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Post #1692959

Author
Broom Kid
Parent topic
What do you think of The Prequel Trilogy? A general discussion.
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1692959/action/topic#1692959
Date created
27-Sep-2026, 5:53 PM

Anakin doesn’t fall to the Dark Side because he has “mommy issues.” He falls because he’s consumed by his selfish desire to control what he can’t control so that he never has to experience the pain of losing what he cares about.

That is first (and consistently) exemplified by his attachment to his mother. The attachment to his mother as a kid is the entry point into this idea and the formative aspect of his character you’re describing. The way he chose to build in a “fatal flaw” that leads to his turning in Episode III was to decide that what would turn him into a control freak was losing his mother; which is why he got de-aged in Episode I, because he wanted to make sure that initial trauma was so strong. Again: He arrives at a bad idea, then comes up with worse ideas (why can’t she just come along? Because Jedi take kids, because they’re a weird cult now, oh, and she’s also a slave. Why can’t jedi free slaves? It’s not their job. etc. etc. etc) to justify the initial bad one instead of just CHANGING THE INITIAL BAD IDEA.

Of course, this gets confused by all the “prophecy” stuff anyway, but the character didn’t NEED to have a “fatal flaw” in the first place like that. He decided to root his control freak tendencies in losing his mom, which became losing his wife. But it never needed to be rooted in losing his mom at all - and if he wanted Anakin to be a control freak, there are other ways around it other than mommy issues that then get transferred onto his wife.

Lucas hemmed himself in and then kept sewing anyway.