If Anakin didn't have those visions of Padme, do you think he'd end up falling to the dark side for any other reason? And do you think those reasons would be?
for the purpose of character building, feel free to send an ask regarding anything you would like to know about my character.
Anakin’s fall was made out of fear of loss;
so losing a loved one could make him fall.
He is loyal to people above all, not ideas nor orders. The word duty to him means loyalty to those that he loves and the things that they care for. For example, the Republic is something he cares for, a democratic system that keeps those he cares for safe, but he does not love it itself for any reason except that it allows loved ones freedom. So, in the case of a mission where he has to chose between one he loves and the Republic, he’ll chose the loved one nearly every time. He holds no malice for the thing he chose not to save, but his life would be worth nothing without love, so he will leave the other in the dust. The only exception to this rules seems to be when the thing lost would wound the soul of one loved. For example, during a mission Anakin might leave at Obi-Wan’s urging as to stay would end up disappointing his Master, which he cannot have.
So, in Revenge Of The Sith, when Anakin has a vision of the thing he loves above all – including his own life – dying he pushes aside every other thing he cares for in order to save her. In comparison to losing her… losing the Republic, The Order and democracy meant nothing. Without her, none of those things would mean a single atom of worth. In his heart it made sense to destroy all in order to save her. All of those things were cared for but nothing as beloved as her. Padmé Naberrie Skywalker isn’t just someone he loves, she’s his reason for existing. Before her he felt that he was nothing and without her he’d return to that, lost and desolate. Anakin is a decaying thing, always slowly falling apart, but she stalled his breaking majorly; she held him together and worked to repair the despair in his soul.
He was born into slavery; slavery a thing of infinite pain and desolation. Every day he was allowed to be beaten down mentally and physically. His flesh was theirs to carve and his mind theirs to destroy. And if it killed him? They’d only buy another to replace him. He was not essential to anyone but his mother. Shmi was the light of his life and reason for all in his youth and yet he had to see her tortured, worn down by the sand and their masters. The land and men could do anything that they wanted to her, anything and he could not save her, no matter what. They could not own themselves and for nine years he knew that agony as reality. And then a sweet angel comes into his life, offering hope and choice and freedom and he loves her. He meets Padmé ( whom he thinks is but a simple peasant girl then ) and he feels the force of her call out to the force of him and it molds him forever. It took but a moment, but his soul was hers. In one of the novels it’s said that Shmi tells Padmé that she is giving him to her; she knows that her son is taken completely over by the girl.
And then he is part of the Jedi Order, given a Master that he comes to love absolutely and without hesitation. Obi-Wan becomes as a father would, everything to learn from and to care for; he is given kindness and comfort. He has choice and he can fight for his beliefs without fear of harm, but still his heart longs for something missing and for ten years that missing piece is Padmé. And then she returns to him and finds that his heart has been studying her for those years, learning every bit of her and loving it as if it was air to breathe. And to see her again only means that he loves her more, needs her more than ever before. Then he has her, finds her lips and her body and she gives her heart over to him so completely that it’s astonishing ( and amazing that no one else saw the light of them ). The Clone Wars binds him closer still to Obi-Wan, turning him to be half of himself and his bleeding heart, and Padmé, turning her into eternity and his very aching soul.
Coming home from the war ( a thing that nearly killed him in body and heart ) to find his wife pregnant was the best of news. He was ready to shout it from the rooftops, to tell all of his marriage and children. So was his joy that he was ready to throw his Jedi life away for her. And then he sees her in his mind dying and he loses all hope. He would have killed himself a trillion times over to have her and their child ( they still thought it was one at this point ) safe.
Those things made him who he was and to take her away was to have the pain crash into him and destroy him. All he wanted was to save her from death and if it meant selling his soul to do so, he’d not blink without agreeing to it. So that’s what he did; he killed innocents to having the power to save her and I think he’d do it a thousand times over if it was sure to work. He killed children, wives and friends to save his own. It was only such extreme events, losing love and hope, that made him fall. He hated himself for touching the darkness but could and would not turn back, even when saving her meant weaving further into the shadows. So if he’d not had those visions, he would not have fallen. He fell for her and would stay in the light for her as well.
He could only fall for love.
The mentioned reasons is what it took to break him, so nothing short of such tragedy would destroy him. If he didn’t think she’d die in childbirth he would not have fallen. He’d have convinced her to tell others and they’d have left the Order and Senate to raise their children upon Naboo. They’d live at the lakeside house and have more children, open and caring and full of light. Losing Padmé in another way might have made him fall, but it’s unlikely. The sort of death – loss by childbirth – was so desolating to him that reason made no sense. And even if such a painful end was to be her fate anyway, he’d not fall because he’d not destroy his children’s lives for anything. In the original trilogy he dies saving Luke, having only known him for a short time and he had no regrets in doing so. Dying for his son was the way he wanted to go and his last words were for his daughter. So in an alternate life where Padmé died after giving birth, he’d not fall, not when he needed to raise Luke and Leia. He’d be a broken shell of a man for sure, but he’d not leave them alone.
The dark side did not call his name and he got tired of resisting… what occurred was that he lost all reason for joy and hope so he allowed the darkness to aid him. And then after her death he knew that he’d done it all for nothing and he’d not found himself worthy for the light again. He thought that he’d killed Padmé with his force grip and their child along with her. That was enough to shatter any chance of redemption forever for him in his own mind. He saw nothing to redeem after knowing that it was all in vain, that the lives he took were for nothing. He lost the Order ( his only real home ) and his Master ( the person dearest to his heart and worth more than anything except his wife and children ) for nothing. He’d hoped for life and love but instead gained pain and death. That is what occurred to him after his fall, showing that he did not fall out of some small reason. Padme’s death was every sun in the galaxy and all the stars burning out at once and it was not something he could bear.
He lost all reason because he feared losing all love.
That is why he fell and the only way he‘d fall in any life.
