For now, this being my lunch break and all, I will just keep it simple by writing out the various quotes that provide our information on the back story.
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That's what your uncle told you. He didn't hold with your father's ideals. He thought he should have stayed here and not gotten involved.
You fought in the Clone Wars?
Yes, I was once a Jedi Knight, the same as your father.
I wish I'd known him.
He was the best star pilot in the galaxy, and a cunning warrior. I understand you've become quite a good pilot yourself. And he was a good friend - which reminds me, I have something for you. Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough but your uncle wouldn't allow it. He feared you might follow old Obi Wan on some damn fool idealistic crusade like your father did.
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Was I any different when you taught me?
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Vader. Is the dark side stronger?
No. No. No. Quicker. Easier. More seductive.
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To protect you both from the Emperor, you were hidden from your father when you were born.
Leia. Do you remember your mother? Your real mother?
Just a little bit. She died when I was very young.
Of these quotes, I gathered the following as being the most important pieces of information -
Anakin and Owen were quite close and they lived on Tatooine together. Obi Wan, who according to the earliest drafts of the original movie scripts, was Owen's brother - so he probably met Anakin through him.
Anakin was already a great pilot, and at some stage, he was the best pilot in the galaxy.
Tatooine sounds as if it was pretty much the same and relatively safe. There was a large war going on, maybe the Clone Wars, maybe another war. But Owen wanted Anakin to stay on Tatooine and not get involved.
It was probably Obi Wan who took Anakin away, on his damn fool idealistic crusade.
Obi Wan took it upon himself to train him as a Jedi. There was no third party involvement with this - I would go as far as to say Obi Wan did not get an opportunity to discuss this with Yoda. I believe Yoda would have always been on Dagobah - but in this argument, this is only speculation on my part. But the fact that Obi Wan took it upon himself to train Anakin is definitely part of the fossil I'm unearthing here.
During the wars, Obi Wan at one stage was a general who served Leia's 'father' on Alderaan. This suggests close ties with the Alderaan royal family.
Anakin made a conscious decision to take the quick and easy path, which probably suggests that he did it to deal with difficult circumstances. Perhaps he saw a way of stopping a war that was killing millions of people and thought that using the dark side to achieve this was an acceptable sacrifice to make for the greater good.
Yoda's advice to Luke not to underestimate the powers of the Emperor actually sounds as though Anakin took the Emperor on at some stage and lost - and in the process the Emperor destroyed him (from a certain point of view) and reshaped him into an unfeeling killing machine that retained Anakin's strength in the force... and a tiny shred of his humanity that would grow during the original movies until he could conquer the darkness that had consumed him.
Lastly, Leia's mother would have lived with her on Alderaan for a little while - and perhaps the reason she died so young could be from illness.
The fact that Vader's children were hidden from him suggests that he knew his ex-wife or lover (whatever their relationship was) was pregnant and that he was looking for her and her child. He clearly didn't know he had twins. And somehow he was able to work out that Luke was his missing son.
Anyway. I will leave it open to you. What do you guys make of all this?