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Skywalker Lars, Shmi

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this woman's family was captured by pirates when she was very young, and sold into slavery. She was passed form owner to owner over nearly three decades before being sold to Gardulla the Hutt. Shmi is best-known as the mother of Anakin Skywalker, although she remembers no man participating in Anakin's conception. Instead, she simply discovered she was pregnant and gave birth to the boy. Being a slave, there was no uproar over the fact that she was unmarried and did not know the father. After Gardulla lost a bet to Watto, Shmi and Anakin became the property of the ornery Toydarian. As Anakin grew, shmi knew that there was something special about her son. She hid as much of it as she could from Watto, hoping that the beast wouldn't use Anakin to his advantage. When Qui-Gon Jinn travelled to Tatooine, Shmi understood that Anakin was to leave with him. She could no longer hold the boy back from his destiny. When Anakin won the Boonta Eve podrace, Qui-Gon managed to win the boy in a bet with Watto, but was unable to gain Shmi's freedom. She remained behind on Tatooine, hoping to see her young son again someday. Five years later, Shmi's freedom was purchased by a gruff man named Cliegg Lars, who had fallen in love with her. Cliegg and his son, Owen, devised a plan with Shmi's help, in which they tricked Watto into trading Shmi for an intact Tobal lens. It was then that Watto admitted Shmi had been moreor less free since Anakin left Tatooine, since Watto had deactivated her slave transmitter shortly afterward. He feared that Shmi would wander aimlessly off in her sorrow, and blow herself up. When Cliegg asked her to marry him, Shmi agreed. She found that she loved Cliegg, as well as his young son Owen, and wanted to share their lives. For five years they lived in relative bliss on the Lars moisture farms, although Shmi kept a vigil every night, hoping that Anakin would return from the stars. Just before the onset of the Clone Wars, Tusken Raiders began attacking the outlying moisture farms. One morning, Shmi went out to pick mushrooms from the moitsure vaporators, but was captured by the Tuskens on her way home. She was brutally tortured for more than a month, holding onto her memories of Anakin in an effort to remain alive. When Anakin finally arrived on Tatooine, drawn to his mohter's pain through the Force, he was able to free her from bondage. However, Shmi's injuries were too great, and she died in the Tusken camp. In his anger, Anakin killed the entire Tusken clan. He then collected Shmi's body and returned it to the Lars homestead. Shmi was buried next to Cliegg's first wife and parents. Note that a story in Star Wars Insider, issue 77, indicates that Shmi died twelve years before the Clone Wars. After Cliegg's death, the headstones on the Lars moisture farm were removed by Owen Lars, who claimed that no one needed to know where Shmi was buried. Note that Star Wars Insider magazine, issue 80, claims that Owen told Luke Skywalker about Shmi, because his last name came from hers.