Shmi's Capture?

Okay I'm new here. I looked for the topic but didn;t see it. So I'll ask. Forgive me if this has been previously discussed.

When Annakin finds out Shmi has been taken. Cliegg says it's been close to a month since her capture.

What value is she is she for the sandpeople? food? is she a Slave? Is she a hostage? I tried to make sense of why they'd keep her around for that long, I just can't figure it.

 

I'm assuming that they wanted to use her for their slave.

 

The only thing that makes sense is either slave or possibly food. Maybe they reproduce like Xenomorphs so they implanted an alien inside her and it got out after they buried her, which is why you don't see her grave in ANH.

I took that a bit overboard, didn't I?

 

I thought there was a scene at the homestead with Shmi's grave? Now you're going to make me go back & watch!

 

Fun torture, revenge, and [we don't need to discuss that here]

Didn't you see what Shmi was attached to?

 

Shmi was totally messed up in that scene i mean, Tion_Meddon was right

 

Food probably. Nice fresh meat.

 

I dont understand why she stayed alive for so long and then as soon as Anakin sees her she dies? You would think that seeing your son would give you a little bit of modivation to hang on for a while.

 

this was all part of palpatine's plan. master puppeteer that he is - it's all going as he has foreseen

 

Shmi is tied face-down to an a-frame rack with her legs spread in a sequence that is making direct reference to "The Searchers." Hmm, I wonder what the Tuskens could possibly be doing with her... No idea. None at all. I swear.

Lucas includes some pretty horrible concepts in an oblique fashion so as not to scare the kiddies.

 

Cleigg said it best. They are vicious, mindless monsters. They captured her and then treated her badly. That's why when Anakin finds her she hanging on to her life by a thread.

I don't think there was a good reason for them taking her unless they just wanted to eat her.

 

According to some of the extra "tidbits" Lucas dropped after AOTC, one of them was that the Sandpeople have a very chilling practice called "bloodrites...a frightful tradition of stalking, capturing and torturing prey over a span of weeks to earn passage into adulthood." I would assume that's what happened with Shmi. If not that, then I think she was likely being used to send a message to the settlers.

 

"I dont understand why she stayed alive for so long and then as soon as Anakin sees her she dies? You would think that seeing your son would give you a little bit of modivation to hang on for a while."

Seeing her son was THE only motivation for holding on as long as she did. I think that in her hopes of hopes he would come rescue her, probably dreamt of it and that's why Anakin was having nightmares, because he was so attuned to his mother that he could feel her pain from lightyears away. When he came, and she got to see him one last time, she could finally give in and go to the end of the path.

 

Slave and something to Eat.

 

I watched AOTC for the up-teenth time this weekend getting ready for ROTS. It occurred to me that Palpatine arranged Shmi's capture and torture to disrupt Anakin's training, just like Darth Vader had Han and Chewy tortured in ESB to disrupt Luke's training. That's why they didn't kill Shmi, just like Han said that his torturers didn't even ask any questions.

What I wonder is this: Did Vader connect the dots? Of did his fear of the Emperor ("I sense much fear in you," Yoda had said) override his anger at what Palpatine had done to him? I always believed that Luke's torture is what tipped the scales and caused Anakin finally to act against the Emperor. Enough of the evil torture already.

 

Not true. Lucas did toy with this idea in early drafts of Ep.II but he eventually dropped it as being a bad idea, which it is. And the reason they take her is to take the measure of their enemies. The Ep.II novel talks about how the only thing that keeps Shmi going is her love of Anakin and how she hopes that he will come and rescue her, which he does, but too late. It is this that the Sand People interpret as Shmi having a high pain threshhold and great strenght of character.

 

Chaotic_Serenity You have an interesting theory. About using her as a symbol for other farmers who get too close to their settlements. Anyways, they kept her alive for torture. And NO, Palpatine had nothing to do with her capture. Also she died when Anakin arrived, because thats what she was waiting for. Anakin. She wanted to see him one last time. She got to and found peace and let go.

 

Just a thought.

Maybe they were going to tade her as a slave for something. Keep her for a while, then trade her with another tribe for goods or food. Or they could be planning on using her as bait in a trap to capture more settlers later on. I can see that they must have had some future plan for her, or else they would have just simply left her in the desert to die from exposure I'm sure.

Jedi-Master_Sledge

 

I never noticed the position Shmi was in. I surely to God hope that wasn't what George intended. Anyway, you can tell she has been through libing hell, and the Tuskens had their slaughter coming.

 

Maybe its me but dont jedi have the power to heal people and themselves? i mean they have it in the games and wouldnt you think that they would do it in the movies?

 

yeah but she was literally half allready, had lost alot of and was barely conscious. at most ( i would think ) he couldve hgelped her hang onfor a few moments longer.
however, this could explain anakins line "its obi wans fault, hes holding me back." is it possibly obi wan didnt teach anakin any force healing, feeling he wasnt ready?

 

Just for fun ya know, don't you like to kill somebody that way...







neah, mean neither

 

I think she deliberatley stayed alive so she could see anakin again. Once she saw him she would have felt happy and realised that she had seen her son again thus dying fairly happily.


Maybe...

 

I always thought someone payed them to capture her. Like Senator Palpatine, trying to bring him further down the darkside.

 

I think they kept her alive for so long just to punish her. The sand people are mindless animals and are very territorial. That particualr clan probably punished outsiders by torturing them every day until they die.