The scar of remembrance, part of the monarch of Naboo's traditional royal makeup, is a stripe painted on the lower lip to recognize Naboo's history of war and years of suffering. Queen Amidala and her decoy Sabé both wore a red scar of remembrance. Queens of Naboo following Amidala also wear scars of remembrance: Jamillia (red), Neeyutnee (purple), and Apailana (blue), and the New Canon's Dalné (red) and Soruna (deep red).
Out of universe, this is the stripe of lip color seen on Naboo's Queens in the prequel trilogy, beginning with Natalie Portman as Queen Amidala in Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace.
Royal remembrance[]
In-universe, the scar of remembrance is lip paint worn by the Queen[10] or monarch[12] of Naboo on their lower lip as part of their traditional royal makeup.[10][12] It commemorates Naboo's history of war[10] and honors the years of suffering before something called the Great Time of Peace.[1][12] Sources explicitly state that Queen Amidala wears a scar of remembrance,[1][10] as does Sabé as the Queen's decoy[4] and later Queen Neeyutnee.[6]
The Legends roleplaying sourcebook Secrets of Naboo specifies the color as red and uses a gender-neutral term instead of being Queen-specific: "The monarch's upper lip is painted red and the lower lip is bisected by a red line—the 'scar of remembrance.'"[12]
Neeyutnee's stripe is stated to be a scar of remembrance[6] and is a purple shade in The Clone Wars.[3] This contradicts the earlier Secrets of Naboo (2001) specifying they're red.[12] However, the even earlier Visual Dictionary qualifying Amidala's as a "red 'scar of remembrance'"[1] (emphasis ours) also suggests they can be other colors.
Queens in red[]
Aside from Queen Amidala herself (and Sabé),[13] other red-painting Queens are Jamillia[2] and Dalné,[7] who wear the same makeup style as Amidala: white base, a red "beauty mark" on each cheek, red fully-painted upper lip, and red stripe that's surely a scar of remembrance, even without an official source labeling them.
According to a TPM make-up chart for "'The Queen' Amidala", her lip color was Fire Down Below by NARS Cosmetics.[14] The look necessitated a lot of touch-ups:[15]
- Star Wars Insider
- Natalie Portman
- — Can the scar of remembrance ever trend?[15]
People have asked me that, and I think it's really cool, but I think it's too difficult to keep up to start a trend. It doesn't work—you've got white on the bottom and red on the bottom, so it turns pink, you know? It doesn't stay like that. I had people fixing me all day. Anytime I would eat or talk or anything, I would completely screw it up. They had to work on it a lot.
Of a different stripe[]
- Neeyutnee's purple[3] "scar of remembrance divides lower lip".[6] She also has large, reddish markings on her forehead and cheeks, matching the color of both lips.[3]
- Apailana's makeup accents are blueish-purple on a white base when she attends Padmé's funeral in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. She has a narrow stripe on her lower lip and her upper lip is fully painted. Thin lines are painted from her forehead down to her beauty marks, which are also small.[2] At later times in Legends, she has a different color and makeup style. In the post-ROTS young reader novel Death on Naboo, she wears a red scar of remembrance.[16] She also wears red makeup and a version of Queen Amidala's throne room gown in a video game: (Spoilers for Star Wars: Battlefront II) Because Apailana shelters Jedi survivors and resists Imperial control of Naboo, Darth Vader sends in the 501st Legion to assassinate her. She's wearing this costume when she fights back and dies.[17]
- New Canon · An unnamed Monarch of Naboo, presumably from before the Empire abolished the monarchy, has a dark center stripe on both their upper and lower lip, neither of which are lightened. There's also a short line below each eye and a small dot on each cheek. Since this is shown in a monochrome page spread, the color is indeterminate.[18]
- New Canon · Queen Soruna[note 1] has no beauty marks and uses a deep red (nearly black) shade for a wide stripe extending down her chin to her jawline. Coloring is inconsistent from panel-to-panel. The rest of her lower lip color may blend with her off-white base[8][9] or be pink after she uses a face cloth that removes her foundation.[9] Her upper lip is sometimes dark red,[8] other times similar to her foundation. After using the face cloth, her upper lip and stripe remain dark, but the shade varies from grayish to reddish.[9]
This section contains a theory about Star Wars and supporting evidence for why it possibly could be true, but Star Wars Fic Reference Wiki may be like R2... from time to time.
Multiple Queens have lip paint with variations in size, color, or both. While their stripes are not explicitly labeled "scar of remembrance", that's most likely what they are so that's how this wiki article treats them. Still, the lack of explicit statements does leave wiggle room for fanworks to reinterpret their symbolism without necessarily contradicting what's canonical. Also: we only get good looks at Naboo's Queens, so nobody can say for sure that Kings of Naboo never painted.
Aside from panel-to-panel inconsistencies in comic book coloring, the way Queen Soruna's stripe stays in place after wiping off her foundation suggests using something with more staying power than her foundation. Perhaps she has a tattoo that's enhanced with royal makeup?
Oops![]
In Death on Naboo, Queen Apailana's "face was painted white, with a red slash on her upper lip, called the scar of remembrance"[16] (emphasis ours). Wrong lip!
Fan resources[]
- "The Phantom Menace: Queen Amidala Royal Makeup Part — 1" on DIY The Galaxy Of Star Wars. Published 2019-10-05. (Archive link)
- "The Phantom Menace: Queen Amidala Royal Makeup Part — 2" on DIY The Galaxy Of Star Wars. Published 2019-11-02. (Archive link)
- "AOTC: Naboo Royal Makeup: Queen Jamillia" on DIY The Galaxy Of Star Wars. Published 2020-02-01. (Archive link)
- "ROTS: Naboo Royal Makeup: Queen Apailana" on DIY The Galaxy Of Star Wars. Published 2020-03-07. (Archive link)
- "SWTCW: Naboo Royal Makeup: Queen Neeyutnee" on DIY The Galaxy Of Star Wars. Published 2020-04-04. (Archive link)
Notes[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 From both continuities:
- Legends · Star Wars: Episode I: The Visual Dictionary by David West Reynolds. Published 1999 by DK Publishing. Content reprinted in Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionary (2006) and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: The Expanded Visual Dictionary (2012)
- New Canon · Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionary, New Edition by Pablo Hidalgo and David West Reynolds. Published 2018 by DK Publishing.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Legends & New Canon · Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Appearing in the following episodes:
- Legends & New Canon · The Clone Wars, Season 1, Episode 17: "Blue Shadow Virus"
- Legends & New Canon · The Clone Wars, Season 4, Episode 4: "Shadow Warrior"
- Legends & New Canon · The Clone Wars, Season 4, Episode 18: "Crisis on Naboo"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 From both continuities:
- Legends · Star Wars Character Encyclopedia, "Sabé", by Simon Beecroft. Published 2011 by DK.
- New Canon · Star Wars Character Encyclopedia: Updated and Expanded, "Sabé", by Simon Beecroft and Pablo Hidalgo. Published 2016 by DK. Reprinted in multiple retitled editions, including 2019 and 2021.
- ↑ Legends & New Canon · Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Legends · The Clone Wars Character Encyclopedia, "Queen Neeyutnee", by Jason Fry. Published 2010 by DK. Not in similarly-named New Canon The Clone Wars: Character Encyclopedia: Join the Battle! (2021), which has different content and structure.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 New Canon · Leia, Princess of Alderaan, volume 2 by Haruichi. Published 2021. Manga adaptation; original story by Claudia Gray (2017).
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 New Canon · Shattered Empire, issue #2 by Greg Rucka. Published 2015 by Marvel Comics.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 New Canon · Shattered Empire, issue #3 by Greg Rucka. Published 2015 by Marvel Comics. Part of Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 From both continuities:
- Legends · The Official Star Wars Fact File, Issue 104, Weapons & Technology: Garments and couture (GAR8) — "Exiled Splendour". Published 2004 by De Agostini (original series). Content reprinted in the 2014 relaunch Part 29, "Naboo royal garments" (GAR3-4).
- New Canon · Padmé Amidala in the series Star Wars Encyclopedia. Published 2021 by De Agostini. Content reprinted from The Official Star Wars Fact File (note: exact words/phrases may or may not be present in each specific translation into English, Spanish, and/or French).
- ↑ Legends · Star Wars Episode I Journal: Queen Amidala by Jude Watson. Published 1999 by Scholastic.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 Legends · Secrets of Naboo by Steve Miller and J.D. Wiker in the series Star Wars Roleplaying Game. Published 2001 by Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Legends & New Canon · Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace
- ↑ Fansite · "The Throne Room Gown" by Adi on Star Wars: Fit for a Queen. (original link down; URL was: <http://www.rebelshaven.com/SWFFAQ/throneroom.php>) (Archived on 2022-12-10)
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Real World · Star Wars Insider, issue #47, "Women of the Force", by Kevin Fitzpatrick. Published January 2000.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Legends · Death on Naboo by Jude Watson in the series The Last of the Jedi. Published 2006 by Scholastic.
- ↑ Legends · Star Wars: Battlefront II, "Naboo - Imperial Diplomacy" (Galactic Empire campaign mission). Developed by Pandemic Studios and released in 2005. (not Star Wars Battlefront II from 2017)
- ↑ Darth Vader (2020), issue #50 by Charles Soule. Published 2024 by Marvel Comics.
- ↑ New Canon · Star Wars Timelines, "Operation: Cinder", by Kristin Baver, Jason Fry, Cole Horton, Amy Richau, and Clayton Sandell. Published 2023 by DK.