One of the reasons Shmi Skywalker sent Anakin away was the fact that she was scared for Anakin's safety. Not only physical and mental,but also moral. More under the cut.
I don't think that Anakin would've been necessarily a heroic freedom fighter if he stayed on Tatooine. Yes,he was a very good person despite slavery,but he was somewhat lucky to get a support system in the shape of his mom and some friends. While Anakin didn't fit in the Order(his only friend was Obi-Wan) and Palpatine was the worst,there was a big chance Anakin would've been separated from his mom and/or been generally vulnerable to manipulation(Palpatine wasn't the only bad person in the galaxy,he was just an intelligent shithead born into power and privilege). While the Jedi Order was a heavily flawed institution where Anakin didn't fit in,there was something going on for him when it came to morality. Now,on Tatooine,without his mom or any close friends with good moral codes of their own? Very difficult.
There's also the fact that we don't know anything about Shmi's past. Is she just that innately good,or was her moral code a trial-and-error and/or fruit of solid,consistent guidance? Why is she so shrewd and wise? Such a seasoned,intelligent woman might know all the possible moral pitfalls her son might have to face. Otherwise,if Shmi wasn't in such a powerless situation and knew for sure Anakin would be a breaker of chains,she wouldn't send away her boy.
There's a reason why Shmi let her son go - she wanted him to have a better life. So what's to say that Tatooine!Anakin wouldn't have become selfish,ended up working for very bad people - or even people who truly cared about him but were morally abhorrent? While I love selfless,caring, and heroic Anakin,I also love cruel,selfish,villainous Anakin. He's the kid that wanted to free slaves and "knew nothing of greed" AND the man who spent over two decades being the main enforcer to a tyrannical empire and only stopped when his own son was almost dying.
Furthermore,while I love the selfless boy with a strong sense of justice we see in TPM(baby Anakin is so adorable,Jake Lloyd deserved way better),I have a special fondness to the messy,traumatized young man we see in AotC and RotS - someone who makes an active effort to be a good person,with varied degrees of success. To me,an Anakin who's kind and caring because he wants to and works on it is so much more fascinating than him simply being the inherently pure Superior Being™ who got shafted by external forces(Not saying the environment 9+ yo Anakin lived in wasn't awful in many ways,but he often went along with everyone's BS). An underrated trait of Anakin's is how increasingly self-interested he's thoughout the prequels - and one that Lucas portrayed well,structurally speaking. TPM!Anakin is extremely generous,feeding off of his mom's love and knowing his place. AotC!Anakin cares about the good of the galaxy and solving problems but ends up willing to be expelled from the Order to check on Padme(I'm merely touching on Anakin's mindset here - not on the facts),despite the war. Obi-Wan managed to persuade Anakin by using Padme's sense of duty. In RotS,Anakin defends the Jedi by saying they are selfless and only think about others(the third person use is striking). It all culminates on Anakin becoming a Sith Lord so Sidious would teach him how to cheat death.
(On a tangent,I feel like Palpatine's grooming is overestimated by the fandom. He surely had a negative influence,but Anakin didn't turn out of grooming,loyalty nor manipulation - but because he weighed Padme's(and the children's) lives as more important than doing the right thing. Besides,even before the reveal,Anakin defended the Jedi to Palpatine - not to mention how,after becoming Vader,he was already plotting to kill Sidious. Skeevy Sheev seemed more like a con artist selling dark-magic snake oil to a desperate family man with a sickly wife in exchange for sicario/enforcer services than someone that grooms a child soldier,IMO. Still evil,of course,but different kinds of evil).
To top it all,while Anakin's life on Tatooine was difficult,dangerous and dehumanizing in many ways,he never had to deal with complexity and nuance. Watto was a slaver who put a bomb on Anakin's and Shmi's head,but he didn't care to manipulate them or control their thoughts. Watto was simply a shithead who put bombs on people's heads and treat them as property. Besides,the Skywalkers were often able to help people and fight injustices without harm to them,according to TPM(Anakin defended Jar Jar from Sebulba by using his expensiveness,he took a bunch of his people into his home without ever thinking whether or not his mom would authorize such a thing - she would and she did. Besides,he hid a racing pod in Watto's property and no one stole the thing nor told Watto/another slave master about it - namely,things we difficult but people had each other's back there,in a way. However,with Anakin's win,said stability was compromised. And considering the crapsack world that was Tatooine,there was an enormous chance that Anakin's new "owners" would've made Watto look like a saint).
When Anakin went to the Jedi Order,on the other hand,he was almost rejected by the place. Not only that,but the social norms were subtler by orders of magnitude. Considering the "no attachments" rule(Anakin spent a decade without talking to Shmi),the fact that he arrived much later than other initiates,AotC!Anakin's only friend was his parentified brother and the evil guy who secretly wanted Anakin as an apprentice/high-end-slave. Then,Padme and Jar-Jar came into the picture. Something interesting happened to Anakin - his inner circle in AotC consisted of high-ranking people (Padme and Palpatine are politicians and Obi-Wan is an ambitious social climber who eventually gets a Council seat). Not saying Anakin is a snob,a classist - he's not,those bonds are just a coincidence. However,we never see Anakin going out of his way to defend any downtrodden in AotC and RotS - the most I can say is that he's salty about not being able to do more,but he still doesn't push the boundaries. I can sympathize a lot with Anakin in this,but he's not above the rest of the Jedi in AotC and RotS,IMO. Even if we talk about an angle about him being afraid/browbeaten out of doing so,there's the fact that it doesn't seem to weigh in his conscience for long - especially when comparing to failing to take care of his loved ones. At most,Anakin gets miffed at injustice that doesn't affect him,IMO.
Shmi's death and the Tusken Massacre. Both incidents permanently change Anakin(he seems to have more emotional control as a fighter during RotS and doesn't want to kill Dooku out of revenge),but the biggest failure in his book is not saving his mom - so much that Anakin turns dark because he's afraid of Padme's death,to hell with everything else. And after Padme dies,he decides to be one of the worst people in the galaxy until another Naberrie goes out of his way to rescue him - and said Naberrie is the son he's wanted since early RotS.
Anakin Skywalker's prequel arc is an amazing story of fall (and future rising) for a powerful and talented person troubled by less-than-favorable circumstances. But making him the Jesus figure destined to bring balance to the Force and save the Galaxy is too much,and Lucas couldn't write it well(not to mention Shmi Skywalker got a much shorter stick than Virgin Mary when it comes to parenting a Messiah). Even if George wanted Anakin to be an overly powerful prophecy subject,why not making his fatherless pregnancy the magical equivalent of a solar flare,a sight of a comet or anything like that? Or even make Anakin's father out to be a humanoid from a species that's more powerful in the force than others - and low on fertility,especially when the other parent is a human? TPM itself gave a good idea by the means of baby Anakin asking baby Padme if she was an angel - they're from the moons of Iego,according to the boy. Besides,the Fallen Angel aesthetic in RotS would've been a neat parallel. As for the prophecy - make it only about being capable of destroying Sith Lords(one of the things unbalancing the Force - things went to shit long before Plagueis and Sidious were born),no "this random dude who,outside of being more talented than average,is very much a run-of-the-mill Jedi is our Messiah".
The thing is, that's the only allegorical element of Anakin's story. Other than that, there's really nothing connecting him and Jesus. He has no disciples, he doesn't perform miracles (beyond what every other Force user is capable of), he doesn't sacrifice for humanity. Even trying to compare the failed temptation of Jesus with the successful temptation of Anakin, it doesn't track; the devil offers dominion over the kingdoms of the world and Jesus says no, Palpatine offers to save the life of one woman because she's personally important and Anakin says yes.
Another user from the same thread:
All of this. Plus,Anakin's and Jesus's sacrifices couldn't be more different from each other - whereas Jesus died to save humanity,Anakin decided to turn against Palpatine because he didn't want his son to die.
Besides,we don't see Anakin get in trouble by protesting/fighting against the less savory aspects of the Jedi Order,like Jesus did with the religions institutions of his day. In fact,he always went along with it.
