I think you'd love the prequel novelizations (assuming you haven't read them already). They go a long way (especially Matthew Stover's Revenge of the Sith) towards fleshing out Anakin's back-story and explaining things the films only hint at, if they touch on them at all. How much of their revelations are authorial creations, and how much of them have George's stamp of approval based on his ideas, is unclear, but they tread into areas the films either blunder through ham-fistedly, or don't address at all. Anakin's rise and fall feels a lot different than version we got on screen with R.A. Salvatore and Matthew Stover at the helm.
Amidala is a fascinating figure in the Prequel era. She, like Leia, isn't content to sit back and do nothing, but neither is she interested in pulling a damn-the-torpedoes moment and trying to steamroll the problems. She's a feisty young woman, willing to grab the reigns of destiny and meet issues head-on with that combo of emotion and logic you so perfectly enumerated. She, not the Jedi, is the conscience of the films.
She's the only one who actually cares about the droids aboard her ship. She's the one telling Anakin all of the things we as the audience want to tell him. The one we know is doomed as soon as Palpatine convinces the Senate to grant him the emergency war-time powers he craves in Attack of the Clones, because the conscience cannot long survive that usurpation. I feel she dies of a broken heart not because of Anakin's Force Choke, but rather what the Dark Side is doing to the entire galaxy. She realizes the last thing of consequence she can do is see her children safely enter the world; beyond that, her spirit has been crushed, and there's only enough heat remaining in the embers to ignite their sparks. As you pointed out, it's love to the rescue, though it will take a generation to bear fruit.
I also love your point about Shmi Skywalker being more than meets the eye, to be able to raise her child on a desolate planet like Tatooine, especially where he's been born into a sub-class destined only for exploitation by others. In human biology, mitochondria is what gives power to all the cells in the human body, but mitochondrial DNA is passed down only from the mother -- the male contributes nothing on this front. I've often wondered if the similarity of 'midi-chlorian' and 'mitochondria' was intentional on Lucas's part for this reason.
I better shut up. I could ramble about the Star Wars prequels all night. Lovely essay, with an awesome angle on a topic I'd not considered. :)