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

No, no. Don't apologize it was a funny post. Great satire.

 

she is such a small part of the prequels that she is overlooked but i agree. Shmi was great. And the death scene is one of the highlights of the PT. Sure its a low for Anakin but it's a lot of emotion and rage and the imagery is remembered by many star wars fans from that scene

 

What about poor Padme?

Man, the second time I watched ROTS in the cinema her death messed me up. I ran straight to the toy store to buy a Padme figure in tribute. All I kept thinking was how, in the end, Anakin gets redeemed, becomes a lovely, sparkly force ghost, and gets to play happily ever after with Yoda and Obi Wan. And he even gets the joy of seeing his grown up kids. But there's no such happy ending for Padme. Her ending is utterly tragic. She doesn't get to raise her own children and she dies knowing that her entire world has crumbled. The democratic republic she dedicated her life to is gone. And her husband, love of her life and father of her children, has become the monster who basically ended it all. Yet she is still so in love with the man he was that, in her dying moments, she tries to convince Obi Wan - and probably herself - that there remains good in him.

To me, that's heartbreaking stuff.

 

Anakin loses the two persons that really care about him: first his mother, then his wife. Is big part of his tragedy. Is not that Obi Wan wasn't a terrific friend. it is just.. Padme and Shmi know who Anakin really is. If he had the chance to live more closer to them ( I mean literally to have more time with them when he is an adult) maybe he wouldn't fall. Maybe Qui Gon was the other person who believed in the good in Anakin...
I like the female characters of PT. They are soft, but not weak, they a reasonable, but not cold. Yes, Shmi and Padme share a lot in their characters, but Padme is more reckless, but she is politician, after all. Shmi is the essence of the mother: always there, always supportive, always thinking of what is good for her child, and for her self and Pernilla August did a terrific job to portrait that..

Also, a few details: the relation between Shmi and her son is very strong: ten years of Jedi training and he still is attached to her ( in the beginning of AOTC Anakin is saying: I don't know why I'm still dreaming about her, So part of his training was to forget her, but he couldn’t do it ad that is good thing.). After that When he goes in Tattoine is terrified knowing that Watto sold her. Padme is not happy too. It is a pity that Lucas only showed that (without dialogue) but if they both were terrified that Shmi is sold, then maybe Watto was one of the relatively good masters but others could be monsters. As the Tusken are monsters, too. I read somewhere that they captured her, because they trained his young adults in cruelty using prisoners for this horrendous purpose. Maybe this hypothesis is true, because I don't see any other reasons for them to take her and keep her alive; she obviously didn't working anything for them. When Anakin confesses to Padme what he has done, many people complain that she is merciless not carrying about the Sand People. But Padme was in Tattoine before, she knows who the Tuskens are, also is not that she approves what Anakin did. Is just more simple: he needs a consolation. He obviously knows he did it wrong, he is suffering for that, so what to do: blame him or help him? Padme chooses the second one, because she loves him. The same did Shmi, saying that she loves him, not ‘seek a revenge for me, son’ or something like that.
The good thing is that she really had a good life with the Owens, but she misses her son ( that's why in her last moments she says: Now I'm complete) So it is a pity that Anakin couldn't take her on Corusant, but there in Tattoine she had a happy life in the farm.

 

Exactly! I can't condemn Anakin too much because who knows I might of done the same thing if I was in his situation. But yeah her death scene gets me every time such an underrated performance.

 

The actress' performance drives the entire story of the PT. The character of Shmi Skywalker drives the entire PT and OT. Without her death, we would not have Darth Vader. She's the key to all this, as George would say.

In other words, amazing character and amazing performance that truly sells Anakin's reasons to turn to the dark side, making it so much more believable!

 

Shmi was the one of the characters from the original TPM trailer that sold me on the film in the first place. Such gravitas.

Shame her story was so truncated. Always felt that was a missed opportunity for me. It almost deserved to be a movie in its own right.

 

She served so much in TPM yet was in the film for a small time.

She really is one of my favorite SW moms

 

I believe that the Jedi failed Anakin by not doing anything about his mother. Anakin was much older than any other child who entered into Jedi training and had a bond with his mother, As soon as the council decided to train Anakin, someone should have gone back to Tatooine to free Shmi and set her up with a home and financially on a planet of her choosing.

 

The Jedi failed repeatedly. This point is made very clear when Anakin states something like, "You're either with me or against me," to which Obi-Wan replies "only a Sith deals in absolutes." Obi-Wan is completely oblivious to the fact this is an absolute, and in fact, most of the Jedi ways are absolutes. Their rules are sacrosanct and serve as their very undoing. Human beings can't turn off love, no matter how conditioned they are. This is why Jedi like Qui-Gon were becoming defiant and restless. The Order, and the good side, isn't enough for some people. For Yoda and Obi-Wan, definitely. For Qui-Gon and Anakin, not so much.

 

Loved her short performance in AotC. She nailed it.

 

Are there any ways they could expand on Shmi, without undoing the great performance and bits of characterization we already have?

 

They could tell us her story. Where and how did she grow up? What were her dreams and aspirations? Was she born a slave or did she somehow become one later on? When she became a mother, was she deliberately chosen by a Sith who manipulated the midi-chlorians to create life or was it more random? If the former, why her?
Most importantly, who was she?

EDIT: According to the Star Wars Character Encyclopedia, Shmi and her parents were captured by pirates and forced into slavery when she was just a young girl.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Shmi_Skywalker_Lars

 

Wait, did Anakin say they were slaves since he was three, or that he was on Tatooine since they were three?

 

On Tatooine. It could also be interpreted as in Watto's care, but they probably refer to Tatooine.

- How long have you been here?

- Since I was very little. Three, I think. My mom and I were sold to Gardulla the Hutt, but she lost us betting on the pod races.

 

I honestly can't imagine the pain she felt, knowing that staying with her was the worst possible outcome for her son, choosing to release him into the unknown, putting on a strong face, but still fearful deep down that she would never see him again. It's such an emotionally rich scene on its own.

 

I admire Shmi so much. She's so strong, wise and kindhearted. I remember her fate in AOTC having a strong effect on me when I saw it that first time...Especially since I was delighted to hear Watto say that she was freed and got married! I was so happy for her character-I'm like aww that's great, she deserves it!...and then she's tortured by sandpeople and dies in Anakin's arms, the first time they see eachother in a decade. Dammit George Lucas, playing so freely with my heartstrings!!!!!

That's some great storytelling right there..."They don't make 'em like that anymore."

 

Not strictly "The Prequels" but Tatooine Ghost in the old EU makes Shmi even more tragic. I cried reading that (granted I never finished that book but I read about half).

 

Pernilla August did a wonderful job as Shmi, and is one of the most underrated actors in all of Star Wars

I will say though, whenever I hear the name Shmi, I automatically hear the voice of Captain Hook shouting "SMEEEE" despite the Sh sound in her name.

 

I absolutely love that book.

 

Shmi is one of the few characters that I liked in TPM and Qui-Gon had some of best scenes with her.
He showed real warmth and care when he asked if she would be alright after he had freed Anakin and sold the pod.
That was a good moment between characters. And she played her part well.

But this creates a problem for me, with the fact that both Padme and the Jedi were apparently content with letting her rot as a slave for ten years and did not lift a finger to help. And here I think it was just an oversight by Lucas. He needed her to stay a slave or else it would look odd that she did not go with her son.
So I get that. But it would have been very easy for Padme to send someone to but her freedom shortly after TPM and Shmi could be thankful but elect to stay on Tatooine. And then some time later, she meets Cliegg Lars, they fall in love and marry.
But that she apparently never bothered did not do her any favors to me. It made her seem uncaring.

And it would be easy to have this explained in AotC. When Anakin mentions his bad dreams, Obi-wan says that his mother was freed from slavery years ago but she choose to stay on Tatooine. Then when Anakin's dreams get bad and they go back, Shmi in not in her house. So they go to Watto to ask where she is and we go from there.
Or Padme told the Jedi but they did not tell Anakin. So when he brings up his mother to her, she tells him that she freed her years ago and wonders why he did not know. That would give Anakin another reason to be fond of Padme and slightly resent the Jedi for not telling him.

Bye for now.
The Guarding Dark

 

Actually, the books cover how Padme sent Sabe and other handmaidens to find Shmi, and when they didn't, they instead freed a multitude of slaves and found a new home for them, including Kitster and Anakin's other friends.

 

can I ask which book that was?

 

It was in the newish Padme/handmaidens' trilogy:

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Padmé_Amidala_trilogy

 

I do not count things not in the films because it was not IN the films. I judge the films as films, if the filmmaker wants me to be aware of something, put it IN the film.
Lucas did not put this in AotC and so I judge the Jedi and Padme accordingly. If he wanted me to know of this, then he should have included it.

Bye for now.
Old Stoneface