Do you remember your mother...your real mother? Luke to Leia, ROTJ
What powerful words these are. The mere mention of the word mother in the OT is significant. However, we really do not hear this word until ROTJ when Luke is curious about what Leia "remembers" about their mother.
In honor of Mother's Day yesterday, I thought it appropriate to add this entry here today. Yes, I know that I am a day late, but I lost track of time yesterday to write these thoughts. No, this is not going to be about how Leia remembers Padme' and Luke not...this has already been addressed. Rather, I want to explore the concept of mother in the Star Wars universe and its significance here. The concept of father is well addressed: from Leia saying to Obi-Wan in ANH you served my father during the Clone Wars, to Luke asking Obi-Wan about his father, to Vader telling Luke that he is his father, to Luke realizing that Vader was Anakin and then to his quest to save his father. However, the exploration of mother is not as well-developed. Why do we not hear more about "mother" in the OT until the end...and then only briefly and then not again until the PT?
We all know that it takes two to create life: a mother and a father (although in terms of Anakin's paternity, room for argument exists). Without the mother, there could be no child: she is the one who carries the child for nine months (give of take), gives birth to the child, and then cares for the child during those first critical months. However, without the father there could also be no child, and fathers are now beginning to take more active roles in caring for young children.
Looking at the PT, the concept/role of mother is well constructed and defined. Without Shmi, Anakin, as we knew him in TPM, would not have been. When Qui-Gon asks her about the father, she tells him there was no father. Some may argue here that she was embarrased by who the father was, she may not remember the father, or there really was "no father." She, after all, was the one who carried him, gave birth to him, and raised him to the best of her ability. The bond between Shmi and Anakin was strong...as evidenced by how he could sense that she was in danger. Fast forward to AOTC: Anakin tells Obi-Wan about the dreams he's been having about his mother, but is then told that dreams pass in time. He then tells Padme' about the dreams when she confronts him about the nightmares she heard, and tells her that he must go to her, where he finds her moments from death. His inability to save her from this "fate" haunts him for years, until he dreams about Padme' dying in childbirth. Now, the love of his life, his wife is going to be a mother, and he just cannot lose her, like I did my mother. He's willing to do anything to prevent the past from repeating itself. Padme' did end up dying...and to me it was because Anakin's soul had been destroyed by Vader. However, she gave the galaxy a new hope in the two children she carried.
Now, looking at the OT, as I said previously, the concept/role of mother was not as well constructed or defined as it was in the PT. Ok, now I know this was made before the PT, before GL knew that the saga would truly be about Anakin. However, the only women of "importance" in ANH were Beru and Leia. Beru was always addressed by Luke as Aunt Beru, not mother. Leia only mentions her "father" (of course, referring to Bail, her adoptive father). Throughout the OT, though, Leia does display some "motherly" qualities...when she rescues Luke from Cloud City in ESB and tends to his wounds is the one that immediatley comes to mind. However, my view on this has been altered, thanks to Kenobi-fan and amidalooine...now, it is not so much Leia displaying these qualities, it is Padme' making herself "known" through Leia and then later through Luke. The most significant moment for me in the OT is when Luke asks Leia what she remembers about her mother, their mother (although of course she doesn't know this at the time). I know that he is leading into the "announcement' that they are twins, but he's curious.
I can't imagine what it would be like to have my father turn evil and betray all he knows and loves, to have my mother die shortly after giving birth, to be separated from my twin brother/sister, to be raised by two different families on two different planets at two different ends of the galaxy, and then to be reunited with my "evil" father and my long-lost brother/sister. That's a lot to take in...and I would be curious about my mother as well. As a couple of other bloggers have said recently...Padme' deserves to be given more credit for what she accomplished in her life, and it would be nice to see her "legacy" added to the OT, even if it is just added to what either Leia or Luke, or both, know about her. Mothers are important in everyones lives...and I like to think that behind every strong "man" is a stronger woman, whether it be his wife or his mother.
May the Force Be With You
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