an inconsistency...

I wholeheartedly agree. For some strange reason I could never shake this feeling that Lucas stayed clear having Padme say "children" because the allusion "Anakin Childkiller" would have been somewhat counter-productive.

Maybe Lucas PR department advised him not to mention "children" but instead use "younglings" to somewhat distract from the despicable scene that was hinted. Up to this very day I'm speechless that none of the international media and critics had something to say about this most tasteless scene ever in a SW film - and nobody minded all the children buying masks and playing "Anakin Childkiller". :-(

 

Younglings because that is a name of that stage of jedi training ( young jedi learners who still are not Padawans ).
Same as Padawan is for the second stage.

Younglings is not the same as childrens.

 

Actually...A Jedi Master PICKS A Palawan that they take under their wings if they like them...the Jedi Trials are for Padawans to become Jedi Knights, who then become Jedi Masters ONLY IF they choose to take on A Jedi Padawan, which would, again, restart the cycle .

 

Well, I am not bothered by it that much, like I was by AOTC stuff, when Anakin has Dark Side outburst of slaughtering whole Tusken village and Padmé is like ''Hummm, my little sweetie, I will bring you a hot chocolate''.

 

^^ add to this that the Sandpeople were somewhat a metaphor for the American Natives and that particular scene ("white woman abducted by these redskin savages") was a bit to reminiscent of The Searchers (I vividly remember a film expert claiming that this John Wayne flick was also the inspiration for the burning of Lars Homestad which the sandtroopers tried to make look like the work of the Sandpeople).

 

Never had a problem with that. You could see that as de-humanisation by calling those children some sort of different names because they are not normal children either. And those children are in some way offical enemies of the State at that time...Brutal, right?

 

How can an asset for such state be something that should be destroyed? Let me see, "fear leads to anger..." and all those kids were afraid. They could have been turned but probably they were of better use to the Emperor being killed so that Padme would definitely reject Anakin. Oh my goodness, here we go again with the "the power of the Emperor has a strong effect on the weak-minded" and Anakin could plead "not guilty" - it wasn't me, the evil Emperor made me do these things. :-(

 

Both and the Emperor didn´t want/feared Jedi-indoctrinated younglings either. The Inquistion is filled with low skilled force users and its enough for the actual Sith to work with.
Sith seem to be always quiet the exclusiv club.

 

I believe it was also something Palpatine wanted Vader to do in order to send him further down the Dark Side path.

 

Well they killed his mother.
And like we learned from ANH they are more animals than men.

And they have zero problem killing anyone on Tatooine.
So I doubt that these Tusken are missing anyone.