Oh, don't get me wrong -- I agree that Anakin's motivations and actions were completely unsympathetic.
As much as I mock Luke for being whiny, he's my absolute favorite character in the trilogy, because of his development. He feels like a full character because he's got believable flaws and an actual personality in addition to being a really good, noble person. Rather than the tragedies of his life breaking him, like they did Anakin, he instead shines. That's awesome.
The prequel could have been a juxtaposition of Anakin's fall to Luke's redemption of Vader. Instead it just went through the motions of showing Anakin's fall from grace, rather than actually making it weighty and meaningful. To me, that's the real tragedy of the prequels. They had all the elements they needed to be something fantastic, but they just weren't.
So basically I wouldn't have a problem with Anakin being emo and whiny if there were more to him. Pettiness is a really interesting trait, especially in an otherwise sympathetic character, and I'd have loved to see the prequel as a study of a good-hearted person getting broken down by the cruelty and sorrow around him.
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As much as I mock Luke for being whiny, he's my absolute favorite character in the trilogy, because of his development. He feels like a full character because he's got believable flaws and an actual personality in addition to being a really good, noble person. Rather than the tragedies of his life breaking him, like they did Anakin, he instead shines. That's awesome.
The prequel could have been a juxtaposition of Anakin's fall to Luke's redemption of Vader. Instead it just went through the motions of showing Anakin's fall from grace, rather than actually making it weighty and meaningful. To me, that's the real tragedy of the prequels. They had all the elements they needed to be something fantastic, but they just weren't.
So basically I wouldn't have a problem with Anakin being emo and whiny if there were more to him. Pettiness is a really interesting trait, especially in an otherwise sympathetic character, and I'd have loved to see the prequel as a study of a good-hearted person getting broken down by the cruelty and sorrow around him.