Or we could assume that the hellish life of a slave includes rapings so frequent, you’d have to block it out in order function. So Anakin could have been the kid of of up to 25 different fathers but she’d just rather not think of that.
And this theory would also help explain how Anakin was so numb to the horrific life he had that he thought nothing of leaving his mom down on that hellhole for a decade. He’d blocked everything bad that happened from his memories.
And hey, the whole thing fits together perfectly given that it’s just a story for kids!
The logistics of Palp’s evil plans culminating so perfectly rival that of the Joker’s in ‘The Dark Knight’. But…
Given the information we have, it would make sense for Palpatine to create this life outside of Republic control because, as was said, otherwise the Jedi would have just picked him up soon after his birth.
We know from Yoda that they don’t usually train kids Anakin’s age because by then they have attachments, which leads to fear of loss, which leads to anger and yadda yadda. Now add onto that the emotional baggage of the horrors of living as a slave. Palpatine or Plaugus would certainly know that this specimen was basically a dark Jedi waiting to happen. So all that at least makes sense.
Now as far as the coincidence of the escape from Naboo party stumling across him on a remote planet…I haven’t a clue.
I follow the interpretation that Plagus was the one you created Anakin, and Palpatine was the one who slew him hoping to have the ultimate apprentice to himself. He told the story to Anakin to help persuade him to the dark side because he knew Padme would die. If Palpatine didn’t know exactly where Anakin was, he certainly knew by the end of TPM because we know he has the power of foresight and to sense the force in others.
As others said, it would make sense that he would have been created on a planet outside of Republic control so he wouldn’t be immediately identified. Now, assuming Plagus wasn’t a moron, he very well may have created Anakin with the intention of replacing his treacherous apprentice and tried to keep it from Palpatine, so he may not have known the specific planet, but certainly he would have put two and two together when he managed to put his home planet, his power in the force, and his age together. He clearly knew the extent of his power if not his origin otherwise why would the supreme chancellor be buddy-buddy with a young padawan?
I would suspect he probably didn’t have much or anything to do with the Jedi discovering him, more that he was just so powerful in the force that it was inevitable that the force would will someone to discover him. From thereafter, it wouldn’t surprise me if he manipulated the sandpeople to kidnap his mother and some of the other things that helped to turn him. Interesting though that Padme’s death was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Strange that he didn’t seem to know about Luke and Leia. Maybe he just didn’t care enough to look?
i’m with you there. just thought that perhaps he was a dud who sold shmii for a poker game or something. that she was the only parent with a claim to anakin, not that there was some sort of spontaneous pregnancy.
Remember that while Sidious didn’t have Immortality, he was able to more or less go on forever as a Force Ghost (at least in the EU), so it’s possible he was simply working out the details and did create Anakin. He also has sufficient preciognitive abilities to plan actual tactical manuevers based on them. (Remember, he basically arranged the entire ambush at the Second Death Star, and was only defeated because Vader turned on him.)
I admit, I consider it might be fun to write a story detailing his rise to power. I considered it would need to be serious, dramatic, and with jus enough plot twists and turn to leaven things without any big “reveals”. The one thing I considered most was that he had to be a likeable protagonist, whose fall to evil was as much the cruel machinations of fate as his own Greek-like tragedy.
But he didn’t ask her about her parenting, he asked her about Anakin’s paternity. Right before the question he is explaining how Anakin is off the charts on force potential, its clear he is asking about the father because Schmii herself has no force potential. He is asking her where this came from in a genetic sense, so if it was a random rape or some worthless hookup she would have said that.
I think her exact words were “there was no father” which sounds very much like a spontaneous pregnancy.
I’ve now finished it, and it deals with the life of Palpatine prior to TPM and right up to the start of that. It makes strong suggestions about how Anakin came to be born.
But surely the Jedi are not so robotic that they cannot understand metaphor? The use of “there was no father” to mean ‘I don’t know the father and he never did anything to raise the child’ is a fairly well-known cultural metaphor. And apparently Plageius’s abilities were unique, and unheard of, which would suggest that fatherless births are also unheard of. But Qui-Gonn reacts to Shmi’s confession casually, unsurprised, suggesting that he interpreted it as metaphorical as well.
Like the “balance to the force” issue, I prefer to ignore the actual intent of the movie to the interpretation in my head that makes more sense anyway.
I thought the flying ethnic junk dealer owned her & Anakin. He’s the one who agreed to gamble for Anakin’s manumission after all.
And I have to say - Tatooine slavery didn’t seem like that bad a deal - they had their own house, they were able to have guests stay with them, they had enough food to feed said guests, they were able to mouth off to their owner - apart from the whole exploding head thing Anakin explained, it didn’t seem too onerous.
Totally agree with Trepa Mayfield, rocking chair, and Quimby: it never occurred to me that Shmi was speaking anything other than metaphorically. I never saw this bit of dialog as alluding to any sort of “virgin birth.” Indeed, the way Qui Gon reacts, you can tell it’s clear to him that Shmi has told him all she’s going to and that he shouldn’t pursue it any further.
The whole idea that Anakin’s engineered and implanted into a slave is laughable. But then again, it is Lucas we’re talking about here.
The Sith species is extinct, the Sith order of dark side Force users appropriated the name of the race. They can be any species, in theory. Most we’ve seen on screen have been human (Vader, Dooku, presumably Sidius) but Maul was not.
Watto owned them at the time of the movie, but prior to Watto they were owned by Gardula the Hutt.
