While Disney+’s The Mandalorian humanized the Tusken Raiders when Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) collaborates with the creatures to defeat the Krayt dragon during the season 2 episode “Chapter 9: The Marshal,” the novelization of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace humanized them first by featuring an empathetic moment between young Anakin Skywalker and an injured Tusken Raider. While Anakin has a turbulent history with the Tusken Raiders as an adult within the Star Wars franchise, eventually massacring an entire village of the creatures for the abduction and murder of his mother Shmi Skywalker (Pernilla August) during Star Wars— Episode II: Attack of the Clones, The Phantom Menace novel by Terry Brooks reveals that Anakin’s first experience with the Tusken Raiders had a very different outcome.
Since George Lucas informed Terry Brooks about the background of The Phantom Menace, the novel contains extra scenes that aren’t featured in the final film that explore Anakin’s life on Tatooine in detail. While the beginning of The Phantom Menace film follows Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) as they attempt to end the blockade of the planet Naboo by negotiating with the Clone Wars-era Trade Federation, The Phantom Menace novel starts off with an event that’s only briefly mentioned in the film: the podrace between Anakin and Sebulba in which Anakin crashes Watto’s racer. By moving Anakin’s story to the forefront of the plot, the novel reframes Anakin as the protagonist instead of as a cursory subplot and focuses on Anakin’s character development in additional scenes, including a fight between Anakin and Greedo that teases Anakin’s dark side and a surprisingly compassionate chance meeting between Anakin and a Tusken Raider.
In the novel, a young Anakin happens upon an injured Tusken Raider trapped under a boulder while traveling through the desert. Having heard stories about the dangerous Sand People, Anakin is unsure if he should help, and ruminates over how Watto or his mother would advise him to act. After sensing the Tusken’s pain, Anakin ultimately has his droids help him free the Tusken Raider. After checking the Tusken for injuries and setting his leg in a splint, Anakin sets up camp to watch the Tusken overnight. He also has C-3PO translate to the Tusken that he isn’t going to harm him and wants him to recover. When Anakin wakes up later that night, he’s surrounded by a whole group of Tusken Raiders, who immediately retreat once the Tusken Anakin helped appeals to them. Similar to the episode from The Mandalorian, Anakin’s encounter brings a new perspective to the creatures formerly portrayed as brutal monsters and depicts them rather as reasonable people.
Both of the conflicts involving the Tusken Raiders in The Mandalorian and The Phantom Menace novelization are resolved through the same means, by simply communicating and empathizing with the Tusken Raiders. While the nomadic tribespeople are known for their unintelligible Tusken Raider battle cry, The Mandalorian and The Phantom Menace novel reveals this is actually the Tuskens' native language. In The Mandalorian, Din’s ability to communicate with the Tusken Raiders in their language helps him understand the Tuskens' culture, observing that while they’re often brutal, they’re trustworthy people who keep their word once they form an alliance. Similarly, by communicating with the Tusken through C-3P0 and caring for the injured creature within The Phantom Menace novel, Anakin earns the Tusken’s trust in a similar form of exchange, which explains why the group of Tuskens left Anakin unharmed after the injured Tusken vouched for him.
Given that Anakin’s meeting with the Tusken wasn’t correlated to the main storyline of The Phantom Menace, it makes sense that the scene never made it into the final film. However, if Anakin’s first encounter with a Tusken Raider had been made canon within Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, the scene would’ve contributed to Anakin’s evolution from a Jedi in training to the Sith Lord Darth Vader. As a Jedi, Anakin believes in the value of preserving justice and peace, but if Anakin had saved a Tusken Raider as a child only to have one of their kind murder his mother in the future, such a betrayal would’ve challenged his belief system and might’ve contributed to his loss of faith in the way of the Jedi.