15

“What Does Your Heart Tell You?” 

Shmi Skywalker and
the mothers of Star Wars

Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace

Writer: George Lucas

Director: George Lucas

Star Wars is full of great moments of strength. Tough choices and tougher actions abound. There’s Luke Skywalker throwing down his blade and refusing to kill his father. Princess Leia strangling the bulbous neck of her captor Jabba the Hutt. Chewbacca not eating that plump, tasty porg that he had roasted to perfection. So many times, the heroes of Star Wars prove their mettle and show their fortitude. Yet one of the greatest displays of strength in this saga is often overlooked. Shmi Skywalker watched her son walk away forever, bravely believing that it was meant to happen. That it had to happen. It’s time to turn the spotlight onto Shmi Skywalker and the mothers of Star Wars.

It is understandable to watch The Phantom Menace and find your focus on Anakin Skywalker. This is the first chapter of his tragic tale after all. Qui-Gon, young Obi-Wan, Padmé and the dazzling saber skills of Darth Maul are part of the parade of characters that surround his story and demand your attention. Beyond that, you still might be working through your feelings on Jar Jar Binks, Boss Nass, and the “roger, roger” of it all. There’s a lot to take in, the good, bad, and pee yousa. But buried beneath all that is the strongest example, and, sadly, one of the only examples, of the power of motherhood in Star Wars.

It’s hard to imagine what it would actually take to allow this to happen. To let your child walk away. Yet it has to happen. Shmi knows this. Believes this. She was never clear on what this moment would look like, but her belief that her son was meant for something grander than the life she was able to give him was always there. While a miracle birth will give any mom a good jump start on that belief (and maybe more than a few questions), she maintained it through season after harsh season on Tatooine as a slave. Yet, the true challenge is here as her son walks away, changing the course of the Star Wars saga and, eventually, helping to save the galaxy.

That’s right. This is important. Shmi Skywalker raised Anakin as best she could. When Luke Skywalker says years later that “there is still good in him,” he’s talking about the heart of Anakin Skywalker inside that twisted machine. He’s talking about what is at his core. All the pain, anguish, and anger that exploded out of Darth Vader began bubbling up after he left his mother, but the good in him—the good that leads to his final redemption—was put there by Shmi Skywalker. After decades of torment, he returns to that table on Tatooine where he echoes his mother’s belief in helping others. It’s a long, painful journey, but, in the end, Anakin Skywalker kills the Emperor, destroys the Sith, and helps bring about balance and peace. All that begins when Shmi, played with subtle perfection by Pernilla August, swallows her pain, tosses aside her doubt and exhibits the strength to let this boy begin that journey.

Mothers in Star Wars don’t often get their due. As it is in a lot of fantasy tales, the death of the mother is often used to spurn our main character arcs along. Luke and Leia never know Padmé (despite Leia’s false memories, I suppose). Jyn Erso has to watch her mother be murdered right in front of her. Iden Versio loses her Imperial propaganda artist mother to illness. Norra Wexley and Shara Bey, mothers to Resistance pilots Snap Wexley and Poe Dameron, have to either leave their children to fight in the Rebellion or die far too early on in their lives. Mothers aren’t around long enough in Star Wars, but their influence runs deep.

Star Wars fans talk of great heroes and the wars that they fight. We focus on the lightsabers, the blasters, and the ships they fly. We watch empires tumble and balance restored. This is a myth, a legend, and a tale we love of great strengths and accomplishments, but never overlook a mother with the will to believe in something beyond her control. Shmi Skywalker’s quiet strength and unwavering belief in the purpose of this moment changed a galaxy.