Early life

Shmi Skywalker was born on an unknown world and was captured by pirates as a young girl, along with her parents. She spent her youth as a slave, being passed from one master to another as the pirates saw fit. The fate of her parents is unknown and Shmi never spoke of it. She was sold in slave markets like the Zygerrian slave market and eventually ended up on the planet Tatooine where she was enslaved to work with machinery. Nine years before the Battle of Naboo, she gave birth to Anakin Skywalker, a child conceived without a father, but she never questioned his birth.

Shmi and her son Anakin lived in communal quarters as slaves of the Hutt crime lord Gardulla Besadii the Elder. They were later sold to the Toydarian junk dealer Watto, who employed Anakin in his shop and provided them with a home in Mos Espa's slave quarters. Despite their difficult circumstances, Shmi worked tirelessly to make a comfortable home for herself and Anakin. Watto allowed her to earn a modest income by cleaning computer memory devices, and she set up a small workstation in their home with the necessary tools and equipment. They also owned a few personal possessions, including an antiquated protocol droid and a podracer. In a rare act of kindness, Watto gave Shmi a repulsor-powered magnifier to use in her workstation as a reward for her hard work.

However, ​Watto treated Shmi and her son Anakin cruelly, taking advantage of their status as slaves. He allowed Anakin to participate in dangerous podracing, which Shmi strongly opposed. During one race, she watched anxiously as Anakin crashed, but was relieved when he emerged relatively unharmed. However, Watto was dismissive of her concerns for Anakin's safety. She went to the racing pit to check on him and saw that his legs were injured. Despite knowing that Watto would pay for medical treatment, Shmi held her son's hand for comfort.​ Before the rustic, yet effective, medical droids made Anakin unconscious to work on his legs, he promised to always be with her, had a private hope that he would one day have the opportunity to leave and have a better life.

Parting ways with her son

One day, Anakin returned home with a group of strangers including Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, Queen Padmé Amidala, Gungan Jar Jar Binks, and the astromech droid R2-D2, who were seeking refuge from a sandstorm. Shmi and her son initially thought the strangers had come to liberate the slaves but soon found out that they were stranded on Tatooine after their starship's hyperdrive was damaged during a diplomatic mission to Coruscant. Anakin offered to help Jinn and his companions obtain money for the hyperdrive by participating in the upcoming Boonta Eve Classic podrace.​ ​At first, Shmi was opposed to the idea, but she eventually relented when Anakin reminded her of her own words about helping others.

As Anakin worked to repair his podracer, Shmi shared with Jinn the story of her son's birth. Jinn then tested Anakin and found that he was incredibly strong with the Force, and believed him to be the Chosen One, due to his high concentration of midi-chlorians. The next day, Jinn offered to sponsor Anakin in the upcoming Boonta Eve race in exchange for securing Shmi and her son's freedom if Anakin won. However, Watto was unwilling to release both slaves at once. They eventually came to a compromise where Watto agreed to free Anakin if he won the race. ​​The following day, Shmi and the offworld visitors attended the Boonta Eve Classic. Against all odds, Anakin emerged victorious, and Watto was forced to keep his promise and emancipate Anakin.

After the race, Shmi and her son hugged each other, with Shmi expressing her pride in his achievements. With the money they received from Watto, Jinn informed Shmi that he had secured Anakin's emancipation and offered to train him as a Jedi. It was a difficult decision for her, but she ultimately realized that Anakin would have a better future offworld. She told her son to take this opportunity and let her go, knowing that her place was on Tatooine. Anakin, before departing for Coruscant, promised her that he would return and free her one day.​

Emancipation, captivity, and death

A decade before the outbreak of the Clone Wars, Watto's gambling addiction led to his financial ruin, forcing him to sell Shmi. Her path to freedom began when she met and fell in love with a moisture farmer named Cliegg Lars. He manipulated Watto into a gambling game that he lost, allowing him to purchase and free Shmi. The two eventually married, and Shmi became a loving stepmother to his son, Owen Lars. C-3PO also lived with them. After her release, Shmi joined the White Suns liberation movement which aimed to free Tatooine's slaves. She used her technical skills to build a device that could locate and remove the tracking chip implanted in all slaves. The device was made from kitchen equipment and was first used on Shmi herself, successfully removing her chip, but subsequent uses on other slaves revealed the need for further improvement.

About four years after the Invasion of Naboo, Padmé sent her handmaiden Sabé to rescue as many slaves as possible, including Shmi. However, Sabe's efforts were unsuccessful and took many wrong turns, getting help from unreliable sources. Watto had seemingly vanished along with Shmi, and when Sabe inquired about her whereabouts, she was told that Shmi had been sold. As she passed by Shmi's former home, Sabe noticed a sign on the door that seemed to be a symbol of a local liberation movement, but it was actually the mark of the White Suns.​

In the end, Sabe managed to buy the freedom of over 25 slaves, which she reported back to Amidala. However, Amidala asked her to continue her efforts to free more slaves on Tatooine, but Sabe had to leave soon to assist Amidala in the Galactic Senate. Amidala and Sabé were unaware of Shmi's fate, but she lived a peaceful life at the Lars moisture farm in Tatooine's Jundland Wastes. She spent many nights worrying about Anakin and his well-being. One month before the Battle of Geonosis, while she was out gathering mushrooms near the moisture vaporators, Shmi was kidnapped by a group of Tusken Raiders. Cliegg assembled a rescue party, but most of his companions were killed and he lost his right leg during the attempt. Believing Shmi to be dead and not wanting 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 and immediately set off to Tatooine to find and save her, with Senator Amidala accompanying him. After meeting with Watto, Anakin and Amidala arrived at the Lars family farm and learned about what had happened to Shmi since Anakin left for Coruscant: her freedom, marriage to Cliegg and becoming stepmother to Owen Lars, and her subsequent kidnapping. Despite Cliegg's warnings and advice,​ Anakin ventured into the wilderness to find her. He eventually came across a Tusken Raider camp.

After sneaking into the camp, Anakin found the tent where Shmi was being held. Inside, he found a bound and emaciated Shmi, who was on the brink of death. Before passing away, she managed to tell her son how proud she was of him and how much she loved him. Shmi's death sent Anakin into a fit of rage, causing him to take his first step into the dark side of the Force when he brutally killed every Tusken Raider in the encampment, including the women and children. The next morning, Anakin returned to the Lars moisture farm with his mother's body.​ Shmi was mourned by her son Anakin, Cliegg, Amidala, Owen and his girlfriend Beru, who all attended her funeral. Beru served blue milk and cheese to everyone afterwards.

Legacy

The passing of Shmi had a significant impact on Anakin's descent to the dark side. Before her funeral, Anakin expressed to Amidala his remorse for not being able to save his mother. He vowed to become so powerful that he could prevent people from dying. Anakin also admitted to Amidala about his involvement in avenging his mother's death by killing the Tusken Raiders. The guilt he felt for not being able to save Shmi made him vulnerable to the manipulation of Sith Lord Darth Sidious, who sought to turn him to the dark side.​

During the Clone Wars, Anakin had a Force vision of Shmi on the planet Mortis, where he was put through a series of tests by three powerful beings known as The Ones to determine whether he was truly the Chosen One. In reality, the Son, one of The Ones, who represented the dark side of the Force, had taken on the form of his deceased mother. The false Shmi urged Anakin to abandon his love for Amidala, whom he had secretly married shortly after the Battle of Geonosis, claiming that he did not truly love her and that she was a bad influence on him, before transforming into the Son.

By 18 BBY, Obi-Wan Kenobi, who had been living in exile on Tatooine, visited Shmi's grave to express his regret for losing her son. Years later, Kenobi left toys for Shmi's grandson, Luke Skywalker, next to her sandblasted tombstone for Beru to find.​

When Darth Vader, formerly known as Anakin, attempted to extract a kyber crystal from Jedi Master Kirak Infil'a to create his own red-bladed Sith lightsaber, the crystal fought back by displaying a series of visions to him. One of these visions was of Anakin carrying Shmi's body back to the Lars homestead.​

After the Battle of Fortress Vader, Darth Vader entered a portal created by Darth Momin and was confronted with visions from his past that manifested his fears and dark thoughts. Upon entering the portal, Vader saw his pregnant mother and a ghostly figure of Sidious standing behind her, echoing the words that Shmi said to Qui-Gon Jinn about Anakin having no father before moving on to the next part of his visions.​

In 3 ABY, shortly after revealing to Shmi's grandson Luke Skywalker about his parentage, Darth Vader returned to the Lars moisture farm. As he explored the farm's ruins, the forensic droid ZED-6-7 noted that Shmi's death at the hands of the Tusken Raiders was among the records that showed the longstanding hostility between the Tuskens and moisture farmers.​

In 35 ABY, after the defeat of Darth Sidious and the Final Order, Jedi Rey journeyed to the Lars homestead on Tatooine, where she laid to rest the lightsabers of Luke Skywalker and Leia Skywalker Organa Solo, the grandchildren of Shmi and the children of Padmé Amidala. The Skywalker bloodline had ended with the deaths of Leia and her son Ben Solo, however Rey, who was revealed to be the grandchild of Darth Sidious, chose to adopt their surname as an honor to the Skywalker family.​

Personality and traits

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Shmi Skywalker Lars was a gentle and compassionate woman who deeply loved her son Anakin. Despite her difficult life as a slave, she always held hope for freedom and made the most of her time with Anakin, cherishing their life together in the slave quarters. When she was eventually freed by Cliegg and married him, she proved to be an affectionate and devoted partner. Cliegg deeply mourned her tragic death at the hands of Tusken Raiders and spoke highly of her kind and selfless nature.

Behind the scenes

Shmi Skywalker was a character portrayed by Swedish actress Pernilla August in the movies "Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace" and "Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones" and in the The Clone Wars season 3 episode "Overlords." The character's name was revealed in 1998 and was announced that August would play her.

In early drafts of the script for "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
• LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga