The way I imagined it as a kid, we would have seen a gradual and natural progression in Anakin’s character in the PT from a good guy who we identify with to Darth Vader. Instead, the PT portrays him as obviously bad as soon as Hayden Christensen is first introduced near the beginning of AotC. Right in that first scene, he’s blatantly defiant to Obi Wan in front of everyone, the look on everyone’s face is along the lines of… “um… should we start calling him ‘Darth’ now or later?”
This was one of my biggest problems with the portrayal of his character in the PT… scene after scene after scene of him holding up a huge sign that says, “I’m headed to the dark side in a handbasket” and everyone else acts like there’s nothing that can be done about it. If “Breaking Bad” is an example of a tragic character arc done effectively, then this is the textbook example of the precise opposite.