PT Was the "slave bomb" ever removed from Anakin's head?

So, theoretically, if Watto got really drunk and still had the trigger, he could effectively try to hold Vader hostage?

 

TPM novelization p192-193:

They went to Watto's shop first, where the Toydarian had completed the forms necessary to assure Anakin's freedom. The transmitter that bound Anakin to his life of slavery was deactivated permanently. It would be removed surgically at a later date. Watto was still grumbling about the unfairness of things as they left him and went back out into the street.​

 

Well, Watto's kind of a sneaky bastard, you never know what he could have pulled.

 

If he wanted to get revenge, he would have pushed the button before they left town.

 

That would have been funny if Palpatine triggered it in ROTJ right before he got the shaft.

 

"The shaft." I see what you did there.

 

Well I ask YOU sir, how do you know it was located in Anakin's head?

 

its funny is an hilariously terrible way...hi im new here

 

To quote myself from the How Star Wars could have ended in 1 Minute thread:

"No! You can't have the boy Annie, he is my slave! I-ah can do whatever I want-ah!"
*Watto uses detonator and across Mos Espa Annie's head explodes all over Jar-Jar Binks outfit*
"How Wude!"

 

I'd imagine Qui-Gon would be able to sense if Watto was trying to pull anything. But I think he needn't have even worried--Watto was still operating under the assumption that if he welched on the bet in any way, Qui-Gon would get the Hutts involved.

 

It was deactivated, but was it ever removed? Seems like the only person(s) who would have known that Anakin even had such a chip in him was Qui-Gon (dead), Padme (not a Jedi) and Jar-Jar (Um...)

As far as the Jedi knew (from what we saw in the movie), Anakin was a random boy Qui-Gon had found. Nothing about him being a slave or anything. It's likely they never knew he had anything to be removed.

It's an interesting thing to think about. Even at a young age, Anakin had mechanical things attached to him. First a chip, then a whole arm, then a whole life-support suit.

 

I figured Qui-Gon would have told Obi-Wan about it when they got on the ship ("Schedule the boy for the operation at some point after we get back to the Temple", or something along those lines.)

 

It would be of Anakin's interest to get it removed at some point, so yes. As for the deactivation, it's not something that Qui-Gon or Anakin would let pass...

 

Come to think of it, wouldn't the Naboo cruiser have some sort of med bay? Maybe they did a quick operation there while enroute to Coruscant?

 

He could've pulled it (trigger) as soon as Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Anakin left on the ship.

 

Yeah, but what if Watto thought something like "Well, in the future, I could pull the trigger, have Anakin come running back to me when he's a grown up Jedi, and have him at my mercy to do me a favor for me to deactivate it"?

That all depends on how far the range on the bomb is. I mean, if it functioned the same as like a hologram technology that allows Obi Wan on Geonosis to contact Anakin on Tatooine... he would have contemplated doing it when Anakin visited him in Attack of the Clones, but at the time he couldn't bring himself to do it.

But sometime after ROTS, Watto has absolutely nothing, stumbles upon the trigger that was buried under a pile of junk in his shop, blames all of his current problems on Anakin who he realizes may or may not be dead because of the Jedi Purge, and clicks the trigger in drunk anger, only to have Darth Vader knocking on his door.

EDIT: This is pure speculation, but the reason I saw Darth Vader "knocking on his door" is because it would make no sense for a bomb in a slave's head to outright kill them instantly. The slave is obviously worth a lot alive, so theoretically, the bomb would have a 24 hour or so countdown with a maddening beeping inside the victim's head, driving them back to their slave owner to disarm it, or otherwise die.

 

Then Qui-Gon immediately comes back and sets the Hutts on Watto's butt.

(Obviously Qui-Gon couldn't really do this, but Watto doesn't know that.)

 

Fun idea with drunk Watto and all that, but while I really think they would have it removed or permanently deactivated ASAP, I don't even know if it is possible to activate via a trigger whenever the slave owner chooses.

Because after Anakin left, Watto disabled Shmi's "bomb" because he was worried she might walk away in grief to blow herself up.
Which means there's a certain range programmed into it, walk outside of that range, and the bomb goes off.

 

Where did that happen, that Watto disabled Shmi's bomb?

 

The (now defunct) EU. I never really liked that part. It made Watto seem a bit too warm and fuzzy for my taste.

 

She seemed pretty happy to send him off to that prestigious boarding school to get himself some education. I can't see her walking away in grief.

 

Great observation...and if I may add, he was also busy, around that time, of making a mechanical person of his own in C-3PO as well.

 

I kind of imagined Watto as hard but fair, but perhaps a bit corrupt.

 

The "slave bomb" wasn't in Ani's head. It was injected into the arteries in his neck. They couldn't be removed, but the charge could be neutralized with X-rays once he got the President and the tape back to...

Okay, I'm lost, aren't I.

 

I think he was begrudgingly fair, yeah.