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Especially as a wedding present, why didn't Padme buy back Shmi Skywalker?

Guy Gardener

Guy Gardener

Fleet Admiral
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Did she just forget that her mother-in-law was an ageing slave?

I suppose she might have tried but couldn't negotiate a fair price?

Shmi might already have been living with Lars, first as an indentured concubine and then as a free woman?

Did Padme or the Jedi pay Lars to buy Shmi? They may have wanted to rescue her without having to put up with mommy issues diluting Anikin's effectiveness?

It's illegal for Padme to buy slaves, even if she frees them immediately, but it's a scandal that could ruin her political career, or out her chaste lover as a secret husband?

If she negotiated with the Hutt to free all the slaves, then later in Return of the Jedi, Fatty, during a moment of untranslated dialogue, may have said to the girl in the golden bikini "Duuuude! I knew your mum!"

Shmi had a word with Padme in Phantom menace, and called her a pedophile, so the sand can take her for all Padme cares. "Stop looking at my 9 year old son like that! Stop it!"
 
Bah!

Shmi still died only a week before the wedding, almost a decade after Phantom Menace?

Maybe the wedding snuck up on them, but did it?

Even a half assed bridezilla organizes the simplest of things months before the real event takes place.

All it would have taken was one phone call to Watto to discover if he had any Shmi on hand, or in stock, which he did not. Hey? How long had she been with Cliegg?

I'm seeing this from another angle....

Shmi was free and did nothing to recover her lost child.

1. She respected the process.
2. She tried hard to get Anikin back, but the Jedi stopped her. I imagine her at the temple gates, shaking the portcullis demanding like Sally Field "Not without my son!"
3. The Jedi paid her off quickly, and she never tried.
4. She forgot. Shmi might have dozens of children, all sold off into slavery, never to be seen again. Child 15 is fine, it's child 4 that she's really worried about.
5. The Jedi lied. Said he died in the war.
6. She was concerned that Lars wouldn't find her sexy anymore if he found out that she was a mother to a grown ass man.
7. Shmi was fully informed about his life from the Jedi, and followed updates on his status attentively, but was too ashamed to reconnect.
8. Lars forbid her reconnecting with her son.
9. She saw his face, recognized Anikin's father in it, deducing who made whoopee with her while she was asleep, and walked out on Anakin.
10. Every time they reconnected, or he tried to free all the slaves on Tatooine, breaking the law and treaty with the Hutt, the Jedi mind wiped Shmi and Anikin, and separated them.
 
Maybe Lars got there first. Now that Shmi wasn't taking care of Anakin he made a move?
 
The fact that the Jedi and Padme just left Shmi a slave after she helped them in The Phantom Menace has always kind of bugged me. I understand they might have only had enough money for Anakin during the movie, but you'd think at some point somebody could have gone back and bought and freed her as a thank you for all the help she gave them.
 
Guy Gardener said:
Maybe the wedding snuck up on them, but did it?
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When was the last time you watched the prequels? In AOTC, over the course of the movie, Padme had an assassination attempt made against her, re-met Obi-Wan and Anakin, the later was now what, 18 or 19?, went back to Tatooine, discovered Shmi was kidnapped, Shmi died, Anakin flipped out and murdered the Tuskens, the Clone Wars started, Anakin and Padme fell and love and got married. There was no opportunity for Padme to get to Shmi because she didn’t know she was going to get married until well after Anakin’s mom was already dead.
 
Campe said:
When was the last time you watched the prequels? In AOTC, over the course of the movie, Padme had an assassination attempt made against her, re-met Obi-Wan and Anakin, the later was now what, 18 or 19?, went back to Tatooine, discovered Shmi was kidnapped, Shmi died, Anakin flipped out and murdered the Tuskens, the Clone Wars started, Anakin and Padme fell and love and got married. There was no opportunity for Padme to get to Shmi because she didn’t know she was going to get married until well after Anakin’s mom was already dead.
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She met Anikan because Palpatine wanted them together and compromised.

Which means the Chancellor pushed them together over the top of Shmi's corpse, when he paid off those Tuskin Raiders to kidnap the virgin mum at the exact same moment that he put a bomb in the senator's shuttle killing Padme's double.

The second she saw that very very tall man, Amidalla started sending off save the date cards to friends and family, because she's literally seen a copy of herself tipped into a trash compactor, which puts a clock on everything.
 
Thing is, Paplatine doesn't need Anakin for his plans. His plans will work out just fine without Skywalker. In fact they might have worked out easier without Skywalker there to muddle things up over the Clone Wars.
 
Ithekro said:
Thing is, Paplatine doesn't need Anakin for his plans. His plans will work out just fine without Skywalker. In fact they might have worked out easier without Skywalker there to muddle things up over the Clone Wars.
Click to expand...

Anakin was the only thing that mattered.

Anakin was his new home where he was going to shove his dark soul, and that home was 5 times more inviting if it was married to Padme, the most beautiful jail bait in the galaxy.
 
Guy Gardener said:
A = The separatists blew up Padme's shuttle.

B = Palatine is the leader of the separatists.

A + B = Palpatine blew up Padme's shuttle.

Q. Was he actually trying to kill Padme, or just make her horny?
Click to expand...

Yes, Palpatine is behind everything. Yes, Padme was instrumental to the Anakin part of Sheev’s plans. But if you’re going to play the card of Palpatine is in charge of everything, your argument about how Padme should have brought Shmi home instantly falls apart because her death is absolutely instrumental in making Anakin Palps’ apprentice.
 
Campe said:
Yes, Palpatine is behind everything. Yes, Padme was instrumental to the Anakin part of Sheev’s plans. But if you’re going to play the card of Palpatine is in charge of everything, your argument about how Padme should have brought Shmi home instantly falls apart because her death is absolutely instrumental in making Anakin Palps’ apprentice.
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My primary point is that they had 10 years to rescue mum, but showed up a week late, because they are huge assholes, and Palpatine fed Anakin a dream.

Flicking Millennials.
 
Guy Gardener said:
My primary point is that they had 10 years to rescue mum, but showed up a week late, because they are huge assholes, and Palpatine fed Anakin a dream.

Flicking Millennials.
Click to expand...

But isn’t the whole Jedi mantra about no connections? The moment that Qui-Gon took little Ani away, the option of the Jedi saving Shmi was lost to him. As for Padme, it’s implied (though not directly stated) that Padme didn’t see Anakin between TPM and AOTC. So perhaps she tried early on but there were political reasons that didn’t happen (probably put in place by Palpatine) and then didn’t try again.

And frankly, I don’t know if I’d blame the millennials. Maybe the boomers. :whistle:
 
Campe said:
But isn’t the whole Jedi mantra about no connections? The moment that Qui-Gon took little Ani away, the option of the Jedi saving Shmi was lost to him. As for Padme, it’s implied (though not directly stated) that Padme didn’t see Anakin between TPM and AOTC. So perhaps she tried early on but there were political reasons that didn’t happen (probably put in place by Palpatine) and then didn’t try again.

And frankly, I don’t know if I’d blame the millennials. Maybe the boomers. :whistle:
Click to expand...

They did not want to train Anikan because he had dangerous connections that they could not cut out.

They said it at the end of Phantom...

"Yo moma leads to the Dark Side."
 
This is the point of the thread where I drop in and mention that in the novel Queen's Shadow by E. K. Johnston; Padme sent Sabe to go rescue Shmi a few years after the events of TPM, but she'd already been sold to Lars and the trail was cold . . . so she freed a bunch of other slaves instead and brought them back to Naboo.
 
Reverend said:
This is the point of the thread where I drop in and mention that in the novel Queen's Shadow by E. K. Johnston; Padme sent Sabe to go rescue Shmi a few years
Click to expand...
Ahem - lemme stop you right there. Years?

Reverend said:
she'd already been sold to Lars and the trail was cold . . .
Click to expand...
Watto doesn't strike me as the type who'd keep quiet about a former piece of property if you offered him a decently thick wad of cash, but, uh... cool story, maybe? :p
 
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