- Alternative Character Interpretation: It's not too much of a stretch for some readers to interpret Sabé as having a one-sided romantic attraction to Padmé, considering Sabé's intense loyalty and devotion to Padmé - she even says she'd be willing to die for her - as well as the fact she's stated to be attracted to both men and women.
- Awesome Art: The cover art
for the novel looks beautiful. - Epileptic Trees: With the novel being set before The Clone Wars, fans have theorized that Padmé's political acquaintances will appear. A few common suggestions include Rush Clovis, who had a relationship with her, and Mina Bonteri, her mentor figure in the Senate. They were right.
- Fridge Sadness: The novel reveals that Gregar Typho, Padmé's future head of security, is actually related to one of her handmaidens, Versé (they're cousins through his aunt Mariek Panaka). In Attack of the Clones, Versé is killed in the opening scene during Zam Wesell's attempt to assassinate Padmé, meaning that Typho had to watch a member of his family die in front of him and there was nothing he could do. As his duty is to guard Padmé, he also has to leave Versé's body on the landing platform to get the senator to safety; he can't go check on her and so may not even have had confirmation she was dead until sometime later.
- I Knew It!:
- Fans correctly guessed that Catherine Taber, the voice of Padmé in The Clone Wars, would be the audiobook narrator.
- A few correctly predicted that Padmé's acquaintances from The Clone Wars would appear, which include Rush Clovis, Mina Bonteri, and Onaconda Farr.
- No Yay: Padme and Clovis's relationship was already icky in The Clone Wars due to Clovis's pushiness and lack of respect for her boundaries (he even tried to do a Forceful Kiss despite her saying no), but this novel makes it worse given Clovis aggressively pursues Padme and forces a kiss on her when she's only eighteen years old, especially as Clovis is indicated to be several years older. It retroactively makes their relationship in The Clone Wars even more uncomfortable.
- Salvaged Story:
- After many complaints that Disney was ignoring the prequel era, the novel (alongside the renewal of The Clone Wars and the release of Master and Apprentice) has been welcomed as fresh change of pace in the Star Wars franchise.
- The prequel trilogy was criticized for its pacing issues (particularly the decade-long Time Skip between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones), with many important events happening off-screen. The novel being set between the two films expands much upon Padmé's transition from the Queen of Naboo to the Senator of Naboo.
- Some people criticized the fact that none of the characters in the Prequel Trilogy did more about the slavery on Tatooine, especially Padmé as she was actually in some position to make a difference. Queen's Shadow reveals that before she was asked to become senator, Padmé had seriously considered dedicating her life to eradicating slavery on Tatooine. After becoming a senator, she attempts to bring up the subject in the Senate and even sends Sabé to Tatooine to try and locate Shmi Skywalker.
- There was some confusion over the exact dates the Queens of Naboo took and stayed in office over the course of the Prequel Trilogy and The Clone Wars, due to the belief that a full term constituted four years. Queen's Shadow reveals that canonically a full term is actually two years, which subsequently clears up a lot of continuity issues with the queens. note
- One criticism of The Phantom Menace was that we didn't see much of the negative effects of the Trade Federation's occupation of Naboo, which lowered dramatic tension. Here, we're given details of the occupation that makes it clear it was terrible; many people died resisting the Trade Federation and they also tortured a twelve year old handmaiden for information, resulting in her being permanently scarred.
- Starboarding: Some fans ship Sabé → Padmé. While this particular fanon actually predates the publication of Queen's Shadow, this novel gives a lot more credence to it by emphasizing Sabé and Padmé's close friendship - Sabé in particular devotes her life to serving Padmé and says she'd die for her - and it also confirms that Sabé is canonically bisexual.
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