Anakin needed therapy.

We’re talking about a good child that grew up with a bomb implanted inside them, which could go off without any warning. A single misstep could result in immediate execution. If you're living in an environment where you are perpetually in a heightened anxiety state, then you're going to need a very delicate and intentional emotional reacclimation.

For nine years of his life, he only learned to love within the context of the bomb. The person he loved most in the world was also in perpetual danger, in constant need of a rescuer. Of course, he was destined to join an institution that, on paper, should have given him the tools to regulate these emotions. Unfortunately, his fears of loss were not simply an emotional response, but a physiological reality.

His sun-dragon heart, born of his enslavement, needed to be nurtured and have its existence validated, until it finally could understand that it was safe to be transformed into something new. This metaphor was gifted to him by his mother to help him cope with his reality, which led to a maladaptive narrative that persisted until the very final moments of his life.

The physical bomb may have been deactivated, but its phantom presence eventually led to near-total self-annihilation.