“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.
He doesn’t turn on a dime. We find out that Palpatine has been his mentor and whispering to him since TPM. Anakin holds Palpatine in high regard. In AOTC we are faced with how rebellious and arrogant Anakin is. He bucks the rules and starts a relationship with Padme. He forms a forbidden attachment (in my mind this is a failing of the Jedi that rather than actually train Jedi how to handle themselves, they just forbid everything that is remotely dangerous). When Tuskin Raiders murder his mother, he slaughters an entire village in his rage. In ROTS he seems to have grown up, but he is again having nightmares. This time of Padme dying instead of his mother. And Palpatine leads him along. He never promises any answers. The entire PT, we see Palpatine playing both side and being sneaky. I think there is plenty there to suggest that Palpatine is treating Anakin the same way he is treating the Republic. Both dreams (Shmi and Padme) are planted by Palpatine. Palpatine keeps Shmi alive until Anakin arrives. Later Palpatine keeps Anakin alive to get him into the new suit. Possilbly even longer. You could tie it into Palpatine in Jedi still keeping Vader alive and when Vader kills him he is doomed to die and not just because the force lightning fried his suit. This ties in with Darth Plagueis being Palpatine’s mentor. He could keep others from dying, but not himself. And the final thing that cinched Anakin’s fall making complete sense for me was the audio of the scene when Anakin kneels after Mace goes out the window. Listen to the audio. It reminds me of The Voice in Dune. In that moment Anakin is teetering. He no longer trusts the Jedi but he has not given over to anger. Palpatine pulls him down and makes him his servant. When next we see him, he is striding into the Jedi temple with yellow eyes and slaughters anyone who stands against him. Shortly after he even chokes Padme. It was like driving over a steep hill. Once on the down side, he was carried along and only years later when Luke was about to die did he find his way back. But the way I see it, is he was pushed over the top by Palpatine. He didn’t exactly go willingly.
What sounds good on paper doesn’t translate properly on screen. We know that Palpatine and Anakin are friends, but we don’t really see concrete examples of Palps twisting his mind toward the dark side, or at least not enough of them. He just mentions a story in direct relation to Anakin’s Padme problem. What does Palpatine say that would make Anakin distrust the Jedi? Just a platitude about power. I don’t think that’s enough to make Anakin first of all distrust the organization he’s spent more than a decade with, let alone decide to murder them. It really is a turn on a dime, he’s goes from merely frustrated with the council specifically, to wanting to kill every single one of them, without any believable justification besides “I will do anything you ask.” The idea that Anakin ultimately thinks “the Jedi are evil” is a good one, but there isn’t much of anything to support him getting to that point in the film. What we’re ultimately supposed to believe is that Anakin would willingly kill his friends, colleagues, mentors, and innocent children, just to maybe one day find a way to save Padme. And that’s a ridiculous jump for his character to make.