I was doing the Cryptoquote puzzle in the paper the other morning (part of my wake-up routine to get the brain cells moving), and the quote of the day came out something like this:

"A woman gives solace to a man, but if not for woman, man would have no need of solace."

Of course, being a Star Wars fanboy, my first thought upon completing the puzzle was "Well, duh! Look at Anakin and Padme'!" But, given my recent track record with Padme' bashing, I decided to think about it some more.

We can, following some rather straight-line thinking, trace Anakin's fall back to a woman, but not Padme'. In reality, it was Shmi's death that put Anakin on the path to the Dark Side. Padme''s presense only hastened the journey.

Of course, it wasn't really Shmi's fault. She gave Anakin the choice of leaving Tatooine with Qui-Gon Jinn, or staying behind and remaining a slave. Anakin, in his wide-eyed wonder, jumped at the opportunity to leave. (Heck, I would have, too!) There's a part of me that screams, "Yeah, like a 9-year-old has the sense to make such a life-altering decision... what was Shmi thinking?!?!?!" But, then again, this was a kid who had seen a lot as a slave, and was big enough to race with dirtbags like Sebulba. He'd obviously seen more about the galaxy than most other kids had.

But, almost immediately upon making his decision, Anakin questions Qui-Gon about his mother's freedom to go with them. This should have been Qui-Gon's first indication that something could go wrong. Yes, Anakin was obviously well-endowed with midi-chlorians. Yes, he could pilot a podracer with the best of them. Yes, he was portrayed by a bad child actor who made up for it with his cuteness. But, Anakin's first thought upon embarking on his journey to Jedi-hood was to ask about his mother. Qui-Gon should have heard Yoda's admonitions about attachment in the back of his head like a warning bell.

To Qui-Gon's credit, he may have fibbed about not being able to take Shmi, since he may have known how strong Anakin's attachment was to his mother. "I tried, yada yada yada, but she can't go with you." However, I doubt this... Qui-Gon was a straight-up guy. Either way, he did his best to separate Anakin and Shmi, possibly recognizing the problems their continued relationship might cause to the rest of the galaxy.

So, Anakin schleps along happily between TPM and AOTC, saving planets with lucky shots and dissing other Padawans and grousing about the lack of progress in his training, until we see Padme' re-enter his life. Of course, this chance meeting cranks up the teen-age hormones, but we learn later that Anakin's life was becoming confusing a few months earlier - because of his dreams of Shmi in pain.

(Obi-Wan Kenobi, upon learning about Anakin's dreams, does very little to sever Anakin from Shmi. In fact, what does old OB1 do? Rather than clamping down on all things that connected Anakin to his past, OB1 brings Anakin back into contact with Padme'. Sheesh, what a dopey thing to do! He further compounds his dopey-ness by accepting the Jedi Council's decisiont to allow Anakin to go to Naboo with Padme' - without a chaperone! Hel-lo?)

No, Padme' only adds to the problem. Rather than helping Anakin sort through his dreams about Shmi in a way that was in-line with the Jedi way of thinking, Padme' makes the rash decision to go to Tatooine, with or without Anakin. Anakin, already hormonal, follows her. And the rest is history, as Anakin begins his spiral to Darth-hood by doing the slice-and-dice on a tribe of largely innocent Tusken Raiders.

"What's this?" you shout! "What about Palpatine/Sidious? He had a big hand in luring Anakin to the Dark Side!" Well, I think Palps had very little to do with Anakin's actual fall, and more to do with keeping Anakin off-balance in preparation for the fall. It wasn't like Palps walked up to little Anakin and said, "Wanna get the girls? Eager to learn more about choking the snotty little brats in your class? Come over to the Dark Side!" Instead, Palps recognized a good thing when he saw it - if the rumors be true, he'd been watching Anakin since, oh, before he was born - and simply insinuated himself where the situation seemed to make sense. Without Shmi, Anakin needed a parental figure. (OB1 was close, but he was more of a teacher than a parent.) Palps, with his soothing parent's voice, then preyed upon Anakin's fears and emotions, which were rooted in his love of Shmi and Padme'. Palps pretty much sat back and let Anakin's fervent imagination do the rest. Only when the time was right did Palps offer Anakin the power of the Dark Side... and only then, to save the one he loved.