First, I was starting to get fed up with a lot of the thought processes/comments on the board as of late, it had seemed the new movie brought a lot of trolls to the board and i was ready to take a break until they left, but Jay's and MeBe's last posts restored some of my faith in SW fans.
I really think the point about Qui-Gon and the Fall of the Jedi Council are good points. After the first mention of 'the prophecy' my take has always been that in the end anakin does restore balance, just not as the Jedi thought, and this takes my own thoughts so much further in this respect.
As far as Anakins father and Palpatine's master. After seeing it again last night, Palpatine only refers to it as a 'Sith Legend' he never says it happened long ago. So it makes more sense that Plagueous was Palp's master and Palps told the story as he did because he wasnt quite ready to reveal himself as the Sith Lord and also it sounds more impressive as a Legend than, 'back a few years ago...'
Also, creating life and keeping life alive are two different things. Its possible that Palpatine could have masterd the ability to 'create' life through the force, but not prevent death. Also, Im not really sure if i think that Palpatine created Anakin or if it was his master. But i agree that apparently his master didnt teach him 'everything' he knows. And also, like Palps said, his master was unable to save himself from death.
I also found Anakins 'turn' more convincing this time around as well. I think the turn is actually taking place the whole movie. Palpatine is constantly placing seeds of doubt in Skywalkers mind. At the end Anakin is essentially loosing everything because of the conflict and desperatly wants the power to stop the lose, the fear of loosing Padme is too much for him, he doesnt want another lose like that of his mom's again. So he chooses to 'believe' in Palpatine's ability to help him save her because he cant stand to loose the one thing he cares about most. Then at the end (his dual with obi-wan) he's basically lost padme, he's lost obi-wan, all he has left is the promises of the Emperor and that what he is doing is the right thing. I know im not really expressing this as well as im thinking it, but I think it fits with the Vader we know in the OT. The part that really made me realize this, and will hopefully get my point across, was when i went home and watched ESB and during the Luke/Vader fight Vader says to Luke 'Join me and together we can rule the Galaxy as father and son' , and a comment about 'putting an end to this conflict' and since i had just watched Episode III less than an hour ago I was reminded of the scene where he tells Padme, 'I can overthrow the Chancellor, we can rule the Galaxy together and make things right, the way we want' or something along those lines. So ultimately all Anakin really wants is to restore Peace to the Republic and he believes (he has to because if he doesnt then he himself has destroyed everything he believes in) that what he is doing will achieve that. Similar to his comment in Episode II where he tells Padme that 'someone should make them agree' when she said 'who you?' he said no, but maybe he thinks that person is Palpatine, or that Palps is at least a good choice. It would seem that when talking with Luke and Padme, his thirst for power has somewhat taken over and he wants that position. But either way its clear that he thinks thats the way to ensure peace.
-Darth Simon