#shmi skywalker

Shmi is a woman. Anakin is a boy. Since the Star Wars universe isn’t always realistic, I’m willing to accept this whole “immaculate conception” thing and imagine the possibility of a non-physical union. But a woman alone can’t create a male child. Maybe I’m terrible at science, but I seem to recall that living beings that reproduce on their own do so through parthenogenesis, and that only produces kinds of copies of the original being. If Shmi had given birth to the Child of the Force — who has no physical body — then Anakin would have had to be a girl. And George Lucas knows how it works, since he introduces clones into his story, which depict a form of reproduction similar to parthenogenesis. All copies of a man must be men; there are no clones of the opposite gender in their army.

The explanation that should have seemed most logical to Qui-Gon is certainly not this one. Shmi doesn’t seem to remember having had a relationship with anyone to conceive Anakin; she doesn’t understand any of it (poor woman—imagine suddenly becoming pregnant without knowing how).

But Qui-Gon, a Jedi, knows that a person’s mind can unfortunately be manipulated. If I had been him and had seen Anakin—a child so powerful in the Force—born to an ordinary woman who has no memory of the father, I wouldn’t have thought, “Oh, okay, Anakin is the Chosen One, so that’s normal,” but rather I would have been concerned for the woman who was in a relationship with or was abused by that man powerful enough in the Force to erase all her memories afterward. I know this is a very dark scenario, but unfortunately, it's the most plausible one.

Even if Anakin is indeed the Child of the Force, it would be believable to have Qui-Gon doubt it a little, at least at first.

(He also feels that the moment Palpatine met Anakin, Anakin was doomed but I don’t have the energy to even think about that.)

Well, points to your dad for novelty, I suppose, it's not one I've heard before, either, probably because most people recognize that it's an extremely brain dead take.

We're gonna set aside the general Jedi stuff because it's a really basic interpretation of the text and nearly every fan I've met in real life has shared it, so that's hardly shocking. I'm also going to set aside the "Qui-Gon didn't explain things to her well enough" bit for similar reasons.

But calling the ENSLAVED WOMAN selfish for wanting her son to not be enslaved anymore is.... WILD. I don't understand how that makes her selfish, like I genuinely do not understand how your dad is making that leap. Shmi cannot POSSIBLY know that sending Anakin off to what should be a better life than she can provide is going to be dangerous for him because of an evil wizard man who will manipulate Anakin into darkness. This is the same problem that Jedi criticism often faces, which is that it assumes omniscience in the characters that is simply unrealistic to ask them to have.

Because sure, you CAN make the claim that Shmi wanting a better life for her son enough to ask Qui-Gon for help and encouraging Anakin to leave is what ultimately leads Anakin down a path that ends in his doom. Like, that's not ENTIRELY untrue. However it's an EXTREMELY bad faith interpretation to call Shmi SELFISH for not being able to predict that outcome. Even with your dad's belief that Anakin was doomed the moment he met Palpatine (and I'll touch on that in a bit), that hasn't HAPPENED YET by the time Shmi has to make the choice to let Anakin go, so there is NO WAY for her to know that that's going to happen. This is another problem that I often see when trying to critique everyone around Anakin instead of Anakin himself, it tends to lean into this concept that Anakin's fall was almost INEVITABLE. If it was wrong for Shmi to want Anakin to be free, then it presumes that Shmi should have KNOWN Anakin would go dark in his future somehow, that this choice would INEVITABLY lead Anakin into darkness no matter what. And that's just... not true.

Because here's the thing. Anakin ALWAYS HAD A CHOICE. Like, sure, these are prequel films, so obviously we know that Anakin WILL ultimately choose to go dark and become a Sith, but in universe, that's NOT inevitable. Anakin is fully capable of making a different choice that day in Palpatine's office. He KNOWS he has other choices and why he SHOULD be making a different choice, he just doesn't WANT TO because they don't benefit him. But the entire message of the Skywalker Saga is that Anakin ALWAYS HAD A CHOICE, and he chose incorrectly due to his own selfishness and greed.

The argument that it was SHMI who is actually at fault, or Qui-Gon, or Obi-Wan, or Mace, or Yoda, or the Council, or even that meeting Palpatine AT ALL meant there was no hope of Anakin ever making the right choice, just removes Anakin's own agency in the story. It changes the story from "a good man gone bad as a result of his own fears consuming him" to "a good man is failed by everyone around him who just don't care enough to save him" and those are... two entirely different stories. I will never agree with any take that pretends like anyone other than Anakin is at fault for Anakin's decisions and the consequences of them.

Shmi as a character is basically the purest representation of selfless compassion, she is one of the kindest and most moral characters in the entire franchise. There is NO WORLD where the enslaved woman is at fault for ensuring her child goes free and gets to experience a better life. None. Pretty much everyone I know understands Shmi's choice to be EXTREMELY selfless, the greatest sacrifice that she is able to make for her son.

shmi had a habit of looking out to the stars, and pondering on whether anakin was safe. whether she made the right choice in letting him go, what their life would have been like if he hadn't left with the jedi, and were a part of her newfound family. things she continues to loop back on for 10 years. i mean, this should be expected. imagine being enslaved, with your 9 year old son, and his only option of a better future and freedom, is to be taken from you, and trained to be a guardian of the galaxy? with no update or word. she expresses not even knowing if he were alive.

owen lars met her grief/longing with gentleness and patience, offering comfort in the image of anakin as something greater than absence. the imagery that he is likely a hero, alive, safeguarding the galaxy. he told her that anakin's existence out there made him feel safer. that anakin being out there, makes the galaxy a better place. even setting aside their enslavement, he insisted, anakin had been destined for something larger than tatooine– a calling, and to never blame herself. this and cliegg's comfort, helped in keeping shmi from carrying what would could have been a much heavier weight.

So we all know that Shmi Skywalker was buried on the Lars farm. What if Luke would go out there and sit by her headstone when he had the chance and just babble away at her like she was there. I mean, lowkey, she did give birth to the Force's child, and Luke is the grandchild of the Force. CLEARLY the Force favors her in someway so she may not be a force ghost but like in The Owl house how the Titan is watching King from the space in between, what if she watches and interacts with Luke the same way. Using the wind to ruffle his hair, or be extra pushy with him when a storm is about to hit. I like to think that, yes, obviously, this could also be the Force helping Luke but what if it was Shmi, particularly when he lives on the farm. Reaching out thebinly way she van to her grandson who likes to sit at her grave and ask about his father, or tell her stories about how he's gonna be a pilot and fly to every planet in the galaxy one day.....