Oh man, I just had an epiphany.

It's all metafictional, the prequels, the actors they chose, all of it.

We, the audience, were afraid the prequels were going to suck. We were angry they were making them at all. We hated the movies. Everyone suffered.

Little Anakin is a piss-ant, and teenage Anakin is an annoying emo loser, because Lucas wanted us as an audience to channel all of our hate into the character. WE made Darth Vader. He is the culmination of an entire generation (ours) becoming more and more dissatisfied and angry. He is a projection of our collective angst. We hate little Anakin. That's where big Anakin got his power.