question for the star wars fandom:
why do yall think a large group of adults who are responsible for defending peace and freedom in the ENTIRE galaxy are not to blame for not doing something about slavery, but a fourteen year old who only has jurisdiction over one single planet IS to blame
I’ve never understood the ‘why didn’t Padme free Shmi?’ conversation because there’s so very little she could have done. Padme walking into the Galactic Senate and suggesting something to be done to stop the Tatooine slave trade, that’d be like an American politician suddenly popping up asking for intervention in a country no-one had heard of, they’d immediately be regarded with suspicion. Politics just isn’t amenable to going to someone else’s country/planet and trying to get suffering people out of it, it takes decades if it happens at all, and if no-one apart from Padme even cared about what was going on some sandy backwater… it wouldn’t happen. Just like reality, I suppose.
(I suppose there’s also the question of why she didn’t send money to Shmi directly in the hope she’d be able to buy her freedom. But I also suppose there’s nothing that said she didn’t…
Or she may have not done that out of fear for Shmi herself. Slaves don’t really get to own stuff. Worst case scenario, Watto or another slaveowner takes her money and beats her for hiding it and everything gets even worse)
Conclusion: everything is terrible