If Plagueis Caused Anakin's Birth, Why Shmi Skywalker?

Question

Darth Plagueis had talked about creating life through the Force and it is speculated that he may be responsible for Anakin's birth via the Force. Is there any reason he picked Shmi Skywalker for this experiment? It would seem more logical to pick someone he could easily guard and keep close to him so she couldn't wander off and so others couldn't abduct or harm her during the pregnancy.

Why Shmi? Is there anything about her that makes her particularly unique for such an experiment?

score 28 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 10 '20 at 15:13

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Darth Plagueis did not "choose" Shmi Skywalker. There is a recently published book, Star Wars: Darth Plagueis, that jossed the "Darth Plagueis is Anakin's father" fan theories. From the Anakin Skywalker Wookieepedia article:

In addition, although Darth Plagueis did attempt to influence the midichlorians to create the ultimate Sith weapon alongside Darth Sidious, the experiment was ultimately a failure, and the midichlorians, sensing the Sith's inherent malevolent intention, not only refused to do so, but in retaliation, conceived Anakin Skywalker in order to destroy the Sith once and for all.

So, according to this, it is the midi-chlorians who choose Shmi Skywalker, and there is no canon information about how and why they choose her, so any answer about that would be pure speculation, until new licensed material is published.

edited Mar 10 '20 at 15:13

DavidW

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answered Feb 08 '12 at 12:49

DavRob60

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Not very smart, those Midichlorians! The ability to concieve the Chosen One is insignificant next to the power of George Lucas Empire to pull extra future Sith out of thin air to ensure continued Extended universe licensing revenues! – DVK-on-Ahch-To Feb 08 '12 at 14:38
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I think the "Evil" the midichlorians wanted to destroy was not the Siths, but Sidious himself. He somewhat transcended the Sith Order. – DavRob60 Feb 08 '12 at 15:02
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The quote says "destroy the Sith". 2. "somewhat transcended the Sith Order" - what do you mean?

DVK-on-Ahch-To

Feb 08 '12 at 15:15

This also answers another question I was going to ask: If there's evidence of midichlorians refusing to help someone do something via the Force. – Tango Feb 08 '12 at 15:24

@DVK 1- It's a Wookeepedia quote, I don't think it's worded like this in the book, but we cannot be sure until someone put an hand on it. 2. to transcend (Verb) Be or go beyond the range or limits of (something abstract, typically a conceptual field or division). Sidious got beyond the Sith order, establishing is own rules. – DavRob60 Feb 08 '12 at 15:42

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@TangoOversway They constantly refuse to obey my orders. – DavRob60 Feb 08 '12 at 15:43

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@DavRob60: That's not unusual. Most of us don't even listen to your orders - why should midichlorians be any different? – Tango Feb 08 '12 at 15:48

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 09 '17 at 10:06

I think my theory solves a few problems. Both Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious "created" Anakin, sort of, but really it was the Force. Darth Plagueis attempted to manipulate midichlorians to create the Chosen One with the help of his apprentice, Sidious, who realized that this would mean his replacement as apprentice.

So having taught Sidious all that he knew, Plagueis was really dispensable, and Sidious killed him and tried to do create life himself. Only Plagueis didn't teach Sidious everything he knew, that is, he taught him all the methods to create life, but didn't tell him that a powerful Sith could control his midichlorian essence after death and be reincarnated into a new body.

So, having given his apprentice all of the tools to create a powerful midichlorian life form, he allowed himself to be killed by Sidious to accomplish his plan. (c'mon, how else is a Sith Lord going to get killed in his sleep by his apprentice).

Sidious, believing that he had rid himself of his master, and obviously not loyal to his apprentices (Maul, Dooku), set out to create for himself this powerful chosen one as his new apprentice.

But in order to ensure that such a force sensitive child wouldn't be discovered by the Jedi, he had to go to the outer rim and get a person to experiment on, naturally a slave, Shmi Skywalker from Tatooine. He used the power of the force to impregnate her with high density midichlorian essences (Plagueis).

But neither he, nor Plagueis realized that their Sith wills weren't stronger than the Force itself, so instead of all of the dark side midichlorian Plagueis Sith essence being reincarnated into Anakin, the Force provided half light side midichlorians, thus bringing forth a Force Balanced creation in Anakin.

None of this mind you would have been possible if the Force had not willed it, which is why Sidious couldn't repeat the experiments later.

If Plagueis Caused Anakin's Birth, Why Shmi Skywalker?

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