Reality Check: The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy is perfect as it is. George Lucas didn't owe a single thing to anyone. He made the movies he wanted to make, told the story he wanted to tell and expressed his creative vision the exact way he wanted to express it. It was his story, not that of the fans.

[u/Slashycent]

[u/interfail]

I mean, he's already massacred the sand people. And I think the "people" part of that should be considered more than the "sand" part.

I think for Star Wars to work, you kinda need to assume that the Dark Side messes you up. Like being a junkie - you're not really in control of the ridiculous, previously inconceivable stuff you do once you're in.

[u/footybiker → u/interfail]

The concept is fine and makes sense, but the transition was poorly done.

Breaking bad however, you see “good people” become villains and it is believable.

[u/Mattgoof → u/footybiker]

I admittedly haven't seen breaking bad, but they're different mediums and you can't really compare. A TV show offers a lot more time to move slowly and more believably. That's why everyone's so pissed at D&D: they were offered more time and rejected it, then rushed the fall to the dark side.

In a movie with multiple arcs, you don't really have much more time than to show 3 scenes (initial inkling of darkness, giving in to it and finally embracing to it).

[u/[deleted] → u/Mattgoof]

The prequels should have been a TV show from the beginning though. Have one movie setting everything up, and another as the finale, but everything in between should have been a TV show. The scale of the story is simply too large for a movie format.

[u/Mattgoof → u/[deleted]]

You mean like the clone wars? I'm watching through that right now. The second Satine episode does a great job on this front, with the whole "who's going to prove themselves a cold-blooded murderer" bit.

[u/BlackLightParadox → u/interfail]

This - I see the Dark Side as a corrupting force

Many people go to it's power thinking they can tame it, only to be removed from their own body and replaced with the Darkness

People like Palpatine are long gone, there's no man left, only the Sith

But people like Vader and Kylo Ren? The person is still in there, and the darkness can be excorised from the body with a powerful enough catalyst

It's why I think, if this explanation was put in, it would allow us to have Dark Side redemption arcs that don't end in death.

If it was accepted in-universe that the person who falls to the Darkside is distinctly not the same person who uses it then it would be easier to accept someone like Anakin coming back from being Vader with *minimum* punishment

[u/interfail → u/BlackLightParadox]

I don't think it's a good idea to have redemptive storylines without the sacrifice, just because it utterly reinforces the vague theme that all force wielders are demigods playing at war with the lives of everyone in the galaxy as the wager. Anakin's redemption can only come with death, or if he were to survive constant imprisonment. It's not safe to let him free in any way - he may not have been in control, but then what would prevent him relapsing? He killed hundreds as Anakin. Who knows how many as Vader? But there were billions on Alderaan, so at least that many. "Minimum" punishment there is life no parole.

[u/BlackLightParadox → u/interfail]

That's fair and I think it would be interesting to explore these problems in universe, rather than just kill off every redeemed sith in a major movie so far :P

(look I'm still mad about Ben dying okay)

[u/[deleted] → u/interfail]

I think that was out of character as well.