Re: Star Wars Episode VII
What's wrong with missing your Mom?
In general terms? Nothing, and it's entirely natural that he would.
Within the context of the Star Wars films? It's a LOUSY motivation for Darth Vader's turn to evil. It makes him appear more of a victim than a villain, and it infantilizes him (although as MB/OB says below, that was at least partially due to Ep. 1 being set when he's just a child anyway). Mostly, though, it doesn't jibe with what we see of Vader later. His (apparent) motivations have nothing to do with the scared little boy we see in Ep. 1, or the still-pretty-much-a-scared-little-boy we see in Ep. 3.
Nothing wrong with it, I think it could have been a great source of anger in Anakin if they had used it better but I think the real issue most have with it is that Anakin was so young when we met him that you can't help but see him as a "little kid that misses his mommy". That angle sucks.
Hindsight is 20/20 but if I were to alter his origin story but keep the same general principle I would have him older and already a pilot before Obi-wan meets him and then reveal through backstory that he and his mother were slaves (father not in the picture, not needed in this case) and he was able to escape but his mother wasn't. He lives with the guilt of leaving his mother behind and then tries to save her at some point only to find that she's dead or dying.
Yeah, that's closer to what I'd do.
I always saw it as Anakin meeting Obi-Wan as at least a young man, probably during the Clone Wars when Kenobi was a general. He's a pilot, Kenobi recognizes his force sensitivity, and decides to train him directly. During the war (which would've been the primary focus of the prequels, along with the political stuff surrounding them), Anakin would lose a lot of friends, witness atrocities committed by both sides, and perhaps even see the power of how a single devastating weapon could bring an enemy to its knees and bring about peace that much faster. (Think of the justifications for using the atomic bomb at the end of World War 2. That'd be the justification for the creation of weapons like the Death Star and the drastic expansion of Imperial might.) Each friend who died, each wound he suffered, would only strengthen his resolve to never let this happen again.
Anakin would've trained as a Jedi, but would've been frustrated at how constrained he was. Likewise, he would've been frustrated at the squabbling of petty bureaucrats in the Senate, and would've advocated for a concentration of executive power in the hands of a single, decisive Emperor. All of this would've been driven by Anakin's desire to ensure that no war like the Clone Wars can ever happen again, and he would take any means necessary to achieve that end.
Driven by that desire, he'd pursue the use of superweapons, and a turn to the dark side. He'd amass power not merely for the sake of power, but as a means to a political end, that being enforced security. Anyone and anything that stood in his way would be swept aside, always for his notion of the greater good. Eventually, this would bring him into conflict with the Jedi, Obi-Wan, even his wife (and none of that "Jedi are forbidden to marry" crap, either).
I base all of this on Vader's plea to Luke in ESB that he join him so that they can bring order out of chaos and end the destructive conflict consuming the galaxy. Anakin/Vader would've failed to realize (A) how he'd been corrupted by the Dark Side into doing terrible things, and -- more importantly -- how (B) using "any means necessary" ultimately backfires because you're never strong enough to keep everyone down and you have to become increasingly brutal and harsh to accomplish it, which only fosters greater resistance to your efforts.
If Palpatine manipulated Anakin, it would've been along THOSE lines, not lines surrounding love. Or, if love was involved, it would be that Anakin had to ensure security for his loved ones. You could still include, say, the death of his mother, which he might've felt was a failure of his that he must work to prevent in the future so that no one else knew the pain he felt. And again, he'd use any means necessary to accomplish that, even if it meant destroying whole planets for "the greater good."
Maybe Palpatine would've introduced Anakin to the Dark Side of the Force, with Anakin always telling himself "It's ok. I've got it under control. I can quit any time." You get the sense that Vader would happily overthrow Palpatine, if he had Luke as backup. So, that begs the question of why -- what would he accomplish and why would he want it? Power for it's own sake? That's Palpatine's bag. But Anakin/Vader could've been a lot more complex and interesting as a fallen-hero-***-villain. What happens when the man who's driven to protect everyone at all costs accumulates power, and in so doing, loses himself and becomes the thing everyone needs protecting from?
That, to me, is a WAY more interesting story than the one we got. Plus, it'd fit a lot better than the emotional wreck Anakin turned out to be. All the evil actions he undertook -- even the killing of the younglings -- would make sense in that context. When he's driven basically by his desire to save JUST Padme, and when we see how he was separated from and then lost his mom at an early age, it just looks like he's a whiny, scared little boy. That character doesn't match up to the Vader we see in the OT.