Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace even gave Anakin a virgin birth, with his mother Shmi playing the role of Mary.
Shmi's life has always fascinated viewers, but it's generally been treated as something of a mystery. She was no heroic Jedi, standing against the rise of the dark side; she was no senator or politician, a person of galactic importance who fought to make a difference. Rather, she was an everyday woman who simply brought up her son as best she could in spite of her difficult circumstances, and who gave him up so he could have a better life than she did. Some of her background was fleshed out in the old Star Wars Expanded Universe, but that was branded non-canon after Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, leaving Shmi's life a mystery once again.
E.K. Johnston's latest Star Wars novel, Queen's Hope, finally reveals Shmi's full story. The prologue is a poetic of Shmi's life, and it reveals that Shmi grew up in poverty on Tatooine. "She grew up surrounded by dust and dereliction and was always hungry because there was never enough to eat," the book reveals. "She sweated uncomfortably as she worked under the desert suns and froze in the night when the heat had evaporated. Her family was gone, and there was no one to comfort her from the time she was small." Slavery on Star Wars' Tatooine was ignored by the Republic, who considered the harsh desert world to be Hutt territory and outside their sphere of influence. It's uncertain whether Shmi was born into a slave family, or whether she was taken after she had been orphaned. Whatever the case may be, though, she resolved not to be a victim of her circumstances.
Queen's Hope reminds readers of Shmi's character, of a woman who was "forever generous, forever offering help to those who needed it, because she couldn't keep her spirit contained." In a scene with distinct parallels to the Annunciation in Christianity, she sensed the call of the Force - a call to embrace destiny, to be part of a story greater than herself because she had chosen it. This is a smart detail, giving Shmi a degree of agency in the story of Star Wars' Chosen One prophecy; Anakin may have been conceived in a unique manner, but Shmi was still a willing participant in his conception.
E.K. Johnston goes to a great deal of effort to add this sense of agency to Shmi's own story. Queen's Hope revisits Shmi in another poetic section, revealing the slave woman secretly worked with Cliegg Lars, helping him figure out how to buy her so she could be freed and become part of his family. What's more, Shmi was the one who figured out how to deprogram her slave chip, and in fact, this became her legacy, as others used the technology she had created to free Tatooine's slaves. It's a beautiful legacy for Shmi Skywalker, who has often felt overlooked by Star Wars.
