Attachment. How much is too much?

Then tell you I will. Reluctant I was because the same flaw you share, Obi-Wan. The flaw of attachment. (Wild Space by Karen Miller)

No doubt about that, although Anakin took his attachment to extremes. Killing the Tuskens, for example. And his attachment to Padme was downright creepy. Ten years he held on to a childhood crush?

It occurred to him then, with a clarity that was startling, given the dark side hurricane howling through him, that Yoda was wrong about the dangers of attachment. Or at least that he wasn't altogether right.

It was true that attachment could weaken a Jedi's resolve. But it could also strengthen it... as he was strengthened now by his love for Qui-Gon, and Anakin. Without them he would have failed long before this moment. (Wild Space)

So in this case attachment was good. But where do you draw the line, or more importantly, where does a Jedi draw the line?

Obi-Wan's attachment to Qui-Gon and to Anakin gave him the strength to survive on Zigoola, and possibly times and places as well.

Anakin's attachment to Padme led to the destruction of the Jedi Order and the fall of the Republic.

Hmmmm, I wonder who was right and who was wrong? Obi-Wan and Bail were doomed to die if Obi-Wan hadn't called upon his inner strength to survive the Sith Temple and find a way to "phone home". He had nothing to lose, and used his attachments for good.

Anakin killed for his attachment, killed younglings, cut down fellow Jedi and led the troopers into killing even more. He traded the lives of every Jedi in the order, thousands of lives, for one life: Padme.

But he doesn't even do it for her, he does it for himself: "I can't live without her!"

It doesn't surprise me that he can live with his decision, but I wonder why he though Padme could. I can't believe that she'd want to save her own life at the expense of so many others. That's not the Padme we see on Naboo or Geonosis.

**SIGH** Attachments... can't live with 'em, can't just throw out with the bathwater...