Actions

Work Header

Rating:
Archive Warning:
Category:
Fandoms:
Relationships:
Characters:
Additional Tags:
Language:
English
Stats:
Published:
2025-10-14
Completed:
2025-10-14
Words:
857
Chapters:
3/3
Comments:
13
Kudos:
24
Bookmarks:
6
Hits:
259

Down the River

Summary:

She had always known that the Republic didn't live up to what it preached, but it doesn't make it any less disappointing to experience it in person.

But still, she waits.

Alternatively: Shmi Skywalker and her son after The Phantom Menace, perhaps in a more hopeful galaxy.

Notes:

I've been wishing that you'd prove me wrong
That you'd come clean and rue the damage done
Restore my faith in you, but you've got no reason to
'Cause ain't it easier to just move on?
One door closing means another one
Opens unto some unsuspecting fool
— The Crane Wives, "Down the River"

Alternate title: Wedding Invitations.

This fic was NOT written to be Tatooine Ghost-compliant. I do what I want.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: margaret won't sleep tonight (she wouldn't dare for all that creeps at night)

Summary:

After her son is taken by the Jedi, Shmi finds her own freedom.

Notes:

Click/tap here to see content warnings:

Canon-typical character death, mentions of canon-typical enslavement.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Shmi Skywalker walks through Mos Espa with an envelope in hand and no more chip to hold her back. A wedding invitation, it proclaims, for it was under the guise of a marriage that she was sold and freed, as if Cliegg Lars would have a future daughter-in-law by the name of 'Whitesun' and not know better.

Shmi is no engineering prodigy like her son, but she did teach him everything she knew to protect him. She leaves the envelope at a familiar doorstep and stands back around the corner, remote hidden in her pocket, waiting for it to be picked up. When everything blows over, she doesn't look back.

The Republic doesn't exist on Tatooine. The Hutts only care for their own tribute and trade. The Desert shows no mercy. A slavemaster, even if one who no longer holds the transmitter detonator to any sapient, will not be missed by anyone.

Letter by letter, Shmi writes to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Letter by letter, stamped "return to sender", unopened.

Disappointed she may be, but Shmi can't say that she's entirely surprised. She had always known that there could be one day she would be separated from her son, likely to never see him again though her heart tells her otherwise. That is but the nature of slavery.

She had always known that the Republic didn't live up to what it preached, but it doesn't make it any less disappointing to experience it in person.

But still, she waits.

Notes:

Chapter title from "Margaret" by The Crane Wives, an unofficially released song.

This chapter can technically be slotted into canon with only minor changes; next chapter is where it starts diverging significantly.

Chapter 2: calling out to an echo (and just hoping for a different refrain)

Summary:

Shmi is rescued in time from the Sand People's camp. She doesn't like what she sees.

Notes:

Click/tap here to see content warnings:

Allusions to canon-typical enslavement; implied abuse and/or religious trauma; mentions of non-descriptive injuries, elitism, discrimination, and victim-blaming.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Years later, Shmi Skywalker walks out of the Dune Sea alive, leaning on the arm of her radiant, 19-year-old son.

Covered in purple bruises and sunburns and carefully wrapped wounds, Shmi lets her son weep into her arms.

I'm not supposed to be here. They say I'm not supposed to be attached to anything or anyone. I don't know what to do anymore.

The Jedi call her son too attached to his childhood dreams and too uneducated to understand the nuances of Republic politics, but if he knew all that Shmi knew, then she has a feeling that he had understood the Republic just fine: it was the same song and dance all along, from the Desert to the distant Core.

The Jedi are supposed to be detached and unbiased, defenders of peace and justice, but all Shmi can hear is the peace of the Masters safeguarded, the justice of the Masters enforced.

They call her son biased for wanting to free the slaves of Tatooine.

Then fine.

They won't just free Tatooine. They'll free the whole galaxy.

Her son answers a call for help, systems away on Geonosis, an order to contact the Jedi Council.

Shmi didn't send her son away with the Jedi just to have him keep following orders for the rest of his life.

Notes:

Chapter title from "Mad Dog" by The Crane Wives.

Chapter 3: you're never gonna get what you want (so why feel guilty about it?)

Summary:

The Clone Wars begin. The Skywalkers want no part of this.

Notes:

Click/tap here to see content warnings:

Mentions of canon-typical enslavement, abuse, and psychological grooming.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

From the Lars homestead, Shmi packs up her belongings and boards a silver-plated ship bound for Naboo, leaving only a comm frequency for Beru's datapad and instructions for how to repair any broken vaporators henceforth. The Larses had offered her a place to stay until she found her son or secure passage to a safe place to settle down off-planet, whichever came first. Now, years later, Padmé, the outlander girl who once sought refuge with her in a storm, has come through with both.

The Republic is going to war, and the Jedi are to be drafted as generals and commanders to an army of slaves. Padmé has gone through the legality of the situation… of which there is none in anything, with the Jedi barred from militarism for the past millennium, and where does one even get started on the clone troopers?! Shmi didn't think her opinion of the Jedi could sink lower than after her son's spirit was broken by them for the past decade, but now it's clear that the hypocrites can go to the sarlacc pit for all she cares.

Worse yet is her son telling her that the Chancellor believes in his capabilities as a Jedi, that he could protect the people of the Republic if he stays and fights. Was the Chancellor not the one who endorsed the war in the first place? Why would the Chancellor single out one specific Jedi child to befriend and favour above everyone else? If the games of power are played the same only under a different name in the Core, then Shmi knows exactly how this story ends — and it doesn't end well for anyone.

I just wanted to help everyone, her son whispers into a comm on Coruscant, before abruptly cutting off–

The Council. They're coming back.

Ani, remember that you don't have to be a Jedi to help others, she whispers back before ending the call. I will always love you no matter what you choose to do.

Anakin Skywalker leaves a wedding invitation with the Jedi — a real one this time. Since they had so kindly reunited him with the love of his life, surely they would appreciate a thank-you for playing matchmaker and not view it as a letter of resignation.

He takes his mother's advice: the Chancellor is not invited either.

Notes:

Chapter title from "High Horse" by The Crane Wives.

I originally considered incorporating the idea of "live to fight another day", but with the Skywalkers' characterizations in canon (especially via TPM) in mind, that just felt a bit too OOC.

Notes:

While I came up with the idea for this fic a while ago, I literally wrote and edited all of this in a single day. Also, for anyone wondering, my working title for this fic was let's go dodge the draft with mama. Take from that what you will.

Find me on Tumblr at @eldritchdemigodskywalkers.

Sure, you can forget about all the things you've done
But what about the rest of us? (What about the rest of us?)
Hightail it when it gets to be too much?
But what about the rest of us? (What about the rest of us?)
Sell us down the river
You can sell us down the river
You were never the one to suffer
— The Crane Wives, "Down the River"