Call me crazy, but I thought there would be a made-for-TV-something after walking out of the theaters in 1999. Here you had this little kid who obviously wanted to rescue his Mommy and the other slave on Tatooine. I knew (somehow) that the next film would feature an all-grown-up Anakin, so I thought, surely no 8- or 9-year-old kid would go ten years without attempted to rescue his Mom. I thought that this Special might be the first clue of what drew "Little Annie" to the Dark Side.

I imagine that the show would start with Anakin taking a wrong turn somewhere. Perhaps he was traveling to an off-world Jedi Academy and instead made it back to Tatooine--perhaps on accident, perhaps disobeying orders.

Once there he would retrieve Threepio and tell his Mother of his plans to free the slaves. He would probably be accompanied by Jar Jar, Artoo, and a concerned Queen who just happened to be in the area. Perhaps Shmi or Padme would have a singing solo, possibly entitled, "Someday Your Dream Will Come True", or "Big Mission for a Small Boy".

Anyway, I imagined that the Special would end with Anakin freeing the slaves, but his mother dying in the process (to continue the tradition of "Star Wars" moms dying on TV: remember Cyndal's mother bought it in "Ewoks: The Battle for Endor").

These events certainly would have had a major impact on Anakin and it would make it clear what was a driving force, no pun intended, in leading him to the Dark Side.

As it turned out, we saw a small version of this idea in Episode II. Only no slaves were freed and Anakin was an adult (or almost).

I would like there to have been some resolutions about the slaves on Tatooine. I tell myself that Jabba the Hutt, by "Return of the Jedi", was the only game in town when it came to the slave trade and when Leia and Co. helped him buy the farm that put an end to slavery on the desert world. It would make sense that Shmi's grandchildren would fulfill her son's wish.