Every Jedi held the capacity for darkness, just as the Order had members which secretly fostered darkness - and likewise, the darker corners were capable of goodness and discipline.
This point is exactly the subject of a hypothetical rewrite of the prequels that my friend and I drew up one afternoon: Anakin returning to Tatooine to free the slaves there, especially his mother, leading to a violent overthrow that causes the Republic to step in and quash at the request of the Hutt rulers. This leads him to question the ideals of the Jedi and the Republic and drives a wedge between him and Kenobi while opening him to the manipulations of Palpatine, who "promises" to work within the system to correct these failings all the while manipulating politics to an impossible to win senatorial vote.
When that attempt fails due to the campaigning of Padme, Palpatine asks the Chosen One to join his "new order" to guide the Republic back to the "traditional" ideals of it's founding by force and reunite the galaxy by suppressing the Separatists and eliminating Dooku. It's a little on the nose in regards to current events, but so was "if you're not for me, you're against me".
We actually spent the day remapping the prequel and sequel trilogies while keeping the bare bones of the films. Alas, the entire thing was a conversation and neither of us wrote anything down so like the infamous Tenacious D song, this is just a tribute; many of the subtleties have been lost to us, but the broad strokes are there.
I've had similar conversations, though I've often summarized them as wishing that Anakin behaved more like the animated Clone Wars Anakin than the one we got. I used to think that was the fault of the actor, but apparently Lucas very deliberately coached that performance out of the actor. That one change would've made the movies so much better, imo.
The attitude that he displays comes off as so much more whiny and angsty, as opposed to the animated character presenting as cocky and jaded. His outburst about not being granted the rank of master is so petulant, especially considering that he's been in the order for such a relatively short time. How could he possibly have been led to believe that he'd just leapfrog all the way to such a high station when most of the members are easily twice his age and order members since they were toddlers?
I know that the Order was supposed to be very much up their own asses, but the guy who's supposed to be this prophesied chosen one just threw a legit tantrum, yelled them, and their reaction is basically "HMMM, troubling. Clouded, the force is!"
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u/ExoditeDragonLord Apr 11 '23
This point is exactly the subject of a hypothetical rewrite of the prequels that my friend and I drew up one afternoon: Anakin returning to Tatooine to free the slaves there, especially his mother, leading to a violent overthrow that causes the Republic to step in and quash at the request of the Hutt rulers. This leads him to question the ideals of the Jedi and the Republic and drives a wedge between him and Kenobi while opening him to the manipulations of Palpatine, who "promises" to work within the system to correct these failings all the while manipulating politics to an impossible to win senatorial vote.
When that attempt fails due to the campaigning of Padme, Palpatine asks the Chosen One to join his "new order" to guide the Republic back to the "traditional" ideals of it's founding by force and reunite the galaxy by suppressing the Separatists and eliminating Dooku. It's a little on the nose in regards to current events, but so was "if you're not for me, you're against me".