A slaves worth?

The one thread I saw close to this was locked. I am wondering, when Qui-Gon wants to gamble the Pod for Anakin and his Mother Watto said no Pod is worth 2 slaves but says he will wager one of them. Obviously he would have rather of wagered Shmi than Ani. Now that Ani wins the race they get to keep the Pod and sell it. Why not trade the pod for Shmi now, or sell the pod and buy Shmi from Watto?

 

"I tried freeing your mother Ani, but Watto wouldn't have it"

- O_F

 

Yeah I guess that is the "Star Wars" way to explain it. I took it more as him talking about his first attempt to gamble for both of them?
I am not trying to badmouth the movie cause I loved it, just curious and bored.

 

I agree. Since WAtto is now broke, the money they made selling the podracer should have been enough to buy Schmi's freedom. I always thought Qui-Gon did not try hard enough because Jedi must be separated from their family.

 

The money from the Pod, isn't enough. Qui-gon clearly states that in the book.

 

Well the pod itself was obviously worth it if Watto is willing to wager Ani for it?

 

The pod is worth one of Watto's slave, it wouldn't be worth his last and only slave. Qui-Gon got Ani, but I doubt he'd have been willing to part with Shmi as well since she was the only slave he had left.

 

Good point! I didn't know he only had two slaves.

 

Well, I'm assuming, since I only saw two slaves. I guess more could've been around but he wasn't that big a dealer and I imagine slaves are still rather expensive. He won Anakin and Shmi, after all, rather than buying them.

 

Makes sence. Thanks!

 

He may have lost everything, but he's not quite at the point where he's desperate enough to sell a slave. That doesn't seem to come around until at some point between TPM and AOTC. Slaves are expensive, especially a woman like Shmi who's in fairly fit condition. It might be a greater loss at that point for him to lose more help and have to handle everything himself. Additionally, we can see how much losing Anakin must have hurt him, both in how much he lost in futurs bets and the boy's mechanical genius and know-how, so he might have been feeling stubborn and belligerent about it, and by refusing to sell her, tried to save some of his dignity. (And Qui Gon seems to know human nature well enough to know this, so I would think he would avoid the topic at hand. Especially after we see how Watto tried to go back on his word about Anakin, as it is.)

 

Didn't Watto sell Shmi in AOTC though? I would think that a winning pod would be worth more than what a moisture farmer could pay. But then again, I have no idea how much money is made being a moisture farmer.

 

It was not worth enough...but in the long run having shimi as a slave is worth more...watto prolly knew this as well