It's one of the many problems with the prequels. At some point Anakin had to be a sympathetic, likeable character, so that his fall actually felt like a tragedy. But he was generally an annoying arse and then killed a bunch of kids for no particular reason. It was impossible to even care that he lost his legs and got burnt to a crisp.
Anakin's character, his journey, and eventual fall to the Dark Side, was so poorly handled it you have to question just what was being trying to be achieved by the Prequels (other than a box-ticking exercise - that also ignores or contradicts much of what had been previously established in the Original Trilogy)...
A friend on another site came up with this more compelling '
what could've been' situation...
Anakin pondered...
"How can we call ourselves the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy, when we turn a blind eye to some of those injustices?"The continuation of the slave trade, the Republic dealing with, and profiting from trade and negotiations with slaver worlds and even slaver systems - and the Jedi's ambivalence and tolerance to it - sees growing resentment and anger in Anakin which could have been a much better story and also character development for him, especially if he expressed his feelings to the Jedi Council towards it beforehand and they dismissed him out of hand and he felt gas lit as result. What happens subsequently with his mother and the Tuskens (or Tusken slavers etc?) would have made for a more compelling fall to the dark side - or a more the fitting reason and impetus for it. He would have been more easily taken in by Dooku’s views, more sympathetic to Qui Gon’s defiance of the Jedi Council, and Palpatine would have had the perfect route to manipulate Anakin’s conflicted emotions for his own gain and cement the process.
Maybe even have clones of unwitting people used as slaves too - treated appallingly - with clone uprisings and sympathetic worlds and systems seceding... eventually leading to the Clone Wars (instead of some 'pretty useless' droids vs clones - in an unengaging war over taxes and trade routes).
Instead, like you say, we get the protagonist of the Prequels... many struggle to even like, let alone root for, or care about.
