Dear Readers,
Recently I watched the Star Wars series of movies and I am not sure if anyone else noticed it, but Anakin Skywalker “fell in love” with Padme` Amidala either at the age of fourteen or so OR they fell in love in well under a year.
In Phantom Menace, Padme` meets Anakin in Watto’s (Pretty sure that’s how you say the flying blue alien’s name) shop as they looked for parts for their ship. Padme, she was somewhere between 16 and 20 but they don’t actually say so. Now Anakin looks to be somewhere between the ages of 9 and 11. He thinks Padme` is the most beautiful person he’s met and Padme` thinks he’s a funny little boy. According to the movie, Anakin parted ways with Padme` shortly after Naboo was liberated from the Trade Federation and he began his Jedi training.
Move forward to Attack of the Clones. Anakin is reunited with Padme` when he and his Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi are assigned to protect the now Senator Amidala. Anakin mentions that he has dreamt about her since they parted. Now from my understanding, that would mean he hasn’t seen her in 8 to 10 years ago. During the course of the movie, Anakin basically says that he is in love with Padme. Now let’s get our numbers right. Anakin is somewhere between 16 and maybe early 20’s. Padme` is between 26 to early 30’s years old.
Now, I’m not saying a person needs to be in love with someone of the same age bracket but Anakin would have to start “loving” Padme when he was twelve. Maybe I am wrong and they fell in love after they were reunited so let’s take a look at that.
In Attack of the Clones, Anakin is nervous about meeting Padme again after not seeing her since he went off to become a Jedi. After they meet, Anakin is on a hero thing trying to find Padme’s would be killer. During the course of the movie, Anakin reveals his feelings for her. He says he is in agony since he meet her and the kiss did not help any. She denies any love and they each go to be for the night. When Anakin and Padme are about to be dragged out to the execution/gladiator arena, Padme reveals that she loves Anakin since the moment they were reunited. Now at a generous time frame, this all took place in a year. A more realistic time frame would be about six months.
Either way, I am having trouble wrapping my head around their whole relationship, so if anyone has any more information to help shed light on this, I would greatly appreciated it
— Poetria
Poetria 1839 
Well, this is Star Wars so everything you are imagining from the series has to do with predestination. Anakin was the chosen one, destined to bring balance to the Force which is the cosmic force that is ultimately in control of everything and uses people to keep its Taoistic balance. If we are to put ourselves fully into the movie to analyze anything, especially their relationship, we have to accept that in this Universe, predestination is as real as air and water.
Now that we accept that, we must look at love at first sight. Falling in love with someone you see for the first time involves the beliefs (which we have already accepted) of predestination and soul mates. This idea of soul mates, the idea that two souls (and pardon my borrowing an illustration) are two parts of a whole that was split in two and cast into different bodies always mean to find each other. The idea of soul mates does not completely depend on love at first sight but if you take into consideration Padame’s EXTREME intelligence and wisdom and the fact that there is no other as closely bound to the Force as Anakin (he was conceived of it after all. This connection would also explain why he realized his love for her long before she did), we can guess with plenty of certainty that both was in tune to the Force enough to know, at least subconsciously, that the other was the missing part of their souls .
When we get to the Clone Wars, Padame is an individual of highest station and Anakin is a Knight of the Jedi Order. Love between them is forbidden. Even though he is the impulsive type, she is a diplomat and she cares enough about him to not want him to be cast out of the Order. In addition, it simply cannot be. So she tells him that she has no feelings for him, a lie whether or not she’ll even admit it to herself.
If you accept the truths and reality of this Universe, it is wholly conceivable that they loved one another from the time they met, at twelve and fourteen (more or less), even if Padame did not realize it until they met for the second time.
Just my thoughts on the matter. Interesting thing to think about, for sure.
I see where you are going so they would have gotten together even if Anakin had not thought about her all those years, for example?
Pretty much. I believe that they were meant to be together from the begining.
I had not thought about the destination angle.