Queen Miraj Scintel

Queen Miraj Scintel was a villain in Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series' fourth season. She appears in episode twelve called "Slaves of the Republic."

The theme of slavery is nothing new to the Star Wars canon. Anakin was a slave at one time, and his mother remained a slave for the majority of her life. In "Slaves of the Republic" Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka go undercover to infiltrate the slavers on the planet Zygerria in order to find colonists (members of Ahsoka's people) who have been kidnapped from Kiros and forced into slavery. In the slave markets near the palace, Ahsoka draws unwelcome attention when she prevents a slaver from whipping one of his slaves. Anakin slyly gets them out of the mess and gets an invite to the palace by order of the queen herself.

Anakin force-choking the queen. I guess she was a villain, so this kind
of behavior is acceptable, right? Or is it foreshadowing to come?

Posing as a slaver, Anakin is quick to win the queen's favor. He claims he killed a guy named Bruno Denturri and seized Ahsoka from his abode. He also flirts with the Queen. While Anakin is conversing thus, one of the Queen's slaves attempts to stab her and Anakin intervenes. As a result, the slave throws herself to her death. The queen needing a replacement, takes Ahsoka as her new slave. Having won her heart, the queen invites Anakin to the slave auction that night (you get the impression that this is kind of a first date thing).

I love the ancient Egyptian feel of this episode. 

While Anakin is keeping the queen busy, Obi-Wan rescues the captured governor of Kiros from the slave pits. But the governor doesn't know where all of his people are. Helping the governor to escape, Obi-Wan is captured and of course, tortured. All slave masters torture you know? And Obi-Wan being a famous Jedi does not go unnoticed by the queen.

So you can see where this is going. At the auction that night, the Queen announces a special entertainment and invites Anakin to whip Obi-Wan. Anyway, Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Ahsoka are soon exposed for what they are (the queen is no fool!) and she forces Anakin to be her sex slave saying that she'll hurt his friends if he doesn't pleasure her.

And the same emotional blackmail is used against Obi-Wan and Ahsoka by holding hostage innocent people who will be tortured and killed if they rebel against her.

Anyway, this episode is a great example of where you start to see Anakin's moral compass fray around the edges. It's really quite terrible that Jedi who experience intense emotions and act upon them are basically embracing the dark side. It seems only human to want to protect your own from being hurt. Yet to do just that is oftentimes what separates the Sith from the Jedi.

Have a great Friday :)

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