A quest to the desert planet of Tatooine transpired not long before the First Battle of Geonosis, which marked the beginning of the Clone Wars, specifically in 22 BBY. Subsequent to the Jedi High Council tasking Jedi Padawan Anakin Skywalker with the protection of Senator Padmé Amidala on Naboo, Skywalker experienced a nightmare vision of his mother's suffering. Consequently, both Skywalker and Amidala departed from Naboo, journeying to Tatooine with the intention of locating his mother, Shmi Skywalker Lars. Information concerning Shmi's location was provided to Skywalker by his former slaver, Watto. Shortly thereafter, Skywalker encountered the Lars family, who had purchased Shmi from Watto, and learned of her abduction by a Tusken Raider raiding party, with her presumed demise. Following an extensive search, Skywalker discovered his mother, severely weakened after enduring a month of torture, who then died in his arms. Overwhelmed by intense rage, the young Jedi succumbed to the dark side of the Force, engaging in a massacre that decimated almost the entire village. He showed no mercy, killing every man, woman, and child he encountered, disregarding the spirit of Qui-Gon Jinn, who attempted to dissuade him from the carnage, while Yoda sensed Anakin's growing grief as the Jedi Master meditated within the Jedi Temple.
Skywalker made his way back to the Lars Homestead, carrying his mother's lifeless body. The Lars family, along with the protocol droid C-3PO, Skywalker, and Amidala, buried Skywalker's mother near the Homestead, paying their respects. Consumed by anger, he revealed the massacre to Padmé Amidala, displaying no remorse for his actions against the Tuskens. He placed the blame for his mother's death on his master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, who had instructed him to be mindful of his thoughts and assured him that his dreams about his mother would eventually fade. Skywalker's astromech droid, R2-D2, arrived during the funeral, delivering a transmission from Kenobi on Geonosis to Skywalker and Amidala. C-3PO joined Skywalker, Amidala, and R2, and they departed from Tatooine aboard Amidala's personal yacht, heading towards Geonosis.
After parting ways with his mother, Shmi Skywalker Lars, on Tatooine in 32 BBY, the young Jedi Initiate Anakin Skywalker struggled to overcome his attachment to her. The Jedi High Council recognized this attachment within Skywalker when Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn brought him to the Jedi Order, due to his exceptionally high Midi-chlorian count, believing Skywalker to be the Chosen One, a Force-sensitive destined to destroy the Sith and restore balance to the Force. Before Jinn's death on Naboo, he instructed his Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, to train Skywalker in the ways of the Jedi. The Jedi Council elevated Kenobi to Knighthood and honored Jinn's request, with Skywalker becoming Kenobi's Padawan.
A decade following the Invasion of Naboo, Kenobi and Skywalker were summoned to safeguard Senator Padmé Amidala of Naboo. Upon her arrival on Coruscant, Amidala became the target of an assassination attempt, orchestrated by two bounty hunters, Jango Fett and the Clawdite Zam Wesell. Skywalker, who had not seen Amidala since the Invasion of Naboo, was captivated by her presence and experienced a strong sense of attachment. While Kenobi cautioned his apprentice against forming attachments, a principle of the Jedi Order, Skywalker struggled with his attachment to his mother, whom he had not seen for ten years. Kenobi was aware of Skywalker's difficulties with attachments and reassured him that his dreams about his mother would eventually subside.
The assassination plot against Senator Amidala created unrest within the Jedi Council, leading them to dispatch Kenobi to the remote wild space planet of Kamino to track down one of the bounty hunters responsible for the threat to Amidala's life. The council assigned Skywalker the mission of protecting Amidala and escorting her to her home planet of Naboo. As his affection for Amidala grew on Naboo, his dreams about his mother intensified, culminating in a nightmare one night in which she was suffering. Skywalker insisted on returning to Tatooine to find his mother, defying Kenobi's instructions for him to remain on Naboo and protect the senator. Nevertheless, Amidala accompanied Skywalker, and together they embarked on a mission to Tatooine to locate his mother.
Amidala and Skywalker entered the Tatoo system aboard Amidala's personal yacht. They landed in Mos Espa, Skywalker's childhood town, which they had not visited in ten years. Skywalker approached his former Toydarian master, Watto, near his shop. Due to Skywalker's decade-long absence, Watto failed to recognize the stranger. The Jedi Padawan refreshed his former owner's memory by inquiring about his mother, Shmi. Surprised, Watto was delighted to see his former slave. Skywalker demanded to know the whereabouts of his mother, and Watto informed him that he had sold her after Skywalker left Tatooine in 32 BBY. The Toydarian revealed that he had sold Shmi to a moisture farmer family residing near the city of Mos Eisley. Watto provided Anakin with Shmi's location, and Skywalker and Amidala departed from Mos Espa.
The pair were greeted by Skywalker's old protocol droid, C-3PO, who had accompanied Shmi when she was sold by Watto and left Mos Espa. C-3PO led his former master to the Lars homestead, where Skywalker encountered the family that had purchased his mother. Young Owen Lars and his girlfriend, Beru Whitesun, welcomed Skywalker and Amidala. The owner of the homestead, Cliegg Lars, approached Skywalker after he questioned Owen about his mother's whereabouts. The group entered the homestead, and Cliegg explained his relationship with Shmi. He had bought Shmi from Watto after falling in love with her, freed her, and married her shortly thereafter.
One early morning, a band of Tusken Raiders raided the homestead and abducted Shmi. Cliegg and his fellow moisture farmers organized a search party, but only a few returned, and Cliegg lost part of his right leg in an unspecified incident while searching for Shmi. Cliegg informed Skywalker that he did not want to lose hope, but she had been missing for a month.
Skywalker insisted that he would find his mother. However, Cliegg, without hesitation, told him that she was dead. Skywalker disregarded him and prepared to leave the homestead, determined to search for his mother. Amidala joined him outside, and Skywalker soon departed on the Lars's swoop bike, resolved to find his mother before it was too late.
The journey to find his mother proved to be a challenge for Skywalker. He obtained information from a Jawa about a Tusken camp located not far from his position. Skywalker continued onward and halted near the edge of a cliff. The young Jedi observed a Tusken camp faintly illuminated by its campfire and knew that his mother was there. Silently, he advanced towards one of the tents and used his lightsaber to create a hole through the thick fabric that held the tent together.
Skywalker saw his injured mother, bound to two wooden poles inside the tent he had entered. Skywalker proceeded to free his mother and gently lowered her into his arms. Overjoyed to see her son, Shmi engaged in a brief conversation with Skywalker. She weakly expressed that seeing Anakin one last time made her feel complete. Their conversation ended when Shmi died from her injuries in her son's arms.
Consumed by rage, Skywalker left his mother's body in the tent, activated his lightsaber, and killed the two Tuskens guarding the tent. The sound of the lightsaber alerted more Tuskens nearby, prompting them to attack Skywalker, accompanied by several Massiffs as they launched their assault. However, the Jedi showed no mercy and proceeded with his Tusken massacre, enhancing his jumps and speed with the Force and telekinetically slamming (such as sending one soldier crashing along for thirty meters) and throwing rocks at his victims, even at one point mentally collapsing a tent. For a moment at the end, the furious slaughter made him feel more alive and connected to the Force than he had ever been before. He did not stop until the entire camp was silent and every man, woman, and child in his path was destroyed.
The spirit of Qui-Gon Jinn attempted to calm Skywalker in an effort to prevent the carnage, but his efforts were futile. On Coruscant, Grand Master Yoda heard Jinn's voice through the Force and sensed Skywalker's pain, and also told Mace Windu when he asked about it.
Skywalker returned to the homestead on the swoop he had departed on. Shmi's body was wrapped in a large piece of cloth. The Lars family and Amidala, who had thought she could not be found, were shocked to see Skywalker with his mother's body. Cliegg was one of the few who could not bear to look at the sight while Skywalker entered the homestead.
The difficult moment for Skywalker turned when Amidala entered the room where Skywalker was inside the homestead. She tried to ask him of what happened and Skywalker revealed to Amidala of the massacre that he started. His hatred for Tuskens grew worse as he claimed that he slaughtered the Tuskens for the death of his mother. He blamed his master for not letting him find his mother during the ten year span of his absence from Tatooine. Skywalker soon became emotional and wept for his mother's loss.
Shortly after, Skywalker, the Lars family and Amidala buried Shmi outside, near the homestead. Skywalker assured his mother that he would not fail to lose another loved one again. During the funeral, Skywalker's astromech droid, R2-D2, approached the group. C-3PO told Skywalker that R2 had received a message from a person named Obi-Wan Kenobi and soon Skywalker, Amidala, and the droids left the homestead to listen to the message that Kenobi transmitted from Geonosis, on Amidala's yacht.
Shortly after the Mission to Tatooine, Skywalker and Amidala endured on a rescue mission to release Kenobi, who was captured by former Jedi Master, Count Dooku on Geonosis. The First Battle of Geonosis, the first battle in the Clone Wars, soon began after a Jedi Strike Team arrived, led by Mace Windu. Skywalker married Amidala after the Battle of Geonosis on Naboo and his attachment for Amidala grew more during the war.
During the Clone Wars, Skywalker became a Jedi Knight and took on a mission in 21 BBY. Skywalker thought he wouldn't return to Tatooine due to what had happened months prior to his return. It was painful for Skywalker to speak of his past and would not tell his Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, who accompanied Skywalker during the mission.
On Tatooine, various Tusken Raiders learned of the event, and came to refer to Anakin Skywalker as the "Demon Outlander," due to his butchery of the camp as well as his allegedly not being from Tatooine. They also conducted sacrifices to appease the "Demon Outlander."
In 19 BBY, shortly after Skywalker killed the Separatist leader, Count Dooku, over Coruscant, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, a close friend of Skywalker, when feigning sympathy for Skywalker's guilt for doing so, referenced Skywalker's massacre when mentioning it wasn't the first time the boy gave in to anger, due to Skywalker having earlier told him about the event. In addition, Skywalker had dreams of Amidala dying from childbirth. Palpatine had knowledge of the massacre and his marriage and soon this knowledge would play a role when Palpatine revealed himself to be Darth Sidious, though it is uncertain if the dark side had been involved in the killing of Shmi. When Mace Windu dueled the Sith Lord on Coruscant, Skywalker was present at the time of the duel and saw Windu attempted to murder Sidious. Enraged and desperate, Skywalker severed Windu's lightsaber hand, and Sidious blasted Windu with Force lightning. With the knowledge of Amidala dying, Skywalker joined the dark side and became Darth Vader. After Vader's duel with his former master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Vader received life threatening injuries from the fires of Mustafar. Sidious brought his apprentice back to Coruscant to be resurrected with the suit he would wear for the rest of his life. Amidala soon died on Polis Massa after giving birth to Luke Skywalker and Leia Amidala Skywalker.
In large part because of the pain this event afflicted on Skywalker/Vader, as well as his past in general, Vader rarely ever visited Tatooine, which likewise resulted in Vader's son, Luke, growing up with minimal risk of ever encountering Vader on Tatooine. In addition, when Vader successfully managed to arrest Leia Amidala Skywalker, by that time going by the name of Leia Organa due to being separated at birth from her twin brother, he was largely displeased about the arrest occurring above Tatooine due to having lingering memories of the event.
Ultimately, only one survivor of Anakin's slaughter existed, KkH'Oar'Rrhr, who had been bonding with his bantha at the time of the massacre. KkH'Oar'Rrhr would later end up working as a Teräs Käsi student of the Emperor's Hand Arden Lyn and fight Luke Skywalker, under the belief that he was the "Demon Outlander," by 1 ABY.
23 years after the mission, Vader and his Sith apprentice, Tao, encountered a vengeful Tusken Raider that belonged to the group of Tuskens that were murdered on Tatooine. The Tusken engaged Vader in a fight, and soon brought Vader to his knees. As an act of revenge, the Tusken claimed that Vader murdered his entire family that night in 22 BBY. The Tusken was about to kill Vader until Tao saved his master's life by killing the Tusken. Tao was injured and soon died in Vader's arms which caused Vader to scream in rage.
29 years after the resulting massacre, Skywalker's daughter, Leia Organa Solo, and her husband Han Solo came to Tatooine for a mission to stop an auction that included an Alderaanian piece of art. However, their journey in Tatooine soon became a mission of learning the past. Leia's father, Anakin Skywalker, murdered a group of Tusken Raiders some 29 years prior to their mission, in a camp called Valley of the Spirits. Leia and Han traveled across the area and were consumed by wind like weather, possibly the spirits of the Tuskens.
The mission first appeared in Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones. Anakin Skywalker's problems with attachments began when he left his mother in The Phantom Menace, and it became worse throughout his life as a Jedi. In Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, Anakin had dreams of his wife, Padmé Amidala, dying from childbirth. The image of Amidala dying in Anakin's dreams was shown on screen and would play a major part in Anakin's downfall to the dark side in Revenge of the Sith. George Lucas has commented about Anakin and his dreams in the audio commentary of Revenge of the Sith DVD, stating that after he left Tatooine in Episode I, the pain of losing his mother would continue on in his Jedi life until her death in Episode II. While Anakin had matured much since then, he still had problems with attachments, which only worsened with his dreams of Padmé's death during childbirth in Revenge of the Sith.
In an interview with eucantina.net, James Luceno, one of the authors of the DK visual dictionary lines, implied that Darth Sidious was involved in the Tusken Raider's abduction of Shmi Skywalker as a means to ensure that Anakin would fall to the Dark Side.