"Anakin?" Obi-Wan asked. "I've noticed… you seem to be quite a close friend of the Chancellor."
"Yeah?" Anakin replied. "Is there a problem with that?"
"Well…" Obi-Wan began. "You should… keep an eye out. Watch yourself around him."
Anakin looked offended. "Why's that?" he asked. "What's wrong with him? This isn't just because he's a politician, is it?"
Obi-Wan looked pained. "Anakin, I would like nothing more than for him to be a politician. I'm worried because he's a very specific kind of politician."
That made Anakin's offence turn into bafflement.
"Huh?" he asked.
"Anakin, he's an old politician," Obi-Wan said. "From Naboo. Do you recall Padme's handmaidens?"
Anakin frowned.
"Oh, yeah," the padawan agreed. "The ones who pretended to be her, and she pretended to be one of them? I didn't actually know the Queen's name was Padme Amidala until she explained it with the Gungans."
He looked speculative. "Would that work on most people, though?"
"Not if they're observant enough to notice her name," Obi-Wan said. "But my point is, that's actually not a very old tradition on Naboo, and it came about because of the very real risk of political assassinations."
Anakin blinked.
"Why would anyone assassinate a politician?" he asked. "Especially one like Padme who was doing a good job?"
"For power, Anakin," Obi-Wan said, sadly. "For power. With Jedi, we can become personally powerful and so a lot of our training is in learning to resist that temptation. That urge to become… corrupted, by the power we can amass."
He smiled. "There's something… not entirely dissimilar, with politicians. If it happens to be the case that someone becoming seriously injured, or even killed, can make an ambitious man or woman more powerful – whether because they're now the one who's in charge, or because the replacement to the person who got killed will listen to them better – then, if they're ambitious enough, they might help that along."
Anakin looked astonished.
"So it's… just like on Tatooine, isn't it?" he asked, then frowned. "Wait, but, Padme was really young when she was Queen."
"That's also a tradition," Obi-Wan said – he'd researched the planet when they were sent there, on the grounds that Qui-Gon probably wouldn't, and he still remembered a lot of what he'd learned. "The handmaidens exist because, yes, political assassinations of teenaged monarchs happened. And Chancellor Palpatine is, very specifically, from that generation of Naboo politicians."
He waved his hand in a prevaricating gesture. "To be clear, Anakin, I don't think that Palpatine actually had a child murdered. Of course I don't, if I thought that with any kind of proof he'd have been arrested. But I think that one of his allies probably did, and… I don't know, I want you to be aware that Palpatine has come from a political culture where that was normal."
Anakin was frowning.
"It really is just like Tatooine," he said. "People are more polite to one another, they don't say 'you're a sleemo', they don't try and punch you out in the street or whatever, they just… smile at you and tell you you're a friend, and they're only thinking about how to use you."
He glanced up at Obi-Wan. "What about you?" he asked.
"I think that I want the best for you," Obi-Wan promised. "But you should be careful with everyone – that includes me, just like it includes everyone else."
Now Anakin looked unsettled.
"I don't really know what to think, now," he admitted.
"Anakin, I can promise you that I will take care of you," Obi-Wan said. "Teach you to be a Jedi – or let you go, and help you leave the Order, if that's what you want. And I will. And… I'm sorry that the galaxy isn't the way it should be."
He smiled. "I think the Jedi Order as a whole, and all Jedi in particular, want the best for you. I didn't want to make you feel nervous because of the… difficult discussion about whether or not you can trust people. But… I would rather you know that."
Anakin thought that through for quite a long time.
"I understand," he said. "I wish the galaxy was better too."
He sat on the couch next to Obi-Wan. "It'd be way simpler if there were just people who were good and people who weren't."
"Not quite," Obi-Wan said. "It'd be easier if people who weren't good were clearly labelled."
"...right, yeah," Anakin admitted. "That's true."
AN:
The existence of handmaids actually implies things about Naboo politics...