The relationship between fathers and sons has always been a big part of the Star Wars saga. After all, it is difficult to find anyone who doesn't remember the first time they learned that Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker's father. But after being introduced to new characters from the prequel trilogy, and meeting old characters in their younger days, it is proved that mothers play a big part in the Star Wars saga as well. After all, without Padmé Amidala, the mysterious (until The Phantom Menace) mother of Luke and Leia, there would be very little of the saga to be watching...
"The world-generating spirit of the father passes into the manifold of earthly experience through a transforming medium -- the mother of the world," writes Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces.1 We have met two natural mothers in the saga so far, Padmé Amidala and Shmi Skywalker. (In the deleted scenes of Attack of the Clones, we also meet Padmé's own mother, and her sister who has children of her own). Luke has another mother figure in his Aunt Beru, and Leia also mothers him in A New Hope as he grieves for Obi-Wan. But the first we meet in the saga, when it is viewed in order, is Shmi, Anakin's mother.
Shmi Skywalker was kidnapped by pirates as a young girl, and became a slave on Tatooine. She gave birth to Anakin there, and as she tells Qui-Gon many years later, there was no father. Shmi's story has ties with Christianity -- she gives birth to a messiah, who she gives up, but later it is her and not her son who is crucified. Lucas and the makers of Star Wars came under fire for including a virgin birth as part of The Phantom Menace's storyline, but it adds to the mythology -- countless myths and legends have begun with a hero with no father. (Campbell relates a few of them in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Chapter II, Part 4, Folk Stories of Virgin Motherhood.) An argument could be made that Anakin's lack of a father is part of what leads him to seek out father substitutes: Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and lastly Palpatine.
Following Anakin's journey along, after he leaves his mother he becomes closer to Padmé, who he still believes is just a handmaiden. In the junior novel, Queen Amidala's Journal, Padmé writes, "For a moment, Shmi and I locked eyes. Something passed between us. As if she was giving her son to me."2 Padmé at first is a mother figure to Anakin, before his feelings for her grow into lust. She comforts him after they leave Tatooine, the same way Leia will later comfort Luke. Their relationship is quiet and innocent -- after all, they are only ten and fourteen -- until they meet again as young adults and their feelings towards each other change. Padmé still treats him like a child -- she is surprised at how much he's grown, especially when he gives her advice like "Sometimes we must put away our pride and do what is expected of us." And Anakin is seemingly hurt by her refusal to acknowledge his newfound maturity --
"When you say Annie, it's like I'm still a little boy. And I'm not."
Padmé paused and looked him over, head to toe, nodding as she took the sight of him in completely. He could see sincerity on her face as she nodded her agreement, and her tone, too, became one of more respect. "I'm sorry, Anakin. It's impossible to deny you've...that you've grown up."3
Throughout Attack of the Clones, Anakin remains focused on the two most important women in his life: Shmi and Padmé. He is too late to save one, which only increases his desire to save the other. When Padmé is separated from him during the battle of Geonosis, he is willing to risk expulsion from the Jedi Order to save her. Perhaps with his mother now gone, she embodies both roles: mother and lover. It is also probably not a coincidence on the part of the casting team for the movies that Padmé and Shmi look so alike -- in fact, Shmi looks not entirely unlike an aged Padmé. In The Phantom Menace, she looks like the traditional mother figure -- the elementary character of the feminine, who "tends to be associated with earth colors and vegetation imagery."4 Padmé is often, especially in Attack of the Clones, wearing earth colors.
Padmé is what keeps Anakin sane as the Clone Wars drag on. Despite being warned against possessiveness, Anakin loves her to the point that he'd do anything to avoid ever losing her. This is obvious from just the ending of Attack of the Clones, and about to be expanded on in Revenge of the Sith. Anakin's love for her leads into tragedy, tragedy for the entire galaxy as well as just for him. Campbell writes of the Goddess, one who has the features of the Universal Mother: "She is also the death of everything that dies. The whole round of existence is accomplished through her sway, from birth, through adolescence, maturity, and senescence, to the grave."5 After Padmé's death, the galaxy is plunged into darkness. Naboo, her planet, is not seen again, the Empire employs few women, and all the colour has gone out of the galaxy. However, there is hope in the form of Padmé's children.
As any Star Wars fan knows, Padmé Amidala is the mother of Luke and Leia. In the original trilogy she is mentioned only once in Return of the Jedi, during Luke and Leia's conversation. "She was very beautiful," says Leia, who has very vague memories of her mother that Luke does not, "kind, but sad." She is never mentioned by Luke in A New Hope, although he speaks about his father ofte n. Likewise Leia never before now mentions a mother, only the man she previously thought was her father. Fathers definitely seem to dominate Episodes Four and Five. It is probable that Luke felt like his aunt was a mother to him, and never wanted another mother figure in his life. After she is gone, he has Leia. We still don't know who is the oldest twin, but it seems likely it is her, as she treats Luke much in the way an older sister would treat her brother. (The twins themselves, though, almost certainly don't know who was born first, and probably never will).
Padmé has been called the most important woman in the saga -- certainly, without her there would be no Luke, and thus Anakin remains Vader. Not only is Luke Anakin's son, he is Padmé’s son as well -- he is the way their love survives. It could almost be the case that Padmé redeems her husband, through her son, while Leia carries on her work in the politics of the galaxy. Padmé is never mentioned by name in the original trilogy, but her legacy lives on.
As has been mentioned, Luke's other mother figure is his Aunt Beru. She is more sympathetic to him than his uncle is, taking his side during any arguments. In fact, she is not unlike Shmi in the prequel trilogy -- she also meets a cruel end, being killed by stormtroopers along with her husband. However, unlike Anakin's avenging of his mother's death, Luke is not motivated to murder -- instead he asks that he go with Ben Kenobi to Alderaan. His aunt and uncle are never mentioned again -- admittedly Luke soon winds up with quite a bit on his mind -- but the last chapter of the prequel trilogy will hopefully show that it was them, especially Beru, who gave Luke another chance at life, and a family to replace the one he couldn't remember. Anakin had no such thing -- he did have a family, but was separated from her, and found no mother-replacement in the Jedi Order. The Jedi rules are specifically designed to avoid families, and Anakin pays the price. Eventually, so do the rest of the Jedi.
Both parental figures are important to the saga -- family is important to the saga, and one of the major themes. The fact that Darth Vader is Luke's father is obviously of great importance, but the fact that he is Padmé’s son no less so -- her strength coupled with his is enough to win the day. Shmi is one of the strongest forces for goodness in the whole saga. Anakin's love for her and for Padmé may lead him on his first step towards the dark side, but his son, who is one of the last people in the world now who he could love, brings him back. (A brief spoiler-of-sorts for Revenge of the Sith: apparently there is a line towards the end which makes deeper the connection between Padmé and Luke, making Luke not the only one who never stopped seeing the good in Anakin.)
And lastly, at the end of the saga, Leia makes clear her feelings for Han Solo. Even for those who have never read the books where she goes on to have twins, the audience may well think that she will grow to have children, and some of them may be force-sensitive, and thus the circle will continue in her.
Works Cited
1. Joseph Campbell. Hero with a Thousand Faces (The Hero As Warrior). Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968, p. 275.
2. Watson, Jude. Star Wars: Episode I Journal - Queen Amidala, p. 50.
3. Salvatore, R. A. Star Wars: Episode II, Attack of the Clones, p. 120.
4. McManus, Barbara F. "Structure of Feminine Archetype," McManus Home Page, <http://www.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/femarchstructure.html>.
5. Campbell, p. 105.
