Double standards regarding Anakin:

I've noticed lots of double standards when it comes to the bashing, or hatred of Anakin Skywalker. You see...

If Obi Wan leaves Anakin to burn alive, it's not Obi Wan's fault for not being able to kill his former best friend. It's Anakin's fault for being arrogant---never mind the fact that Anakin had no choice but to jump, seeing as how Obi Wan was trying to kill him. Yes, Anakin was trying to kill Obi Wan, but he was trying to kill Obi Wan because he felt Obi Wan betrayed him. Now, why did he feel that way? Well, Obi Wan sneaked onto Padme's ship(which is his fault), and that caused Anakin to believe Obi Wan had betrayed him. Then, there was Anakin's "From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!" which shows how he felt about the Jedi as a whole, including Obi Wan, at the moment.

Which reminds me---Obi Wan is allowed to hate Anakin 'cause he's a Sith, but if Anakin hates Obi Wan 'cause he is a Jedi, he is "dealing in aboslutes."

If the Tusken Raiders not just torture Anakin's mother to death and chop of Cliegg's leg, but kill 26 farmers---which is, indeed, mass murder---it's looked over and ignored, whereas Anakin is a "monster" for committing mass murder against people who are mass murderers themselves. I know that not all of them are mass murderers, but I have a feeling that the majority of the people Anakin killed are Tusken Warriors. After all, in the AOTC novel most of the Tusken Raiders were described as being armed.

If Palpatine eradicates the Jedi Order, it's okay because he is "badass." But if Anakin helps do so, it's further proof that he is a monster.

If the Jedi Order, including the Council, is naive to the fact that Palpatine is a Sith Lord, they are still "wise" but if Anakin is naive to that fact for a while, but EVENTUALLY finds out that Palpatine is indeed a Sith Lord, he is retarded.

If Tarkin destroys Alderaan, it's all Vader's fault and HE destroyed Alderaan by not doing anything. It doesn't matter that Tarkin gave the Order to destroy the planet, I guess.

If Anakin loses his arm, it's his fault for charging at Dooku because Dooku hurt Obi Wan, Padme, and massacred hundreds of Jedi. Yet when Luke lost his arm, nobody said "He deserved it! He shouldn't have gone to Cloud City."

Padme did not want their marriage to become public knowledge because they had a duty to the Republic, and also because she was afraid "all the good things in Anakin's heart would cripple" if he left the Jedi Order. But Anakin still gets all the blame for not revealing their marriage.

Sorry if it seems like I am excusing Anakin's actions, but I'm not. I'm just saying that the characters should be blamed for THEIR actions, instead of ALL the blame going to Anakin.

Just face it. Anakin is responsible for killing the Tusken Raiders. He is responsible for helping kill Mace Windu. He is responsible for *helping* destroy the Jedi Order, and he is responsible for attempting to murder Padme. Anakin is responsible for hunting down the rest of the Jedi and killing them. He is responsible for his crimes in the OT as well.

But he is not responsible for Obi Wan's mistakes. It's Obi Wan's fault he left Anakin to burn alive. It's not Anakin's fault that the marriage wasn't revealed. He wanted to reveal it, but Padme didn't want him to. It's not Anakin's fault for being manipulated by Palpatine. He was just nine years old when Palpatine started manipulating him; remember that. It's not Anakin's fault Tarkin wanted to destroy Alderaan. Just because he is the Chosen One doesn't mean he deserves all the blame for everyone elses' bad decisions and mistakes.

 

right by he was the key to it all happening. Remember: the bulk of the events were centered around his actions, let alone his existence.

 

There are some double standards applied to Anakin, but let's not forget that the man gives many people plenty of opportunity to hate him. Yes, at times, the dislike is extreme, but I would say that, more often than not, those who express a dislike of the character do so for legitimate reasons.

Now I don't buy this reasoning. Obi-Wan was put into a terrible position by Anakin's turn. The man had helped to kill his entire family -- the Jedi Order -- and destroyed his home. Personally, I felt Obi-Wan handled the situation rather well. Was it cowardly to leave Anakin to burn? Perhaps. There is some underlying cruelty in leaving the man to die of his burns rather than put him out of his misery, but also consider Obi-Wan's feelings. Everyone he has grown up with is dead and the cause of that is someone he loves. I imagine he was simply sick of death and couldn't bring himself to partake in yet another killing when so many had been lost. And Anakin attacking Obi-Wan was not justified -- if he had actually listed to Obi-Wan and Padme, they would have readily explained to him that they hadn't betrayed him. But he was so far gone by that point that he wouldn't, or couldn't, listen to reason.

Also, there's no evidence that Obi-Wan hates Anakin. He hates what he has become yes, but he tells Anakin that he has failed him and that he loved him as a brother. Honestly, I think the person Obi-Wan hates the most at that moment is himself.

The difference is that Anakin knows better. I argue in his defense because I believe that he could not control himself, that he lost his grip on sanity in the moment his mother died, but that doesn't make his actions any less wrong. The lives of innocents should not be taken lightly and although I believe Anakin was not in the frame of mind to differentiate the innocent from the guilty, it doesn't change the fact of his guilt. He is a killer, and there's no changing that fact.

I don't think anyone has ever argued that Palpatine isn't a monster though. He's often described as the very personification of evil in Star Wars.

 

I'm not saying Obi Wan should have gotten out a blanket and rescued Anakin. I think he should have killed Anakin, but I guess I see what you mean. It would have been difficult to kill Anakin because he was burning up, and if Obi Wan got to close to him, he would have probably got burned too.

Well, Anakin did deserve some sort of punishment. I just wish that his punishment was the death penalty rather than burning alive. But I guess I can forgive Obi Wan for it. He didn't really have a choice, I guess. It was kill or be killed.

While it's difficult for me as an Anakin fan to hear him scream as he burns alive...I can try forgiving Obi Wan for it. He wasn't sure what to do at the time, and he himself had to look away while Anakin burned.

Yes. The Tusken Raiders are mass murderers themselves, and people ignore that fact for whatever reason. And Palpatine gave Order 66, but gets off scott free because he is a "badass."

PiettsHat, I can understand if they hate Anakin because of he eradicated the Order for a purely selfish allbeit understandable reason, and even because of what he did to the Tusken Raiders. I can understand if they hate him because he didn't stop Tarkin's order to stop Alderaan, and all the other evil things he did as Vader. I can also understand to a small extent if they hate Anakin because he talked behind Obi Wan's back twice.

But everything else? His personality isn't that bad. While Anakin did do back-talking, Obi Wan also called Anakin arrogant behind his back. And Anakin did many heroic things during his time as a Jedi. He wasn't a spoiled brat who wanted recognition for trivial things. The Prequels weren't too good at showing Anakin's heroism, but he must have done many good things if he was considered the "Hero With No Fear."

And Anakin has virtues, doesn't he? He's not completely flawed. The flaws he has are very bad, but I can't hate him for it because it's due to nurture rather than nature. He wasn't born arrogant, immature, and to an extent, selfish. Those were flaws that were due to child abuse, manipulation, and not having his emotional needs fulfilled by the Jedi Order. He was abused by Gardulla, Watto, manipulated by Palpatine, and the Jedi didn't seem to care about him as a person.

From Anakin's point of view, they were treating him like a tool, like a thing they could use to their advantage, rather than a person. And it's also why he got angry at Padme for asking him to go to Palpatine and get him to end the war. He felt like Padme, just like the Jedi, were taking advantage of his relationship with Palpatine. He always felt like everyone was taking advantage of him and only cared about what they could do FOR them. That's why he felt so horrified when those he loved were in danger---they were the only ones who

 

Let me start by saying cool rant, bro. Let me try...

Double standards are a fact of life. We all do it. A lot of people hate Anakin, so they can trash him for something and give someone else they like a pass for the same thing. Why? Because they hate Anakin.

I'm not even sure what this is referring to. Did someone say it's Anakin's fault that Obi-Wan couldn't kill him? Is Obi-Wan supposed/expected to kill Anakin? I'm not sure what your point is with this.

LOLWUT? He had no choice? I'm starting to wonder if people even know what "choice" means. He had many other choices. Your reason is even funnier, he had to jump because Obi-Wan was trying to kill him? First, why does he have to deliver himself into the hands of death? Why does he have to continue the fight? Second, Obi-Wan told him not to jump, he said "don't do it", he warned him not to.

Betrayal? You mean like killing the people that raised you? Isn't that what Anakin just got done doing? Anakin betrayed Obi-Wan and all Jedi, the rest is just the consequences.

I don't care how he feels, he's an idiot. Obi-Wan cannot betray Anakin, Anakin already betrayed him. His point of view is laughable. He just got done slaughtering children.

I'm not sure Obi-Wan ever hated Anakin. As for "absolutes", watch the movie again. It's not about hatred, it's about "if you're not with me, then you're my enemy".

It's all looked over because it is all assumed. The Tuskens are guilty, I don't think I've seen anyone dispute that. The Tuskens are primitive savages, I don't think I've seen anyone dispute that. None of this needs to be said, it can be assumed. That doesn't mean they deserve to be "slaughtered like animals", regardless of their actions. Nobody deserves that. Two wrongs don't make a right.

Again, it doesn't need to be said that Palpatine is a monster. Everyone assumes this. I believe Lucas has been quoted as describing him as "pure evil". It's only "okay" because people like Palpatine, they enjoy his character. Palpatine is a monster, but he's also a badass.

 

I get it. You hate Anakin, and don't appreciate him as a character or person. And don't worry, I'm not accusing you of character bashing. However, I do wonder why you constantly go to threads about Anakin; you seem to hate him quite a bit. And sorry if you really don't hate him, but that's how your posts come off.

In response, from my point of view Anakin does get quite a bit blame for other peoples' problems. At least, it *seems* that way because everyone always focuses on Anakin's bad decisions, and not really other peoples' mistakes. So I guess you're right. He isn't exactly blamed for other peoples' bad decisions, but it seems that way because from what I have seen nobody seemed to care about things such as, well, the dead farmers' bodies at the Tusken Raiders' hands.

I don't think the Tusken Raiders deserved to be slaughtered, but Anakin does not deserve to be called a Monster either because he expressed remorse for his actions.

And when I said Anakin had no choice, I meant that he had no choice but to fight Obi Wan because Obi Wan brought out his light saber. And can't you see things from Anakin's point of view? From his point of view, Obi Wan was most likely taunting him when he said "Don't do it."

When I said Padme deserves some blame for not revealing the marriage, I didn't mean she had some type of control on Anakin or anything. I meant that she shouldn't have encouraged the deception. But since she did encourage the deception, it's partially her fault that they were living a lie. Plain and simple, it's 50% Padme's fault, and 50% Anakin's fault when people often seem to think it's 100% Anakin's fault.

I've never, ever said that Anakin is perfect and deserves no blame for anything. I'm saying that all the horrible things that happen in the Prequels is not just Anakin's fault, but that everyone elses' choices contribute to what happened. And Anakin didn't make the most bad decisions, Palpatine did.

Also, I think it's offensive to say the things that Palpatine did was "badass." He played a big role in the genocide against the Jedi Order. Anakin had a big role in what happened as well, and nobody says THAT is badass. But when Palpatine does it, it's somehow badass.

That's what I'm talking about when I speak of double standards. If Anakin was as manipulative as Palpatine was, he'd get bashed for it. But Palpatine's so-called "badass" manipulation is worshipped for whatever reason. Yes, Palpatine is intelligent, but using your intelligence to manipulate people is NOT a good way to use your intelligence, and by no means badass.

Then again, I have never understood why Darth Vader was considered "badass" when strangling Imperial Officers. I can understand why he did it; he hates failure and corruption. But strangling people is not badass in my opinion. I think that's partially why Lucas showed Vader Force-choke Padme. It was to show that no, strangling people is not badass, but quite cruel and evil. Sorry, but for the life of me I will never be able to understand why stuff like strangling people, committing genocide, and manipulating people is considered badass...

 

I do hate Anakin and I rather enjoyed posting here. I could ask why you make a thread about Anakin every single day despite getting the same responses, but it's none of my business.

I do appreciate your polite way of discussing things, though.

I can see things from Anakin's point of view, and that is why I think he is so stupid. If he thought Obi-Wan was taunting him instead of trying to save him, he's an idiot. Even if Obi-Wan was taunting him, what he tried is still incredibly stupid. Why did he try to jump over him, instead of the many other things he could have done? Because he's an idiot.

If something taunts you to jump off a bridge and you do it, you're an idiot.

Palpatine is badass because people like him, he's charismatic and entertaining to watch.

Vader was badass because people like him, he's entertaining to watch.

Strangling people for failure is badass, depending on your definition of 'badass'.

Strangling the wife you supposedly love and would do anything to save because of your own misconception and paranoia is not badass, it's stupid. Or badass, if that is your opinion.

 

Thank you. Yes, I could tell you hated him. Not that you're a basher or anything.

I don't think he's an idiot. And I guess I'm stupid then, because to be honest when I watched ROTS I thought what Obi Wan said could be considered taunting.

Well, remember what the Jedi said about the Dark Side clouding minds? I have a theory that Anakin was so consumed by the Dark Side that it lowered his intelligence...but maybe I'm just getting ahead of myself.

 

I would agree that he wasn't doing much thinking on Mustafar. He was so drunk on power and full of himself that he thought he could do anything.

He may have a shred of intelligence, unfortunately he didn't use it when he needed it most.

When it comes to Anakin, you can call me a basher if you want, as Piett said I have legitimate reasons.

I should say that Darth Vader was my absolute favorite character from the OT, then Anakin Skywalker came along and ruined him for me. Part of my distaste for Anakin comes from the massive disappointment I felt and still feel this day.

 

True, but I'd say he wasn't the only one in the movie who displayed stupidity. The Jedi Council sent Anakin to spy on Palpatine because they thought Palpatine was a bad influence on Anakin. But that doesn't make sense---if they really thought he was a bad influence on *Anakin*, why the Hell did they send Anakin, of all people, to spy on him?

Vader was your favorite character? Well, I didn't really find him too interesting in A New Hope. But in Empire Strikes Back, he started getting pretty interesting because it was revealed that he was possibly Luke's father.

And to be honest, the first Prequel I watched was AOTC, but I didn't get to finish watching it because my brother puked when the bug from the assassin showed up in the movie. But when I was older, I watched ROTS, and fell in love with Anakin's character.

I later watched the other Prequels, I was somewhat indifferent to his character in TPM, and thought he was annoying to an extent in AOTC. But while Anakin did horrible things when he fell to the Dark Side, I was actually unaware of how flawed he was until I came to this forum.

I had no idea that there were threads which labelled him a monster, and didn't even consider him selfish until I spent time analyzing his character. Interestingly, while I found more faults in him as both a character and person the more I analyzed him, I noticed more of his virtues as well.

And back to Anakin's 'stupidity'...Well, that reminds me of how people view Othello. In ROTS, Anakin, especially in the novelization, reminded me of Othello. People calling Anakin stupid because he didn't know the true extent of Palpatine's evilness reminds me of how Othello is bashed for calling Iago, who is a total and complete liar, "honest."

Mind you, I don't like Othello, but I had the idea that Othello wasn't stupid, but that Iago was manipulative enough to trick people into trusting him. Same thing with Palpatine manipulating Anakin. However, Othello was much more jealous than Anakin ever was. Anakin thought Obi Wan was shagging Padme in the ROTS novelization, an idea that was dropped from the movie.

However, although Anakin confronted Padme and asked what she and Obi Wan had been talking about, and accused her of "acting and pretending" he never called Padme a whore, strumpet, or slapped her like Othello did to Desdemona. However, in the novelization he didn't say "you brought him to kill me" so perhaps in the novelization the real reason behind the Force choke was jealousy. However, the novelization is not completely canon so I guess the reason is still "you brought him here to kill me."

 

No they didn't send him to spy on Palps because he was a bad influence on him. In fact they questioned their decision to have him spy on Palpy because he was a bad influence on Anakin. They wanted anakin to spy on Palps because they were increasingly growing suspcious of the chancellor, and they were going to use the relationship he had with Anakin to do it. This of course was a ploy on Palpatine's part to a.)bring Anakin close at hand so he could finallize that whole bad influence thing and begin laying the groundwork on isolating and making Anakin doubt and distrust the jedi order to the point of conversion. b.) Gauging the council by having the most transparent and newest most gullible member close at hand as his endgame for their destruction was coming to a head.

I am by no means an Anakin fan, in fact it might be fair to say I'm a regular basher of his. But that doesn't mean I don't sympathize with his situation in ROTS. As he says to Padme: "I feel lost." Well he was lost, unsure of what to do and he tried to find a way out on his own and it didn't work out for him the way he wanted it to.

CT

Palpatine is badass because people like him, he's charismatic and entertaining to watch.

I don't think he's badass. I don't understand why anyone would think that. So he manipulated a lot of really dumb and gullible people. Big deal I could do that too.

tragic hero lover

but it seems that way because from what I have seen nobody seemed to care about things such as, well, the dead farmers' bodies at the Tusken Raiders' hands.

The thing is that Anakin didn't kill them as a means of justice for those dead moisture farmers. The reason why he killed them wasn't even becuase they beat up his mommy to death, that's only the cause of the reason why he killed them all, IMO. I think he killed them all because they made him feel powerless or else he would've stopped at the men who most likely gave Shmi the beatings, and killed those moisture farmers instead of murdering the women and children too. That's just my oppinion on his thinking, and I'm willing to conceded I may be incorrect in that.

 

but it seems that way because from what I have seen nobody seemed to care about things such as, well, the dead farmers' bodies at the Tusken Raiders' hands.

My one and only comment is: NO ONE has said they "don't care" - about Shmi's or the farmers' deaths.

You have had a lot of folks AGREE with you on Anakin's behavior; you've had a lot of folks explain why they disagree with Anakin's behavior as well, largely because your threads have (almost) always focused on Anakin, and finding and/or discussing reasons to sympathize with and understand his behavior/POV rather than inviting an general discussion of certain scenes from a myriad of viewpoints, not just Anakin's.

I do admire your passion and dedication to explaining Anakin.

 

Okay, I guess you're right about the reason why the Council really sending Anakin to spy on Palpatine because they were wary of him.

Anyways...I understand. Nobody here has bashed Anakin. Not at all. But Anakin fans are sensitive to criticism because Anakin *has* been bashed before. He's been called things such as spoiled brat, wife beater, etc. and we get fed up with it.

 

Read through 130 pages of past posts and you'll find the Obi-Wan fans are just as tired of the "it's all Obi-Wan's fault" - he criticized too much, he belittled Anakin too much, he didn't trust Anakin enough, he wasn't Qui-Gon enough, he didn't praise enough, he didn't show love enough, he didn't magically transform himself into a magical exactly-what-Anakin-needed-master...

...the level of blame and excuse has been ongoing for years now.

 

Now I'm getting reminded of the Twilight Team Edward vs. Team Jacob thing that is going on. It's almost as if there is a Team Anakin vs. Team Obi Wan now. Anakin is either seen as a spoiled brat who torments long-suffering, perfect Obi Wan , or Obi Wan is a heartless meanie-head who doesn't care about poor lil' misunderstood Ani.

 

About double standards,

About the Tuskens, I and many others have said that the Tuskens actions were very wrong, cruel and barbaric. That does not make Anakins actions right, two wrongs do not make a right. But there have been Anakin defenders that HAVE argued that what Anakin was not wrong in any way and in fact was quite a good thing.

About Padme, I have said that I think she deserves some of the blame with what happens.
She could have insisted that Anakin get help or tell Obi-Wan, she did not. She also keeps their marriage secret despite knowing all the rules they break.

About the Jedi order, I have talked about that in quite a few threads and my view is that the jedi comes across as generally clueless and coldhearted. They get wiped out mostly because of their own stupidity and they did many things wrong with Anakin. So no they a far from perfect. In fact for me the drama of them getting killed was grealty reduced due their incompetence and unlikable behaviour.

About Obi-Wan, I have also talked about the end of the lava duel and I have questioned Obi-Wans actions. They come across as needlessly cruel and sadistic and on top of that Obi-Wan ignores his own orders. His actions makes no sense, if he still cares one bit about Anakin, the decent thing to do would be to end his suffering. Even if he just views Anakin as a monster, it is not in Obi-Wans character to inflict needless suffering.
This is one of several scenes that became odd to me and the reason mostly is that "the plot requires this and so to happen". Here Anakin must not die so therefore Obi-Wan does not kill him. No matter how that makes Obi-Wan look.

In closing, I do not like Anakin much, biggest reason for that is his attitude during most of AotC. He is rude, self centered, over confident and a braggart.
None of those personality traits are appealing to me and I tend not to like people that behave in that manner. If Anakin had enough good qualities then I might still have liked him but he did not. He worked better at the start of RotS but by then the damage had been done.

Regards
Nordom

 

No, I'm not one of the fans who believe that the Tusken massacre was O.K. I know what he did to the Tusken Raiders was morally horrific, but I disagree with the "Why did Padme marry that Monster?!" threads.

I agree about Obi Wan being needlessly cruel when he left Anakin to burn. He should have just killed Anakin, but the plot demanded that Anakin survive.

Yes, the Jedi Order was far from perfect. They were incredibly inflexible and neglected basic emotional needs by constantly telling their members to "let go."

About Anakin's personality...I agree that he was quite arrogant, but only found him rude when he talked behind Obi Wan's back twice. However, Obi Wan did the same thing, according to a deleted AOTC scene so I'm not sure if I fault Anakin for it or not.

I didn't find him self centered in AOTC. In fact, I found him self centered in ROTS when he was willing to destroy the Jedi Order to save Padme's life. If he'd been thinking about Padme, he would have known she wouldn't have approved of that.

I think the problem with Anakin's character is that most of his character development is off screen. His arrogance and bitterness would be more understandable if we saw Palpatine manipulating Anakin. And if there were more Prequel movies, we could see more things such as Anakin's training, his heroism during the Clone Wars, and marriage with Padme.

And really...we don't get to see how Anakin is like when he's not stressed. In AOTC, lot's of bad things happened to him; he lost his mother, arm, a galatic war began, and he had to marry Padme in secret. And in ROTS, he's under even more stress. No matter how more likable he was in ROTS, he never seemed truly happy that often.

 

Is this really surprising? His action to slaughter a tusken camp is appaling, an almost unforgiveable crime. For most people that doesn't make him, hm, "marriage material".

I dislike Obi-Wan and his endless passiv-aggressive behavior and having Anakin burn in lava. He's an unsympathetic guy for me. But he's still a nicer person than a mass murderer (eventhough I like Anakin more than him).

The tuskens who tortured and murderered were vile criminals. But since this is so obvious it doesn't get discussed as often.

Palpatine's a monster. But again, it is so obvious, it needn't be mentioned.

Yes, the Jedi-order acts very foolish. I like to think that Anakin "knew" on some level what was going on with Palpatine and chose to ignore it. Unfortunately this isn't really implied in the movies.

Tarkin is mostly to fault but Vader chose to let it happen. He had the power to stop it anytime. Vader is a villain. His greatness lies partly in his willingness to overstep human boundaries. For some this is part of what makes him awesome and they don't want his villainy played down.

Anakin losing his arm is one of the few scenes that had an emotional impact for me.

Not from me.

 

I'm okay with her falling in love with Anakin. I admit I have trouble understanding why she marries him, however. In my mind those are two different things.

Maybe I can explain. It took me quite some time to combine Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader in a meaningful way without resorting to victimisation. It isn't very easy and some questions still aren't fully answered. Not being able to combine the interpretation of a beloved charakter with a later incarnation may be a source of frustration to some.

I do think however Anakin Skywalker adds some depth to Vader. Stuff like being a former slave, or Palpatines "son" are aspects we've only known after the PT.

He gets little screentime in ANH but that movie does add some facetts. We see that he will punish idiots like Motti but will go easy on confrontative Daine Jir. He is an outsider. He's at the same time incredible pragmatic but on the other hand believes in a religion. When I've first seen ANH those litte details already made me curious.

 

Why did she marry Anakin? Simply put, a galatic war had just began. Getting married was a good way for the two of them to be more committed to each other, and because of that, they would be less likely to grow distant. It explains why she seemed sad as they married. She was afraid that they would get found out, and that the Jedi would expel Anakin from the Jedi Order. And according to both of the ROTS novelizations, she was afraid that Anakin would change for the worse if he didn't stay a Jedi.

In the past thousand years, only twenty beings had left the Jedi Order. Anakin had spoken of them once, when they were talking of Count Dooku, the latest and last of the Lost Twenty. And Anakin had always wanted to be a Jedi. He had given his life to the Order---and no matter what he said, Padme was sure he would give up his life in service of the Jedi. He had become a hero by taking on dangerous and deadly missions, several of which had nearly killed him. What would he do, if he had to give that up? What would giving it up do to him? -from ROTS junior novelization

This is why she will not allow their marriage to become public knowledge. Her husband needs to be a Jedi. Saving people is what he was born for; to take that away from him would cripple every good thing in his troubled heart. -ROTS adult novelization

 

Exactly, she committed herself to a mass murderer that has all kinds of emotional problems and anger management issues. Anakin is a dangerous man and she's adult. She should be able to see where this is leading to, love or not. Then in ROTS she acts all suprised when he shows his true nature again. In my eyes it was always crystal clear that Anakin is not to be trusted.

 

I agree with about 90 percent of what you posted, but let's not be so hard on Obi-Wan.


Why? Why should we not be so harsh in pointing out Obi-Wan's mistakes? If we can be harsh in pointing out Anakin's mistakes, why not do the same for Obi-Wan?






He is complicit in the crime. Do you really think that if he had ordered them to stop, people would have just ignored him? He can kill people with his mind. Tarkin's just a bureaucrat.


Tarkin was one of Palpatine's personally selected "bureaucrats". And he was in command of the Death Star. I'm sure that the Emperor would like to "know" why Anakin had killed Tarkin for preventing the destruction of Alderaan.



Whoa whoa whoa, Anakin charged before Obi-Wan was touched. It's his fault for not listening to his master, for not "taking him together". I don't criticize Luke for going to Bespin, but losing his hand is his fault. He didn't have to duel Vader.


I do. Luke had allowed his emotions to get the best of him. His decision to cut short to "save Han and Leia" ended up being a major mistake. The only good thing that came out of this decision was the discovery that Lord Vader was his father.



Why did she marry Anakin? Simply put, a galatic war had just began. Getting married was a good way for the two of them to be more committed to each other, and because of that, they would be less likely to grow distant. It explains why she seemed sad as they married. She was afraid that they would get found out, and that the Jedi would expel Anakin from the Jedi Order. And according to both of the ROTS novelizations, she was afraid that Anakin would change for the worse if he didn't stay a Jedi.

In the past thousand years, only twenty beings had left the Jedi Order. Anakin had spoken of them once, when they were talking of Count Dooku, the latest and last of the Lost Twenty. And Anakin had always wanted to be a Jedi. He had given his life to the Order---and no matter what he said, Padme was sure he would give up his life in service of the Jedi. He had become a hero by taking on dangerous and deadly missions, several of which had nearly killed him. What would he do, if he had to give that up? What would giving it up do to him? -from ROTS junior novelization

This is why she will not allow their marriage to become public knowledge. Her husband needs to be a Jedi. Saving people is what he was born for; to take that away from him would cripple every good thing in his troubled heart. -ROTS adult novelization.

Let me get this straight. We're supposed to believe that Padme's decision to continue the deception about the marriage was a selfless act on her part? Good grief! What is this campaign to portray Padme as this selfless icon of perfection? It's nauseating. I think that a part of her feared losing Anakin if the Jedi found out. There wasn't only the fear of Anakin becoming a different person if he was kicked out of the Order. There was also the fear that he might choose the Order over her.



Read through 130 pages of past posts and you'll find the Obi-Wan fans are just as tired of the "it's all Obi-Wan's fault" - he criticized too much, he belittled Anakin too much, he didn't trust Anakin enough, he wasn't Qui-Gon enough, he didn't praise enough, he didn't show love enough, he didn't magically transform himself into a magical exactly-what-Anakin-needed-master...

...the level of blame and excuse has been ongoing for years now.


And it's going to continue for years. I'm sorry, but there are some of us who genuinely believe that Obi-Wan was the wrong guy to be Anakin's Jedi mentor. He simply wasn't. All I have to do is look at AOTC and ROTS, and watch the mistakes that Obi-Wan made. Don't worry. Anakin is still mainly responsible for his own downfall. Just as the Jedi (the much exaulted Yoda and Obi-Wan included) are responsible for their own downfall.