Mother’s day is here! Shout out to all the amazing real moms out there who take on one of the most difficult jobs out there. This isn't made any easier with the idealized likes of Shmi Skywalker and Padme Amidala to measure up to. Shmi forever puts her son first with perfect, unfaltering compassion, patience and love. Padme Amidala makes what is considered a heroic sacrifice among certain cultures and religions.
Maybe being an ideal mom isn’t all it's cracked up to be, and it pays to be down-to-earth, realistic and doing your best. Lets look at a different kind of mother in a galaxy far, far away: Rebellion leader Mon Mothma.
Between her political business and being a secret rebel leader, the galaxy doesn’t have enough hours in the day for Mon Mothma to tackle the demands of motherhood. Her daughter, Leida, accuses her mother of taking her to school purely as a public pretense at being a good parent. While this is an incorrect assumption of Mon Mothma’s motives, it's a valid interpretation of her actions, given their lifestyle and what Leida knows of her mother.
As both seasons of Andor show us, despite her good intentions and attempts to do better by her daughter, Mon Mothma ends up condemning her in the same way she was condemned by her own mother: Selling her off to an arranged marriage, much like her own loveless union. All for the sake of the Rebellion. When in a position of power over millions, billions, even trillions of other people’s daughters, one’s daughter all too often takes a back seat. Great power equals great responsibility never tasted so bitter.
It would be easy to condemn Mon Mothma as a terrible mother. Objectively, isn’t she? Isn't her lack of time for her daughter considered neglectful? While her daughter may expect an arranged marriage, may spit in the face of her mother's aid, Mon Mothma repeats the same dismal cycle her own mother did. She may have all the love and compassion of Padme and Shmi, but her work in the rising rebellion devours what time she could spend with her daughter, even as she's pressed towards more drastic actions that have grave consequences for Mon's family.
Writer Jen Sopchockchai Bankard weighed in on this choice, saying, "But from Mon’s perspective, it is all a hollow gesture that is basically feeding her own daughter into a cultural system that trapped her at that age."
But is it fair for a leader to prioritize her child over all the other children of her constituents, her fellow rebels, whose lives depend on her decisions? The rising Empire needs to be fought, and as a Senator, she is beholden to do the right thing. One could argue that Leida is safer with Davo Sculdun's family than with Mothma. Mon ends up trapped in a situation, partly of her own making but mostly circumstantial, in which to quote Spider-Man, "With great power comes great responsibility," that clashes with being a good mother. Mon Mothma is forced to choose between doing right as a mother and doing right as a leader, and unfortunately, her daughter pays the price.
Breha and Bail successfully balanced their rebel life with parenthood. Could Mon Mothma have done the same? While she has a cousin she trusts and Leida knows, she's also stuck with an unsupportive husband, and her daughter was emulating him, so that attempt at work-life balance could've gone disastrously wrong.
Mon Mothma, despite her best intentions, isn't the best mother of her daughter, but she is the best mother of the Rebellion.