"Okay!"

She'll be left to do that, then.

This might also be a good chance to talk to someone, if she's feeling curious about anyone.

She's curious about the Queen, actually, what she's like and what Naboo's like - Anakin's liked the impression she's gotten so far, after all.

Queen Amidala is happy to talk to Anakin about her planet and her people. Theed, the capital, is the most beautiful city in the galaxy, according to royal opinion. The roofs are all done in iridescent tile mined locally. The sun setting over the bay and the last rays glinting off the top of the city is a sight like none other.

"It sounds really pretty." She mostly asks about the people themselves throughout the conversation, both in broad strokes and in specifics.

The Queen cares about her people a great deal, even if she occasionally becomes frustrated with shortsightedness or ordinary levels of greed.

Those do sound frustrating! (It's good the Queen cares so much. Anakin would be a bad Queen but it's aesthetically correct for Queens to care.)

She's sure Anakin must encounter her own share of troubles as a Jedi.

So far it's just been student stuff, and the people at the Temple aren't too bad. This is her first mission! She did have some problems before, though - she's weird 'cause she started being a Jedi late.

Amidala was rather under the impression all Jedi started as young children.

Almost all do! She's the latest starter in a really long while.

Con...gratulations? She's not sure if that's appropriate.

She giggles. She's not sure, either, but she likes having been not a Jedi first.

Well, she seems the sort of girl who will always make the best for herself. What sorts of things has she been learning as a Jedi that she wasn't before?

She's willing to chatter excitedly about lightsaber forms and jumping and sensing and hiding, and history - the history of the Republic's cool - and science, though she stays away from politics and philosophy.

The Queen will try to probe at Anakin's perspective of Jedi philosophy, though she'll accept deflections.

She pauses at the probes, then says, "I don't really agree with a lot of modern Jedi philosophy. It's - simplified. But there's some older stuff, back before people tried to strip out all the complications, that I like."

"The deeper way Jedi think is a closed book to we outsiders."

"That's one of the silly things," she says. "There's no reason not to share all that stuff." She hums, then says: "I think the - big... Easy representational difference? Is in the Jedi code stuff - "

She recites both the poetically phrased ones she's found, noting which one's older and which one's current.

"I don't think I quite see the difference."

"The current one says you're not supposed to have the first thing, just the second thing - claims that no emotion leads to peace - while the older one is... About, like, peace out of or from emotion, or peace despite emotion, or peace alongside emotion, because you either can't not have emotion or shouldn't try to not have emotion. They're kind of opposite in a way? At least, as opposite as two codes that both think you should seek peace, knowledge, serenity, harmony, and the Force can be."

"Hm. I suppose it must make more sense if you can feel the Force."

"In some ways. I've also been reading a lot about this, and it's - easier to figure out what things mean if you can see what people think about it."

She laughs. There's a pleasing musical quality to it. "Yes, I always ask my advisors to share their personal opinions on policy."

Hee. "That's smart, yeah."