Hidden by the Lake
Early in Revenge of the Sith, Padmé Amidala tells her husband Anakin Skywalker that she is pregnant with their child. Because their secret marriage must be kept hidden, Padmé tells Anakin, "I want to have our baby back home on Naboo. We can go to the lake country, where no one will know, where we can be safe."
After Padmé dies giving birth to Luke and Leia, Yoda discusses the babies' future with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bail Organa. His words echo Padmé's, once again drawing a connection between secrecy and safety: "Hidden, safe the children must be kept." Bail volunteers to adopt Leia, and at the end of the film, she is shown with her adopted parents by a lake on her new home planet of Alderaan, where she is safe and hidden much as Padmé wanted.
For the psychologist Carl Jung, bodies of water like the lakes on Naboo and Alderaan are archetypes of the unconscious – the deep reservoir of the psyche that holds those things which are repressed, unacknowledged, or otherwise unknown by the conscious mind. Thus, it is symbolically fitting that those who want to keep Leia hidden think of putting her by a lake, where even she remains unconscious of her true identity.
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Characters: Leia Organa / Padmé Amidala
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Concepts: hiding / safety and security / water
Influences: Jung
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