It’s like a vacation from all reality!
[🎵Accessing] Hello! I’m Anika AKA Pixie and you are listening to the Endless Anakin Playlist Podcast, in which I use popular music as a frame to discuss anything and everything Star Wars and Star Wars adjacent.
Today’s episode is inspired by by Malia J’s cover of the song “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana, which played over the opening credits of Black Widow.
Those of you on my webpage or on YouTube have noticed, I hope, that you can see me! I am doing a series of videos detailing my amazing adventures on the Galactic Starcruiser Halcyon at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. It was truly magical! I can’t wait to tell you all about it. But first: some exposition.
My vacation was planned back in October 2021 and I immediately muted all variations of ‘galactic’, ‘starcruiser’, ‘Halcyon’, ‘Star Wars hotel’—anything that might give me spoilers. I didn’t read any blogs. I didn’t watch any TikToks or YouTubes. I followed nothing on any social media and I just stayed in the dark as much as possible.
The Galactic Starcruiser is a fully immersive adventure, with characters, tasks, and we were all going to be involved. We were part of the storyline. I want to tell you a little about my character.
All of the passengers are encouraged to come up with their own backstory. What planet in the galaxy far, far, away they’re from, what brought them on to the Halcyon, whether they’re a part of the Resistance or a loyalist to the First Order. And whatever details you want to include as a passenger.
And so I took this opportunity to lean into my Handmaiden from Naboo, uh, character that I have many times discussed turning into a Disney+ series. [aside] Call me, Disney.
So, I’ve always been a huge fan of covert ops and spy stories and especially those that are about young women. These are stories that I’ve just always been drawn to, the covert ops girl squad. In Star Wars that’s obviously the Handmaidens of Naboo. They are bodyguards and doubles as well as being traditional handmaidens for royalty. You know, skilled in combat and strategy as is clearly true based on Padmé. I decided that, that all of the handmaidens have to have all of the training that — just in case any of them have to portray Queen Amidala or Queen of Naboo, whichever one there is.
So. After the rise of the Empire, the Handmaidens of Naboo were dissolved by Emperor Palpatine. He’s from Naboo, so he knows that they would be dangerous if he let them keep going. But of course no covert operation ever listens to authority and so they just went even more underground and joined the Rebellion. There are some comics that actually have the Handmaidens of Naboo working with the Rebellion and confronting Darth Vader so look those up cuz it’s a pretty fun story. If really heartbreaking as well. Star Wars!
Anyway, my character is one of these Handmaidens that was part of the organization during the Rebellion and then the Resistance era. I was traveling with a party of eight on the Halcyon. And the person who set up the vacation for all of us, he decided that his story was that he was an engineer with the company that produces the ships and keeps them going and in good repair. And he had won a special contest that was a trip on the Halcyon for him and his family. Then, the company hired me, as a Handmaiden of Naboo, and my friend, who was portraying a Grey Jedi — shhh! — as bodyguards for his young daughter. And then we picked up a Resistance fighter who snuck on board and hid in our suite.
So my duty was to protect the little girl and her family. But my mission was to infiltrate the First Order. We had heard rumors that First Order had a special interest in the Halcyon and its passengers. Possibly because there may or may not have been some Resistance work going on with their missions.
So! My secret mission was to infiltrate the First Order, convince them to trust me, that I was on their side, gather all their secrets and tell the Resistance. And possibly do a little sabotage.
Finally, Disney super encouraged everyone to dress up, to really play the part while you are on the Starcruiser. Now, of course they have their own line of clothing. It’s at Shop Disney but you can only get it if you already have a reservation on the Starcruiser, or it’s also in the gift shop once you get there.
I designed my own Rebellion and Resistance era Handmaiden of Naboo outfit that was based on what Padmé and her handmaidens wear in The Phantom Menace, but also with elements of Black Widow, both the film and the comic books. So I have a vest that’s inspired by Yelena Belova’s many many pockets vest from the film. And a cloak-jacket with a hood that is similar to what Natasha wear in the comics. I also included arm bands that Padmé and Rey and many people in Star Wars wear. And I finished it off with ballet slipper shoes because ballet is very important to the Black Widow mythos and her fake backstory. And also I was a dance major and I’ve always wanted to produce Star Wars as a ballet. I think it would be amazing. So knowing I would be doing some action scenes I wanted to incorporate that idea that my version of like martial arts is actually ballet into my character.
So! That’s the background. Coming up we’ll board the Halcyon. We’ll explore the ship, meet the crew, detail the different storylines. I’ll tell you all about Batuu, about all of the different food and drink, all of the different activities, the trainings I got to do… All of my adventures.
Thank you for listening to Endless Anakin.
Follow my playlists on YouTube and Spotify and after the episode, the song I’ve discussed will immediately play. Links can be found at anakin.me. That’s A-N-A-K-I-N-dot-M-E. Please follow, like, subscribe and tell all of your friends to do the same. See you next time and may the Force be with you. [[Accessing 🎵]
Endless Anakin is a Manic Pixie Dust production. Song: “Robots Don’t Cry”, Anika Dane
Pages: 1 2