Your explanation of the midichloreans makes sense. Thanks. I still don’t know why no one went back to free the mom though. Padame is visibly troubled by and vocalises that she is confused to learn that slavery still exists. She clearly likes Anekin, and yea I meant ObiWan not the QuiGon 
. I assume Anekin can’t do much of anything without his master.
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I actually agree with the sentiment. It is an unexplained thread as to why Shmi was never freed. I don’t know if there’s a non-canon book that discusses it or not, but I can see several potential reasons why someone didn’t free her later.
Obi-Wan never met her. His only connection was through Anakin and he may have taken the “no attachment” thing very seriously. Perhaps he figured that Shmi was simply better off forgotten. Perhaps he figured that if she was free it would be too much for Anakin. Perhaps he heard that Clieg had bought her and freed her and therefore didn’t need to worry about it. Don’t forget that Shmi was NOT a slave by the time Episode II begins.
As for Padme, she probably could have gone back to free Anakin’s mom being Queen of Naboo and all but there’s just no explanation given. Maybe she forgot (dumb, but possible). Maybe she tried and failed. Maybe Obi-Wan told her/asked her not to. Who knows.
I don’t think that Shmi not being freed until Clieg married her is a problem with Episode I, per se. It maybe could have used an extra line in Episode 2 though. Watto could easily have said that “some moisture farmer named Lars bought her shortly after that big Boonta Eve race” and hand-waved it all away.
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She wasn’t a slave? I thought the blue winged gambler sold her to Clog (I was close on that one) and then he kept her until she got abducted by sand people and then Aniken has to go massacre them.
Clearly I need to brush up, which means watching Episode 2 and 3 now.
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Nope. Cliegg freed her. Here is the entry on StarWars.com about him (emphasis mine):
https://www.starwars.com/databank/cliegg-lars
Cliegg Lars was a modest, good-hearted moisture farmer who lived on the Lars homestead, not far from the township of Anchorhead. During a trip to the bustling spaceport of Mos Espa, Cliegg fell in love with Shmi Skywalker, a slave owned by Toydarian junk trader Watto. Cliegg purchased Shmi’s freedom and, soon after, made her his bride. They lived a quiet existence for years on the homestead, surviving against the harsh desert elements. With Owen, Cliegg’s son from a previous union, and Owen’s girlfriend Beru Whitesun, the Lars homestead was a tiny island of familial warmth amidst the endless desert wastes. Until tragedy struck…
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I also want to add to @schatenjager that one of the rules of the Jedi is they can’t have attachment. It’s why Younglings are taken away from their families at a young age and is one of the reasons why they first refused Anakin in the Jedi Order.
Shmi not being freed was intentional in the sense that Qui Gon hoped Anakin would forget about her since the Order was meant to be his new family. Unfortunately that isn’t the case especially since one of Anakins abilities before he lost basically all his force abilities after the dual on Mustafar was he had foresight into the future, albeit without full context. This is what made him worry about his mother in Episode 2 and was the catalyst for his decent into the dark side with some grooming/manipulation on Palpatines part as well.
Anakin is a very flawed character, and it also doesn’t help that Obi Wan trained him. Since Kenobi was both a good master to Anakin, but also was good at the same time. While he was heavy handed with Anakin and definitely attempted to correct him. Obi Wan was never good with feelings and never could really relate to Anakin.
Obi Wan was taken away at a young age like any other youngling. The same can’t be said about Anakin since he was nine. So I’m not repeating myself this all circles back to the idea of Attachments. If the Republic weren’t at War with the Trade Federation/CIS/Separatist it would of make Anakins training with Obi Wan easier also. If Qui Gon trained Anakin as well and didn’t die on Naboo things would of gone a lot differently too as well.
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However, AotC takes placed ten years after PM, and Anakin’s former boss said he’d sold Shmi three years before Anakin came back. That means she was left as a slave for seven years after QuiGon freed Anakin.
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True, which is why I said, or suggested, that a better way to put it would have been:
That would have erased the question and given Shmi a nicer life, albeit off-screen.
Padme is still the ruler of (and later the senator from) an entire planet. Naboo doesn’t appear to be a poor planet either. By the time episode II happens she’s in love with Aniken. Her freeing the mother just seems so obvious to me, but of course then he wouldn’t be able to feel her pain at the hands of the sand peeps and go down the path to being Vader…. I mean unless of course Padme frees her AND gave her enough coin to buy a moisture farm from which she could be abducted
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Padme was finishing her term as Queen of Naboo before she transitioned to the Senate. She served a total of two terms as Queen and possibly would of served more since the citizens of Naboo attempted to amend their constitution so she could of remained Queen.
That being said that never happened and Padme joined the senate and during the years between Episode 1 and 2 she has had Assassination Attempts, busy on missions, and established relationships with the Organas and Mothma.
Which leads me into going back and freeing Shmi. I’ll just leave it at the fact that personally speaking I wouldn’t be focused on traveling to the outer rim when you’re a public/political figure being gunned at while dealing with disruptions from the Trade Federation after the events of Episode 1, but that’s just me.
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When have you seen an elected official do anything for themself ???
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There is no doubt she could have sent someone, anyone really, to go to Tatooine and free Shmi. We don’t know the in-universe reason she didn’t.
Given how much Palpatine was pulling the strings, it’s actually likely that he directly prevented Padme from freeing Shmi somehow. He may have foreseen her death as a catalyst for Anakin’s swing to the Dark Side. He was the Chancellor at that point and Padme’s nominal boss (as well as a fellow Naboo).
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I love how far into the weeds we have gotten on this. In that vein, maybe Palpatine was using the force to make Padme forget about her fun Valentine’s Day gift idea to free the mom.
Well it wouldn’t have been out of character for him! The more I think about it the more I think that Palpatine probably had at least something to do with keeping Shmi where she was. If Padme (who trusted Palpatine at that point, remember) had suggested she was thinking about freeing Shmi, Palpatine was in the ideal place to simply suggest that it wasn’t a good idea. A Naboo Queen (or Senator) freeing slaves in the outer rim? Hardly appropriate!, he may have said.
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Yea or totally lied and said “we can’t have you appearing to be doing favors, I will have someone take care of it quietly. Ani must not know though, not yet at least, he must finish his Jedi training without too many distractions.
*said with that all knowing tone so she knows that he knows that they are banging.
That’s even better! If Palpatine said he’d do it and then just didn’t, that would make a lot of sense for his character. If Padme trusted him, she’d also trust that’d come through. He could have simply told her she had died or that he actually freed her or whatever and it would have made sense.
That would give Padme the agency of thinking she’d helped Anakin, Anakin the ease of guilt he likely felt abandoning his mother, and swept the whole thing under the rug. It was only the dreams that Anakin had that led him back to Tatooine years later or he likely would never have known.
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Or Sheeve (his names Sheeve, right?) had the mom captured and raped and tortured? Either by spooky agent stuff or by using the force.
sorry about the name thing. I’m flexing what little Star Wars nerd in me I have lol
No, you got it. I think it may be spelled “Sheev” because “Star Wars”, but that’s his first name. He could have managed to get the Sand People to capture her, although from what we know of them, they probably didn’t need all that much instigation.
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It’s Sheev. There is not a real name Sheeve in real life either. The baby naming site says both occur less than 5x a year in the US, but the origin of Sheev is listed as fiction (star wars)
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I know, i was thinking more about how you’d expect a name that is pronounced like that to end in an E, but English isn’t full of common sense either, I suppose.
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Yea I believe when I first spelled it I was thinking of Sheva which is a girls Hebrew name meaning oath or daughter of oath. Sheeve or Sheve could be a boys version of that (it isn’t though).
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