Kube

Shouldn't have Anakin saved his mom years before he started getting nightmares about her. Heck, even getting there a week earlier might have made all the difference in the world. A month earlier and she wouldn't be in that situation at all. If he got there, 1 minute earlier, she would have been able to eek out the end of her sentence.."I love...."

I know Jedi are encouraged to stay away from family but can't they make an exception when they're turned into slaves?

Mopower

He didnt know his nightmares would come true until she died. How was he suppose to know. When you have a nightmare do you believe what you dreamed was going to happen?

bboisvert

I don't think this was ever made very clear in the films (yet another thing I'd go back to Episode I+II to fix...), but:

My thoughts on this is that Jedi are not supposed to maintain contact with family -- that would be an 'attachment', something that the code forbids. I think that most Jedi are discovered young (at birth?) in the Republic, wisked away to the Jedi temple, and start their training, never to interact with their family again. (While this may seem cruel, it is probably considered an honor.)

Anakin was older and a unique situation, but they tried to do the same thing with him.

There isn't a ton of direct evidence of this, but that's the only explanation I can come up with for why Anakin never even visits his mother in the 10 years between I + II... never frees her from slavery, doesn't immediately go to see if she's OK after the dreams, etc. I'm sure the Expanded Universe must have something to say about this as well...

H@mmer

That is action a point of friction for the Jedi, as they had a regular practice of taking children at a very young age when they sensed their potential. The Jedi was supposed to be the new "family"

Class316

It is weird that he didn't try to have the Jedi Council pull some strings to free his own mother

Drop

What strings could he pull? The council was always wary of him. He couldn't turn to Palpatine either, he knew that Anakin's attachment to his mother was very frustrating so he would have dragged that out as long as he could.

uberjoe

IMO, among the several glaring flaws of the prequels is that the Jedi would have tolerated slavery. I really don't believe that Qui-Gon could look at Anakin's mother and think: "No, she can't go with us, because she's just a piece of property." At the very least, Anakin should have saved her much sooner.

redskull

You'd think a certain queen from a certain planet might have been a bit grateful to Anakin and ponied up a few credits to buy his mom from Watto & free her. Granted the Jedi probably didn't want Anakin & his mom reunited, but to leave her a slave makes no sense.

Class316

Well the Jedi didn't have much power on that planet. Tatooine is/was controlled by the Hutts. But yea, they should have tried to save her afterwards.

That's another good point.

H@mmer

Tatooine was outside the Republic, and considering they were just there to fix their ship they weren't going to reestablish a completely new social system on the place. I'm sure in her rush to get away, Padme was not able to haul a trunk full of Naboo gold pieces and who was going to take credits on a planet with no credit card readers?

jdpatri

Watto said himself that Republic credits were no good. What was Padme supposed to pay him with? Sexual favors?

uberjoe

Screw paying -- they should have just taken her with them.

BrewCrew

This is one thing that has always irritated me. I mean Anakin just saved the lives of thousands of people from Naboo and they couldn't bother sending a couple ships over and getting his mom back. Plus Naboo seemed like a pretty rich planet. If they needed to convert some republic credits for whatever Watto wanted it wouldn't have taken much effort.

bboisvert

Jewels? Equipment? Precious metals? Exotic items to sell?

She can't pay cash, but nothing is preventing bartering.

Class316

Precisely. They may have been in a hurry at first, but after Anakin saves thousands in Naboo one would think that they’d take the time to go fetch him mom! They had all the time in the world after that! Even if she wasn't able to convert republic credits into tatooine credits I'm sure Watto would have settled trading his mom for a good space ship of sorts (if nothing less).

Lucas really dropped the bomb on this one.

Filmmaker

They couldn't save Anakin's mother because that would have been a violation of the Prime Directive...oh wait...

Mopower

They should have just killed Watto and stole her back. That would even help Anikin go towards the dark side.

MJKTool

What powers did little rat Watto have anyway? Qui Qon should have just took the ship part and the skywalkers and said "screw you Watto, and if you disagree with me, here's a little light for you".

scott shelton

Oh man, now there's a fucking movie...

jdpatri

The only explanation I can think of for not just taking the part is that they didn't exactly want to get noticed. Pillaging a junk merchant may have caused some ruckus. And as we all know Tatooine's full of scum and villainy who'd be willing to sell them out.

And as far as the mother, I think we have to trace this back to the jedi-non-attachment issue.

But as far as I'm concerned Episode 1 begins when Qui Gon and Obi-wan meet Darth Maul and ends when Darth Maul's cut in two. I think that simplifies matters, cuts out midichlorian talk, any problem with the abandoning of Anakin's mother and most of little Ani altogether. And I say Yippeeee! to that.

jdpatri

After I made that comment I was trying to figure out how little Wattos are made. And wondered about Watto sex-ed. And was very disturbed.

bothanspy

It was indicated in the movie that if the slaves escape, there was some device implanted in them that would blow them up.

Class316

I would understand why they couldn’t just kill Watto and take her with them (drawing attention, if slaves escape they die, etc), and I can understand the no attachment issue, but as I said since he saved Naboo at the LEAST Amidala should have bargained to take his mother out of there and settle her in a new home, as opposed to leaving her as a slave.

Fok

Anakin was too busy jerking off to Padmae, as soon as he got powerful he should of got his Mum, maybe that's why he was so complained like a little girl so much because no one was there to cook for him.