Question: Reading [the answer to a question about Sabé](https://scifi.stackexchange.com/a/10590/2565) (the Amidala stand-in) I remembered that I always wondered why she ordered the actual queen to scrub R2-D2. There were enough actual servants who could have done it, so why Padmé? If that wasn't enough, after giving the actual queen (Padmé) the order to go away, she tells Panaka to continue with the discussion. How does that make sense?

The significant piece of dialogue:

> 
> AMIDALA : Thank you, Artoo Detoo. You have proven to be very loyal...Padme!
>  ...  
> 
>  AMIDALA : (Cont'd) Clean this droid up the best you can. It deserves our gratitude...(to Panaka) Continue, Captain.
> 
> 
> 

Note that this question is two-fold:

1. Why was Padmé chosen in the first place?
2. Why would an important meeting with the ship's captain be continued without her?

Answer: 
I always thought it was Sabe playing a joke on her friend the Queen. The Queen and her handmaidens are supposed to be very close (look at how distraught Padme was when Corde, who wasn't even HER handmaiden was killed) so maybe Sabe felt secure enough in their friendship to make her do dirty work. I know that if my best friend was a noble and I was his servant and we switched for a few weeks, I'd have him on latrine duty from 8 o'clock, day one.
Perhaps Padmé *wanted* to clean the droid--both to learn more about the people she was traveling with, and the droid that had saved her and her ship. She didn't seem to treat it as an onerous task, did she?