Hard agree with OP. (I commented under my main, @alexthespaceace.) Here are some of my favorite comments and/or exchanges in case the comments to this post blow up and makes these ones harder to refer back to.
(It'd be nice if there'd been more to the Anakin/Padme relationship than being necessary to make Luke and Leia. As the Puzzle in a Thunderstorm guys often say in early "God Awful Movies" podcast episodes, "You're the movie!" The Powers That Be could've made a non-toxic relationship, but that wouldn't have been good cinema or shown what a shitty person Anakin grew up to be.)
jedi-enthusiast
Original Poster
@askteamgrey Relationships do not necessarily equal attachment.
Relationships are just having feelings for someone and forming a bond with them---whether those are familial, platonic, or romantic.
Attachment, as I've already outlined above, is being unable or unwilling to let someone go, no matter what that might mean for you or them, because you don't want to go through life without them.
They’re two separate things that have the ability to intersect.
ladystonedwolf
only seen the movies, but anakin was told by a room full of adults when he was a kid that missing his mother was dangerous. that environment would emotionally stunt any kids ability to healthily process attachments and fears of loss
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alexthespaceace
That room full of adults thought he was too old and too prone to attachment (read: selfishness and obsession) to be fit for Jedi training, and Episodes II and III proved those adults right.
fai-gensou
Pretty sure this whole argument about attachment wouldn’t be happening if the word obsession was used. Because Anakin didn’t love Padme; he was obsessed with her. You don’t care if your obsessions and your actions to keep it harm you or everyone around you
batidodehuevo
I think you are wrong. Anakin didn't turn to the dark side because of his attachment to Pade, it was because he wanted to possess her. In the original triology they already prove that there is nothing wrong with being attached to others.
I also miss that Anakin is acting out for Padme because the last time he had a dream his mother died and when he went to Yoda to talk about it he literally told him to let go because people die and there is nothing to do about!
alexthespaceace
Yoda doesn't have all the details, and part of the Jedi religion, which borrows heavily from Buddhism, is accepting inevitabilities, like death, even the death of a loved one.
jedi-enthusiast
Original Poster
@batidodehuevo buddy, attachment IS wanting to possess someone—it’s about not wanting to ever let them go and being willing to do anything, no matter how heinous, just so you won’t have to. Attachment doesn’t mean love and the OT still goes along with Lucas’s message that attachment is bad.
And Anakin literally didn’t tell Yoda anything about Padme dying or a vision, he just said “i’m having dreams of someone close to me dying” (and Yoda even had to badger him to learn that much)—which is-
jedi-enthusiast
Original Poster
@batidodehuevo -pretty standard for a nightmare and very likely to happen in war. Not to mention that literally no one knew about Anakin’s visions of his mother and that they came true except Padme! Obi-Wan thought Anakin was having dreams and didn’t know what they were about, and Anakin never told him anything else! No one else knew!
So Yoda basically told Anakin that it’s better to celebrate the life someone lived and appreciate the time you had with them rather than being sad and angry-
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jedi-enthusiast
Original Poster
@batidodehuevo -about not getting more time with them, albeit in typical Yoda-speak. Which is literally advice given in grief counseling. Not to mention that Yoda can’t read Anakin’s mind, so he can only give vague advice to a vague statement.
What else would you have had him do?
clairaworlds
Also Anakin constantly undermines her autonomy in tcw. It bothers me so much. She's such a badass in that show and Anakin spends 100% of his time with her telling her not to do stuff she's fully capable of doing or dismissing her work in the senate as not as important as his work in the fighting. It's made me irrationally upset since I first watched the show at like 10
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