“Wait, Mace Windu, don’t kill Palpatine, it’s not the Jedi way!”
Literally 15 minutes later:
Anakin slaughters the Jedi, including defenseless toddlers
This is the biggest logic leap in the entire franchise, and it completely ruins the rest of the movie for me.
I unfortunately have to agree. The kid’s all over the place. It’s telling that the only way for the novelization to make this work was to spell out that Anakin was literally out of his mind and seemingly incapable of making rational decisions.
Isn’t that how the Dark Side works though? Prior to ROTS we saw Anakin loose it completely in AOTC when he slaughtered an entire village (incl. the children), and even Luke went kinda berserk in ROTJ after Vader threatened to turn Leia. That’s a pretty agressive and wild outburst for an otherwise fairly calm and rational character. ROTS even emphasises Anakin’s yellow eyes to illustrate that he has been completely consumed by the Dark Side.
Well sure, but the problem is he turns to the dark side forever on a dime.
In the two situations you referred to, big emotional moments spark them to lash out with the dark side, after which they both later repented/regretted. In ROTS, I guess we can say that Windu almost killing Palpatine is a big emotional moment, but is it really enough to push him past the point of no return and seemingly turn the dark side switch on and lock it there for the rest of his life? No… and the film tries to make it out that he’s doing this semi-rationally, as a means to save Padme (he even second guesses himself, saying “What have I done?”). But… no, he’s got no problem murdering his friends and colleagues minutes later.
He’s all over the place, and the motivation for the consummation you refer to just isn’t there.
I don’t agree. While I will concede the execution at times leaves something to desire, to me it’s pretty clear after he attacks Mace he decides to serve Darth Sidious and from that point on is committed to that choice, and get’s more consumed with the dark side as time progresses. While the entire sequence felt somewhat rushed to me, in a time where important character development is explained through a tiny flashback, it seems quite extensive by comparison. I will admit that I personally would have preferred an Anakin, that rationally chooses the quick and easy path, rather than coming across as kind of gullible, and crazed, but that’s the story Lucas wanted to tell, and aside from some weak acting and dialogue here and there that story works for me mostly.
There’s nothing “extensive” about the approach used here. We know that the dark side can cause moments of impassioned, irrational use (Luke in ROTJ and TLJ, Anakin in ROTS), but we are given nothing in ROTS to make believable Anakin’s staying along that path forever. It wouldn’t have been hard to do either. Anakin should’ve have been shown to be using the dark side anyway to help win the war. But no, Palpatine has to goad him into killing Dooku, and even after he feels bad about it. Anakin’s the biggest hero in the galaxy until the very moment he becomes the biggest villain in the galaxy on a dime, and it doesn’t making any sense and it doesn’t work. Lucas had three films to make this right (its literally the main reason for the trilogy) and he fucked it up with a completely inconsistent and schizophrenic progression of the character. It’s probably the single biggest problem of any of the PT, and it definitely makes me consider that ROTS isn’t the best one.