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I’m going to do my best to frame this as respectful because I do want to understand your Anakin-positive side, but this is also a topic that I get emotional about for many reasons.
Often, the anti-Anakin viewpoint is more based on his active choices, but I’ll touch on that later.
You mention that the Jedi should have freed Shmi. They are not gods — they cannot free every slave, so what makes her more ‘worthy’ of being saved than any other? I am not trying to be heartless, but it’s important to remember when we talk about this.
At the risk of sounding antagonistic, I’d also ask you for a source on both the “expected him to be a perfect Jedi”, and “refusing to acknowledge his traumatic past” points.
I would disagree heavily with the idea that anakin is anywhere near compassionate — and now we’re getting into the ‘active choices’ I mentioned earlier. He murdered children and committed genocide. Intentionally. On two separate occasions. This automatically means that he is not a good person — and yes, I would apply this logic to any other character in any other fandom.
There was, functionally, nothing keeping anakin with the Jedi. Even Count Dooku was friendly with the High Council after leaving them, all the way until he started a galactic war. The Jedi are forgiving, and they would have supported his choice to leave them if he could not handle their life.
It’s also important to note that being a Jedi is, essentially, a religion. No one is forced into it — they adopt children **with their parent’s permission** (Qui Gon asks Shmi before he brings up the possibility to anakin), but if those children grow up and choose to leave the Order, there are no negative consequences.
Anakin couldn’t handle being a Jedi, so he should have left. That discipline isn’t for everyone, and that’s okay, but it’s not on the Jedi to change their entire religion for one person.
Pt. 2/3 of It's Okay to Love the Jedi and Anakin at the Same Time
(Pt. 1 –> here, an angry ask about this post –> here, Pt. 3 –> here)
I think you often forget how Anakin basically had to make a life altering choice when he was 9 years old. Anakin was incredibly intelligent and mature for his age, but at the end of the day he could not fully grasp the weight of his choice until he was much older.
I think– because The Phantom Menace is rated PG– it's easy to forget how horrible it is to be a slave on Tatooine. By the time Anakin is 9 years old, he has endured countless beatings at the hands of someone who literally owned him.
This is inherently traumatizing.
Leaving his mother is traumatizing.
Becoming a Jedi while his mother has to remain a slave is traumatizing. And this incredibly compassionate kid has to deal with that somehow.
Anakin was exceptional, and yet the Jedi were only really willing to make one exception for Anakin: allowing him to train as a Jedi even though he wasn't raised at the Temple. EVEN THOUGH THEY DECIDED THEY WANTED HIM TO BECOME A JEDI.
The moment the Jedi Council decided that Anakin should be allowed to train as a Jedi, they should have understood that an exceptional case must come with exceptional measures.
Instead, they expected him to perfectly conform to the Jedi, even when he was not raised as one. They expected him to interpret every lesson and piece of advice the way almost every other Jedi could, seemingly not realizing that-- because of Anakin's childhood-- he was automatically going to see the world a bit differently and interpret things differently. The Jedi pretty much refused to acknowledge his unique (and deeply traumatic past) in the hopes that Anakin would "let it go."
They should have freed his mother. They should have allowed him to see his mother. He was raised by her, it's not like he was going to unlearn attachment– which is partly what they were concerned about, I get it.
However, Anakin was never going to be like every other Jedi. And the Council should have rejoiced in this.
They should have worked harder to understand him, instead of trying to turn him into the perfect Jedi.
Even in the face of all of this, he became one of the greatest Jedi ever known.
Few Jedi were as powerful as Anakin, few Jedi were as wise as Anakin (especially at his age), and few were as truly caring and compassionate.