#i know you're not trying to poke me adi but this one really did

[rainintheevening]

Couple major things here.

First: Obi-Wan never prevents Anakin from returning to Tatooine.

Taking just the movies for context, Anakin says, "I dreamed I became a Jedi and came back to free all the slaves." He tells his mother, "I will come back and free you, mom."

He dreams of becoming a knight, and coming home in power and strength to free his mom and friends. This is how fairytales work. Star Wars is a fairytale.

He doesn't go back to Tatooine between TPM and AotC because he isn't ready. And he wants to be the one to free his mom, not Obi-Wan or Yoda or anyone else. That's his job, no one else's.

He doesn't act on his dreams/visions, because he's not sure how real they are, and of course he would like them to just be nightmares, and for Obi-Wan to be right. Also he has duties that come before feelings, and an important part of Anakin’s story is showing that he does know how to do his duty, he just chooses not to when the fear gets too much for him, when it's easier not to. Very important part of Anakin’s character.

Second: Romantic love did not set Shmi free. Yes, Clieg fell in love with her and so bought her to set her free, but the love that sets people free is Compassion, is Unconditional Love. That love is not inherently romantic. It is completely possible to have romance without love. Romantic love is unnecessary for True Love to work. That's a big part of a monastic order, which the Jedi are.

Thirdly: The whole concept of the Jedi being responsible for fixing every little thing wrong in an entire galaxy, and needing to stop every single little evil they see, is poisonous, and needs to stop. It takes away the responsibility of all the ordinary people, LIKE US, to do everything we can to affect change and do good in the world around us. And I know my generation doesn't want any responsibility, so that's a popular idea to push, to blame everything on someone else. But it's poison, and it will ruin our world, it IS ruining our world.

This, this I will be making a whole post about.

Yes, these are my words, not George Lucas's. Please go read his philosophies and listen to his thoughts for a better understanding of Star Wars.

“[Obi-Wan had] gone to Shmi Skywalker’s grave to apologize for losing her son. He had never met her, knew her only from Anakin’s stories, but Qui-Gon had made her a promise and Obi-Wan hadn’t been able to keep it. As he stood there, looking at the stone, he felt an even deeper shame. Qui-Gon had left her there a slave, and Obi-Wan had done everything in his power to prevent Anakin’s return. It was only the love of a good man, here on Tatooine, that had saved her—the kind of love the Jedi were supposed to eschew. Yet it had done something the Jedi could not.”

— Ahsoka (novel)