Just an example of how deeply this set in, here’s an average fan youtube channel with a poll - Did Anakin need to destroy the Jedi to restore balance to the Force?
57% yes, 43% no
The most upvoted comments on it have some correct information but here’s a sampling of some other comments, all stuff that I’ve talked about before. This isn’t a handful of people, it’s the mainstream view, no matter how many times you explain it another way.
“The mere existence of Jedi and/or Sith throws the force out of balance, destroying either wont fix anything, you’d have to destroy both”
"Before the Jedi and Sith, the Je’daii Order existed, centered on the planet Tython. The Je’daii embraced both the light and dark sides of the Force, a balance that would later be split, forming the Jedi and Sith Orders.
The ideal state of true balance is where the Force flows naturally, and no one side, light or dark, dominates or seeks to control it."
“I think it’s an obvious yes. The sith were severely outnumbered and outgunned before Anakin did what he did. Idgaf what George says - balance cannot be achieved by destroying one side of the equation. Balance is the same amount of power being used for good and evil, seeing as evil is the only thing that gives good context at all.”
“Anakin destroying the Jedi was more likely a punishment by the force itself as a result of them becoming to political and moving away from the ways of what the force wanted them to be.”
“Kind of funny how restoring balance to the force involved killing everyone on the light and the dark.”
“How could there ever be balance when there were hundreds of jedi and only 2 sith?”
“The jedi order was in the Tens of thousand and there was legitimately only 1-2 sith at one time with less then 5 people waiting in the wings for someone to betray someone.”
“Both sides were too extreme and flawed.”
“The Jedi Order stagnated, the council thought nothing could touch them, and fell for their own dogma.”
“Yes . They were weak , negligent , ineffective , clueless . List goes on . They needed a new start . Unfortunately change was painful”
“You have to remember that it’s widely believed that Anakin would’ve never fell to the dark side if Qui-Gon didn’t die. In the prophecy, all he needed to do was kill Palpatine to bring balance to the force but Qui-Gon’s death just triggered a different timeline for how that was going to happen. So no, the Jedi didn’t need to die.”
“They needed a reset but not pure destruction. But their ways were so unbelievably flawed and genuinely stupid.”
"I think a Jedi Order that let Anakin and Dooku fall to the Dark Side and drove Ahsoka away is an order in decline and irredeemably indoctrinated.
The whole point of the prequels was to show that the Jedi were too caught up in being Jedi and not serving the Force."
“With the way Jedi were during the prequels it was probably a good idea for a hard reset”
I don’t know why that should matter that much to me. It doesn’t change what I think happens in the movies. Why would it change how I see them? Seems like a ‘trying to outright blame others for the mistakes of characters we like or sympathize with’ type of thing to me.
I wasn’t talking about you.