Did Anakin really love Padmé?

But it didn't end up destroying them! In the end it was that love and what it produced (luke and Leia) that saved Anakin's soul

This is how i see it. The Dark Side was in his nature. The love he had for Padme served as an excuse but also a conduit for the good inside him to manifest itself. That good was inherited by the twins, so in a way Luke and Leia represented the Light Side of Anakin Skywalker. And they were born out of the love he shared with Padme. So the two are very intimately conected. Much more then say his love and his turn to the Dark Side, because that would've happened regardless.

 

If the twins were born purely out of selfish, obsessional love, then the main theme of the story is dramatically cheapened. Lucas made it a clear point that the love that Luke has for his father, and his father's response to that, are what redeem him in the end. The reason Luke was able to suceed is because some part of Anakin was able to respond to the child born of he and Padme's love. If that love was never true in the first place then it makes Luke a schmuck and the audience feel unsatisfied at the outcome.

 

Anakin didn't want to kill padme, and you can tell that anakin loved padme when he did a big noooooooooooooooo!!!!!

 

Lucas says that Anakin confused possessive love with compassionate love. And that it's Luke who teaches Anakin how to love compassionately.

"It's about a good boy who was loving and had exceptional powers, but how that eventually corrupted him and how he confused possessive love with compassionate love. That happens in Episode II: Regardless of how his mother died, Jedis are not supposed to take vengeance. And that's why they say he was too old to be a Jedi, because he made his emotional connections. His undoing is that he loveth too much."

--George Lucas, Rolling Stone Magazine Interview; June 2005.

"It really has to do with learning," Lucas says, "Children teach you compassion. They teach you to love unconditionally. Anakin can't be redeemed for all the pain and suffering he's caused. He doesn't right the wrongs, but he stops the horror. The end of the Saga is simply Anakin saying, I care about this person, regardless of what it means to me. I will throw away everything that I have, everything that I've grown to love- primarily the Emperor- and throw away my life, to save this person. And I'm doing it because he has faith in me; he loves me despite all the horrible things I've done. I broke his mother's heart, but he still cares about me, and I can't let that die. Anakin is very different in the end. The thing of it is: The prophecy was right. Anakin was the chosen one, and he does bring balance to the Force. He takes the one ounce of good still left in him and destroys the Emperor out of compassion for his son."

--George Lucas, The Making Of Revenge Of The Sith; page 221


He did love Padme, but he also wanted to cling to her to replace that which he lost. Namely his mother. He just didn't want to be alone and even though he wasn't alone, he still couldn't see that. He envisioned a life that could never come to be, because of his committment to the Jedi and the committments that his loved ones had. He loved Padme, but he married her for all the wrong reasons. He was in love with an idealized version of Padme and not the reality. He's still thinking about her as the girl that she was when they first met and not the woman that she had become since then. He was wanting to constantly relive that time on Tatooine and the lake house on Naboo.

 

Oh he certainly loved her, I don't doubt that. His real love though was for himself and his power. He prized that above all so when it came to her or his own power, he was forced to choose between the two.

 

Wow... some really good points, folks!

 

Anakin truly loved Padme, but his lust for power ultimately outweighed his love for her, evidenced by his "Love won't save you, only my new power can" line. Love, it turns out, or Anakin's betrayal of that love was what took her away from him.

 

How is Padme in AOTC an idealized image? She standing right in front of him, and she is doing all the same things she did in TPM. Anakin loved the head strong Padme, and he loved her even more when he saw her fighting in the Naboo war. Anakin wasn't thinking of Padme as a 14 year old. He wanted her to stop thinking of *him* as a 9 year old. He knew she ahd grown up, but he was the one that went through the dramatic changes. If marrying someone because you love them body and soul is "all the wrong reasons" than we should stop marriage altogether.

 

The thing with Anakin is that he wants to keep moments frozen in time, forever. He's still stuck on the past. He's thought about her for ten years. He even says so to her. Obsess much? All he can think about her was how she was when they first met. About how she kissed him. That's the image that's been in his head. When he sees her, he admends it, by acknowledging that she's grown more beautiful. But now he wants her to be just like she was when they go to Naboo. Even Padme says as much. She wants to relive the way things were three years earlier. He doesn't like change. He wants things to stay as they are. Just the two of them. No one else coming in. No war. No politics.

Then comes the threat of change. Padme's pregnant and Anakin killed Dooku in revenge. He is afraid of change and as Lucas said, when you bring fear into a situation, it becomes a sticking point. Anakin's vision is based on his fear of change. He's afraid of losing everything, even before he's seen his vision. He just doesn't realize until it happens. So he wants to fight off change, but his mother and his mentors tell him that you cannot fight change. Nature, life is about change.

Anakin and Padme did get married for the wrong reasons. He's a Jedi in training. She's a Senator. They knew it was wrong. He got married because he was obsessed with her. She got married because she let her emotions control her. If they really loved each other, they would've both quit their life styles and gone off together. Or at least go before the Council and Queen Jamilla and let them know. They were being selfish. It's evident in ROTS. Padme's freaking out, worried about losing her position in the Senate. Worried about Anakin getting into trouble. Anakin doesn't tell Yoda or Obi-wan, that his vision is based on Padme. Rather than being responsible adults, they acted like children.

They did it out of fear. He was afraid to be alone and she did it because she thought they were going to die. They barely knew each other. They were together a week, don't see each other for ten years, spend another week together and then get married. Look at Han and Leia. Three years passed before she professed her love. Another year before he did. Four more years before they got married.

As to marriage, is it important? All it is, is a contract, for lack of a better term. You can be in love and together without being married. Hell, people were that way before marriage was created. People are that way now.

 

First of all, I don't think age or time has anything to do with love. Some people can fall in love very fast at a young age. You can't compare Leia and Han's situation with Padme and Anakin's. They are different people with a different morality tale to tell. Padme and Anakin represent reckless tragic young love, the same tragic love seen in Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde, Orpheus and Eurydice... these are all meant to be depictions of TRUE love which is why they are considered literary and mythical tragedies. Their love goes horribly wrong mostly through youthful impulsiveness and pressures of society.

It's really easy to say that they both should have left their lives on Coruscant and run away together, that they should have told someone. They were in an extremely hard position, even more at the beginning of ROTS than in AOTC. Remember that they saw each other very rarely during the Clone Wars, it didn't become such a huge issue until ROTS, which of course it quickly escalated to an impossible situation. The EU is especially good at showing that they put each other before their "jobs", going so far as to speak of moving to Naboo after the war ended. But they are both very high ranking people fighting a desperate war. They both want to do what's right, for themselves and the Republic. It says something of their selfishness that they didn't abandon the Republic that needed them. But it's a very, very difficult situation they're in, though they did commit a very human act by putting themselves there to begin with, so I don't think we can get on some moral high horse while looking at it. Yes, Anakin SHOULD have told someone, Obi-Wan at the very least, when he had this dream about Padme, if not before. It is his selfishness and fear that drives him not to tell anyone when he really should have, but I don't think that says anything about him not feeling true love for Padme and she for him. Love is irrational, it makes people do stupid things, especially in tragic love stories.

 

That they are together after 3 plus year tells me they did have a more developed relationship.

Leia ran away from Han and her feelings of vunerablity. She did that out of fear. Han was really professinghis love for her and encouraging her to do the same as early as ESB. She ferociously denied it, because she was afraid of letting someone near her.

 

Yes, I agree that it was not right for a Jedi in training, and a Senator to get married. But for two people in love, it is. I really don't see any obsession at this point. True, he dreamed about her, but when she says they can't be together, he doesn't try anymore. He doesn't push it. He obviously still loves her, but he's trying to let go.

They didn't know each other for a long time at all, but they didn't need to. They formed a connection at their parting, and that connection stayed with *both* of them. Padme learned to not show it as much, but that doesn't mean she fell in love with him simply because he loved her. Or because her sister was pushing her to have a romantic relationship (though I do think that contributed).

It was an unhealthy marriage at first, but it got better. We see them together before all the turmoil in ROTS, and they are perfectly fine. Beautifully in love. Nothing wrong. The events of ROTS *prove* their love for one another, whether or not it was all there in the beginning.

 

And she made it worse by opening her mouth. By covering for him about the Tuskens. But then, love is blind and that's apparent. And it is obsession. If you're still thinking of someone you barely knew and think that you're in love with them, that is obsession. It's also unhealthy. Lucas makes it clear that Anakin's love for Padme is boarderline obsession and that is wrong for a Jedi. To be obsessed over someone is dangerous.

Yeah, they did. If they really knew each other, their marriage wouldn't be strained because of political matters. Because of lack of trust on Anakin's part. Trust me, if you rush into something without getting to know someone, it'll end badly.

It was unhealthy period, because they were living a lie. It was unhealthy because they rushed into something without really taking things into consideration. They didn't spend enough time together. Anakin shouldn't have let his issues shut her out. Anakin should've understood that she wouldn't want him to become all powerful. He should've respected her and her decisions. He shouldn't even think of putting Palpatine ahead of her, as he does when she starts to talk to him about getting Palpatine to let go of Emergency Powers.

This is what I mean by knowing each other. He never opens up to her all the way. He always shuts her out, as she mentions. He's not always honest with her. Marriage is built on trust, respect, honesty and other things. The fact that they didn't have any of that is what hurts them. They weren't ready to be married and rushing into marriage only made it worse. A few minutes bliss is fleeting compared to what comes after that.

 

I would say yes, Anakin did love Padme. During the time when she confessed her love for him until the end, he loved her. I think it wasn't an obession he had with her. It was more like had this thing for her since he was small, then it blossomed. But on the other hand it proved to be destructive for both Padme and Anakin. His love for her had been tested because he'd proven what he would do to go through with it. He would even risk being expelled from the J O if they ever found out. Obi-Wan knew something was between them even before their assigments in Episode II. He did tell Mace about it but that was it, only out of concern. In life we make the ones we love cry. We make the ones that we love sad. And we severely end up hurting the ones we love at times.

 

This isn't real life. This is nearly tragic mythology. Romeo and Juliet fell in love in one night and that's considered one of the greatest love stories ever written. Time has nothing to do with it, especially in a story like this. But love IS blind, it makes you do crazy things, accept that which you normally wouldn't, and can often become the most important thing in your life. Anakin and Padme's reaction to each other in AOTC is no different from that which you find here on Earth, it's their situation that intensifies everything. Their marriage was wrong because their jobs said it was, but as human beings, it's a perfectly normal thing to want. Any attachment is wrong for a Jedi, but not wrong for normal people. Clearly part of Anakin's problem is trying to have a normal life and a Jedi life at the same time. No one is saying that Anakin didn't become obsessed with her, but it wasn't until the events of ROTS. If he was so obsessed in the beginning he would have left the Order, or not done his Jedi duty properly in the Clone Wars. But he did his job very well and rarely got to see Padme.

"Obsession" has a lot of negative connotations. And as I've said before, if Anakin was only ever obsessed with Padme, and not in love with her, than it completely cheapens Luke's role in all this.

 

Yeah I think Anakin's feelings for Padme are obsession. Love has nothing to do with his attitude towards Padme. That's not what "love" is about. He was obsessed with Padme and he doesnt really learn the true meaning of love until ROTJ comes around, when he shows his love for his son with the most unselfish act in the entire saga.

 

I completely disagree. His selfish, possessive love of Padme was at the root of his downfall but the pure, selfless love from his son is what brought him back. I believe it actually works beautifully, strengthens the overall story - particularly Anakin's character arc - while adding something to an otherwise unconvincing love story.

Not to mention that having Luke and Leia succeed where Anakin and Padme failed respectively - especially if being born out of a "less than pure love" - is actually quite uplifting. Some would say, they're a new hope.

 

Yes. He does love Padme, but it's more of an obsessive way. This is a man who doesn't understand that love comes in two forms. A compassionate love, which is the healthy and normal way love should come. And there's the possessive/obsessive love, which is a dangerous love.

Lucas told us that Anakin's flaw is that he confuses compassionate love and possessive love. And RebelScum, you know as well as I do that's what Lucas said. You've read and saved those quotes from the commentary and the informational texts and interviews, just as I have. He loves Padme, but he loves her too much. Too hard. Too fast. And he's unwilling to let go of her, because he enjoys it too much. She has become something that is more and more akin to being a possession than a simple human being, who is his wife and partner. His friend above all else. What saves him is that his son shows him where he made the mistake. He shows him the flaws of the Dark Side. That it's not as strong as he'd like to think. Luke shows him things that he missed, because he blinded himself to them. Be intentionally or unintentionally. Luke teaches him the right way to love. They see each other and see themselves in each other. Anakin sees the road not taken in Luke and Luke sees the road to hell in Anakin.


Now, yes. Real life is different from fiction. But just as is the case in real life, people need to get to know one another before making a committment. The real world is dangerous. Anakin may not have done all the things a real life person would do, who has a selfish love or an obsessive love. But it applies in the sense that she doesn't understand that there is a lot about Anakin that she doesn't know. And there is a lot about Padme that Anakin doesn't understand yet. What they do know is not enough, because neither one can understand or accept everything. Anakin thinks that Padme is naviee for trusting in the Republic. Padme thinks that Anakin will not do something so henious like he did with the Tuskens, a second time. Not all relationships end happily and not all end in tragedy. My point is that they rushed into this and maybe if they had waited, things might not have gotten so bad. Yes, I know that in romantic stories and the like, that they have to go this certain way. But I'm speaking in the context of if they were a real couple, they did things too impulsively.

 

He never put Palpatine ahead of her. He wasn't going to blindy do something his wife tells him to. He has opinions on the political matter as well. He didn't believe this was what had to be done, and it would have been absolutely pathetic if he turned his back on his beliefs so that he could do what his wife wanted.

For *many* years now he has been told to do just that. Surpress his emotions. Actually, he has been told to just not feel anything. Surpressing his emotions is something he had to learn to do on his own.

I agree that this marriage was unhealthy. But you can see that Anakin only becomes obsessive when he thinks he is losing her. That is something that was caused by his parting from his mother, and the death of his mother. The only reason he fears to lose her is becuase he loves her. Call it being obsessive, but I know I would neve stop thinking about my husband if there was a threat that he might die.

 

He loved her at first, but as he started going to the dark side, the love became greed. He WANTED her like a kid wants toy. He believed she was his and that he wouldnt let anyone take her from him and as stated before, she was the pretext, the justification for most of his actions.

 

The thing with Anakin is that he really did, dose love her. But where he goings wrong is that he loves to the point of not wanting to let go. First he lost Qui-gon, then his mother, the Padme. Three people he had love for and loved him.

ROTS also shows that he loves Padme. When she is worried about being pregent Anakin is there to tell her it is a blassing. The problem and reason he fell to the Dark Side was that when he had the dream about Padme dieing givng brith the Luke and Leia. So he wanted to find away to save her so that he would not lose another person he loved. On top of that he did not even know what would have happened to Luke and Leia so that would have all been adding to it.

But once he started done the dark path he lost himself and what he loved becasue the dark side took over. It was not until Luke then came a long that the good side was able to come back and he was able to let go.

 

If Anakin didn't love Padme he wouldn't have risked being a Jedi and married her. Anakin wouldn't risk his life if he didn't love her. He turned to the Dark Side to try and save her. To say that Anakin Skywalker does not love Padme is like saying nobody loves anybody.

 

Short and sweet. I love it

 

I'm not saying that Anakin didn't love her. I'm just saying that she was more of an ideal image in his head. More of a possession to feed his desire to keep people in his life. She's his replacement for Shmi. No, this is not Freud (sp). He clings to her when Shmi dies.

And your wife's needs come before all else. Above your political beliefs. Above other friendships. He has no problem doing what the Jedi want, regarding Palpatine. But when Padme asks him to talk to Palpatine, he freaks out.

As to Anakin shutting Padme out, it's nothing to do with his Jedi training. It has to do with his idea that he has to do this himself. He's being selfish because he's not asking for her help, after he asked for the Jedi's help. He opened up to her three years ago about the death of his mother. But since then, he hasn't been as open and honest with her as he used to be. Six months ago on Naboo, he was telling her about his desire to quit after the war. A few days earlier, in the novelization, he speaks of it again. Now he won't even talk to her.

 

His possession? Again with the "object" mumbo-jumbo. His "obsession" with her was due to the fact that he had lost every single person he had truly loved. There was nothing left *to* love, except for her. He poured his heart to her, and gave her his soul. She was the only natural thing left in his life.

He clings to her because his *mother just died.* He needed someone to tell him that he would get through this. That everything would be fine again. He just needed someone to *listen* to him. He hadn't had a person to actually *talk* to in over 10 years. I doubt Obi-Wan cared or had the time to listen to Anakin speak of his mother.

Um...in case you forgot, Anakin *does* have a problem with the Council asking him to spy on the Palpatine. He has a *huge* problem. And I really don't think your wife's need come before you own beliefs. Doing something you don't value is wrong. To yourself. Anakin saw the Council's morals slowly part form his, and that's a major factor in why he turned. Padme also had different beliefs (political and personal), and that is also something that caused him to choke her.

His mind is rattling over the huge dilema that has passed into his life. A threat on Padme's life. He can't stop thinking about it, and whenever he tries to talk to Padme about it, she just says she won't die. She refuses to believe this or she is trying to convince herself. She isn't helping him what so ever, he needs answers, not words of comfort.