Think Lancelot and Guinevere. These are knights after all.
Ooh. I like. I'm gonna take that idea and run with it, if you don't mind. Here's how I would've done it:
There's a sort of benevolent royalty thing going on in the SW universe (Leia was a princess after all). There's a King, and the Jedi Knights are like the Knights of the Round Table. Anakin's one of these knights (his last name is NOT Skywalker, that's a cover name for Luke, like Organa was for Leia). He falls in love and has an affair with the Queen (as you say, Lancelot and Guinevere, here). The Republic is at war. The Clone War. I don't know what I'd make the Clone War yet, but it would be a lot more interesting than Jango Fett clones in Stormtrooper outfits.
Palpatine's obviously leading the forces that are attacking the Republic.
The Republic is losing the war. Anakin tries to convince her to flee with him, to escape the war. She decides to stick with her husband, the King. This enrages Anakin, who had harbored a growing jealousy (a powerful motivator). Or perhaps the King catches them together, and HE flies into a rage and attacks Anakin. Either way, Anakin ends up killing the King, accident or not, by way of his very first Force Choke. Guinevere - I mean, Padme, only I'd give her a less stupid name than Padme, has been whisked away to a place of safety (Alderaan) by her father's advisor (Bail Organa) before the killing took place, so she didn't see it happen (nor did anyone else). Anakin more or less seizes power because all the other Jedi are out on the battle lines, telling the story that the King took his own life out of despair of the losing war.
He tries to believe he's still a good man and doing the right thing, for the Republic. But then we invoke some Shakespeare - Anakin's got the blood on his hands that will never wash away... The Dark Side is nibbling at his soul... He starts ordering the armies of the Republic into foolish battles which they have no hope of winning, etc. Everything is going to hell, and Anakin grows into a madman. He's killed his King, lost his love, etc.
...and then, at some point, the King's ghost shows up and tells Obi-Wan what happened (Jedi can do this!) More Shakespeare
Obi-Wan musters the Jedi to confront Anakin. There's a big showdown, with the Jedi Knights striding in the front door of the palace, lightsabers at their belts. Anakin rises from the throne to face them. Says nothing. Then, out of the shadows behind the throne steps... Palpatine. Turns out, to save his hide, Anakin signed a treaty with Palpatine or surrendered outright. It was a trap. A fight ensues, most of the Jedi don't make it out alive. Obi-Wan manages to get away.
This is how Palpatine ends up in power, with Vader his 'First Knight'. Moff Tarkin would be seen as Palpatine's top general during the invasion.
The deposed Queen, of course, discovers she is pregnant. She dies at some point, but not during childbirth. She lives long enough to be remembered by Leia as 'pretty and sad'. She is eventually killed by... BA DA DUM... Vader, seeking revenge. Obi-Wan and Organa manage to get the kids away. Vader never knew he had children, until The Empire Strikes Back, when he senses it.
Vader is maimed at some point due to a rebel attack, or whatever, perhaps led by Obi-Wan, but that's not terribly important.
Yoda would never be pictured fighting. He was always a little weird dude on Degobah where Jedi were sent, as a sort of pilgrimage, to be trained. Because watching Yoda fight was just stupid, he's better off as the wise little guy in the jungle.
Most importantly, Anakin's never a kid or whiny teenager. He's an adult - junior to Obi-Wan, but not a kid. Lancelot-gone-bad.
Anyway, there you have it, minus all the details, of course. Classic fantasy themes (Arthurian legend, Shakespeare), and a somewhat believable account of how a good man can descend into madness and evil, finally making a deal with the Devil.
That took ten minutes to come up with, and it's only one of a thousand different plots that would've been infinitely more interesting than having to hear teenaged Anakin whine about his ideas about politics. Get some decent screenwriters to flesh it out, Peter Jackson to direct (because the LOTR movies were closer in tone to the OT than the prequels are), and REAL, ON-LOCATION filming instead of CGI everything (something else Peter Jackson did well)...
I live in San Francisco, which probably increases the percentage of Wizard of Oz references versus anyplace else. I don't hear anyone quote the likes of Odysseus, Perseus, King Arthur, or Merlin. I can't even think of what they'd be quoted as saying.
This may have something to do with how idiotic he found the people working there in general, though.
