Kind of long ago, in a galaxy not that far away…The original Lego Star Wars game came to be, and it was great, a wonderful and silly retelling of the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy using Legos and kid-friendly gameplay. It was a mostly wholesome adventure. Except for the weirdly cursed “pregnant Padme” minifigs that appeared in the game’s cutscenes, and which I’ve never forgotten since.
Lego Star Wars: The Video Game was originally released in 2005 on PS2, Xbox, and PC. It was developed by TT Games and was the first, but not the last, video game to mix Lego and Star Wars together. The combo was incredibly successful, resulting in one of the best-selling PS2 games ever and spawning the still-ongoing series. Somehow, it’s only become more popular online as time has gone by, with players making memes out of the game’s in-game avatars, sound effects, collectibles, and even death noises.
But today, I want to talk about Padme Amidala. Specifically, how she appears in two cutscenes in the Revenge of the Sith campaign. Toward the end of the campaign, as Anakin becomes Darth Vader and goes on a killing spree, a pregnant Padme finds him on Mustafar and tries to reason with him. And just like in the movie, this doesn’t go well for her, and she ends up dying after giving birth to Luke and Leia.
During this part of the game, TT Games swaps out the standard Padme minifig design and replaces her with two different takes on a pregnant Padme.
The first one we see is a bit odd-looking, but not too cursed. It’s also barely seen in the game. The second design, which shows up after her encounter with Anakin and during the birth of Luke and Leia, is where things take a turn. For some reason, someone decided to just stick a large, chunky Lego piece to Padme’s torso to represent her extended belly. It looks terrible, weird, and is hard to forget once you see it. (Trust me, I know.)
Not only are both of these designs bizarre-looking and feel out of place in the game, but they aren’t even based on any real Lego designs. We’ve only gotten six official Lego minifigs of Padme since 2000. None of them feature a baby bump or extended stomach. In fact, none of them even feature a hint of a baby bump, or anything like that at all. So that means someone at TT Games created this from scratch, using a Lego piece I’m pretty sure doesn’t exist in real life, and that makes all of this so much…weirder.
It’s even weirder when you think about how many different people this had to pass through. We’re talking about Star Wars and Lego, two very protective brands that are careful about how their properties are portrayed. Nothing happens without approvals from at least one if not both parties. So it’s likely that people at Lego, TT Games, and Lucasfilm all saw these designs of a cursed pregnant Padme — created from scratch just for the game — and gave it the greenlight. And when this game was re-released as part of the Complete Saga, nobody changed the design either.
As of this writing, Kotaku’s received no comment from these companies.
Now in 2022, we may be living in the future, but we still haven’t gotten an official preggo Padme minifig. But in the recent Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga, TT Games at least opted for a more subtle and authentically ”Lego” design. Instead of an oddly chunky block stuck to her torso, Skywalker Saga’s Padme sports a “printed” torso texture that hints at her baby bump using some shadows.
It’s a better option for sure, and feels more like what a real pregnant Padme minifig would look like if we ever got one. (Which is unlikely for a few reasons.) Of course, plenty of fans have created custom, unofficial Lego minifigs that portray a pregnant Padme via various means. But I’d halt your curiosity there, because Googling “pregnant Lego” too much can lead you to some dark, NSFW places…
Anyway, Happy Star Wars Day! And if you are looking for more cursed Lego Star Wars content featuring pregnant women, well that’s…weird, but also I got you covered. You see, The Skywalker Saga also features a creepy ghost droid who probably killed a young pregnant woman. Truly, this game contains multitudes.
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