PT Shmi is so underrated... and her death is still heart-wrenching

The performance that gives us the character of Shmi Skywalker is so well-done, and so underrated.

Her death is one of the saddest moments in the entire saga, for me.

Does anyone else feel this way?

 

Yeah. I love her scenes. She reminds me of my mom so I always hate the death scene.

 

Pernilla August might have given the best performance in the PT. As I've grown older I see how hard it is to let your children go, especially at such a young age.

The hopeful departure of Anakin in TPM followed by his dark return in AOTC is really depressing and tragic. Shmi suffered for absolutely no reason and she lived through sheer force of will to see Anakin.

Anakin leaving his mother always gives me a lump in my throat, and her death always brings a tear to my eyes.

 

that was maybe the saddest scene in the saga !

 

Just rewatched it. Poor Shmi I feel so sorry for her I can't even blame Anakin for killing the Tuskens (I don't approve it but I don't condemn him).

 

I don't blame him either.

 

I agree 100%

 

Same. I think Shmi's a very underrated and overlooked character in the series as a whole. I also think Pernilla August is a fantastic actor and she really has chemistry with Jake Lloyd in TPM, especially during the scene when he's leaving Tatooine.

The fact that the only scene's she featured in during AOTC is her death makes it all the more sad. The novelization of AOTC really expands on her in the opening chapters and makes her even more likable.

 

I love Pernilla August and thought Shmi was so well done. She might be one of my favorite characters in the saga.

I recently watched Fanny and Alexander for the first time in about a decade and it was such a joy to see a younger Pernilla in it. She's such a pure actress.

 

i recently watched TPM and felt like tearing up when Anakin leaves. Even though I wish Anakin had been older in TPM I did find the scene emotional.

It is sad that she dies.

 

Shmi is my one of my favorite characters in the entire saga. And the scene in which she and Anakin say good-bye to each other is one of the best in the franchise.

 

Pernilla August delivers a terrific performance. Bad acting, my back side!

Love her rapport with both Anakin and Qui-Gon; and how centered a character she is (a sort of unconscious Jedi archetype).

Which lends wonderful irony to Anakin's tragic fate.

Careful casting and makeup also has it so that Shmi looks like an older version of Padme (that mommy complex of Anakin's).

More of an easter-egg-ish detail I find delightful is that Pernilla August and Ian McDiarmid share an actor's credit/title card at the end of AOTC: the mother and the "father" of Anakin.

Lastly, Pernilla August has always seemed very sincere about her part. Check out what she says and her warm tone and expression in the following Episode I featurette (begins 4:14):

 

Me too! And that never happened before.

Her death is tragic and the exchange she has with Anakin beforehand is very touching. I think that a lot of people would respond like Anakin did. Like -NaTaLie- said: "I don't approve it, but I don't condemn him."

Pernilla August was great for me.

 

Yep the saddest deaths are Shmi, Anakin, Yoda and Jango, of the main 6 films those deaths are are the best.

 

Shmi is awesome, the OG Skywalker. The most mysterious Skywalker, we don't even know if she was born with that name, or where she lived before Tatooine, if she was always a slave, or if she's force sensitive. I'd love to see her return to the saga in some way, maybe a story about how younger Shmi dealt with suddenly being pregnant. Something with the feel of this piece by Chris Trevas:

 

I never blamed him. At the time, I was glad he did it.

 

It shows how well Shmi's portrayal was that in just a few, limited scenes she gave one of the most memorable and moving performances while coming across as a very likable person.

 

Shmi is the best. Her scenes are some of my favorites in TPM. She's so warm, but she has "loud" thoughts that come across with ease. Conflicted, worrisome, foreboding. Totally underrated.

And yea her death hurts. I always start to imagine her experience before Anakin found her, and then catch myself because my brain can't absorb that dark ****. As a teenager I remember wondering why Lucas didn't make her look more gruesome...now I'm glad he didn't. It would have made it gratuitous. Instead it's tragic.

Also the reverse Christ imagery is powerful.



Sent from my brain using thumbs.

 

This is one of the great successes of the PT. To give enough nuance and relatability, while also showing us the damage enough that we can't fully endorse what is going on. We can perhaps thank Lucas' anthropological, documentary approach. Honestly this is perhaps one of the greatest achievements a storyteller can accomplish; having you understand what is going on to the point where you recognize its value while being able to express reservations about it -- while fully believing the story. To disagree with characters' decisions while understanding and relating to what they do. Lucas does this to a very limited degree in the OT, but he opened it up completely to include almost everyone in the PT. It's all shades of grey. Sometimes I wonder if this is why some people reacted against the PT -- this is not how they are accustomed to receiving stories. Often I read about the PT people had envisioned or wanted, and usually its one of two scenarios: Vader starts out always bad, but flirts with good, until he falls, or Vader is a perfect hero who falls into evil villain. But I think it's more fantastic to have all those shades in there that Lucas threw in; Anakin is a good kid, who is a very troubled hero who doesn't just fall, but who (like the Republic he's mirroring) slides into darkness, until a fall is the fatal last punch. It reminds me of a quote from Lucas' first film THX-1138: "It all happened so slowly that most men failed to realize that anything had happened at all." The PT is like that, for the characters & for even some of the audience. Very well shaded. It gives it all a powerful reality. And how fantastically it was delivered.

 

Count me on board of being one of those who doesn't blame Anakin...

Like Deliveranze said, I completely relate...

I NEVER understood how what he did was wrong, like bitch if that was me I'd taken out everyone on the planet who could have stopped them from hurting her...

 

Definitely bro. **** Tusken Raiders lol

 

What are you talking about? The prequels suck, everybody knows that, the acting was awful, Lucas doesn't know how to write or direct, and they're childish and full of CGI.
I'm sure Shmi is a CGI character, and I don't believe she dies, Lucas made the PT for the kids and to sell toys, and there's no profit in "death shmi toys"!

 

Ya got me. I took ya seriously and was ready to lay down the law until I saw the satire.

 

Sorry, I couldn't resist