How easily does Anakin turn to the Dark Side?

I'm sure a lot of people could imagine Anakin turning to the Dark Side rather quickly and easily. Palpatine just persuades him and tells him how good the Dark Side is, so he joins.
But perhaps his turn is extremely gradual. He may resist a lot to the Emperor and be like Luke was in ROTJ. He probably only JUST gives in to his anger and temptation. If he had have been just a little bit stronger he would have resisted like Luke did.
What do you think?

I think his turn will be more gradual than just a spur of the moment type event. I think that thru the course of the next film we will see several instances where his anger starts to get the better of him and he will be calmed down by Obi-Wan and Padme. It's the basic storyline of the prequels and I doubt that it will be any type of event that will suddenly change everything for him. There will be the actual deciding moment but it will be a conclusion to many other events.

Good points, Mace. I agree with you. Even at the deciding moment I hope he only just decides to join Palpatine because he can't control his anger, which Luke could.

I also think it will be a gradual process, with one major factor that leads to his demise. I almost am certain he will feel betrayed by Obi-Wan("Obi-Wan once thought as you did,"-Vader to Luke in ROTJ) and thats when he'll go on his Jedi killing spree. That is one thing that EP1 could have done better, in that, they could have showed Anakin use his aggrestion on someone or something. In Rougue Planet, book taking place between EP1 and EP2, we see Anakin use some of that aggression, and it worries Obi-Wan, and it was pretty cool. But, yes, it will be gradual, with one major event(death of mother, death of queen, or lets hope not, but a love triangle?)

I agree with you that we should have seen more anger in Anakin in TPM. He was just TOO perfect in it.

Ahh, but that's the point of the whole movie. Lucas goes to great lengths to show how kind and generous Anakin is. For example, Shmi responds to Quigon "..He gives without ever thinking of repayment.." The aim is to make Anakin seem like a very kind and good person, which will make his fall to the darkside and ultimate redemption by Luke that much more meaningfull in the end....

Ah, good point. But still, it's rather unrealistic that a boy who's brought up in the harsh city of Mos Espa should be that kind to others.

Why do you think Mos Espa was harsh? Anakin was supposed to be a slave but he lived in a nice house and had a podracer parked outside. It wasn't that bad.

Well you heard Qui-Gon mention all the stuff about gamblers and refugees in the city for hiding. It's pretty obvious it's a harsh dangerous place. In the insiders guide it mentions a lot about being mugged in the streets and things like that.
It sounds like a typical Tatooine settlement.

Sometimes I wonder if GL sees the same world we do...

Slaves live in houses bigger than alot of peoples homes and dangerous places look like small towns...weird 🙂

I actually find most of the planets in Star Wars rather believable, despite the fact that nearly all of them only have one terrain (eg Dagobah: Swamps, Tatooine: Desert, Hoth: Snow, etc)

I agree with Dim. Lucas seems to show one thing and then allows the books to show another.

What do you mean there KJ? Not sure I understand.