Love won't save you or will it?

I was reading the new Insider's final installment on art from ROTS that didn't make the book The Art of Revenge of the Sith. Next to his concept art for Padmé's funeral barge was a quote from concept artist Iain McCaig:

Padmé is so naive and idealistic that she nearly wastes her planet because she thinks if she follows the rules, it will work out. And here she is now at the end of her life making the same mistakes. She's still idealistic. She gives Anakin too much credit. She believes her love can redeem him--even at the end, she believes it. Padmé's fault is she doesn't realize people break the rules.

Is Padmé idealistic to the point of being naive? You bet. Palpatine uses her throughout the Republic trilogy without the poor girl knowing it. Yes, she keeps believing if everyone would just follow the rules, everything would be hunky dory. Does she underestimate the hold the Dark Side has over Anakin? Yup! I've adopted the view that Padmé couldn't fully comprehend the "Jedi" part of Anakin, all of the Force stuff, and that put her to a disadvantage (Luke, on the other hand, could understand it). With a lot more time and even more luck, she could have got through to him, but the opportunity just wasn't there for them.

I don't blame Padmé though for thinking she could reach him. She knows he's been in the depths of darkness before and it was her love that brought him back from self-pity, blame, and anger. She forgave him in AOTC for the Sand People massacre and she was willing to forgive him for what he'd done in ROTS (despite what Palpie thinks in the new Dark Lord book). She couldn't save him that day on Mustafar, but her love did save him eventually.

X-posted on padmeanima