Just thinking about how…

When you take a step back and look at the Star Wars universe as a whole, it gets really hard to defend Padmé and Anakin’s relationship.

A common criticism against the Jedi Order is that they stood between Anakin and the love of his life, and that it tore him apart. And yeah, I guess that’s fair - if you ignore that Anakin was absolutely free to leave, that Padmé being a senator was as much of a problem as Anakin being a Jedi (which she states herself in AotC and RotS), and that Jedi weren’t even forbidden to have sex or to be in love (as explicitly stated by Lucas and Obi-Wan respectively - the problem with marriage was commitment; commitment to your spouse over commitment to your duty).

Except it wasn’t the secrecy that made Anakin fall. He would have reduced the Galaxy to ashes to save Padmé even if he’d been free to be married to her openly. And when you look at the fate of the universe? At what Anakin allowed to happen for Padmé? It’s not just the Clones whose identity and free will were ripped from them, not just the Jedi who were slaughtered by their best friends.

The Lasat were exterminated, the Wookiees enslaved, the Geonosians wiped out, the Mandalorians hunted down, the Force-sensitives children kidnapped. Worlds like Lothal were reduced to starvation. Alderaan was destroyed - billions of people, dead. Thousands of worlds were occupied and stripped of their resources.

When you need more than one hand to count the number of genocides the Empire committed, the scale of the horror is just too great to fathom.

So from that perspective - taking a step back, setting aside Padmé’s and Anakin’s feelings, understanding what was a stake - I say who cares. Who cares that Anakin was in love and that he felt he couldn’t live without Padmé. The priority was never “let Anakin Skywalker have everything his heart desires” - the priority was the billions of lives that were between him and his dreams.

That’s Jedi philosophy (except they are more compassionate that I am here). That you can’t place your emotions, your relationships, your loved ones above everything and everyone else. That’s selfish and that’s evil. Anakin’s tale was never that of a star-crossed lover who tried to break his bonds and love despite his cold, unfeeling Masters’ rules.

Anakin’s tale was that of a man who loved selfishly. (”There’s nothing more important to me than the way I feel about you” - Padmé isn’t even the most important thing - the way he feels about Padmé is.

“You turned her against me! You will not take her from me!”)

Who loved violently. (*after beating the crap out of Clovis* Anakin: “I know I went too far. It’s just… It’s just something inside me snapped.”

Padmé: “I don’t know who’s in there sometimes. I just know that I’m not happy anymore. I don’t feel safe. I think it’s best if we don’t see each other anymore. At least not for a while.”) (*later strangles his pregnant wife*)

He loved selfishly and violently and for the sake of one man’s feelings, one man’s heart, evil like nothing seen before was unleashed.

AAYLA: I can still sense your worry for Anakin,

your attachment to him.

AHSOKA: It’s just… I get so confused sometimes. It’s forbidden for Jedi to form attachments, yet we are supposed to be compassionate.

AAYLA: It is nothing to be ashamed of, Ahsoka. I went through the same process when I was your age with my own master.

AHSOKA: Really? You?

AAYLA: He was like a father to me. I realized that for the greater good, I had to let him go. Don’t lose a thousand lives just to save one.



Don’t lose a thousand lives to save one.

That’s it, that’s what letting go was about. And Anakin didn’t even try.

Of course Palpatine was the instigator of all this death and misery, of course it was his plan, his design, his fault. But Anakin was the catalyst. And Anakin stood by and let it happen, and then picked up a lightsaber and started slaughtering his way to what he imagined was a “happy ending” with Padmé.

Looking at the big picture, looking at all the suffering and loss and the hard struggles of people like Hera and Kanan, like the Rebels who had to sacrifice everything for the freedom of others, it seems absurd, ridiculous, blatantly unfair that this all came to pass become of one’s man love.