Star Wars: 12 Stupid Decisions From The Prequels That Actively Ruin The Originals

6. Amidala Is Queen For No Reason

In A New Hope, Leia is a Princess. That means her mother must be a Queen, right? That logic is why, in The Phantom Menace, Padmé is Queen Amidala of the Naboo. Yet by the time Leia's birth rolls around, not only is Padmé no longer a monarch (because for some reason royalty in Star Wars operate exactly like US Presidents), but Leia gets her Princess title from being adopted by the Organa family of Alderaan. What?

It's a cyclic problem that comes from a lack of forward planning. Padmé is written as a Queen because of her daughter, but the story diverges too far from the original point for that to be relevant come the end. It's not a major stick on the original movies, but makes the whole flow of the saga muddled.

A popular "quick fix" for some of the Prequels meandering would be to have Naboo become Alderaan. It makes the planet's destruction in Star Wars more impactful, provides a non-forced link between the two trilogies and, most relevantly, gives some justification for the mother-daughter title connection.

However, even with that the whole concept is flawed. You see, if Leia had been a Princess because of Amidala's status (as originally intended), that still poses a big question - why would she be so publicly acknowledged as Padmé's (and thus also Darth Vader's) daughter, to the point where she finds herself in direct contact with him?