Anghraine

Oh crap, I didn't even pay attention to locking. I will confine commentary to the relevant threads in the future!

For me, canon!Anakin is most likely Padmésexual, but not in any sense of choosing it. Just that she's the only person he's actually attracted to, and that's part of the reason he's so awkward and bewildered, and unable to shake his childish crush through ten years of adolescence without ever seeing her.

(Then again, I thought the movies--well, the prequels--gave every indication that Jedi were supposed to be celibate, and that's what Obi-Wan is flailing about Anakin's dreams and why Anakin and/or Padmé never consider having an affair. So maybe I just have ace goggles.)

(Though, then again, there seems to be a weird consensus that Leia and Padmé are completely inexperienced, which I never saw at all. I've assumed Padmé had a number of friendly lovers and Leia both friendly and unfriendly ones. Unfortunately including Tarkin.)

The thing that makes the casual relationships odd to me is that, as far as I can tell, Anakin is unlikely to have a casual relationship with his furniture, much less other people. It's all eternal devotion or murderous hatred or some extremely odd combination of both.

So yeah, I can see not!Padmésexual Anakin trying out casual relationships for the reasons you give, but I think he'd just kind of fail epically because he doesn't do casual. At least not without a trail of corpses behind him. With your other scenario, it was with people he did care about intensely, so it made a lot more sense than the usual, 'he's a villain, so obviously ...'

(Hm. Thinking about it, Padmésexual!Anakin is probably a lot more depressing. Not the forever-a-widower thing, but that he probably wouldn't have a relationship of any kind with anyone except Palpatine for 20-odd years.)

I do think your Jedi!Padmé thing makes sense! And would honestly fit with the OT a bit better than canon (*nitpick*). And also that scenario provides a rather more coherent start of darkness for him. Also, I am totally onboard with the idea of Jedi!Padmé as a badass Rebellion fighter -- like, she shouldn't be horrible, just messed-up, and Leia could have good reason to remember her fondly. And hey, this way the twins COULD scream at her ghost.