool kid as queen probably made things easier. It makes me wonder whether Palpatine subtly encouraged the child-monarch tradition for decades. Is it just coincidence that the queen of Naboo was once again a very young girl when Palpatine declared himself Emperor? Maybe. But maybe not.

At first I thought, no, there's really no reason to blame the Sith for everything that doesn't seem quite right in the Star Wars galaxy. After all, Naboo isn't alone in electing kids. Mon Mothma of Chandrila swiped Padme's "Youngest Senator Ever" tiara before Leia of Alderaan came along and swiped it from her in turn. Leia also had considerable power on Alderaan before becoming a senator.

But then I thought, wait a minute. Padme getting elected queen as a teenager on Naboo isn't unusual, but Padme getting appointed to the Galactic Senate at (I think) twenty-two is, and Mon Mothma and Leia becoming senators is. Youngest Senators Ever, right? This is not a common quirk of galactic culture. Is it a new fad inspired by Padme's success? Is it just a coincidence that the Youngest Senators Ever all came to power right around when Palpatine made big moves? (Padme: Separatist crisis, Clone Wars, emergency powers, Republic-becomes-Empire. Mon Mothma: Clone Wars, Republic-becomes-Empire. Leia: Senate dissolved, Death Star's inauguration. Etc., etc.) I don't know how Palpatine could be responsible for all this, and I'm wary of blaming too much on his Sithy influence instead of coincidence or ordinary problems that would have cropped up anyway, but it seems fishy to me.

I don't know whether Palpatine was trying to fill positions of power with teenagers. But either way, luckily for the galaxy, Palpatine underestimated the very young Jedi Luke Skywalker. See, I told you I'm not totally against young people.

And for those who managed to get all the way to the end, a fun fact: the word "senator" comes from the Latin word senex, meaning old. So does the world "senile." Happy New Year!