Padme: "No, Anakin, we can't be together"

She should've covered herself in sand. I heard he doesn't like sand.

With the apparent exception of a huge numbers of high school teachers... I would have found it surprising for a woman who has options to choose a male partner that much younger.

Among the many other problems with the second trilogy I felt like Anakin was miscast. He should have been introduced as a teenager or young adult who was physically imposing and embittered by his suffering as a slave. Hayden was just not a young Darth Vader.

Shot in the dark theory:

Anakin was always strong with the force, possibly even as early as when he was a baby. His emotions were what enabled him to wield such remarkable power. The love he had for his mother empowered him through the ways of the light side of the force. So much so that unbeknownst to himself, his powers had latched onto her and manipulated her own life force to attach to his. She became enveloped by that connection within the force, but it was his force that was in the driver’s seat. Together they were stronger, and one with the light side. In contrast, when he had to leave her to go train as a Jedi, the separation caused a new emotional conflict within him, and thus his emotions began developing towards the dark side of the force. The further the distance between them, the more her connection with him and her life force faded, yet his kept getting stronger.

Flash forward to young boy Anakin and Padme. He now found had a new host for his powers to leach off of, a new emotional attachment to fill the void. At this point he was still mostly good, yet tainted by the dark side growing stronger within him. Padme was fond of young boy Anakin, which made her vulnerable to the grip of his undeveloped, yet strong powers. It latched onto her just like with his mother. That connection meant she was now consumed by his power, under his control basically manipulating her free will. He needed another vessel for his powers to keep growing, and used love as the medium. Through the force, he embedded himself within her, which took root and grew using love as the conduit. She had no defense being as he was far more powerful with the force.

In summation, basically Anakin’s powers of the force through love, which began with his mother, extended to Padme, and made it so her own will and life force was now controlled by him. Without his mother, he needed something to attach to, and she was close enough to a motherly figure at that point in his life. So, she may have been fond of Anakin through her own free will when they first met, but his powers slowly overwhelmed her free will until she was completely under his spell. She never truly loved Anakin. She was just too weak to resist. It was Anakin’s love for his mother and emotional need for another vessel for that love, which manipulated Padme into falling in love with him. Eventually he loses them both, which were the catalysts that tilted his internal balance fully towards the dark side, that is until he confronts Luke. Love was always in his heart, but it couldn’t break free and rebalance the force within him until Luke reminded him of the good that was inside him, and reignited the love he had for Padme and his mother.

That show was so fricking bad I still like seeing memes mocking it.

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She should've covered herself in sand. I heard he doesn't like sand.

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Bill Shakespeare wouldn’t have the balls to write a sand soliloquy.

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Among the many other problems with the second trilogy I felt like Anakin was miscast. He should have been introduced as a teenager or young adult who was physically imposing and embittered by his suffering as a slave. Hayden was just not a young Darth Vade

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Hayden was perfect casting

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I don't necessarily think your theory is a bad one, but the fact you even had to come up with it highlights how bad the casting for The Phantom Menace was.

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I agree 100%. The theory is definitely a coping mechanism. I was in that target demographic when TPM came out, so it definitely worked on me because I was too young to realize it was garbage until I got older. It’s still fun to entertain these fan theories.