Day 28 – Moteé and Ellé

Moteé and Ellé were two of Padmé’s handmaidens in Revenge of the Sith. Moteé (Kristy Wright) appears in only one scene, sitting behind Padmé Amidala in her Senate box. Ellé sadly cannot be seen at all in the film. The best look you’ll get of Ellé (played by Chantal Freer) is from the publicity photo above.

It’s hard to find signs of any handmaiden in Revenge of the Sith. I talked about this topic and how the lack of handmaidens in the film affected Padmé’s character development in this breakdown of female roles in Revenge of the Sith for FANgirl.

The Revenge of the Sith Visual Dictionary notes that both Moteé and Ellé knew about Padmé’s secret marriage to Anakin and facilitated meetings between the two by serving as decoys. But this relationship between Anakin, Padmé and her handmaidens was never seen on the screen. Padmé is seen as scared and alone throughout large sections of Revenge of the Sith – a far cry from the strong and decisive Queen of Naboo from The Phantom Menace. I wonder how the inclusion of female allies to Padmé may have changed the overall feel of many of Padmé’s scenes.

Here’s a full screenshot of the scene where Moteé appears in the film sitting behind Padmé.

Moteé

In the Revenge of the Sith Comic #4 it looks like both Moteé and Ellé are in the Senate box. I went back to this scene in Sith and it’s possible Ellé was sitting on the opposite end of the box but we can’t see her because we never get a wide shot of the entire Senate box. However, Jar Jar Binks was definitely not in the film version of this scene in Revenge of the Sith.

Moteé also appeared in the Prequel Trilogy Graphic Novel as well as Star Wars: Republic Dreadnaughts of Rendeili, Part 3 which is pictured below.

Moteé and Ellé can also be spotted in the back of this deleted scene from Revenge of the Sith.

Moteé Ellé

Padmé also makes a passing reference to Moteé and Ellé to C-3PO in Revenge of the Sith novelization.

It’s clear Moteé and Ellé were meant to have larger roles in Revenge of the Sith but ended up almost entirely on the cutting room floor.

Check out the entire list of women in 365 Days of Star Wars Women in the Women in Star Wars Index. It includes highlights from each post plus notes which posts include new 365 interviews with actresses, writers, artists, and more.

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