I’ll admit when I first saw “The Phantom Menace”, I was very surprised to see that Lucas chose to begin that trilogy with a 9-year-old Anakin as a slave boy. Initially the idea seemed rather strange, but when the moment came where he has to leave Shmi behind, and then his following interrogation by the Jedi Council, I had a general idea of how the new master plan was going to unfold. What I didn’t expect was Lucas going so far as having Anakin kill Younglings (that struck me as overkill, pardon the pun), but thankfully he kept it off-screen to maintain a lower rating…at least for the time.
I’ve heard the prequel bashers repeatedly condemn the love story between Anakin & Padme, but I don’t think they’re looking at it from the right perspective. Just as the tone of the original trilogy was modeled on the serials of the 1950s, Lucas went back even further and chose to model the prequels’ style on stories from the 1930s. So while it is a little cheesy, that’s by deliberate design. And besides that, stop to really think for a moment: what was your first love experience like? Were you confident and strong, sure that you knew exactly how to handle everything, and how it would all turn out? My personal guess is that for 99% of people in the world, their honest answer would be “no”. Anakin started off as an insecure slave who wanted to become a Jedi so he could save his fellow slaves, especially his mother. But once he joins the Jedi Order, his would-be master dies because of a Sith apprentice, and Obi-Wan takes up that duty. But hard as he tried, Kenobi was more of a stern brother to Anakin, who really needed a loving and supportive father figure. If he hadn’t been murdered, Qui-Gon would’ve been that for the boy.
Ten years pass, and not only has Anakin gone through all the changes of puberty with the emotions to accompany them, he’s also suffering nightmarish visions of his mother back on Tatooine. His desperation to save her drives him to defy the Council’s orders, and he makes it to Shmi barely in time for her to die in his arms. This is the catalyst for what will ultimately end with him being “more machine than man”, as he allows his rage to take over to him slaughtering the entire Tusken Raider camp. He feels remorse later, and Padme tries to comfort him, but he still fears a loss of total control. His words to Padme prove it: “I’m a Jedi. I know I’m better than this.” And then later, when burying Shmi, he makes a personal vow: “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you, Mom…but I promise I won’t fail again.”
Flash forward another three years, and not only has Anakin become a full Jedi Knight, he is now one of the most heralded leaders in the Clone Wars. Beings from across the galaxy have dubbed him “The Hero Without Fear”, but in fact the reverse is true: he still carries plenty of it inside of him. And when his nightmares return regarding his secret wife Padme (a fact he longer wants to keep from others) start to haunt him, he seeks out the worst person imaginable for advice: Chancellor Palpatine. Upon hearing the legend of “Darth Plagueis the Wise”, Anakin is slowly convinced the only way to save Padme and their unborn child is to abandon the Jedi way of life, and surrender to the Dark Side. But his decision costs him dearly, as he loses his friendship with Obi-Wan, becomes a mass murderer, loses the majority of his body in the flames of Mustafar, and is finally led to believe that he killed his own wife and kid.
Regarding “Revenge of the Sith” and Anakin’s fate in general, George Lucas once described it as “Star Wars Goes to Hell”, and I definitely see his point. Its an epic tragedy of a man who keeps losing one thing and person after another, until all that’s left is enslavement to a sadistic Emperor who cares for no one else. Its only when Luke is tortured nearly to death by the Emperor for refusing to kill his own father, that Anakin musters enough strength to destroy the man who held him prisoner for over 20 years. And it was all because his son showed him the value of sacrifice, refusing to accept the darkness even to spare someone else he loved.