Star Wars: 12 Stupid Decisions From The Prequels That Actively Ruin The Originals

7. Celibate Jedi

A central driving force of the whole trilogy is Anakin's feelings for Padmé. They manifest over a decade and form the entire motivation for his fall to the dark side. But more potent than the love itself is the whole forbidden nature of it all. Anakin's arc in Attack Of The Clones is built on the Jedi rule of celibacy and he turns to Palpatine mainly out of a lack of options to deal with the premonitions of his secret wife's death.

But why does that have to be the case? Where in the Original Trilogy is it stated that Jedi can't form romantic relationships or have children. When it's revealed Luke is Anakin's son, it's shocking because it's Darth freakin' Vader, not because a Jedi can't have a kid. After all, hate is the emotion that leads to the dark side, not love.

Lucas clearly made a conscious decision to make Padmé the centre of Anakin's fall, and this was viewed as the simplest way to bring about that conflict. But even if you have to go that route (and as Lucas can't do romance it probably wasn't) there didn't need to be a rule forbidding it - surely being a Senator and a Jedi respectively is practically enough to make Padmé and Anakin's relationship a no no. Love is complex enough already - you really don't have to throw in more dynamics.

It once again stems from Lucas taking the two old, in-hiding Jedi seen in the originals in a vulnerable state as the basis for the whole order. Obi-Wan's not going around bothering Tatooine babes because he's got better things to be doing, not because his order forbids it.