like too how the EU novel Labyrinth of Evil sets up that Anakin has basically been, unbeknownst to Obi-wan, slowly but surely tapping into the power of the dark side as a means to help win the Clone Wars. What if Anakin’s whole goal was to end the war, and really kinda thought he was a good man, trying to bring peace to the galaxy (words that ring hollow in ROTS as is), which is why he agreed to quickly wipe out the Jedi so that they wouldn’t quickly fall into another war? It’s funny because you can see that’s sort of Lucas’s intent but it ends up as subtext, at best.
We are never shown the implied addictive character of the Darkside are we? You start to use it because you feel you need the power, but in the end it masters you. There is an implication that it is a malevolent force that twists it’s users to pure evil even if they had noble goals. Palpatine is the end result of the process; power for power’s sake.
Yes, that’s exactly how it was portrayed in the OT and then Lucas dropped the ball. Just look at the scene where Anakin kills Dooku - instead of instinctively killing him after unleashing his anger to best him, he has to be goaded into doing it after he’s already admitted that it’s not the right thing to do. So stupid.