Shmi Skywalker Lars

"But you can not stop the change, no more than you can stop the suns from setting."

- Shmi Skywalker, to her son Anakin Skywalker

Shmi Skywalker Lars, formerly known as Shmi Skywalker, was a human female who lived in slavery on the planet Tatooine during the last years of the Galactic Republic. During her time as a slave, she gave birth to a child called Anakin Skywalker. In 32 BBY her son was discovered by Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, who found the boy to be unusually strong with the Force. He learned through Shmi that there was no father involved in Anakin's conception, leading Jinn to believe that Anakin was conceived by the midi-chlorians. With Shmi's support, Anakin was taken by Jinn to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and presented to the leaders of the Jedi Order as the Chosen One&mdash;the one who was destined to restore balance to the Force, according to Jedi prophecy.

After Anakin left Tatooine to begin his Jedi training, Shmi married Cliegg Lars&mdash;a moisture farmer who freed her from slavery&mdash;and became a stepmother to his son, Owen Lars. In the waning days of the Separatist Crisis, Shmi was abducted and subjected to torture by a group of Tusken Raiders in 22 BBY. By then, her son had returned to Tatooine as a Jedi Padawan but was unable to prevent his mother's demise. As a result, Anakin massacred the Tusken Raiders, including their women and children, and buried his mother at the Lars moisture farm. Shortly after Shmi's death, her son went on to become a Jedi Knight, as well as a general in the Grand Army of the Republic during the galaxy-wide conflict known as the Clone Wars.

Background
At some point, Shmi Skywalker was sold in a market like the Zygerrian slave market her future son Anakin visited during the Clone Wars. Eventually, Shmi became a slave and lived on the Outer Rim world of Tatooine during the last decades of the Galactic Republic. About nine years before the Battle of Naboo, she gave birth to a Force-sensitive son named Anakin. At one point, Shmi and Anakin were owned by the female Hutt crime lord Gardulla until she lost them in a bet with the Toydarian junk dealer Watto, who employed Anakin's services at his shop. While Watto could be a harsh and demanding master, he still furnished them with a home in Mos Espa's slave quarters. In addition, Shmi and her son also owned a few personal possessions including an antiquated protocol droid named C-3PO and a podracer.

Losing her son
One day, Anakin returned home with several strangers including the Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, the Naboo Queen Padmé Amidala, disguised as a handmaiden, the Gungan Jar Jar Binks, and the astromech droid R2-D2, who were seeking shelter from a sandstorm. While Shmi and her son had initially believed that these offworlders had come to free slaves, they quickly learned that the strangers had become stranded on Tatooine after their starship's hyperdrive was damaged during a diplomatic mission to the galactic capital, Coruscant. When Anakin offered to help Jinn and his companions to obtain money for the hyperdrive by winning the upcoming Boonta Eve Classic podrace, Shmi initially disagreed with the idea. However, she relented when Anakin recalled her words on helping others.

While Anakin repaired his podracer, Shmi told Jinn about her son's birth. Later, Jinn tested Anakin and discovered that he was Force-sensitive. Due to his high concentration of Midi-chlorians, Jinn believed that Anakin was the prophesied Chosen One. The following day, Jinn offered to sponsor Anakin for the upcoming Boonta Eve race in return for securing Shmi and her son's emancipation if Anakin won that race. However, Watto was unwilling to relinquish both slaves at the same time. Instead, they reached a compromise where Watto agreed to free Anakin if he won the race. The following day, Shmi along with the offworld visitors attended the Boonta Eve Classic. Despite great odds, her son Anakin won the race, and Watto was forced to honor his promise to emancipate Anakin.

Following the race, Shmi and her son embraced each other with Shmi expressing pride in her son's achievements. After securing Anakin's earnings from Watto, Jinn informed Shmi that he had secured Anakin's emancipation and offered to train him as a Jedi. With much difficulty, Shmi decided to part with her son. Realizing that Anakin would have a better future offworld, Shmi advised her son to grasp this new opportunity and told him to let her go on the rationale that her place and future was on Tatooine. Prior to leaving for his new life on Coruscant, Anakin made a solemn vow that he would return and free her.

Emancipation, captivity, and death
A few years before the outbreak of the Clone Wars, Shmi met a moisture farmer named Cliegg Lars, who bought her from Watto and emancipated her. The two subsequently fell in love, married, and lived together at the Lars moisture farm in Tatooine's Jundland Wastes. One month before the Battle of Geonosis, Shmi was out gathering mushrooms in the morning when a group of Tusken Raiders kidnapped her. Cliegg assembled a rescue party but lost most of his companions and his right leg during the rescue attempt. Believing Shmi to be dead and unwilling to risk any more lives, Lars abandoned the rescue.

However, Shmi was still alive but had been severely tortured and brutalized. Meanwhile, her son Anakin, who had become a Jedi Padawan under Obi-Wan Kenobi, sensed her distress through the Force. Anakin immediately set off to Tatooine to find and save her; he convinced Senator Amidala, to accompany him. After meeting with Watto, Anakin and Amidala arrived at the Lars family farm and learned about his mother's fate after Anakin left for Coruscant: freedom, marrying Cliegg and becoming stepmother to Owen Lars, and her kidnapping. Despite Cliegg' warnings and advice, Anakin traveled into the wilderness to find her. He eventually stumbled on a Tusken Raider camp.

After infiltrating the camp, he found the tent where Shmi was being held. There, Anakin encountered a bound and emaciated Shmi, who was near death. Prior to her death, she managed to tell her son that she was proud of him and that she loved him. Shmi's death threw Anakin into a fit of rage, and he took his first step to the dark side of the Force. In his rage, Anakin avenged his mother by coldly killing every Tusken Raider in the encampment, including the women and children. The following morning, Anakin returned to the Lars moisture farm with his mother's body. Shmi was mourned by both her son Anakin and Cliegg, as well as Amidala, Owen, and his girlfriend, Beru, who all attended her funeral. Beru served blue milk (and cheese) to everyone after.

Legacy
Shmi's death had a profound effect on influencing her son Anakin's journey to the dark side. Prior to his mother's burial, Anakin told Amidala that he regretted not being strong enough to save his mother. He also vowed that he would one day become so powerful that he could learn to stop people from dying. Finally, Skywalker confessed to his role in murdering the Tusken Raiders to avenge his mother's death. Skywalker's guilt about not being able to prevent Shmi's death made him susceptible to Darth Sidious' efforts to win him over to the dark side.

During the Clone Wars, Anakin experienced a Force vision of Shmi on the planet Mortis, where he had been put through a series of tests by three powerful beings known as the Force wielders who wanted to determine whether he truly was the Chosen One. In reality, the Son, one of the Force wielders who embodied the dark side of the Force, had assumed the form of his late mother. The false Shmi told Anakin to give up his love for Amidala, whom he had secretly married shortly after the Battle of Geonosis, saying that he did not truly love her and that she was poison to him before transforming into the Son.

By 18 BBY, Kenobi, who lived in exile on Tatooine, had gone to Shmi's grave to apologize for losing her son. Years later Kenobi left toys for Luke Skywalker next to Shmi's sandblasted tombstone for Beru to find.

When Anakin, now the Sith Lord Darth Vader, attempted to bleed a Jedi Master Kirak Infil'a's kyber crystal to create his own red-bladed Sith lightsaber, the crystal fought back by showing him a series of disturbing visions. One of these involved Anakin returning to the Lars homestead with Shmi's body in his arms.

Shortly after the Battle of Fortress Vader, Vader entered a portal created by Lord Momin and saw visions from his past, which manifested his fears and dark thoughts. Upon entering the portal, Vader was able to see his pregnant mother and a spectral appearance of Sidious behind her, resounding words that Shmi said to Jinn about Anakin having no father before passing to the next part of his visions.

Personality and traits
Shmi Skywalker Lars was a peaceful, selfless and kind person. She loved her son Anakin and was willing to sacrifice herself in order to let Anakin to have the possibility of a better life.

Cliegg claimed that Shmi was the best partner a man could ask for, as he was deeply affected by Shmi's death at the hands of the Tusken Raiders.

Behind the scenes
Shmi Skywalker was portrayed by Swedish actress Pernilla August in Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace and Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones. She reprised her role as Shmi in the  The Clone Wars season 3 episode "Overlords".

In 1998, it was announced that Anakin Skywalker's mother would be named Shmi and that August would portray her. When the original trilogy was rereleased in theaters and VHS to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope the year before, Star Wars Trivial Pursuit was released to coincide with this. The limited edition game contained a sequestered pack of questions that served as a preview of the first new trilogy installment, two of which divulged those bits of information.

In one of the first drafts of The Phantom Menace, her name was Shmi Warka.

Non-canon appearances

 * William Shakespeare's The Phantom of Menace: Star Wars Part the First
 * William Shakespeare's The Clone Army Attacketh: Star Wars Part the Second
 * William Shakespeare's Tragedy of the Sith's Revenge: Star Wars Part the Third
 * LEGO Star Wars: Droid Tales
 * LEGO Star Wars: Droid Tales Episodes I-III