Some miscellaneous PT head canon I was concocting the other day:

Episode I opens with a naive young Ben in search of a strong presence he felt in the force (Anakin)
A long time prior to the trilogy, a great war was waged between Sith and Jedi. To protect the stability and security of the republic, it was swiftly re organized into an empire, during which the chancellor-turned-emperor (different guy) called for Jedi and Sith alike to be killed en masse. The few who survived were driven into exile among the outskirts of the galaxy, Ben being the descendant of one of them. Any person in the republic who publicly displayed a personal connection to the force would be imprisoned, if not killed.
The main schism between Jedi and Sith was that the Sith believed force sensitive beings were to ultimately inherit the universe, while the Jedi believed in keeping the peace between all living things (and then Passion vs. Patience and all those other sorts of divides arose from that point). The presence of both groups in the old republic (not as much the sith, considering their views didn’t exactly gel with non-FS beings who greatly made up the majority of the republic ) created great tension, causing most to consider Jedi and Sith equally as much a threat.
Ben has been in pursuit of any surviving Jedi, convinced via a tremor in the force that the recently appointed Emperor Palpatine may be one of them. He believes (or rather, the force has guided him to believe) that once the Clone Wars (what are they? I haven’t quite decided) have ended, democracy can be restored and a new Jedi Order may be forged. As such, Palpatine would be the catalyst in all of these actions. He has faith that this will work, because destiny and balance etc etc…
Owen and Nik have lived together on Tatooine all their lives, Owen being about five or six years older than Anakin. As children, a cloaked figure with a red lightsaber (wink wink) sensed Anakin’s presence and great power, and came in pursuit of a new apprentice. Anakin then sees his mother killed before him, and unleashes his abilities all at once, overpowering the mysterious being and driving him away. Horrified and afraid of what he was capable of through instinct alone, Owen has to reassure Anakin that he did the right thing and saved them both. Nevertheless, he can never be seen using that power again, or they’ll both be in the hands of the empire.
Suppressing his physical connection to the force all throughout childhood, Anakin inadvertently strengthens the part he can’t control: the mental. He begins to see blurred premonitions of the end of days; friends dying, familiar and unfamiliar faces, but most importantly, and especially obscured image of himself throwing some elderly cloaked guy down a mine-shaft. The only other character in the story who exhibits this power as lucidly as Nik does is Palpatine, serving as the causation for their eventual alliance.
Thus sets into effect Ben’s Damn Fool Idealistic Crusade™, of which Nik and Owen are both just as skeptical and rejecting of. However, once Ben tells Anakin everything he’s learned about the force and the jedi and the grand restoring of balance, Anakin starts to realize it almost perfectly correlates with his reoccurring dreams. So after a long and hard thinking, he decides to give the whole Jedi thing a go. We get a barrage of scenes where Ben trains Anakin, guiding him to divorce himself from rage, and the two hit it off quite nicely.
[Many scenes missing]
The climax of Episode I would be a one on one between Nik and the man who kills his mother. Anakin tries his best to tap into the “obeying your commands” part of the force, but ultimately its the “controlling your actions” half that kicks in. So he murders the Sith in cold blood, confirming his worst fears about his relationship with the force. Ben catches up with him, at which point Anakin tells him point blank “I can’t do this” and runs away. The two split paths, at which point Anakin is cornered by a imperial brigade. He is brought in and interrogated, but a seemingly gentle natured Palpatine steps in and dissolves the issue personally.
Palpatine thanks Anakin for the great service he has done for the Empire (let’s just say for convenience’s sake that this sith had close ties to the mysterious clone threat), and asks him how he became so skilled with a lightsaber. Anakin adamantly denies to the Emperor that he has any relation to the Jedi or the force. Regardless, Palps tells him that his impeccable piloting skills and fighting abilities would be of great service in the battle against the mysterious clone attackers, and that the empire would treat him favorably. This is the last we see of Anakin for this film.
Ben can’t sacrifice his perceived destiny to chase after his misguided new friend. To put a twist on universal belief of SW backstory, It is only at this point that Ben seeks out Yoda, already living on Dagobah, and humbly requests to be trained.
“Help you, I can.”
[Iris out]